Most Talented Disney Animator Don Lusk

Animator and director Donald Lusk was the last vital link to Disney’s ‘Golden Age’ of Animation.

In today’s blog we are going to discuss about great Disney Animator Don Lusk who died on December 2018.

Disney Animation Research Library confirmed that Lusk was considered the last surviving artist from the early days of Disney Animation.

Born on October 1913 in United States, he served in the United States Marines during World War II.

At the age of 20 in the year 1933 Lusk was hired by The Walt Disney Company as an In-betweener.

Don Lusk contributed on many Disney animated films that are now considered classics such as Snow White, Bambi, Pinocchio and Seven Dwarfs.

Donald or Don Lusk career spanned more than sixty years starting from 1933 hired by Disney.

After joining Disney at the age of 20 he worked on Mickey Mouse shorts for several years, as he used to work on detailing of Goofy’s character.

He was responsible for filing in the gaps as an in-betweener in animation drawings left by other animators.

After few years he was promoted to animator and contributed in contributed in Disney’s first feature film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs made in 1937.

He also contributed in1938’s Ferdinand the Bull adapted from The story of Ferdinand (1936) by author Munro Leaf.

Don Lusk worked on numerous Disney classics as an Animator including Pinocchio, Fantasia, Bambi, Song of the South, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Sleeping Beauty and the list goes on.

At Disney he spent more than two decades and during this period worked on most of the Disney features from Snow White to 101 Dalmatians along with many shorts.

Don Lusk worked on 13 out of the 17 Disney animated features that were released between 1937 and 1961.

For the film Pinocchio, Don Lusk worked on 2danimation for Geppetto’s pet goldfish, Cleo.

Pinocchio is a 1940 animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions.

In the 1940 film Fantasia, Lusk single handed animated the danse arabe portion of Fantasia’s Nutcracker sequence.

In which a collection of fish performs a hypnotic and kaleidoscopic underwater dance.

Sketching of the fish doing her dance was quite a laborious work.

More than 1,000 artists and technicians were used in the making of Fantasia, which showed more than 500 animated characters.

His creation on movie Fantasia is now acclaimed as one of the great early works of animation.

In 2013 interview Lusk revealed that the final work was completed too hurriedly and he was very dissatisfied with the finished version.

He contributed in the Disney studio’s innovation during its Golden Age of Animation, as Disney developed techniques for mixing picture and sound, animating the backgrounds and achieving bright special effects.

Talented Lusk worked on the classic ‘Nutcracker Suite’ and ‘Pastoral Symphony’ segments of the film Fantasia.

For this ‘Nutcracker Suite’ studio filmed professional dancers Joyce Coles and Marjorie Belcher wearing ballet skirts that resembled shapes of blossoms.

Lusk took part in 1941 Disney animators strike and took a break from his career and joined military service with the U.S Marines.

Later he returned in late 1940s to work on films like Bambi, Song of the South and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad etc.

Bambi released in 1942 during World War II and was Disney’s 5th full-length animated film.

As Disney wanted the animals in Bambi to be more realistic and expressive than those in Snow White, a painter of animals named Rico LeBrun was invited to teach animators on the structure and movements of animals.

Lusk was allocated to the training film unit in Quantico, Virginia, where he spent few years working with other enlisted animation artists such as Carl Fallberg, Tom Codrick and Pete Alvarado.

After the World War end, Lusk returned to Disney to work on Alice in Wonderland where Alice falls down in the rabbit hole;.

Flora and Merry weather throwing pink and blue pixie dust in the film Sleeping Beauty and the nanny in movie 101 Dalmatians running out into the streets and yelling for help after the puppies are stolen.

Don Lusk left Disney in 1960 to direct multiple cartoon films and series.

During 1960s he worked on Peanuts TV specials, many of the Charlie Brown TV programs such as What a Nightmare, Charlie Brown! And you’re a good sport, Charlie Brown.

He also directed several television shows like The Smurfs, Yo Yogi, The Addams Family and 80s cartoon series of Paddington Bear.

Lusk freelanced for studios like Bill Melendez and Walter Lantz before moving to Hanna-Barbera in the 1970s.

At Hanna-Barbera production he worked on episodes of Scooby-Doo, The Flintstones, The Jetsons and Tom and Jerry.

Don Lusk Animator Discussion At animation Kolkata

He continued his work in animation in 1990s and contributed in series of The Jetsons revival, Adventures of the Gummi Bears and multiple episodes of Captain Planet and the Planeteers.

Don Lusk took final retirement at the age of 80 in 1995 after his work on the children’s TV show The Pirates of Dark Water.

He was nominated twice for the Emmy award for his work on The Smurfs in 1988 and 1989 and for Pup in Scooby-Doo in the year 1999.

He received the Winsor McCay Award in 2014 for lifetime achievement at the Annie Awards.

Among the Nine Old Men of Disney Animators; Don Lusk is one who supported elite animators but never received the same kind of recognition.

Don Lusk wasn’t simply an artist in the animation industry but a true pioneer of the art form.

He helped to develop the art form of animation that inspired artists who followed his footsteps.

Hence we noticed in this blog that contribution of an In-betweener plays an important role in the animation industry and only a talented, skilled and innovative person can become In-betweener in the animation field.

Join Us to know about animation Industry, and become an animator.

Magical VFX World Of Mary Poppins Returns

Who can forget the marvellous performance of Julie Andrews in the film Mary Poppins made in 1964.

