Interview: Super Sema Animators Take Us Into the Unknown

To celebrate the release of Super Sema Season 3 on Youtube Originals, we were able to have a chat with a magnolious creative artist, Anu M George, who is a rank-holder from M.G.University  and has worked on popular animation projects like  Super Sema, Fukrey Boyzzz,  Little Singham, Purple Turtle and  MJ3 (Toon Boom).  She has got a hands-on experience with Adobe Animate, Photoshop, Illustrator, Corel Draw, and Toon Boom throughout her colorful career. She rightly says, “Drawing is one aspect but the animation is something, which gives life to it.”

How did you get involved in Animation?

I am one of the many animators out there who began drawing at a young age. As soon as my brain transitioned from consuming crayons to scrawling images, I was hooked on that art of creativity. Actually, my sister had an animation course at her school and I used to help her with it, this is where I learned and developed my skills and landed up here nurturing my passion.

As an adolescent, I clearly remember pausing my favorite animated movies and imitating the images I saw on the screen, especially the hilarious breakdown and in-between drawings that made me chuckle. I nearly felt like drawing and animation were the same thing. The live-action adventure movies I used to watch truly ignited my passion for graphic design, animation, and other aspects of filmmaking.

As an Animator, what does your day look like?

As I tend to be a morning person, I like to get in the studio before the cacophony of the day begins to get into that groove. When a Sema episode is actively in production, it’s not unusual for the entire day to pass while animators work on a single shot, with only perhaps two or three check-ins with supervisors and directors throughout the week. Meetings with supervisors frequently take place in a formal setting that strives to be efficient with everyone’s time to discuss how much the animation is capturing the point of the moment in the film.

What are the most challenging and enjoyable parts of illustration?

Whenever I’m sketching, I’m genuinely thrilled. The day just seems to fly by. When you finish a sketch, you leave a piece of yourself behind because it expresses something about you. An excellent drawing will inspire others and spark their creative spirits when people see it and say, “Aah, now this is something that ignites me to come up with ideas.”

According to you, what makes a film stand out?

A personal viewpoint that is supported by tasteful style, sound, and timing. I’ll always want to see more a movie that blends humor with sincerity and drama with comedy. Every project I’ve worked on has involved amazing people, tasks for which I am immensely thankful, and experiences that I will remember for the rest of my life.

Super Sema Animation

We learned a lot while working on Super Sema. With regard to our process, we got most of them right but made a few blunders as well. With Sema, we got an opportunity to use all that we learned in preproduction and production. We wanted to deliver stories as efficiently as possible so that every last penny would be spent on that screen.