VFX Used In Indian Mythological Content

Today our discussion will be on VFX (Visual Effects) used in Indian Mythological Content.

During the days of Doordarshan Channel, two epics B.R. Chopra’s Mahabharat and Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan stole the heart of millions of Indian.

Till now many mythological movies, Tele serials and animated movies have been made in India.

Mythological movies or series uses VFX more randomly to portray the supernatural power of Hindu God or Goddess.

The splendid set of Mahabharat series which first telecasted on 1988 captured the imagination of the entire nation with its catchy music, linear storyline and well crafted characters.

Ramayan from the time of its beginning received huge success on Doordarshan and we still remember it for its authentication.

Over the years Mythological series have seen more elaborate sets and sophisticated computer generated effects.

Power Of VFX

Sony Entertainment’s Mahabali Hanuman which telecasted two years ago induced a great impact among the audience.

Indian audience connect easily with the mythological content because of its strong influence on our culture.

India has a rich and lively culture and has many fables related to mythology.

People of this country always relate themselves and derive inspiration from mythological stories.

With the help of Visual Effects (VFX) the maker of Mahabali Hanuman cleverly replicated the gone era.

They gave realism to the sets and costumes, infused the emotions that the character would display as part of the drama.

VFX was used to create the universe and heaven which is the abode of god and goddess.

Computer graphics are widely applied to build fire balls, huge smoky atmosphere, grand palaces, weapons (astra) etc.

The flying characteristic of Hanuman is usually glorified with the Visual effects.

Hanuman can easily decrease or increase its tail with the help of VFX in this soap.

The cutting-edge visual effects made each shots alive on the screen.

Many movies have been made on Hanuman whether it is live-action or animated for kids.

Movies made on Hanuman always inspire Indian audience as Hanuman is the symbol of strength and devotion.

Indian as a land of spirituality and devotion story of Hanuman will always win the heart.

The improved VFX technology played a vital role in creating good Tele series and movies.

Series like Devon Ke Dev Mahadev (Life OK) or Om Namah Shivay (Star TV) showed Lord Shiva as a fearsome destroyer of evil.

Shiva is a protector as well as destroyer.

It is impossible for any actor to play the role of Shiva with live snake around his neck all the time and here comes VFX to add digital snake which looks very similar to real one.

When Shiva destroys whole earth crumbles, massive destruction takes place and to portray the destructions VFX play an important role.

Mount Kailash is Lord Shiva’s abode, the beautiful flora and fauna of mount Kailash were rebuilt with the computer graphics.

In Devon Ke Dev Mahadev VFX provided bright illustrations, clear visual representation of the aura and time of God and Goddess.

These mythological stories offer lot of fantasies which can be created by CGI.

Not only Male God even Female Goddess is also very popular in Movies and Tele series in all regional languages in India.

Indian God and Goddess are daily worshipped in every house all over the country.

People still believe in superstitions and magical power.

God and goddess with their magical power protect the poor people from the danger.

They destroy the evil and protect the good.

In the series Jai Santoshi Maa by &TV, the goddess protects her devotee with all her magical powers.

VFX creates all the magical power acquired by the god and goddess.

Visual effect helps to create the illusions which mesmerises the audience.

With the use of VFX sharp and shinny weapons are added into the hands of god and goddess.

Colors TV’S Karmaphaal Daata Shani is another mythological series about the god Shani.

The story is based on the god Shani who is known for his anger or rage.

The makers of Color’s Shani spent two years working on the background for this soap.

The visual effects were done by the in-house team of Swastik Productions of Siddharth Kumar Tewary.

Siddharth believes that for a good VFX it is important to shoot a scene nicely.

The series had some wonderful visual effects like Juhi Parmar’s horse ride through Ladakh’s lunar landscape and darshan of lord Shiva at the opening episode.

The advanced VFX gave an eye catching look to the serial Shani and induced life into the story.

Suryaputra Karn is Sony TV another contribution.

Produced by Swastik Pictures, the series covered the life Journey of Karna, one of the major characters from the Mahabharat epic.

Siddharth Tewary of Swastik Production added that without VFX it is impossible to tell mythological stories.

VFX adds lot of value to the recreation.

Lot of work went into creating the sets, costumes, jewellery and outdoor shoots.

Suryaputra Karn is a blend between authentic sets, visual effects and brilliant performance.

These series take us back to our glorious past.

The makers of the series believe that if they can make movies or Tele serials based on Indian mythology with VFX and CGI, then whole world will watch them.

All the production houses have converted to 100 percent digital.

The demand for Computer Graphics and VFX has given rise to million rupees industry in India.

It is not only about creating never-seen-before scenes but to take viewers to larger-than-life world.

Indian production houses are providing us whole new viewing experiences through their Computer Graphics and Visual Effects and animation.

VFX experts have become a crucial part of the Movies and Television Soaps.

