sure has come a long way. Sudhanan stumbled upon his visual effects and computer graphics career quite by accident after he did a course in 2D and 3D and animation.
He joined the course to give him a better understanding of the multimedia interactive equipment that he started selling after he become bored with peddling computer hardware.
After working on ad commercials, he got his first break in a Tamil movie, 'Alexander.' He hasn't looked back since then and won the President's award for technical excellence and visual effects for his 50th movie "Aalavandhan."
In 2000, a desire to do something bigger drove him to make cold call on producers and organisations in Los Angeles. A chance meeting with Silicon Graphics representatives sent him to New Zealand where the company was showcasing one of its largest facilities.
Enter Peter Jackson, (director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy) with whom he spent a fortnight exchanging views and ideas. In 2002, he found himself in New Zealand again, this time meeting Barrie Osborne.
He had to pass on a opportunity to work on "The Lord of the Rings, part 2" as he was not in a position to take it up owing to a lack of resources.
And then he became the first Indian to become a member of the premier Visual FX Society, Los Angeles.
Finally "The Lord of the Rings, part 3" gave Sudhanan (with Applause Entertainment) the chance to work with the big league and produce 3.5 minutes of some basic rotoscophy (this enables animators to trace live action movement, frame by frame, for use in animation ) and multi-layer composing shots.
Though the movie went on to win the Oscar for special effects, the movie credits did not reflect Sudhanan's contribution.
Osborne convinced Sudhanan that the credits were a non-issue as he had in mind something bigger "� starting a venture with him.
The seed bore fruit when Osborne came to India and announced the setting up of a special effects and animation company along with Sudhanan.
Sudhanan will start work on Shekar Kapur's 'Paani' in the near future. He's hoping that "'Paani' would do for India what 'The Lord of the Rings' did for New Zealand."
Sudhanan now has his hands full. Besides the venture with Osborne, he's on the board of the Chennai-based Image College of Arts, Animation and Technology (ICAT), a digital media college, and FrameFlow India, a visual effects and computer animation services company and InfiDimes Inc.