But today we will look upon the recent musical fantasy film Mary Poppins Returns released in 2018.

Mary Poppins Returns stars Emily Blunt as protagonist.

The plot is set in 1930s London, twenty five years after the events of the original film; it follows Mary Poppins the former nanny of Jane and Michael Banks returning after a family tragedy.

Directed by Robert Marshall and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures this film has grossed over $318 million worldwide.

Mary Poppins Returns is a beautiful blend of musical and fantasy with dash of vfx.

Visual Effects for the movie is provided by Cinesite, Framestore, Luma Pictures and TPO VFX.

The VFX team created a combination of many styles of beautiful effects that looked fresh to contemporary audiences.

Similar to the original film, this film includes a sequence combining live-action and traditional hand-drawn animation.

Hand-drawn animation was created by Duncan’s animation studio, Duncan Studio, in Pasadena, California.

The overall supervision was handled by ex-Pixar veteran, Jim Capobianco and ex-Disney animator, Ken Duncan, supervised physical animation production at his studio in Pasadena.

VFX companies like Framestore, Cinesite and Luma Pictures worked on everything from digitally erasing any modern structures visible in the background of the London exterior shots to digitally creating period London landscapes and extending Cherry Tree Lane.

In the Royal Doulton bowl scene when all the characters interact with the animals, a 20 feet giraffe was used during filming to give children a point of reference.

Animated background environments were inserted later in post-production.

In the magical world where Blunt and co-star Lin-Manuel Miranda performs song and dance; traditional style of hand-drawn animation with fully digital environment was used.

More than 70 animation artists specializing in hand-drawn 2D animation from Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, and other animation studios were engaged for the sequence.

Artists created the music hall as a Computer generated environment and texture it with authentic hand-painted artwork to make it feel Disney cartoon word and it took 16 months to complete all the animation.

Framestore is the lead VFX Company on the film with visual effects, animation and musical numbers.

The animated drawings were created using pencil and paper; then scanned onto the computer to be digitally inked and painted.

Designer James Woods and animator James Baxter also helped to re-design the penguins from the first film.

Advancement in technology allowed the filmmakers a chance to blend 2D animation with 3D modern tools and allowed the camera to move all throughout the hand-drawn and digital CG environments

Marshall’s steady-cam worked with fluid cinematography helped to render the flatness of the Royal Doulton’s cartoon bits within their three dimensions.

They created a living style that harmonizes the live-action performance, the cartoon penguins and the computer-animated stuff.

Carriage ride environment was made up from traditionally painted artwork; projected in 3D space.

In the bathroom scene Mary Poppins pulls impossibly large objects from her carpet bag and to give total freedom of movement to Emily and camera artists created a digital bathroom.

A specially constructed SFX rig helped Mary and children slide into the tub and taken beneath the Magical Ocean.

Children in the film were shot in SFX bubble rigs that allowed them to twist and tumble safely as the bubbles breaks; they find themselves on an ocean covered in huge mountains of bath foam.

According to the CGI artist each of the bubble spheres needed to be accurately reflect and refract its environment; the combination of the motion of the ocean surface and the particle effect foam break up made this effect hugely challenging.

The biggest challenge of Framestore’s London team was creating a unique dry look for the undersea adventure by shooting on chroma screen and then finding a balance between photorealistic environments.

The CG artists created simulated water, foam and bubbles all with individual movement.

The fantastic underwater world was fully 3D environment and animals were created from scratch.

The VFX team re-created 1934 London and extended the Cherry Lane Studio Set.

Film’s Cherry Tree Lane was re-imagined as a more humble place.

As there was a lot of expectation from the team of Mary Poppins Returns to not just pay homage to the original movie but to make it fresh, new and contemporary, Visual effects supervisor Matt Johnson used up-to-date technologies.

In the year 1964 Special effects god father Peter Ellenshaw used the most up-to-date technology to create the animated world in the old Mary Poppins film.

A fully digital house of Parliament and the surrounding was created along with Big Ben Clock.

At Shepperton Studios, eight soundstages were used to build and house the astounding practical sets for Cherry Tree Lane, Big Ben, enormous abandoned park and interiors of Banks home.

All effects were not computer generated, Poppins talking umbrella is a practical effect controlled remotely.

The parrot on the end of Emily’s umbrella was built as an animatronic, so it could be practical prop on set.

In the Spring Fair Scene where the cast floats into the sky with magic balloons.

On location and on soundstages with the actors wearing harnesses that could be hoisted upwards with huge cranes set against backdrops of actual period locations and blue screens.

The lampposts in the film were specially designed to facilitate a complicated dance number featuring Lin-Manuel Miranda and the crew.

The director chose to shoot on locations throughout London to give the film a more grounded sense of realism, so that the wonder that comes when Mary Poppins arrives are the perfect departure from the real-world issues.

Set included St. Paul’s Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, King Charles Street, Tower of London and others and required detailed set dressing to obscure any modern touch.

Mary Poppins Returns film is an expertly crafted and hugely entertaining film.

It has received numerous award nominations in various categories.

Like Mary Poppins Returns if you want to be part of magical world of vfx then secure your future in just a click away.

Animated Movies On Mythological Character Hanuman

In today’s blog we will consider animated movies on Mythological hero Hanuman.

Lord Hanuman is one of the central characters in the ancient epic Ramayana.

