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Gunjan Kathale

Surfacing Supervisor

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Gunjan Kathale
London United Kingdom
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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.
Resume created on DoYouBuzz
Professional Experience
  • 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

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
  • 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)
  • 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
Resume created on DoYouBuzz