Hakob Muradyan first stepped into TUMO Yerevan 15 years ago, just a few days after the center opened. It was the beginning of a long and remarkable journey for the future animator. Today, Hakob’s portfolio boasts titles from some of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters and video games, ranging from Gladiator II and Superman to The Witcher and Atomic Heart. Here are our 15 questions for Hakob about his TUMO journey and his incredible creative career.
1. Hakob, you’ve worked on a number of Hollywood films. What was the most memorable part of this experience?
Every project was unique in its own way. The most memorable part is probably the people you work with, from whom you absorb an endless amount of knowledge. It’s also incredibly cool to animate characters you grew up watching, like Bumblebee and Optimus Prime from Transformers, or Superman. They were all part of my childhood. You sit there animating them — meaning, bringing them to life — and you can barely believe it’s real.
Perhaps the best definition of an animator is that we are actors, too; we just happen to work with a pencil (or a mouse, in our era).
2. What is the most important lesson you’ve learned from these major projects?
You need to surround yourself with highly experienced people, ask them a ton of questions, and try to learn everything you can from them. If you do that, you will grow rapidly in your profession.
When I was working on the movie The Gorge, my animation supervisor was Carlos Miguel Rosas, who had worked on The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Any note or feedback he gave was invaluable to me. As a result, my animation only got better, and I started to see details that my eyes would have completely missed before.
3. Can you recall a specific moment at TUMO when you realized animation could become a real career?
In the beginning, I had no idea what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go. I loved drawing but I couldn’t picture it as a profession. However, TUMO opened up a whole new world for me that I had never seen before. That’s where I was introduced to animation, and as they say, it was love at first sight. After that, a dream was born to work on big movies, and that dream eventually became a goal.
4. What is the biggest difference between working on a fully animated feature film vs. a live-action movie?
Animation is divided into many branches. First, there is Feature Animation, with great examples being films from Disney and DreamWorks, like Toy Story, Frozen, Puss in Boots, or Elio. Animators in this field work with exaggerated characters and movements, and the entire world within the film is animated.
Then there is VFX Animation, which is where I’ve spent the majority of my career. This is film-based animation, where the goal is absolute realism. Examples include Transformers, Gladiator II, Superman, and Prehistoric Planet. Here, we have a direct connection to the live actors’ performances, because we animate while closely factoring in the acting that took place on set.
5. What does a typical workday look like for you?
Coffee, animation, coffee, animation, coffee.
6. Which shot or scene from your career are you most proud of?
The most difficult piece of animation I’ve ever done in my life is the transformation scene of Wheeljack in Transformers, where he changes from a van into a robot. The shot lasts about 10 seconds, but I worked on it continuously for a month and a half. It was a massive challenge, both technically and creatively. Of course, animating a transformation is on almost every animator’s bucket list.
7. When working on major films, do you get creative freedom, or do you have to work within strict boundaries?
It’s probably most accurate to say that it’s 50/50. We have clear constraints that we must follow. The final approver of the scenes is the film’s director; every shot is already approved in terms of composition and timing, and you have to execute your work based on that. However, depending on how the process evolves, you sometimes have to pivot and adapt creatively.
8. What is the most common myth about animation?
Many people think that an animated feature film and a “cartoon” are the exact same thing. While both use animation as a medium to tell a story, cartoons are generally geared toward children, whereas animated films are much more diverse, complex, and multifaceted in content.
9. How do you balance technical precision with creativity in your work?
In this industry, especially when you reach Hollywood productions, you have to be highly skilled, both creatively and technically. On average, about 100 animators work on a single film, alongside roughly 4,000 other VFX specialists. You always have to keep in mind that after you pass a shot, your animation goes to the next specialist in the pipeline, who needs to do their job seamlessly based on what you delivered.
10. Can you recall a specific instance where collaborating with a director or VFX supervisor significantly changed your approach to animation?
When I started working on Gladiator II, I was a mid-level animator. Usually, the most complex and high-profile scenes go to senior animators. I was assigned a scene where a flock of birds was just living their life in a garden, and my goal was to show them in the background behind Denzel Washington and the Queen. The birds weren’t highly visible, so I wasn’t putting too much detail into my animation, thinking, “Why should I torture myself if no one is going to see it anyway?”
But my animation supervisor kept giving me feedback as if it were a foreground animation. So, at first reluctantly, but later with greater understanding, I brought the bird animation up to an exceptional level. When I saw the final result on screen, I realized that what makes a scene successful isn’t just the foreground, but every single background detail.
11. Has there been a project or scene that initially felt impossible?
I wouldn’t say impossible, but I never thought that during my career, I would get to work on the documentary series Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age, narrated by Tom Hiddleston. I never imagined I would work in this genre and bring extinct animals back to life.
12. Looking back on your years at TUMO, were there specific skills or experiences that played a major role in your professional path?
It was at TUMO that I discovered my life’s profession. I participated in workshops where I gained a wealth of knowledge. The most memorable was a contest-learning lab to create a logo animation for Atom Egoyan, which my friends Khoren Matevosyan, Robert Voskanyan, and I won. At TUMO, I also had the opportunity to work as a coach and later as a workshop leader, which gave me the chance to stay inspired and keep pushing forward in my field.
Still, besides animation, the most important thing TUMO instilled in me was a drive for self-education. I believe that is one of the most vital qualities for any student, professional, and human being in general.
13. What did it feel like to see your name in the credits of a major project for the first time?
It felt as if the Hakob of 10 years ago was sitting right next to me, telling me how proud he was of me.
14. If you had the chance to go back to the early stages of a project, what advice would you give your younger self?
As a beginner animator, I never truly understood the importance of being a good actor. Even if you can’t act well yourself, having that knowledge and applying it to your animation is crucial. I would advise myself to study the art of acting.
15. What advice would you give to current TUMO students who dream of working in major international film productions?
Always have a dream, fall in love with your profession, set high standards, stay curious, ask a ton of questions, and always try to choose the difficult path. And ultimately, create your own.
I would also add that talent doesn’t exist without hard work. In my opinion, what people call “talent” is actually a profound love for your profession, which is what drives you to become better and achieve success quickly.
These words by Walt Disney have always helped me, and I hope they will inspire fellow TUMO students, too: “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”