Hanuman is the son of wind-god Vayu and an ardent devotee of Lord Rama.

Apart from being a popular deity in Hinduism, Hanuman is also found in Jainism and Buddhism.

Hanuman is a legendary character in legends and arts found outside the Indian subcontinent such as Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Hanuman is a brave, heroic mythological character.

Let us look at the animated movies that are made on Hanuman till date.

Computer Generated Movies on Hanuman

Released in 2005 Hanuman is the first animated feature film directed by Kshitij Singh and produced by Percept Pictures and Silvertoons.

The animation of this film was created by Kakarakaya Pulsu, 2D animation was used in this film.

Hindi dialogue of the film is written by Milind Ukey, Sulekha Bajpai and Shanthanu Rode where as English dialogues are written by Rajiv Gopalakrishnan and Neerav Ghosh.

Actor Chiranjeevi gave voice for the Telugu version.

This movie depicted Hanuman’s life from birth and the narrator was actor Mukesh Khanna.

The story plot showed that Hanuman is naughty and used his powers to trouble the saints living in the nearby forest and when hungry he leapt to catch the sun thinking it was a fruit.

Lord Hanuman is the 11th Rudra avatar of Shiva and possessed supreme intelligence, and strength.

Blessed with divine powers Hanuman could overcome death and could transform his body to take the smallest form or attain the biggest form of life.

Once grown up Hanuman was reminded of his original purpose that is unconditional devotion to Lord Ram.

Hanuman helped Lord Ram and Laxman in their search for Sita.

With his super powers Hanuman burned the golden city Lanka and helped Lord Ram and Laxman to defeat Ravana.

Pleased with his devotion and love Lord Ram blessed Hanuman with the immortality.

The music of this film is composed by Tapas Relia and the film is edited by Huzefa Lokhandwala.

Sahara One Motion Pictures is the distributor of this film.

This film is India’s first major commercial family animated feature which collected Rs. 8.18 crores and was announced a Hit at the box office.

The next film after Hanuman is the Return of Hanuman released in December 2007.

Directed by Anurag Kashyap, it is the second project of Percept Picture Company.

The screenplay is written by Amit Babbar and Anurag Kashyap and starred Pinky Rajput.

The music of this film was composed by Tapas Relia.

Return of Hanuman is a children’s film and has been rated as an Educational Film by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) as it deals with the issue of global warming.

Like the previous one this movie is also about Lord Hanuman.

The plot of this film follows Hanuman who comes to Earth with a desire to play with village children.

Hanuman reincarnated as Maruti lands up at the village of Bajrangpur and saves a boy from being bullied by local hooligans.

Maruti uses a mace locket to return into Hanuman.

The story starts on how Rahu and Ketu came into existence followed by why man himself is the biggest evil or the impact of pollution leading to global warming.

Return of Hanuman combined the modern with the mythological to communicate the golden lesson of good prevails over evil.

A monster made of polythene and other non-biodegradable waste appears from a volcano and keeps on swallowing the villagers of Bajrangpur.

After struggling to stop the monster, Hanuman asked help from Lord Ram and defeats the monster.

At the end Hanuman leaves his family and friends of Bajrangpur.

Hanuman : Da’ Damdaar is directed by Ruchi Narain and released in 2017.

Produced by R.A.T Films, the storyline follows Hanuman.

Celebrity actors like Salman Khan, Raveena Tandon and Javed Akhtar gave the voice for this film.

It has colourful illustration of characters and backgrounds.

In this film Maruti prays to God to make him the bravest kid in the world.

God heads his prayer and leads Maruti into a series of jungle adventures.

Maruti’s experience and new friends leads him to metamorphose from a simple Bajrangi to Hunuman Da Damdaar.

Music of this film was composed by Sneha Khanwalkar and lyrics are by Abhishek Dubey.

The background music was given by Shruti Kumar-Jessica Weiss and Bupi- Tutul.

The album is released by T-Series.

Movie Hanuman Vs Mahiravana is released in 2018.

It is an Indian Mythological adventure 2D and 3D stereoscopic animated movie produced by Green Gold Animation Pvt. Ltd and distributed by Yash Raj Films.

The story is written by Narayanan Vaidyanathan and directed by Dr. Ezhil Vendan.

The film is about Hanuman and his attempts to free Lord Rama and Lakshmana from the clutches of evil wizard Mahiravana.

Mahiravana is the son of sage Vishrava and the brother of Ravana, the king of Lanka.

It mainly focuses on the tale of Hanuman and his biggest battle with Ravana’s youngest step-brother, the king of Patala Mahiravana.

The expert voice over helped to bring the characters to life.

The 3D animation and effects is of good standard each frame is intricate and beautifully designed.

The music and background score raises the viewing experience.

This Movie released across India in Hindi and Tamil on July 2018.

It was distributed by Yash Raj Films and running time is 1 hour 36 minutes.

With stunning visuals this film is a good entertaining piece for all age group.

In India Mythological heroes like Hanuman, Ganesha and Krishna helped to start the animation industry.

Mythology delivers ready-made storyline, well-defined and easy-to-recall characters that quickly click with the core audience.

Experiment with more themes needed to be done unlike West our animation films are not made of big budgets.

Hence we got a view of the animated movies on Hanuman that is made till date.

Whether it is superhero or mythological hero animation has aided to bring life in all imaginative characters.