Many Live-action and animated mythological movies have been made till date in Hindi, Tamil, Kannada and Telugu languages.

Whether it is Devon Ke Dev Mahadev, Jai Santoshi Maa or Movies like Bajrangbali (1976) or Bhakta Prahlada (1967) VFX have contributed a lot in making them hit on the screen.

Join us and be a part of us to know more about this ever-growing VFX industry.

Car Modelling In 3D Animation Techniques

Car modelling is very attractive and creative work as lot of cars are used in Video game industry.

You can find amazing car models available in the market.

3D Modelled cars are heavily used in Games, Movies and Television.

A 3D modeller could recreate an actual vehicle or he/she can work on a unique concept.

Today in this blog our focus will be on Car Modelling in 3D animation Technique.

It depend on the talented modellers that how perfectly they can create the model to convince the client or audience.

The characteristic of a car body is highly reflective rather than matte.

The animator can model the car as a single mesh or he/she can model each part separately.

Before we start there are some tips for car modeller how to do car modelling:-

No need to make the model over-complicated

Before going into details start with the simple shapes on the vehicle for example start with the shape of wheel as it is less complicated.

Use the reference picture of a good car to start with car modelling in 3D software.

Keep the reference picture of the car from all the sides; front, side, back and top.

Edge Modelling Technique

To begin with firstly use the edge modelling technique to block out the shapes.

Edge modelling technique is extremely useful as cars are made up of a lot of curves shapes which can be traced by this technique.

Blocking out will allow you to work on the details.

Draw the simple shapes such as wheels then move to the other parts.

The tyre can be created from a Torus shape and section radius can be used to block out the initial shape.

Add extra edge loops to the tyre to reduce the element’s softness.

In case of automotive modelling edge modelling technique is a great help.

This technique will allow you to block out oddly shaped pieces or tough pieces and will make it easy to eject pieces of car piece by piece.

One can work on the parts of the car one by one; wheels, door and roof then lights and grills, bonnets and bumpers etc.

Once outside model is created inside parts of the car such as seats, steering wheel, belts etc need to be drawn.

Use NURBS and Polygon

As NURBS (non-uniform splines) helps to achieve much smoother shape than polygons; use NURBS to create the model.

NURBS are used to generate curves and surfaces; it is highly flexible and good for modelling shapes.

The car windows has smooth surface, use NURBS to create the windows.

One can even take advantage of polygons tools to create the car model.

Using both NURBS and polygon will help to speed up the workflow.

Use polygon tool where it is needed; see the above picture.

A car body with the mesh work will look like this.

Apply Polygons or NURBS tools to complete the figure of the car.

To get high quality model add more loops and smooth out the flow of the hard surfaces.

Move around the model and check the car from all angles, keep the model clean.

Use different camera angles to view the car from all angles.

Bridge the pieces together.

The bridge tool is use to connect pieces together and helps to create large chunks of geometry between the pieces.

This tool can be used to bridge the gap between two wheels.

By bridging the gap between wheels one can easily create the side panel.

To make the bonnet of the car, select a range of faces –go to edit mesh>Duplicate Faces to get the copy of those faces.

It will enable you to get the workflow between the main base and bonnet.

Give some edges around the border so that the bonnet gets the depth.

For bumper start with the default cube and add edge loops to match it to the reference image.

You can duplicate the bumper and use it at the rear of the car.

For headlight place semi-sphere into the cavity.

Basic polygon cubes to form the Rapier’s eyelids shape and tight rims around the headlight to make it more realistic.

The indicator or grill lights can also be created from simple shapes such as cylinders, cubes and spheres; by adding edge loops you can make the lights more prominent.

Use Lattice Deformer from the Animation Panel to make the work smooth.

Lattice points can help you to quickly and effectively reshape the mesh.

Bevel the edges

The metal rims around the window frames need bevel.

Without the bevel the metal rim will look too flat in unsmoothed mode or rubbery in smoothed mode.

For roof of the car select all the faces and make a large extrude inwards.

The depth of the roof will enable you to rest the side windows against it.

Now bevel the door and the bonnet of the car.

The metal work around the car can have their edges bevelled.

Bevelling will give overall believability to the model.

Select a nice, bright colour for the body of the car.

In car modelling adding holes on the hard surfaces without affecting the geometrical surrounding is a challenge.

To do this new polygon can be added and by extruding it inward you can get a hole.

Automobile models do not normally need to be as flexible as character model.

3D platform will allow you to have smooth preview, take the advantage and check the progress of car modelling by previewing in smooth how your car looks.

In this way you could focus your time more on the parts of the model that need more work and leave those areas which need less work.

The car modeller should add finer details to make the model rich such as strips running along the model or logo on the door.

You can use simple geometry for side mirrors and model the window wipers and the door handle.

