DreamWorks character rigger Seema Desai on the invisible engineering behind animated performance

Seema Richin Desai, a character rigger at DreamWorks Animation, began her career at Prana Studios Mumbai before working across studios in Singapore, Canada and Los Angeles, AnimationXpress reports. Her credits include Star Wars: The Clone Wars, The Shape of Water, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Trolls Band Together, Kung Fu Panda 4 and Shrek 5.

Desai earned the 2023 DreamWorks Ingenuity Award for her contributions to character rigging, including work on DreamWorks' proprietary animation platform Premo. Her approach centres on building rigs that serve animator intent rather than technical complexity. She has worked on photorealistic creatures and stylised characters alike, from del Toro's amphibian creature in The Shape of Water to exaggerated martial-arts action in Kung Fu Panda 4.

Desai, who completed character animation training at Vancouver Film School, also contributes to the wider VFX community as an invited judge at VES Awards events. She advocates for riggers to prioritise foundational knowledge in anatomy, linear algebra and software architecture alongside technical skills.