Join our MAAC centre and add colour, texture and movement to any of the mythological heroes.

Implementation Of VFX In The Movie Venom 2018

In today’s blog we are going to tell you how the extravagant use of Visual Effects gave an amazing over all look to the 2018 film Venom.

Superhero movies are very popular nowadays; Marvel and DC are frequently bringing new characters to the big screen.

Marvel planned to make a movie on their antihero, the live alien Symbiote called Venom after the film Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Directed by Ruben Fleischer, Venom starred Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock/Venom.

Along with Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams played the role of Anne Weying and Riz Ahmed as Carlton Drake.

American superhero film Venom is produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Marvel and Tencent Pictures.

Scott Rosenberg, Jeff Pinkner and Kelly Marcel are the screenplay writers of this movie.

In this film Journalist Brock gains superpowers after being bound to an alien symbiote whose species plans to invade Earth.

In Marvel’s comics based film plots visual effect plays a key role and creates the spectacles.

In Venom Visual Effects transforms ordinary human reporter Eddie Brock into a tentacle-sprouting symbiote freak.

Venom got unexpected box office success by becoming sixth highest-grossing film of 2018 with over $855 million worldwide.

Visual Effects by DNEG

Double Negative (DNEG) provided visual effects for the film and Oscar winner Paul Franklin at DNEG was the VFX supervisor.

Paolo Giandoso helped to design Venom and Riot and provided sequence of 158 drawings for the end final battle between the two characters.

As Franklin said that they wanted the creatures to be predatory and threatening.

So they looked at slime molds, jellyfish and time-lapse photography of amoeba for inspiration.

DNEG delivered about 1100 shots for this movie, they created Computer-generated Imagery powered monster mutations 21 inches taller than Tom Hardy.

In this Marvel Comics-based story journalist Eddie Brock transformed into a tentacle-sprouting symbiote freak.

Venom also featured a fully digital double of Hardy voiced by Tom Hardy.

Black tentacles were inspired by the movement of sea creatures and scientific demonstrations of non-Newtonian fluid.

Supplementary cameras on the set accurately captured Hardy’s movements so the tentacles could be integrated with his performance.

Plenty of in-camera techniques were used to realistically bring the symbiote into life.

Liquid is definitely the hardest thing from the vfx technical point of view.

VFX team added the layers of viscous fluid movement that enhanced and extended the characters’ performance and it took a long time to get the effects correctly.

Venom

Character Venom was created with a digital model that included rigs and simulation for the face and muscles.

Venom is 7 ft 6 inches, weighs 500 pounds with smooth, oily, black appearance.

As the character’s facial design differs from comic-to-comic and panel-to-panel, the designers only concentrated on the essential element into a design that could be photorealistic.

Franklin designed the character’s eye inspired by a killer whale and animated in a more exaggerated way to indicate where the character is looking since he lacked pupils.

The long tongue of the character is also adapted from the comics and another complex rig required so that tongue could be specifically animated.

Venom often speaks through clenched tooth which was inspired by actors Jack Palance and Clint Eastwood who deliver dialogue through clenched teeth.

Venom’s model was flexible which allowed animators to scale Venom’s head, adjust the length of his teeth and his jaws.

Initially it was planned to use performance capture to portray Venom but this idea was rejected due to difference between his face and character’s.

It was not necessary to add Spider-Man’s symbol to Venom’s chest but the creative team wanted to be accurate to the comic designs, so they added V symbol which formed from the white veins of the symbiot.

To light up the all black character the VFX team used reflections to define his body.

The partial Venom form includes the ‘freak-out’ form, for which a ghostly effect was created by adding an animated version of the character on top of Hardy’s performance with a vibration effect.

To create that scene where Venom’s head emerges from Brock’s body to talk; tendrils and veins were added to create to an overall snake like shape.

Riot The Villain

As Riot is a minor character from the comics, the designers had more freedom to develop his film appearance.

Riot is a foot taller than Venom and twice as heavy as Venom with a ‘metallic look’ that Franklin described as “almost reptilian”.

Character model for Riot was similar to the Venom, but had less effects layers due to Riot not having the same “rippling goo” texture.

Riot also had a custom set of effects for the different weapons that he can manifest, such as blades and a large wrecking ball with spikes.

The VFX team made Riot’s teeth more sharper and fang-like, Riot’s claws longer similar to obsidian knives.

The visual effects teams took advantage of the characters’ liquid-like designs by allowing the two appear to merge and create a swirling mass of symbiotic flesh, with the two humans unveiling through the whirlpool.

There was a detailed pre-visualization before the car chase sequence, which used practical shot against blue-screen.

VFX team added the traffic environment and fixed glass in the car windows, animation and FX together created the webs of gooey tentacles that hold the cars apart, until venom’s tentacles reaches in and spin the cars off the road.

VFX supervisor Paul Franklin wanted the Venom and Riot’s fighting sequence to be more broad, colourful and exciting, to represent more comedic and comic book-like style in the film.

The final fight between Venom and Riot was constantly changing as Franklin, DNEG, and the pre-visualization team at The Third Floor working with Fleischer were constantly delivering inputs to develop the fight.

It is clear from the above text that filmmakers make use of VFX techniques to put life in the comic-book character.

Be a part of our MAAC centres to learn various CGI techniques which are currently in use in all over VFX Industry.