Readers, we at MAAC Kolkata deal with different types of Car Modelling, join us and explore.

How To Delete Mental Ray Nodes In Maya

Hello viewers, today we are going to take a look at how to delete mental ray nodes in Maya.

As we all know that Maya is 3D software that runs on Windows and other platforms.

Developed by Alias Systems and owned by Autodesk Inc, it is widely used in films, visual effects and TV series.

Maya has a node graph architecture that is scene elements are node-based where each node has its own customization.

As a result of node based, every visual representation is based on a network of interconnecting nodes.

The old files of Maya rendered in Mental ray shows error when enter into the newer version.

Mental Ray is a rendering application developed in 2007 by NVIDIA (American technology Company).

It supports ray tracing to generate images.

Mental Ray is a feature –rich, ray tracing render engine.

It has been used in the industry by professionals for over 28 years.

The first Mental Ray released was built in 1989 by Mental Images.

It is a standard photo-realistic rendering in films, visual effects and design industry.

In the year 2003 Mental Images received Academy Award for their contributions to the Mental Ray rendering software for motion pictures.

Mental Ray discontinued from 2017.

Hollywood movies like Hulk, Star Wars: Episode II-Attack of the Clones, The Day After Tomorrow used Mental Ray.

Generally an image rendered in using Mental Ray shows global illumination, photon maps, depth of field, soft shadows and glossy reflections.

Maya’s old version software made before 2017 used to have Mental Ray nodes.

Now Maya’s 2017 version does not have Mental Ray by default; so if you were to bring any 2016 file into 2017 then you would get an error.

While working on Maya’s latest version animators experiences unexpected crashed in Maya.

A problem caused by legacy Mental Ray nodes when opened up in a version of Maya 2017 and above which doesn’t support Mental Ray.

Heavy rig which can be downloadable from creative crash is a huge rig for animating walk cycles and other actions.

It comes with mental ray nodes and it may cause Maya to crash unexpectedly.

It is a good idea to delete any legacy Mental Ray nodes from the character rig when you open up Maya.

A 3D character model cannot animate of its own, it need joints and skeleton to move itself.

3D Characters are generally created with polygons and they used to have rigs.

When an artist will open a character rig created in a legacy version of Maya 2016 he/she will get a warning message about Mental Ray nodes.

‘Warning: This File contains Mental Ray nodes’, the message will read like this.

To delete this error message and to lower the risk of crashes, the Mental Ray nodes should be deleted from the scene file.

To delete the Mental Ray Nodes follow the steps-

Optimise Scene Size Tool: Navigate to File>Optimize Scene Size Tool option box []

Scroll down and click ‘unknown nodes’

A notice from Nvidia has been announced that it has discontinued sales of Mental Ray subscriptions and plug-ins for Autodesk Maya and 3D Max.

Users with Mental Ray with valid subscription will get license extension to get access to upcoming projects.

Plug-in customers will get maintenance with bug fixes throughout 2018.

Arnold rendering system sidelined Mental Ray from Autodesk software.

Arnold is simple and fast to learn.

Generally Maya does not remove unknown nodes.

It is ok to have nodes that you don’t know of it.

Once the license is activated the nodes will continue to work.

When you will try to open a file created in a legacy version of Maya in the 2017 Maya, you will get a warning: This file contains mental ray nodes.

No need to worry about this because as we discussed this message is popping up only because the Maya version of 2017 do not have Mental Ray application.

To get rid of this sort of error message, some steps need to be followed to delete Mental Ray nodes from the scene file which is built in legacy version.

By choosing the Optimise Scene Size Tool and then check Unknown nodes.

You can repeat the operation in case of each individual scene containing Mental Ray nodes.

This operation can be applied on the scene currently open.

3D Maya file contains character models or figures, so the files which has character scene rendered in Mental Ray in the previous 2017 version of Maya will show the error message.

There is an alternative method to delete Mental Ray nodes manually by opening the Outliner.

By opening the outliner, turned off the DAG Objects Only option under the Display Menu.

By doing this all nodes including the Mental Ray nodes will be displayed.

Now you can delete them by selecting the Delete Key.

Hence here we mentioned about two methods to delete or remove Mental Ray nodes.

You can choose any one of them which is comfortable to you.

You will get the features to remove the Mental Ray nodes in the current version of Maya.

By activating those steps you can easily remove the Mental Ray nodes.

It is very simple and you need not to worry at all.

Only few steps need to be followed to solve the error message.

Mental Ray’s main feature is the achievement of high performance through render.

From 2010 Iray rendering engine also included into Mental Ray but it is no longer used.

After the departure of Mental Ray and Iray render engines, Autodesk came up with Arnold in 3D Max.

In Maya 2017 Arnold became the standard built-in render engines taking the place of Mental Ray.

Arnold is free when used directly via Maya but there is a cost charge for single licence.

