Rate My Professor Sunil Thankamushy

Sunil Thankamushy serves as a Professor in the Animation & Gaming department at Mt. San Antonio College, where he helps lead the program. He earned an MFA in Film and Television Animation from the University of California, Los Angeles, funded by international scholarships from the Rotary Foundation and the INLAKS Foundation. Prior to his graduate studies, he obtained a BSc in Physics and Electronics from Mahatma Gandhi University in India. During his teenage years in India, Thankamushy created and published political, science, and nature-themed cartoon columns in prominent outlets such as the Indian Express, The Week, and Psychology and Human Behavior Digest.

Since the late 1990s, Thankamushy has established himself as a key figure in the video game industry, acting as an animation director and creative executive. He contributed as a lead on critically acclaimed franchises including The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Medal of Honor, and Call of Duty: Finest Hour, working at or collaborating with studios such as DreamWorks Interactive—where he was one of the first animators hired—Electronic Arts, Spark Unlimited, and Activision. He co-founded Spark Unlimited, a Los Angeles-based studio that developed titles like Turning Point: Fall of Liberty, Legendary, and Lost Planet 3. Thankamushy holds patents for several game-related technologies. In addition to his industry career, he founded Deepblue Worlds Inc., a startup dedicated to designing, writing, and producing innovative games and products leveraging virtual reality, mobile, and animation technologies, with a focus on knowledge-based educational content. His professional interests encompass blending technology and animation to enhance immersion in virtual environments through state-based animation systems, custom game engine designs, robotic motion design systems, and animation-AI interaction systems. Current projects include virtual reality systems for patient treatment in hospitals and unique educational games for children, all grounded in storytelling via animation and game design.