MAAC EVENT NATIONAL TECHNICAL MEET 2019

MAAC event have always been a part of the learning process that we at MAAC Chowringhee, Rashbehari, Ultadanga follow.

With mentors participating in events like National Technical Meet, MAAC klick etc it really makes the learning fun and enjoyable.

It’s a break from the regular schedule to reunite with the whole MAAC faculty fraternity, share ideas, gain new insights and rejuvenate at the same time.

This year the National Technical Meet was held the Palmarinha Resort, Goa from 23rd to 26th February, 2019.

Faculty members from various centers pan India gathered together to be a part of the event.

The Faculty members of MAAC Chowringhee, Rashbehari, Ultadanga as always were set to participate in the same.

With everyone arriving at different times the first half of 23rd February, 2019 was busy with check-ins and lunch with some rest.

The Technical Meet kicked off with an introductory session led by Mr Abir Aich, Academic Head, MAAC, in which he welcomed all the members to the Meet .

This was closely followed by a session by Academic team, which was more of a nostalgic session.

We got a glimpse into the early years if the establishment of the brand that has took the baton of Animation Training in India.

The session took us on the journey of MAAC through the years and what achievements it gathered over those years.

The session saw a lot of participation from various members from various centers who have been associated with MAAC since the very inception of the brand.

Everyone reliving and narrating their experiences, it soon became a gathering of friends rather than a formal one.

Soon after the MAAC Event ended and we were asked to move for dinner or go around exploring the scenic beauty of one of India’s most popular tourist destinations.

We as a group of faculties from Chowringhee, Rashbehari, Ultadanga went to explore the nearby beaches post dinner and came back in time to get some rest.

The second day of our meet started with the usual bustle with everyone hurrying to their respective sessions.

The sessions were split between the production/post-production and Multimedia for the next two days.

The first half of 24th was lined up with sessions on AR content creation workflow by Mr.Ananda Gupta, R&D department MAAC, followed by a workshop on filmmaking.

While on the other side Multimedia group were having sessions on Concepts of Creative Design by Mr Sougata Mitra, SME lighting, MAAC, followed by a session on UI/UX design by an expert Mr Manoj Vishwakarma.

At lunch of MAAC event everyone gathered together and shared our share of business experience.

The lunch was followed by yet another string of enjoyable sessions.

The production/post production group were learning the essentials of compositing by Mr Ashish Ranjan, Manager T3 division.

MAAC and later indulged in the importance of performance and interaction in character animation by Mr Narayan Shewale, SME animation, MAAC.

The multimedia group were understanding the concepts of HTML5, CSS, Query and Bootstrap by Mr Bhushan, SME Multimedia and Web.

MAAC event sessions ended well in the evening as there was a lot of interactions and everyone was eager to learn and contribute to the learning in every way possible.

Although we enjoyed every bit of the sessions we were still famished so we headed straight to dinner and then to our respective rooms to catch some breath.

The next day of MAAC event was yet another fun filled learning experience.

The exciting session of CG Live action integration awaited us.

This particular session saw quite some participation from all centers.

The session was led by Mr Umesh Patel, SME Visual Effects, MAAC and Mr Ashish Ranjan.

Then came on the session by Mr Sougata Mitra, importance of light and colour in CG film.

The sessions were quite informative.

With our heads filled we needed to fill our growling stomachs.

The Multimedia section was having sessions on 2D animation in Animate CC and the orientation of Actionscript 3 by Mr Bhushan, which were no less intriguing and interesting than the sessions which awaited us across our lunch.

Post lunch the multimedia group had a exciting animation session Animation workflow in Harmony by Mr Narayan Shewale, where we talked about the fundamentals of 2D animation and how to approach the same in the correct way.

While the other group was seed by the capabilities of Blender as an application and throughout the years how it had become resilient and versatile.

The session was led by Mr Ajith Nair, Director Vivify Studios.

Amidst this hustle and bustle we were asked to gather for a commemorative picture.

The picture was to serve as memory of MAAC event the whole knowledgeable experience brimming with excitement and fun.

After these sessions, with a little heaviness at heart we came to the inevitable end marked with the closing note of the academic team.

But before that what awaited us was the gala night and the felicitation ceremony.

Finishing up with the sessions we headed to the poolside where the party was in full swing.

The music invited to dance to its tune with food being served.

Everyone seemed to relax and then began the faculty felicitation for the academic year 2018-19.

MAAC event honors it’s faculty members with a token of appreciation for their specific contribution made in academics.

A few of our faculty members were also felicitated for their contributions, which are as follows-

Long Service

Mr. Siddharth Jaiswal

Mr. Rajib Ghosh

Mr. Milan Kanti Dan

Appreciation for mentoring students for 24 FPS 2018

MAAC Rashbehari–3D Challenge

Reveling in the joyous atmosphere the night moved on and with this the three day Technical Meet Came to an end.

The next day of MAAC event was filled with everyone bidding farewell to each other checkouts.



Some had decided to stay the day exploring Goa as their return arrangements were for the night.

We falling under the same category decided to take a small trip to whatever we could lay out hands on, given the limited time we had.

We explored a few places and gathered at Goa Airport for our return flight.

With bundled of hopes and promises for yet another year we return to our own schedules to start a fresh with renewed energy to make difference.

Worthy To Note About 2D & 3D Modeling

In our todays blog we will be discussing about 2d and 3d Modeling.