Arnold is one of the most widely used rendering engines in the CG industry and it is considered as simple compared to the old Mental Ray.

If you have any doubt about Mental Ray nodes then please feel free to contact us.

How Do You Time Animation

Readers, today in this blog let’s have a look on Time Animation.

Timing of an action is important because it gives meaning to movement.

The time or speed defines how well the idea will be reach to the audience.

Timing also tells about the weight of an object, by manipulating time two similar objects can appear to be different in weights.

Timing illustrates the emotional state of an object or character.

The speed of the character defines whether the character is excited, nervous or relaxed.

Time plays an important role in audio/video medium.

A time animation permits to control the time of the displayed images.

Seeing temporal data over time helps to observe patterns that emerge in your data as time passes.

One can visualize the variation of ocean temperature over time or can see the patterns in the population growth over time.

Time animation allows to visualized changes in temporal data over time.

A time animation can be achieved by using Time Slider on the Tools Toolbar.

One can chose these tools depending upon how they want to visualize their data over time.

If anyone wants to see temporal data in ArcMap, ArcScene and ArcGlobe then he/she can use the Time slider on the Tools toolbar.

Time slider is an easy control that allows in the navigation through each time step of your time –enabled data.

But Time slider does not permit to manipulate other objects like camera, map position or layers over time to create visual effects.

Time animation can be created in case if you want to add other animated effects while visualizing temporal data over time.

For example, to create a camera flyby while viewing data over time, one should create a time animation track to change the time of the display map, scene or globe.

Also need to add camera animation track, later these two tracks can be played together using the animation controls.

In order to create a time animation; make sure that your data is ready for animation.

Read and go through the overview of time animation and how to enable time on your data.

These are the steps that one can follow to create time animation-

First enable the Time tab of the Layer Properties dialog box.

Then create a time animation track which can be played from start to finish using Animation Controls dialog box.

Time animation helps us to updates the time of the display map or scene.

For time animation it is necessary to be at least one time-enabled dataset on the display panel.

Activate the time on the date which you want to see over time, this can be achieved by time tab of the Layer Properties dialog box.

Then click on the animation toolbar, click customize and then click animation.

Click the animation drop down arrow and then click time animation.

Time animation dialogue box will indicate that new time animation track has been created.

One can create a time animation by clicking the option Create Time Animation button on the Animation Toolbar.

The animation can be played by using Animation Controls dialog box or Time View tab of the Animation Manager.

By clicking on Time Animation button, time animation track with two key-frames is created.

If you play this animation a transition can be seen between two key frames in the track.

In time track, time properties, interval or hours and days can be changed at each key-frame.

Between each key-frame the time slice can be displayed.

After creating time animation, properties can be modified for the tracks and for the key-frames of the track by the Animation Manager.

To vary the time steps or to change the beginning and the end time of the Time Animation one can edit the animation.

Time animation can be played using number of frames or on specific duration.

You can click the option button under Animation Controls to view the play and record options.

While playing an animation using Animation Controls one cannot open the Time Slider for the Tools toolbar.

It should be noted that Animation Controls and the Time Slider cannot be opened at the same time.

First close the Animation Controls dialog box and then open the Time Slider.

By clicking on number of frames and calculate one can determine the number of frames necessary to display all time slices.

Otherwise by clicking duration and entering duration time animation can be played within the specific duration; but be careful to skip the time slices.

Time Animation can be preview using Time View tab of the Animation Manager.

Time Slider must be closed before previewing the animation.

Open Animation Manager then click the Time View tab and then click display to preview.

You can click along the track line to preview multiple time Slices.

Click the Restore state after playing box to restore the state of the layer after the animation is played.

Data is no longer based on the time of the display.

Uncheck the Restore state after playing so as to retain the frame in the display that is currently being previewed after closing Animation Manager.

To get back the state of the layer or table after closing Animation Manager, click Time View tab and then check Restore state after playing then click Time View display to preview time slice.

By doing this the layer or table will be restored.

Usually one time animation track is enough to fulfil the task of visualization but multiple time animation tracks are essential in certain situations.

While viewing two time tracks that changes the time of the same display, time animation tracks should never overlap on the time line.

In case if you want to see temporal data from a different scale or distance you can create two animation tracks and a map view or camera track.

The start time and the end time of these animation tracks can be changed in the Animation Manager in a way that the animation tracks are placed one after the other on the time line.

Join Us to know more about this interesting topic similar like ‘Time Animation’.

VFX Festival World Wide

Here in this blog we will go through the VFX Festival that takes place around the world.

As we all know that VFX is all about the Visual Effects that is being used in the movies all over the world especially in Hollywood.

Movies with VFX highlight the imaginative world.

With the advancements of technologies, software and equipments everything is now possible to create on the big screen.

VFX helps to develop artist imagination and creativity.

