We were lucky to catch up with Arnav Banerji recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Arnav, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I’ve previously worked as a previs artist on some of the most famous Hollywood projects like Aquaman 2, Hawkeye, For All Mankind and Papergirls. A special project I got to work on was Marvel’s Midnight Suns – a 2022 video game by Firaxis Games that featured comic book characters from multiple Marvel Comics properties, such as Midnight Sons, Avengers, X-Men, and Runaways.

The previs team at Halon worked with the cinematics team, game designers and producers to visualize action sequences and complex beats for the cinematic sequences the game is famous for. Using animation software, we animated 3D models for the characters, vehicles, creatures and props to make rough versions of the shots so that the story could be shown in a cohesive, visually striking way. We captured motion capture data of actors acting out emotional and action beats and cleaned up, blended and polished that animation before laying out the scene in 3D and placing the characters in the environment and setting up and moving the cameras to visually tell the story.

We tackled shots involving characters fighting, flying and interacting with vehicles, creatures and magical elements. I worked on shots involving characters communicating, fighting with each other, crowds moving across large environments and creatures interacting with everyone. It was a great project to work on since there was such a variety of sequences involving both action and quieter beats, so there was always something new to learn.

One of my favorite shots involved characters, creatures and magic effects interacting with each other, all with a dynamic camera movement that kept up with the action. That is an important place where previs can help in the creative process. The shot goes through a number of variations where the characters and creatures move around the environment. This helps the supervisor to lock down the framing ahead of time, ensuring the shot flows well within the sequence. The shots get reviewed, and the previs supervisor and director may request changes or updates to a shot due to creative changes, editorial reasons or changes in the script.

One special aspect of the project was that our work wasn’t just used as a reference for final animation later on but used as a base step that the final animators polished and utilized in their work, so a lot of our work made it all the way through. Because of that, and the fact that this was my first game project, Midnight Suns will definitely be a meaningful and stand out project for me.

Midnight Suns released to critical acclaim and had 4 DLCs released to extend the gameplay experience.

Arnav, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Arnav Banerji and I’m a visualization artist in the film, games and commercials industries. I learned about the world of 3D modeling and animation in college, and through internships, mentors and professors, got to pursue my dream of working in the pre-production industry.

I work in previs and that’s a field that not a lot of people outside the film industry know. The job entails figuring out action or complicated sequences for cameras, vehicles, characters and effects like explosions, fire in 3D. I had to learn the general 3D pipeline (modeling, lighting and animation) along with more cinematic concepts like how camera movement affects a scene, cinematography and storytelling.

I’m most proud of learning how to work with a team and collaborate with people with different roles to make an amazing final result that would have been impossible with just 1 person. At Carnegie Mellon University, and now across the studios I’ve had the pleasure of working with, I’ve had the joy of working with some of the most creative and technically strong people and I’m inspired by the projects I work on every day.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I think the most rewarding part of being a creative is the privilege of contributing to and using my imagination for some of the most cherished and loved characters, stories and worlds for people around the world. I loved dreaming up alien worlds and sci fi dogfights as a child and the fact that I get to do that for work is definitely very special.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I think first of all, I wasn’t very artistic as a kid – I just liked storytelling so I had to learn a lot about art and film from scratch and very quickly. I learned quickly not to be precious about my work and reach out for feedback and accept critiques early in the process. Then I had to come to a new country, attend college and work towards my dream job without the guarantee of having unlimited time after graduation to get my dream job. Finally, the industry has a lot of short-term contract roles, especially when starting out and that was a source of some worry since I was initially not sure if this would be sustainable and a long-term career.

Once I started working, things seemed to be going smoothly and I got to work on some amazing movies and TV shows but then the dual strikes in 2023 hit and all of a sudden, most productions paused or were delayed. I reached out to a lot of people and was lucky to be staffed on a big movie but there were lots of weeks of uncertainty and I just had to stay focused on making sure I was reaching out and applying where I could and build up my skills through personal projects in my down time. The year ended with 3 of my movies releasing and seeing my name up in the credits and watching those projects with my friends and family was a great reminder of everything I’d accomplished up to this point.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.arnavbanerji.com
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm13169811/