Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Abinandhan Srivatsav. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Abinandhan, appreciate you joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

This whole conversation started a while ago when I decided to change my career from being an Engineer to moving to the world of Visual Effects.

Coming from an Asian household, I was naturally expected to be either an engineer or a doctor. The idea of anything else was not good enough, because I was told it was a poor man’s job. I went to school for my bachelor in engineering against my will and I was neither good at it nor was I interested in it. I didn’t have the greatest of grades, and I used to spend most of my days playing video games. At one point, I played it professionally. After graduating I joined a big e-commerce company for a job. Being neurodivergent, I was able to pick up the patterns at the job and become good at it. But, I was still not enjoying it. Something wasn’t quite fitting for me, not yet. Eventually, I reached a burnout, and at the same time, I went through a very critical health situation with my dad where he had to be hospitalized for 8 months. I came back to work, and I started hating it. I wasn’t enjoying it, and used to wake up wondering why am I doing this to myself.

I wanted to go out and explore something I’d be passionate about, something I’d want to wake up every day and give my everything. Growing up, I’ve always been into animation, movies, and video games. I started doing my research and I found Visual Effects. I kept digging in more and I was curious about it. One of the hardest things I’ve had to do is standing up to my parents and telling them I don’t like being an engineer, and that I wanted to do something creative, something creative. And to my surprise, they had my back and fully supported my decision.

I started looking for schools to apply to so I could reignite my career, and that’s how I landed in Savannah, GA. I was in grad school to major in VFX. I chose VFX because it gave me a variety of options out of school, I could work in games, movies, animation, TV, and such. And, for the first time in my life – I was getting good grades. And, I loved it. It sparked this creative mind in me that I didn’t know I had. While I sometimes wish I made this decision sooner in life — I am happy that I waited for it. I am the person I am today because of my previous collective experiences and I am glad to have gotten here eventually.

Now, I work at Laika Studios, as a CG Effects Artist. And I couldn’t be any happier. I wake up every day wondering what challenge lies ahead of me. Working with amazing and talented artists and supervisors. Laika, unlike a regular VFX house, also does everything in-house. They make everything from scratch, and build their world – both physically and in CG. I get to meet amazing talent and interact with them every day. I am also their Asian & Pacific Islander ERG Co-Captain — this is an opportunity I took to explore other cultures and introduce my culture to my peers. I know not everything is permanent, but, I am excited to be here and I can’t wait to see what my life holds next.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a VFX artist, and specifically, I do Effects or FX. I am currently working for Laika Studios as a CG Effects Artist. If you’re wondering what that entails, think of special effects in movies. I do that in a CG space for movies, shows, and animation.

I believe I have an edge because of my previous career path. Being an engineer helped me be more critical, and problem-solve better. It also gave me the technical edge that I needed to be better at what I do. And now, I get to that and be creative — and I think that’s something I excel at.

A normal day at work for me would look something like –
working on shots, and helping my peer artists troubleshoot stuff technically. I also interact with my team daily to catch up with where we stand with our work, talk to my senior artists about my progress, and get feedback. I am very grateful to be working with some of the best minds in our industry. I am a very curious person, and I love to learn new things every day and this job helps me do that.

I am also the Asian & Pacific Islander ERG Co-Captain. I am constantly working with my other co-captain to make plans for the year. We recently had a studio-wide celebration for Diwali. We brought in a local Indian food vendor on site, screened a movie, lit some sparklers, and had decorations in the studio. Currently, we are working on next year’s celebrations starting with the lunar new year.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

The biggest resource in the creative industry, in my opinion, is connections. I was a bit unfortunate to have joined school at the same time as the pandemic and missed out on socializing and building my connections.

Now that I have a full-time job and I am regularly talking and interacting with my fellow artists — it is something I wish I had started earlier. Building connections not only helps you stay in touch with the industry, but it is also an amazing opportunity to know what the other artists do. Being a curious person, I reach out to other artists on my show and see what they’re up to. Some of them have been super kind to hop on a call or set aside some time with me to show what they’re doing, how they’re doing, and why they’re doing it. It’s amazing to work with people with such crazy talent and I am very grateful for it.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Self-doubt. This was a tough one to out grow. Art is very subjective. I used to take comments and critiques very personally and used to seek out validation. It took me a while to understand that it’s okay if someone doesn’t like your work because there are 10 other people out there who love it.

I am very self-critical, but, this was a double-edged sword. Especially in this industry, where things can get competitive, I used to be my downfall. I had to learn to be kind to myself because no one else was going to do that for me. Therapy helped for sure, haha.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/setpyrotothehive/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abisrivatsav/