Today VFX Festivals happens at every nook and corner of the world.

In the recent technology driven era; visual effects is used to create fascinating movies and games.

VFX industry is changing, growing bigger and better.

Professionals as well as enthusiasts meet at a common point to connect with each other, share knowledge and discuss latest trends.

Escape Studios VFX Festival

In the year 2018 Escape Studios launched its 6th Annual VFX Festival to celebrate the best VFX, Games, Animation and Motion Graphics in London.

It a three day packed festival which offer most dynamic events.

Escape Studio is a part of Pearson College London.

Last year Escape Studios festival held from 6th to 8th February.

This festival is usually dedicated to inspiring next generation of filmmakers, gamers and animators.

This type of festival ensures the growth of creative Industries in the UK.

All leading studios and VFX companies take part in it.

This year also Escape Studios celebrated VFX festival and it was 7th annual festival.

Renowned VFX companies like Framestore, Double Negativeand games studio Creative Assembly shared their experiences in the festival.

During the event MPC’S VFX team discussed about the film Alien: Covenant.

The team talked about how they created terrifying creatures of this movie, alien environments, vehicles and FX Simulation work.

Academy BAFTA award winning animation studio Blue Zoo showed their latest short film ‘Mamoon’ created by using CG animation onto miniaturepolystyrene sets.

VR Game studio Climax Studios presented new upcoming projects.

Many industry speakers came and talked about latest developments in Animation, Games and VFX.

Panel discussions held between Framestore, MPC, Blue Zoo, Axis Animation, Creative Assembly and other studios.

Speakers were from the movies like Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Game of Thrones, The Innocents and Motion Picture Company.

It generally occurs in London and aims at students and graduates.

It’s is a good opportunity for students as the recruiters from big studios hunt the talent.

SIGGRAPH 2019

SIGGRAPHis the annual conference on computer graphics started from 1974.

It attracts professionals from all over the world.

This festival usually happens in the month of August.

Last year it took place in Vancouver but this year it will occur at Los Angeles.

Vancouver is a growing VFX and animation hub.

During the vfx festival demonstrations, training, art, screenings and hand-on interactivity takes place.

The SIGGRAPH Conference is generally attended by thousands of computer professionals.

CG films are played in the conference.

In the large exhibition floor several companies compete for attention and recruits.

Several artists, software developers, scientists take part who are dedicate to the advancement of CG industry.

It is one of the prestigious platforms for publication of computer graphics research.

SIGGRAPH also hosts conference in Asia.

FMX Festival

FMX is European conference focussed on Animation, VFX, Games and Digital Art.

Every year scientists and professionals unite to discuss about production issues, technologies and new ways of financing across the industries.

One can find famous studios like Double Negative, MPC, ILM, Framestore and others at this festival.

It takes place in Germany during April or May every year.

Participants can view behind the scenes footage and hear secrets of the trade.

Tickets are generally available online.

FMX is organised by Ministry of Science, Research and Art and Ministry of Finance and Economics Affairs.

It consists of presentations, workshops, master classes, screenings all focussed on animation, VFX and Games.

International VFX Fair In Barcelona

Barcelona International Arts and VFX Fair held in Barcelona Spain during the month of June.

This festival attracts professionals and students from the field of arts, filmmaking and VFX.

It is designed to celebrate the talent of Barcelona.

Spain has produced many talented artists who have made their mark in various VFX houses.

Experienced speakers inspire the local talents in this festival.

Inspirational talks, demos, workshops and sculpting takes place.

This festival focuses on filmmaking, cloud VFX, Animation, Digital Content Production, Education and Networking.

It is a very popular festival of industry professionals and young talents.

There is something for anybody who is interested to improve their art.

THU 2019

Trojan Horse was a Unicorn is a unique festival for digital artists which takes place in Portugal in the month of September.

Creators from all over the world participate in this festival.

It is a 6 day prestigious 3D, VFX and Games festival.

It provides platform for producers, animators, game developers, 3D artists, VFX professionals, CG talents and more.

It is a meeting point for many talents from around the world.

It brings renowned artists to inspire and teach.

It attracts attendees from about 70 countries.

Its speakers include from studios like Industrial Light and Magic, Pixar, Luma Pictures and Ubisoft Montreal.

Along with workshops, demo classes, recruiters’ sessions also takes place.

Its mission is to help the International creative community in shaping the digital entertainment industry.

Trojan Horse was a Unicorn festival ensures that the world understands and celebrates their artistry and craft.

This festival is a gathering of like-minded people who believe they can change the world.

THU is a six-day experience; where one can learn, create network and share own experiences with amazing people from all around the world.

VFX Festivals are the best place for small studios and individual VFX artists to connect with the famous personalities and showcase ones talent.

This type of VFX festivals help to boost creativity.

Each year thousand of professionals and emerging talents look forward to such VFX festivals around the world.

