Meet Sormeh Behbahani

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sormeh Behbahani. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sormeh below.

Sormeh, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

You know, I think deep down everyone knows what they are passionate about and what their purpose is in life. It’s just scary to admit sometimes, because you think you can’t make a living with it or that people won’t take you seriously if your passion is not a common one. I was always glued to the tv growing up and my parents always restricted my tv time/movie nights, because it was a “distraction” from my studies. Though, for me the world of TV/ movies was an escape in some sorts and more importantly those new worlds gave me hope. I grew up in Iran and so I wasn’t exposed to a lot of things other kids grew up with. For me it was a little suffocating, because I always felt like I was different. An outsider. All those movies/TV shows gave me a different view of the world. One that I could see myself in and not be scared of. I moved to Paris, France at the age of 19 to start college and that’s when I found out what art can do to one’s life. I started drawing for the first time and I realized that I absolutely love it. Movie theaters became my safe haven and I started to realize that watching movies won’t make my grades drop. It was actually doing the exact opposite! I would stay up watching movies or tv shows and would go to movie theaters all the time and I would get straight A+ s every semester. I was getting inspired without realizing it and it was fueling me in a way that I had never felt before. In Iran I would get horrible grades even though I studied hard and avoided watching “too much” TV. Now I know that I was burying my artistic side and with it my energy. At the age of 21 I moved to California to continue my studies and after I graduated, I started researching the entertainment industry. That’s when I realized that Animation can be a career and everything suddenly clicked! It took me a long long time to find my purpose. More than a lot of other animators that I know, but the thing is that you can’t let go when you know what your purpose is. It’s your life goal. Your passion. Nothing will stop you, because you realize you are happiest when you’re working toward that purpose. I believe, visual elements have the power of change. The same way movies gave me hope, my purpose is to bring that same hope to others with my animation.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

Up until a couple years ago, I always felt uncomfortable telling people “I’m an animator” when they asked what I did for a living. I just didn’t believe that I was one, even though I had worked on multiple AAA games like NBA2K22 and WWE. It wasn’t until I started working on movies like Aquaman, Planet of the Apes, Atlas, and Mission Impossible that I started to believe who I have become. I just have a different relationship with movies. It became a lot easier to proudly say “I’m an Animator.” Though, I always have to quickly add that I work on movies, because everyone thinks that you work on kids cartoons if you do animation. Seeing my first credit on the big screen was a surreal experience. I had seen my name in the game credits before, but seeing it in a movie theater is a whole other story for me. It was a dream come true and I don’t think I will ever get used to it. I get surprised every single time. I recently went to the theaters to watch “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” and there were a few kids sitting in the row in front of me. During the movie they would gasp or comment on how much they loved a character and for me that was everything. That was me as a kid! Excited about the movie I was watching to the point that I couldn’t stop myself from commenting on it in the theater. To hear them have similar reactions to a movie I worked on was mind blowing and it just fueled me even more to continue this path. With the recent layoffs in the entertainment/animation industry and how bad the market is, it’s very easy to get discouraged and start thinking about if this is the right path for you. I got layed off in August 2023 and I still haven’t been able to find a job in the industry. It did take me a few months to recover, because it was my first time experiencing getting layed off, but after seeing my name in the credits and hearing those kids in the theater, I got reminded of my love for what I do. So I decided to create a podcast that does exactly that. Reminding artists of why they are artists and why they should continue on their path no matter how hard it is. I asked one of my past coworkers who had become my close friend to co-host with me and together we called the poscast “Crispy Animator” because we had become crispy after everything we had been through. This new journey has been like nothing I have every experienced. As a person who has moved continents multiple times, creating lasting relationships means the world to me. In the podcast we get to reconnect with old coworkers and friends and also get to meet new awesome people in the industry that we wouldn’t have otherwise connected to. The other amazing part of this podcast is that we get to share people’s stories and show our viewers how hard everyone works to be in this industry. We absolutely love what we do and nothing can stop us from pivoting from our passion. I hope to expand this podcast and create events for my fellow artists to get together and connect even further. After all, we are all stronger together.
Here is a link to the podcast. I hope that it provides inspiration and brings positivity to anyone who watches. https://youtube.com/@crispyanimator?si=cnMKbg6YfEFUheZd

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

The first and most important quality that has helped me in my career and life as a whole is effective communication. I’ve lived in multiple countries and because of that I have gotten exposed to different cultures and perspectives. This has allowed me to be able to better communicate with people I meet. Whether it’s at an interview, a new team, a gathering/event, etc… The second skill is being okay with saying “I don’t know how to do this.” To show weakness is very hard especially when you want to prove yourself in a new industry, but believe me when I say, pretending like you know everything will not help you in your career. You need to learn when to take initiative and figure things out by yourself and when to simply say “I don’t know how to do this, can you help me learn?” By doing this you will learn a ton of new skills and more importantly, you will make lasting connections. The more you grow your skills, the easier it will become for others to come to you with questions too!
The third is to believe in yourself. If you don’t then you won’t make it. It took me a while to get to a point where I started to believe that I will make it to my goals. To believe that I can make a difference with my art no matter how small. I don’t care how long it takes, because let’s face it, there are a lot of things in this world that are out of our control, but I will make it. When you start believing in yourself then you start to find others that believe in you too and together you can make magic!

We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?

I have been talking to a lot of people in the entertainment industry recently, because of my podcast and it seems like we are in a time where generalists are appreciated and desired more than specialists are. So I would say, being more well rounded and investing your time in learning new skills/softwares will help you further your career. For example, Unreal Engine is a software that is quickly becoming a staple in all studios. Animating in Unreal is becoming stronger with every version and before you know it, projects will shift to being entirely done in Unreal. Doesn’t matter if you work in games or movies. I myself have worked on multiple movies/shows where the project was mostly or fully done in Unreal and I had to learn while working on the projects. I was lucky enough to be working at a company that allowed me to learn on the job, but not all companies will. I also had to learn After Effects when I started on my first Postvis project and I am beyond grateful that I got to learn these softwares, because they are a big plus to have on your resume.
Moving onto skills, as an animator, it’s not essential to know how to model or rig, for example, but looking at all the job postings recently it is very apparent that it’s big plus if you know how to. Not only will you have a stronger resume, but you can also apply to more jobs.
So start learning new skills and new softwares, because being a generalist will give you a leg up in our industry right now.

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