Some of the most popular cartoon animation of recent times like Chhota Bheem, Roll no.21 has won million of hearts in India and other parts of the world.

Nobody can ignore the Computer Generated beautiful, bright, colourful illustrations of cartoon figures which are capable of entertaining the audience.

The Term 2D means Two-Dimensional and 3D stands for Three- Dimensional.

2D modelling provides us a flat image without depth.

Dimension allows us to see and measure an object from any side such as height, width, depth or thickness. Everything in our reality is three-dimensional.

For example A car is three-dimensions but a photograph of a car or a drawing of a car has only two dimensions.

A photograph or a hand sketched drawing lacks depth.

A line drawn on a sheet of paper is One Dimensional (1D) that means it has only one aspect that is Length.

Whereas shapes as Rectangle, Square, Triangle, Polygon etc are two dimensional (2D) that means they have two aspects Height and Length. Shapes like Cylinder, Cube or Prism are three Dimensional; they have Depth.

2D artist creates model in a two-dimensional artistic space. It requires creativity as well as technological skills.

2D artist draw character by using digital pencil, paintbrush, eraser, and other tools.

In Computer Graphics 2D artist creates the model of characters, storyboards and backgrounds in two-dimensional environments.

Artist uses bitmap and vector graphics to create and edit the 2Dimensional images and they use computer software like CelAction2D, Anime Studio, Adobe Photoshop, Flash, After Effects etc.

Walt Disney’s full-length-feature movies like Mulan, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, The Jungle Book and many more are the all time favourite 2D animation movies.

The Cartoon characters, background, props were all drawn by hand.

In case of 2D animation movie, artist along with the director decides the complete plot of the movie, at Pre-production stage.

It is very important to draw each and every shot very carefully because redrawing a shot is very laborious work.

A 2D modeler, develop storyboards, design characters, arrange characters and items in a scene, creates graphics, motion and animation using computers and edit animation based on feedback from a director.

A shot may contain only one drawing or about ten to twenty drawings.

In Animation Studios artist draws main characters on the Key-frame digitally then they add colour and give movement to the characters.

Now days Digital cells are coloured on a computer; a background is drawn on the computer or scanned.

The background can be imported into an animation program and each cell is layered onto the background in succession and then saved on the computer as a single video file.

During the production stage the detail drawing of each and every shots are completed.

The last stage is post-production; it includes adding of audio (sound effects, music, voice over) to the video and rendering final output.

There is a huge market for 2D modeling in mobile gaming, commercials or TV serials for kids and adults.

2D software like Toon Boom Harmony is a powerful tool in the hand of professional. Disney movie ‘The Princess and the Frog’ was made using this software.

It offers wide range of effects of Pencils and Brushes.

2D software offers traditional frame-by-frame animation or cut-out.

The artist who works with 3D models are called 3D artist.

The technique of producing a computer generated 3 dimensional digital representation of any object or surface is called 3D modeling. Computer Generated 3D models are used in Video Games, Movies, Architecture, Fashion designing, Advertising and Television.

 Animation Modeling @animation Kolkata

A 3D artist works on polygon mesh, which is a collection of vertices, edges and faces that defines the shape of a polyhedral object in 3D computer graphics and solid modeling.

Different types of polygon meshes are used for different applications and goals. Operations like smoothing, simplification can be performed on meshes. Volumetric meshes are different from Polygon meshes; as Volumetric Mesh represents both surface and volume of a structure but Polygon Mesh represent only the surface.

Mesh can be used to model both solid shapes and thin ‘skins’. Complex polygon meshes provides people, animals and other complex shapes.

Animators and Game designers depend on 3D modelling to bring their ideas to life.

The Software Autodesk Maya and 3D Max are the industry standard in 3D modelling and animation.

Software Maya runs on Windows, macOS and Linux.

It is originally developed by Alias Systems Corporation.

It helps to create 3D Video games, animated films, TV series and Visual effects.

Software 3D Max is capable of modelling and can be used on Microsoft Windows platform. This software is mainly used by Video game developers, architectural visualization studios and TV commercial studios.

The film ‘Toy Story’ made in 1995 was the first 3D computer animated feature film from Pixar.

3D movies have become very popular now.

Breathtaking 3D movies are releasing every year in the theatres such as Kung Fu Panda, How to train your dragon, Ice Age and the list goes .

3D models created for animation may contain thousands of control points, for example ‘Woody’ from ‘Toy story’ has 700 specialized animation controllers and ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ has 1,851 controllers. Animation Modeling @animation Kolkata

In case of 3D animation, models are built on the computer monitor and 3D figures are rigged with a virtual skeleton.

Whereas in 2D figure animations, separate illustrations and separate transparent layers are used without virtual skeleton; different body parts are moved on Key frames.

In 3D animations, all frames must be rendered after the modeling is complete but in 2D vector animations, the rendering process is the key frame illustration process, while in-between frames are rendered as needed.

Lighting is essential part in 3D modeling.

In 3D one or more cameras can be created.

3D modeling is more time consuming process than a 2D modeling because a 3D artist takes into account all the different views which means every side of the object has to look good whereas a 2D model only has one side.

3D modelling and animation has become very popular over the past few years.

People are more interested to watch 3D visuals due to its realistic and attractiveness.

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IMAX Screen Better Than A Regular Screen

Today in this blog we will discuss about why IMAX Screen is better than a Regular Screen.

IMAX cinema projection standard was developed by late 1960s and early 1970s in Canada.