Readers and Aspirants if you are willing to know more about this kind of festivals do contact us.

Journey Of Animated Movies Bal Ganesh So Far

Here in this blog we are going to discuss about the very popular animated feature films of Bal Ganesh.

In India Mythological films are very popular from the early years of Cinema.

There are many Hindi and other regional language feature films made on mythological figures.

The animation in India is obsessed with mythological figures.

When animation industry started in India, it primarily focussed at mythological concepts and characters.

Unlike the West where the Animation Studios like Walt Disney, Pixar and others created characters based on comics such as Spiderman and Batman.

Years back in 1956 Disney Studio animator Clair Weeks who worked on the animated film Bambi.

The Mythological figures like Krishna, Hanuman or Ganesha are already there in the minds of Indian people and so it is very easy to build animated films on these characters in India.

Along with animated film Bal Ganesh another film My Friend Ganesha (2007) is also popular which is a combination of live-action and animated Ganesha.

In West investments are made on building strong characters for movies to entertain people but in India mythological characters are strong enough compared to any superhero.

Now let’s have a look at the journey of Bal Ganesh travelled so far

Bal Ganesh is a computer-animated film on Lord Ganesh directed by Pankaj Sharma.

The narrative is based on Ganesh Purana and narrates the birth of Lord Ganesha and how the Lord Ganesh is brought to life from a statue of clay and then blessed with various heavenly powers.

Lord Ganesh is Hindu elephant headed god, he is god of good luck and the story is about his mischievous activities along with his rat companion Mooshak.

The first part of the film is about a child’s transformation into Lord Ganesh; through beautiful illustrations it showed the confrontation between the young Lord and Lord Shiva when on the order of Goddess Parvati, Ganesha stood guard at the door as she goes for her bath.

Lord Shiva releases Nandi and his other followers on Ganesh and Lord Ganesh single-handedly tackles them, that scene is shows Lord Shiva doing his dance of fury Tandava and beheading the Lord Ganesha which is witnessed by Lord Vishnu and Goddess Laxmi.

After Goddess Parvati’s request, Lord Shiva brings Lord Ganesha back to life by giving him an elephant’s head.

The characters of this film were created by 3D software.

The hilarious part of the film is when Lord Ganesha’s is invited for a meal at Lord Kubera’s house and even after swallowing huge amount of food Ganesha is not satisfied.

The second part shows Lord Kartika circling the physical world on his peacock while Ganesha circling around his parents.

This film has colourful illustrations of Mount kailash and its surroundings.

At the end of the film Kartika wins over Tarkasur the demon.

Produced by Shermaroo Entertainment and Astute Media Vision; it released on October 2007.

Song Ganpati Bappa Maurya became very popular.

It is wonder and full of fun to watch child Ganesh constantly getting into troubles with his mother and his attempts to pin his folly on Mooshak the rat.

The film ran successfully in the theatres and made worldwide gross of Rupees 6.2 Crores.

The Animated film Bal Ganesh 2 is also directed by Pankaj Sharma

This film is not merely an interesting cinematic experience but enlightening too.

It is a step ahead in terms of content and animation.

Bal Ganesh 2 is the continuation of the previous film Bal Ganesh.

Bal Ganesh 2 has three stories it in, the first part shows a cat and how Lord Ganesh plays a prank on it then Goddess Parvati gives an valuable advice to Lord Ganesh.

The second part tells the story of Sage Vyasa, Lord not only writes the entire book but also translate it while writing and the third story shows Lord Ganesh fighting with a powerful demon, Gajmukhasur.

The animation quality of this film is much superior than the previous film with perfect voiceover.

The lively Background music is composed by Shamir Tandon and Sanjay Dhakan.

The Bhangra beats part is very interesting, the songs are enjoyable and sung by noted singers such as Sukhwinder Singh and Asha Bhosle.

Asher Shaikh gave voice for Bal Ganesh 2.

It is a very successful film with total gross of Rupees 15.67 crores and first animated movie of India to gross more than 10 crores.

Bal Ganesh 3 is also an animated film this time directed by Vijay S.Bhanushali and released in 2017.

In this film a group of three alien children visits Earth to learn more about their favourite God Ganesh.

Zombo a friend of Mooshak comes from planet Zeba to earth to know about Lord Ganesh.

They met with three mice Dhoti, Topi and Suit Boot who are devotees of Ganesh and ready to share their stories to the alien children.

The film has used English words with the Hindi dialogues.

The colourful illustration of the aliens and the rats or mooshak in their beautiful dresses catches the eye of small children.

No doubt that these movies on Bal Ganesh became entertaining for not only children but for adults too.

Still Bal Ganesh movies are very popular and enjoyed by all age group.

