Gunjan Kathale
Surfacing Supervisor
London United Kingdom
Professional Status
Employed
Open to opportunities
About Me
Surfacing Supervisor and Look Development Technical Supervisor with 18+ years of experience across feature animation and VFX. Equally artistic and technical, with a strong ability to translate complex art direction into production-ready 3D assets. Proven track record designing scalable surfacing and asset workflows, leading multi-disciplinary build teams, and supporting studios through pipeline evolution. Proficiency in Supervising Surfacing teams and capable of spearheading Build departments across characters and environments.
Surfacing Supervisor
DNEG Animation
Since March 2025
- Unannounced Feature Animation Project : Oct 2025 - present:
-Supervising a Surfacing team of 15+ artists on a feature animation production
-Responsible for asset quality, consistency, planning, and delivery
-Working closely with Modeling, Grooming, Rigging, Lookdev, and Lighting to ensure cohesive asset builds
-Actively mentoring artists and supporting career growth within the team - Unannounced Feature Animation Short Project : March 2025 - Oct 2025
-Led Surfacing for a short-form production under tight schedules
-Ensured high-quality asset delivery and team coordination
-Acting Build Supe working with Mod, Surf, Rig, Lighting and Comp to strategise sequences and all challenges across the board
-Developed the Tree Leaves system for this show along with the Studio Lookdev Supervisor
Look Development Technical Supervisor
DNEG Animation
February 2023
to March 2025
- Designed, planned, and tested studio-wide surfacing and asset workflows to support current and future productions
- Drove cross-department initiatives around:
-Asset workflows
-QC standards
-Material libraries
-Tooling improvements
-Documentation and training - Oversaw maintenance and evolution of:
-Katana surfacing toolkits
-Generics / crowds surfacing system
-Eye shader and related shading frameworks
-Surfacing QC workflows - Supported all running shows from both a technical and artistic standpoint, helping teams interpret stylized and PBR looks within pipeline constraints
- Worked extensively with Modeling, Grooming, Rigging, Lighting, Pipeline, and Production to align expectations and requirements
- Co-developed a cross-training curriculum allowing:
-Surfacers to learn Grooming fundamentals
-Groom artists to understand Surfacing workflows
-Increased team flexibility, resilience, and growth opportunities - Actively supported and co-managed the Groom department during a period of limited leadership coverage
- Involved in show planning, bidding, recruitment, crewing, documentation, and training
- Acted as a bridge between Surfacing, Pipeline, Lighting, Modeling, Grooming, Rigging, and Production
- Directly supervised one dedicated TD and provided technical leadership to a department of 50+ surfacing artists
- Partnering closely with:
- Head of Characters
- Head of Environments
- Head of Groom/ Groom Supervisor
- Head of Characters
Character Surfacing Supervisor/Lead
DNEG Animation
July 2020
to February 2023
- Led and Supervised Character Surfacing for this highly styliled shows and translated strong, graphic 2D art direction into consistent 3D surfacing solutions
- Balanced artistic goals with technical constraints in a evolving pipeline
- Supported team growth, look consistency, and technical problem-solving
- Garfield - Alcon Entertainment : Nov 2021 - Feb 2023
-Developed consistent groom output on highly 2d style of animation - Energalactic - Netflix : July 2020 - Nov 2021
-Developed Look of Picture for the show and Surfaced main Character - Jabari
Senior Surfacing Artist
Double Negative
June 2017
to June 2020
London
United Kingdom
- Ron’s Gone Wrong - Locksmith Animation
- Played a fundamental role in designing and implementing DNEG Animation’s first Generics / Crowds Surfacing System
- Collaborated with Pipeline to introduce USD-based workflows into the studio (2019)
- Designed indexing systems to drive colors, patterns, and textures in Katana, resolved at render time
- Developed Houdini-based randomization workflows to generate large-scale crowd variation
- Iterated over multiple production cycles to improve robustness and scalability of the system
- Designed and implemented eye shaders and window box shaders still in use today
- Acted beyond role scope to:
- Design workflows
-Support tool development
-Assist artists and leads
- Design workflows
- Began formal leadership trajectory during this production
Surfacing Artist
Dreamworks Dedicated Unit
June 2014
to November 2016
Bangalore
India
- -Trolls (2016), Penguins of Madagascar (2014)
Internal R&D and Short Film (2014-2015)
Lookdev, Lighting and FX
Rhythm & Hues
January 2008
to February 2014
Hyderabad
India
- FX TD : Aug 2013 - Feb 2014
-Planes: Fire And Rescue, I (Tamil Movie by S.Shankar) - FX Lighting TD : Jan 2013 - Jul 2013
-R.I.P.D - Lookdev Artist : Jan 2010 - Dec 2012
-R.I.P.D ,Snow White and the Huntsmen, IHop, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, Yogi Bear, Fultwanti(Internal Project) - Lighting Artist : Jan 2008 - Dec 2009
-Alvin And the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, Night at the Museum : Battle of the Smithsonian, Aliens in the Attic, Vampires Assistant
Skills
Core Skills
- Surfacing/Build Leadership
- Deep Animation & VFX Pipeline Expertise
- Mentoring & Team Development on multiple levels
- Trusted point of support across productions for multiple years
- Cross-disciplinary leadership across Surfacing, Grooming, Modeling, and Rigging
- Workflow Design & Process Optimization
- Resource & Capacity Planning
- Stakeholder Management
- Strategic Planning
- Look Development Technical Supervision for Surfacing Department
ARTISTIC & TECHNICAL STRENGTHS
- Strong artistic eye for texturing, materials, and shading
- Translates complex art direction into scalable 3D solutions
- Experience across painterly, stylized, and PBR pipelines
- Look Development Technical Supervision for Surfacing Department
- Designed the Studio's Generics & Crowds Surfacing Pipeline
Software
- Katana
- Mari
- Renderman
- USD
- Maya
- Houdini
- Figma
- Arnold
- Shotgrid