Unlike standard projectors, the film runs horizontally, therefore the image width is greater than the width of the film.

Due to the flourish of the entertainment industry there are various types of standard theatres in the entertainment zones and industry.

IMAX compared to other regular theatres proved to be more efficient and advantageous.

In the year 1929, Fox Film Corporation introduced Fox Grandeur, the first 70mm film format.

During 1950s the possibility of 35 mm film to provide wider projected images was explored in the processes of CinemaScope (1953), VistaVision and multi-projector systems like Cinerama (1952).

As it was proved that a single, large-screen image had more impact than multiple smaller ones, Multi-screen changed its name to IMAX.

IMAX is more entertaining and enjoying from all aspects

By the late 2017, around 1,302 IMAX theatre systems were installed in 1,203 commercial multiplexes, 13 commercial destinations and 86 institutional settings in 75 countries.

IMAX Screen Vs Regular Screen

IMAX Screen and Regular Screen differ hugely in their screen size.

IMAX is six times larger than compared to regular theatre screen.

Canadian filmmaker Graeme Ferguson, Canadian filmmaker Roman Kroitor, businessman Robert Kerr and William C. Shaw developed the first IMAX cinema projection standards.

IMAX Screen works on advanced technologies and they are expensive too compare to regular screen.

IMAX theatres are popular for their best picture and sound quality.

The IMAX theatres provide real visual and audio effects.

IMAX theatres flourished from the year 2000.

Initially IMAX used to display only nature films, but now there are varieties of visual movies that can be viewed in IMAX theatres.

Movie Tiger Child, directed by Donald Brittain was the first IMAX film demonstrated at Expo ’70 in Osaka, Japan.

IMAX Theatre has a large circular dome and flat screen, due to which the real effects of the movies can be enjoyed by the feeling, as if the viewer is in the movie.

IMAX theatres work on the linear polarization technologies and use the advanced cameras.


The permanent IMAX installation was first built at the Cinesphere theatre at Ontario Place in Toronto; it showed the film ‘North of Superior’ in 1971.

The Cinesphere theatre was renovated in 2017 with IMAX 70 mm and IMAX with laser.

The pictures are so enlarged on IMAX screens that the visual is separated from the left and right eye point of view.

The IMAX screen usually spreads from wall to wall, unlike traditional screens that are mounted in the centre of the room.

By 2008, IMAX spread their brand into traditional theatres with the introduction of Digital IMAX, a lower-cost system which uses two 2K digital projectors to project on a 1.90:1 aspect ratio screen.

This lower-cost system helped IMAX to grow from 299 screens worldwide at the end of 2007 to over 1,000 screens by the end of 2015.

IMAX cinema process increased the image resolution by using larger film frame; a frame of IMAX format film has three times the theoretical horizontal resolution of a frame of 35mm.


IMAX projector uses 15 Kilo Watt Xenon short-arc lamp.

IMAX has special Audio Engineers who specify in creating speakers with a more powerful output in addition to crystal quality sound.

IMAX has increased resolution with enhanced sound effects which do not cause any problems to the eyes and ears while enjoying the movie.

Standard IMAX screen is 22m×16.1m (72 ft ×53 ft). The largest IMAX screen is in Darling Harbour, Sydney, Australia (117.2 ft×97.0 ft).

Recently there are 697 IMAX theatres in 52 countries.

Launched in 2008, Digital Cinema IMAX projection system designed to use with shorter 1.90:1 aspect ratio screens.

It includes a proprietary IMAX Image Enhancer that modifies the output of the digital media server based on feedback from cameras and microphones in the auditorium, and maintains alignment with sub-pixel accuracy.

Digital cinema IMAX system uses two 2k projectors that can present either 2D or 3D content in Digital cinema initiative (DCI) or IMAX Digital Format.

IMAX is working on a new 4K laser projection system based on patents licensed from Eastman Kodak.

The Traditional theatres are the Regular theatres which are used since the earlier times.

Regular theatres have implemented the modern entertainment techniques in the theatres.

Regular Theatres have straight and plain screens which are viewed by sitting at the frontal position.

The picture quality is not that good as they are able to incorporate only a limited range of pixel and resolution.

The film format of Regular theatre are 35mm or 70m but IMAX film formats are 15/70 mm; this means each frame is 70 mm high and 15 perforations per frame.

These Regular types of theatres are available in all cities and even in the rural and developing areas.

Use of IMAX in Hollywood Productions

Studio like Walt Disney Pictures became the first to release theatrical films in IMAX process.

Film Fastasia 2000 was the studio’s first IMAX release and the first theatrical feature presented in IMAX theatres.

Film Treasure Planet was the first theatrical film released in regular and IMAX theatres simultaneously.

3D animated film Polar Express was the most successful film released in IMAX theatres, generating a quarter of the film’s gross of $302 million from fewer than 100 IMAX Screens.

Films like Avatar, Gravity and Amazing Spider-Man were presented in IMAX 3D.

In the year 1996 IMAX was awarded Oscar Award for scientific and Technical Achievement by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science.

The award praised IMAX’s innovation for creating and developing a method of filming, exhibiting large-format and wide-angle motion pictures.

Short Documentary Transitions (1986) was the first full-colour IMAX 3D film produced by Expo 86 in Vancouver.

Though IMAX theatres are expensive but they give better viewing experience to the audiences.