According to the director of Maya Digital Studios Mr. Ketan Mehta the Indian animation market is not big enough by itself; Companies like Walt Disney Pictures spend millions of dollars on each project but still we have covered a long distance.

Today there are many animation films are being made by our talented filmmakers.

Along with Bal Ganesh there are other animated films made on different mythological figures.

Hence we saw how our Indian animation industry made their mark in the international market starting from the scratch.

So, it’s never too late to begin a new journey, if you want be a part of animation industry join your nearest Maac centres .

Ways To Keep CG Characters Alive On Screen

CG Characters were so alive in the movies that audience believed them as real characters.

CG or Computer Generated characters are widely used today in Movies, Short Films, Video Games or Advertisements.

Readers, in this blog we will tell you how an animator can keep CG Characters alive on screen.

Movies like Terminator, How to train your dragon, Avatar, Lord of Rings and many more projected CG characters.

Animators need to craft the CG characters properly to make them convincing for the audience.

As CG Characters are computer generated figures hence they should get proper movement and expressions to look alive.

A still CG character will look dull or boring on the screen.

CG characters lose their life if they stop moving completely in the mid of the scene or in the end of the scene.

Digital characters need to stay alive whether through movement or breathing.

You can keep the digital characters alive only by showing the process of breathing.

The digital puppet has no life in them and they will die if not animated.

Job of a good animator is to keep them moving or giving the illusion that the character is living.

To achieve this it is necessary to set key-frames at the start and end of the shot.

In case of 2D animation adding a blink to the eyes is enough to show that the character is alive.

But in case of 3D the illusion of life ends when the character stops moving.

A 3D CG character portrays a three dimensional body which looks very similar to real creature.

Rules To Keep CG characters Alive

Begin with a proper planning, study real life character and read the psychology of movement.

Observe people, the way they interact and how they express themselves.

Plan out the animation, usually the novice animators don’t ponder upon the facial expressions.

Without proper facial expressions the animation will be lifeless and flat.

Most commonly junior animators work on the body poses first rather than the facial part.

But the facial part should be handled from the beginning.

Characters thought and feeling need to be conveyed and it should be planned at the very start.

In the film Avengers: Infinity War lot of focus, screen time and empathy was given to the film’s antagonist Thanos.

In Avengers: Infinity War the makers were aware from the beginning that if the character did not work, the film would not work also.

As a result the director involved Digital Domain four month before the shoot to do huge testing and development for 40 minutes of Thanos on screen.

Josh Brolin played Thanos in this movie.

Along with motion capture the animation team also relied on matching Josh Brolin’s body performance with the digital Thanos.

Josh Brolin and other actors wore helmet cameras rigs for the facial expressions.

To handle facial animation Digital Domain used in-house Masquerade and Direct Drive software tools.

Masquerade allows us to capture facial performances with more flexibility and fewer limitations.

During motion capture, the actor wear a motion capture suit with a helmet-mounted camera system and perform live on set.

Mo-cap helps in body and facial capture both.

The image maker dots on the face of the actor were used to produce a fairly smooth or low frequency mesh.

Later on these meshes were enhanced with more details to produce high resolution final output.

Disney Research Zurich is well established for facial reconstruction and animation in the world.

Studios like Digital Domain and ILM is attached to them.

Weta Digital’s visual effect supervisor Joe Letteri is one of the artists who brought fantastic characters to life with the most realistic performances in the films like War for the Planet of the Apes, The Lord of Rings and many others.

The Jungle Book is another such film where CG characters came to alive on the screen.

Think of Baloo (the bear), Black Panther (Bagheera) and King Louie.

All these CG characters came alive on the screen with their fabulous body language.

Animating giant ape King Louie was a challenge for the animators of Weta Digital.

Moving Picture Company created new software for animating muscular structure in the animals.

Animators used real footage of animal movement along with Mo-Cap.

For King Louie actor Christopher Walken’s wrinkles and folds were integrated into animated character.

In all the above mentioned CG characters of the movies, characters were given movement from the beginning to the end.

In fact The Jungle Book characters portrayed well defined emotions to convince the audience enough.



To work on CG character animators need to do ‘blocking’.

‘Blocking’ means the process of initiating the main key poses in a shot using steeped curves to test whether the shot is going to work or not.

Key Poses are the main poses of the character, how the character will move or react.

Once the key poses are finalised the animator then fills the in-between frames.

In big studios like Disney or Pixar an animator get one or two days to block out their work before showing it to the director.

Whereas in Television, animators get an hour to block out a shot in tighter deadlines.

The key poses should include character’s facial expressions to convey emotions.

While working on Maya create a Face Camera.

Keep the rig simple while animating in 3D.

The good rig will allow the animator to animate while the bad rig will add workload.

Without a good facial expression into the animated character, the audience won’t connect themselves to the character.

Hence from the above it is clear that to keep the CG character alive on screen, the animators have to work on face more accurately.

