#DesignMonth [Behind the Selfie] with... Udesh Chetty

Chetty looking chilly

1. Where do you live, work and play?

Chetty: For the past year, I have been living in downtown Chicago close to my workplace at The Mill and playing anywhere I can find. Before that I lived in the Cape Town CBD.

2. What’s your claim to fame?

Chetty: No fame, however I am proud of winning a gold Loerie award in 2014 for my visual effects work on a TV commercial – the only visual effects craft gold that year.

3. Describe your career so far.

Chetty: I started off as a graphic designer and motion graphics artist in the Cape Town TV and film industry. Soon thereafter, I fell into visual effects and began learning the Autodesk Flame editing and compositing toolset. People often refer to the Autodesk Flame software as ‘Photoshop on steroids’. The software application basically allows the artist to manipulate digital film footage to whatever end is necessary for a project.

After a few years of doing and learning while working at most of the best post-production studios in Cape Town, I graduated to the industry-specific role of “visual effects supervisor” and garnered a strong client base of some of the country’s most talented directors.

In 2015 I joined The Mill, which is regarded by many as the premiere commercials post-production company globally.

4. Tell us a few of your favourite things.

Chetty: Science, art, whiskey and wine (South African), amazing views, humorous things like witty comments or random real-life situations which hold comedic value. There are too many things and possibilities to list, so I’ll stop there.

5. What do you love about your industry?

Chetty: I think that most commercial artists consider their jobs to be an extension of their hobby, one that they happen to make a career out of.

The majority of people in the industry are very liberal, easy-going and friendly individuals who are great to hang around with, both in and out of the office.

6. What are a few pain points your industry can improve on?

Chetty: Work can sometimes be very stressful due to its deadline-driven nature, and shrinking budgets tend to bring about time constraints. Being granted more time to craft a project to a degree that one is completely happy with would be great. This view of course is impractical within the nature of the industry.

7. Describe your average workday, if such a thing exists.

Chetty: Clients attend a lot of my workdays in the office. They work beside me as I craft their commercial in a lounge-like environment with a number of computers and viewing monitors around. This work environment we refer to as a ‘Flame suite’. In the suite, clients brief me on what they are looking to achieve visually on their TV commercial, film or music video, and I carry out their comments on the computer. My clients constitute ad agency creatives, TV commercial directors, a myriad of producers and occasionally the marketing team of the people whose logo we show at the end of the commercial. Regularly meeting and collaborating with all these creative people is definitely a plus point of the occupation.

Workdays at the office when I do not have clients I find equally engaging, because my colleagues are amongst the best people in the world in our very specialised part of the commercial creative industry. They are amazingly talented at what they do and just spending time with them increases your creative IQ 10 points per minute.

The rest of the time I am out and about travelling to various locations, assisting the agency creatives and directors on their shoots.

Most projects have very different demands and the hours that one works in a day fluctuate greatly. This fluctuation makes it difficult to set up a routine lifestyle. It does, however, keep things interesting.

8. What are the tools of your trade?

Chetty: Basing our work from the cameras used to capture live-action images, we use a host of software applications that help us manipulate these images. Apart from manipulating the footage that is shot, we also create computer-generated imagery, or CGI. The software applications that I use on a regular basis are Autodesk Flame, Maya, Mudbox, Foundry Nuke and the Adobe suite.

9. Who is getting it right in your industry?

Chetty: Internationally, in our very niche industry, The Mill definitely gets it right. Framestore, MPC. Method and Dneg are the other big players. Other personal favourites include Platage image, Polynoid, MK12, La Maison and the work of Alex Roman.

In South Africa, I’ve always admired the 3D work from my friends at Lung animation and the motion graphics from Conduit. And of course the guys over at Black Ginger have always created really high quality work. I would also like to mention Triggerfish animation, which is setting the foundation for a generation of local animators.

10. What are you working on right now?

Chetty: I am working on a few projects at the moment. I just got back from a shoot in Brazil for Corona beer and while that project was in the editing process, I worked on a high-profile Superbowl commercial for Jeep. I’m also busy with a fun spot for Budweiser and then continuing on an intricate job for a US pharmaceutical product.

11. Where and when do you have your best ideas?

Chetty: While in a Flame suite with attending clients, we are constantly challenged to visually interpret the client’s verbal brief. As varying as the clients’ requests may be, we have to come up with as many varying solutions to tackle the problem as possible. Additionally, I find I involuntarily do a lot of problem-solving as soon as I wake up in the morning.

Also… Playing around while learning our tools in the form of various software applications also yields some amazing creative sparks. A lot of my art pieces have been conceived in this way.

12. Are you a technophobe or a technophile?

Chetty: I am bombarded with so much technology throughout the day that I need for professional use, I tend to shy away from software/hardware-based tech in my personal time. For this reason, I guess, I do not play Playstation or PC or iPad games, and I literally have only about 10 apps on my iPhone.

13. What would we find if we scrolled through your phone?

Chetty: Not much apart from the usual: Mail, Skype, Facebook, etc… and my personal favourite, Quora.

14. What advice would you give to newbies hoping to crack into the industry?

Chetty: I think it’s all about the time one spends that’s dedicated to your art. Constantly learning and creating in your spare time definitely gives you the edge in a professional environment.

You can read more about Chetty by viewing the visual effects showreel on his Vimeo page, and interact with him through the following social media accounts:

Behance
LinkedIn

*Interviewed by Leigh Andrews