IMAX 3D projections have taken the movie viewing experience to a amazing level.

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Aquaman Vfx Reel Shows Underwater City Of Atlantis Come Alive

In today’s blog we will take a look at how VFX reel of the film Aquaman showed the lively underwater City of Atlantis.

Director James Wan crafted a lavish underwater world out of VFX in the recent 2018 film Aquaman.

Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, it is based on DC Comics Superhero character of the same name.

In the plot of the film Arthur Curry (Son of Thomas Curry and Atlanna) the heir of the underwater Kingdom of Atlantis steps forwarded to lead his people against his half-brother, Orm.

Ocean Master who seeks to unite the seven underwater Kingdoms against the surface world.

The film starred Jason Momoa (as Aquaman) and Amber Heard (as Mera, Aquaman’s love interest) along with other actors.

This film is the sixth instalment in the DC Extended Universe and has incredible innovative visual effects.

Water played an important part in telling the story of Aquaman.

An entire artificial underwater world was created for the film along with countless CG sea creatures and huge act of battle.

The British actress Julie Andrews gave voice to Karathen an underwater creature that hold the key to Arthur Curry’s quest to unite the Atlantean and surface worlds.


According to the VFX producer Kimberly Nelson Locascio, artists worked on Jason Momoa’s final outfit with his Trident for a long time because the director wanted it to be accurate.

Visual Effects used in the film

Visual effects, for the movie is created by Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), Method Studios, Digital Domain, Luma Picture, Moving Picture Company, Rodeo FX, Scanline VFX and DNEG.

ILM worked on creating Atlantis, all its Computer Generated underwater creatures and the final battle of the film.

Jeff White is the VFX supervisor for ILM on Aquaman.

Among 2,300 Visual Effects shots in the movie, ILM created about 670 shots.

ILM team created about 150,000 ships to fill the traffic lanes leading into Atlantis.

Even underwater ships were created in the shape of organic creatures and designed to move that way.

The director James Wan had a very clear idea about how the underwater hair should look like.

ILM upgraded and utilized its Hair craft tools to add details about the flow of hair underwater, they got inspired from several comic book images for the hair illustrations.

King Nereus and King Orm performed a scene against blue screen with tracking markers placed on their hairlines which ILM tracked their simulated hair onto the live-action actors.

Not only hair, Momoa’s beard was also partly done by CG or moved through warping and combining separate layers in compositing.

According to Visual effects supervisor Jeff White “Hair actually plays a big role in the film”.

Jay Barton is the VFX supervisor for Digital Domain.

For creating Dead King’s Island environment actors were shot in a pool of water against blue screen backgrounds with Digital Domain adding CG extensions, waterfalls, mountains in post-production stage.

3D software Houdini helped to create waterfalls that appeared in the film.

Digital Domain delivered 19-20 shots for the film and built an extensive library of shot FX elements.

Artists animated dinosaurs using Key frame animation.

DNEG created digitally de-ageing Willem Dafoe for the scene where his character Nudris Vulko trains the young Arthur Curry.

Method Studios created the Sicily fight sequence and for that the team made the main square of the Italian Village and terracotta tiled roof set pieces that were backed with Blue Screen.

They also handled Sicily fight sequence between Arthur, Mera and Black Manta (villain).

Method Studios created a complete CG village based on scans and documentation of the real village.

David Nelson and Craig Wentworth are the VFX Supervisors for Method Studios. For the sequence ‘Well of the Souls’ Momoa was filmed dry-for-wet (captured on set in dry environments that would be made to look underwater in post-production).

Captured on set in rigs that simulated underwater movements but it created restrictions, so the artists replaced the majority of Momoa’s performance with a digital body doubles and added the CG environment, Karathen and Arthur’s free-flowing locks.

A particularly designed 700 frame per shot was used in the scene in which the camera travelled through Arthur’s eyes.

Around 120 crew artists of Rodeo FX worked for the movie.

Sebastian Moreau is the VFX supervisor for the film.

Rodeo FX made used of a large volume of simulations as well as algorithms for the fish of the Aquarium that young Arthur Curry visits near the beginning of the film.

To capture the real coral system Rodeo FX artists created hard and soft corals by developing a colonization growth system with procedural stem and tentacle generation tools.

The artists sculpted and added texture for the depth of ruined building, bridges, towers, statues and temples.

A Lego-type approach was given by the artists to the layer of environment with a large amount of sand, dust and rocks; they also created ruined Atlantis below the desert.

The Scanline VFX studio provided 450 shots for the movie.

The VFX supervisor Bryan Hirota handled the team of artists.

VFX artists created the lighthouse, the “Aquaman” title card and Momoa pushing the submarine to the surface and Orm’s tidal wave.

The Title card the team relied on Rodeo’s work on the aquarium sequence and simulated up to 60,000 fish.

The Lighthouse tower and the extended dock fully constructed by the FX team.

A CG transition was created from the lighthouse’s living room set to a fully CG winter coastline when the camera focuses into a toy snow globe with a tiny light house inside.

Aquaman is the first DC Extended Universe film to be grossed over $1billion worldwide.

Aquaman became possible due to director James Wan creativity, skill and innovation.

It received praise for tone, direction and cinematography.

Hence it is clear that today with the use of CGI, VFX artists can create any visual beautiful and artistic.

If you have the passion to bring your imagination in front of people, then come join us and enjoy the world of visual effects.