Even a blink of the eye or a smile or a frown can make the CG character alive on the screen.

So, remember to give any expression to the CG character from the beginning to the end rather than making them lifeless.

Here we conclude our discussion; if you have any query regarding this topic, then don’t hesitate to contact us.

3D Animation Short Film “GULAL” Nominated in Dada Saheb Phalke Award 2019

3D Animation Short Film “GULAL” Nominated in Dada Saheb Phalke Award 2019.

24FPS International Awards, also considered to be the film festival of MAAC.

Gives an opportunity to the students across various centers of MAAC to showcase their talents in 3D Animation and VFX and other categories.

While also enriching them with production experience while they create their own masterpieces with their own teams.

We, at MAAC Chowringhee, Rashbehari and Ultadanga have always supported and encouraged our students to participate and perform to the best of their abilities, leaving no stones unturned to achieve the same.

So, in accordance with it, we always look forward to participating in the 24 FPS international awards.

Yester year too we did our best by participating in the Script to screen (Where students are supposed to make a short film on a given topic, starting from the very concept to the final look of the film) category of 24 FPS.

We put together the concept of brotherly love in the short “GULAAL”, which received a special jury mention award at the 24 FPS international awards 2108.

The short tells a story about cross border hatred and how the means of destruction itself can become instrumental in abridging the emotional gaps and solidify the fraternal love in all of us.

We at MAAC Chowringhee, Rashebhari and Ultadanga are very proud of the achievement garnered by our students.

We received the mail at our center informing us that our short has been a part of the “official selection” for the Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival, 2019 in the Animated Films Category, BEST ANIMATED (student) Award.

This is a proud moment for us, to be able to bag a nomination in such prestigious film festival.

Even being nominated is such a great feeling. Now, to shed a little bit of light on the film festival, here we go.

The Dadasaheb Phalke Award is the highest and most prestigious award in Indian cinema.

The award is presented at the National Film awards ceremony held by the Directorate of Film Festivals.

The award ceremony is held annually.

The Directorate of Film Festival is an organization that was set up by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

The award was first presented in the year 1969. In commemoration to the Contribution made by Dadasaheb Phalke to the Indian Cinema, the government of India decided to introduce an award under his name.

Dadasaheb Phalke(1870-1944) was a film-maker of Indian origin, who directed Indian’s first ever full-length feature film which was “Raja Harishchandra” in the year 1913.

As the award is named after such innovative and genius personality, who made great contribution for the development in Indian Cinema.

The recipients of the awards are also honored for their outstanding contribution to the growth and development of Indian Cinema.

The selection procedure is undertaken by a committee , which constitutes of great eminent personalities from the Indian Film Industry.

As the years rolled on the awards have expanded to include the genre of animated as well as short films under its umbrella.

The feeling of pleasant surprise cannot even be summed up in words when we received the mail containing the information regarding the nominations.

The students and faculties involved were equally surprised and overjoyed at the intimation of the same.

The months of toil that they had put in into churning out the basic story structure out of the theme given to them.

And then going forward the concept was transformed over tedious hours into a short animated film.

The Journey of the people who live the movie making experience through the 24 FPS international award is in itself quite an adventure.

With the start of the entire experience the students and faculties alike work tirelessly towards the goal to make a movie out of a bare concept and stop at nothing till the goal is reached.

The journey of our students began in may, 2018 with the receiving of the theme on which the story was to be made, and the medium was already set in stone to be 3d.

Since then the flow of the production kicked in, starting with the basic story and scripting, to the concept sketches of the characters and background.

With the pre-production in place and approved by the faculties and mentors from the research and development team in MAAC HO, the team jumped to the most tedious and the longest part of the journey, that is production phase.

This particular phase involved the concept sketches to be turned in full fledged 3d models, which were then to be textured and rigged properly to be able to produce any lifelike movements.

Which in itself was a very rigorous process.

After the completion of these particular phases, the 3D Animation was done, this was the time when our team of students went under the pressure of sticking to the deadline.

The time was slipping with still lots to do.

At this time the team raised their collaborated as well as their individual efforts to speed up the process. It had become something like a race against time.

The animation phase passed by swiftly with the lighting and rendering taking place simultaneously.

The sound track for the entire film was being prepared as the production was going on and so was the edit lineup ready.

With production and post-production running parallel to one another, it was like buzzing through the whole process.

But all is well that ends well and so, the efforts really paid off.

When we receive a nomination in our very own 24 FPS International Awards, which in itself is the most prestigious award to be adorned with for the students of MAAC across India, it becomes a cause for celebration for us.

Winning one is a goal for all of us, although the bar of the competition is raised every year with the fabulous submissions and the undying dedication of the students.

When the Film Festivals, across the world and India showcase the work of our students and recognize their handwork put in through months, our pride and joy knows no bounds.