Ravi Swami, self-portrait, animation designer & director. London 2014
Ravi Swami a former Graphic Design graduate from St Martins School of Art with a focus on animation. He has worked as a designer & director for some of the leading animation studios in London, starting in 1982 with Len Lewis’ SHOOTSEY STUDIOS, followed by stints at CUCUMBER STUDIOS, BIG FEATURES, MGMM, THE MILL, FILM GARAGE, Paul Vesters’ SPEEDY FILMS, SHERBET, PASSION PICTURES where he designed and directed the CGI sequences for their OSCAR winning documentary “One Day in September”; and most recently TH1NG, applying the same cutting-edge approaches of mixing traditional and digital work - a feature since day one, as demonstrated by his work on PAUL McCARTNEY’S “MPL” logo, directed by Len Lewis, combining computer and hand-drawn animation.
Ravi Swami also managed to help promote a feature-length animated film - Yugo Sako’s “Ramayana”, in the UK in the mid-90’s, organising festival screenings and securing a print from Japan, writing reviews and conducting related activities such as a podcast with NEIL GAIMAN for the BRITISH LIBRARY in 2008.
This led to 2 stints as a juror for the BRITISH ANIMATION AWARDS (BAA), alongside teaching animation & storyboarding at a number of leading U.K colleges, most notably at The West Surrey Institute, under professor ROGER NOAKE, before his tenure ended in 2008, & NCCA Bournemouth.
Ravi Swami continues to explore interesting applications of animation and digital technology, most recently for SOUMIK DATTA ARTS, & 3D printing technology - he does his storyboarding and design almost exclusively on an I-Pad with a stylus, now, which is how this drawing (above) was done, but still likes the feel of working with traditional media.
image © 2014 Ravi Swami (aka Ravi Narayanswami)
postscript:
Ravi Swami, self portrait, animation designer & director. I first met Ravi in the early 80ties when I was shooting some of Ravi Swami's excellent work, tests on Paul McCartney's company MPL logo directed by Len Lewis. Ravi seemed like a very talented and serious minded artist working in a very hippie studio, Shootsey Films. Ours paths have crossed from time to time since at key times. RKW
Date: 17/12/2014
Location: London, England
Photographer: artwork by Ravi Swami
