Photography Workshop At Best MAAC Institute Kolkata

Best Maac Animation Vfx Institute in Kolkata has recently organized a Photography workshop with its student team across all three centers popularly known as MAAC Chowringhee, MAAC Ultadanga, MAAC Rashbehari.

It was an extensive 6hour Photography session divided into theory (taken into Indoor) activity and Practical (Outdoor) activity.

For which MAAC Chowringhee student team visited Park street and Maidan Area.

MAAC Rashbehari student team Visited Rabindra Sarawar Lake Area.

MAAC Ultadanga visited Kumar Tuli and Ganga Riverside for outdoor photography.

A truly funfilled photography activity and event for all students enjoying the event with full zeal.

The photography activity was conducted by Artist Name – Suroshree Seal who holds experience in all different kinds of photography –

Artist holds strong aesthetic sense -Technical knowledge of multiple camera technologies and camera angels with extensive communication and service skills.

Artist with her critical thinking, analysis, and strong attention to small detailing helped our student team to achieve success in the said field.

*Project-

• -Assist Raghu Rai in VelVel festival 2019
• -Photography for ( our honorable CM (Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee talk show) held at NDTV 2015
• -Photography for Femina 2016
• -Freelancing in Ei Samay, Times of India, Hindustan Times, ABP , DNA Mumbai
• -Photography for Spring Ideas Communication 2015-2016
• -Official Photographer of Stone by Kounteya Sinha 2017 (photography exhibition)
• -Official Photographer of Viva by Kounteya Sinha 2018 (photography exhibition)
• -Official photographer of Queensline inauguration Mumbai 2018
• -Official photographer of “How India prays” photography exhibition in Jaipur house  Delhi 2018
• -Official photographer of KIPF 2019 (Kolkata international photography festival
• -Official Photographer of “Shakti” ITC sonar Kolkata Photography Exhibition 2019
• -Official photographer of “SaintHood project” Rome, Italy 2016
• -Official photographer of “KDW_2019” Kolkata Designer Week
• -Freelancing for Westbengal tourism 2018
• -Freelancing for West Bengal Govt in Rural area (Jhargram) 2019
• -Documenting Om puri’s Last Work
• Legendary actor Om Puri’s last major work was to support Kolkata’s rickshaw  walas got the opportunity to photograph him. 2017
• -Documenting Sundarbans 2017
• -Documenting Sikkim 2019
• -Documenting Andaman 2017
• -Documenting Pingla 2018
• -Documenting Murshidabad 2018
• -Documenting Kashmir 2019
• -Work for renowned designer Mr. Raja Biswas
• -Work for renowned designer Kastui Guha
• -Work for renowned designer Pranay Baidaya

Classroom environment makes or breaks learning experiences that’s why our motive was of combining both outdoor and indoor classroom activity through this workshop.

Interesting classrooms always maintain space for activities which engage the students and teachers resulting in effective learning.

A topic was given and participants are divided into two groups.

Suroshree Seal  is an expert artist handelling various projects here are the glimps of few of her projects she has handeled so far.

The activity enhances critical thinking, independent research and skillful communication of students

It had helped them to learn and think in a different perspective and helps to develop knowledge.

The workshop provides an active environment, and teamwork which helped students to maintain healthy relationship.

The said activity allows interaction between the team members which results in better bonding between the students.

Introvert students got a golden opportunity to express themselves.

Students are made aware about the real world outside with an angle of photography.

The workshop is a comparison of what has studied with real life experience is of great worth.

Overwhelming response from student with their active participation made the workshop superb success and interesting.

The said activity offered the students an opportunity to deepen their understanding of the concepts they have learned.

Join the best animation Vfx gaming web and graphic designing institute in Kolkata and make a ravishing career and grow as an individual obtaining different skills with us.

The Lion King: A Game Changer In Photo-Real Animation

Through this blog today we will let you know how the recent movie The Lion Kingbecame a game changer in photo-real animation.

Directed by Jon Favreau and produced under the banner of Walt Disney Pictures this film is a photorealistic computer-animated remake of Disney’s 1994 traditionally animated film.

It is one of the most expensive films made with a budget of around $260 million.

Critics praised this movie for its visual effects, music and vocal performances.

Some of the well known stars delivered voices for this movie such as Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, James Earl Jones and others.

Innovative Photo-Realism Animation

From roaming giraffes to the grazing rhinos all looked lifelike in this path-breaking movie.

This movie stunned the audience worldwide by making use of photorealistic computer generated animation.

Lush green backdrops, flowing streams, waterfalls, swaying trees every image looked like scenes from natural documentary.

The Lion King is a game changer movie where Moving Picture Company or MPC provided the visual effects under the supervision of Robert Legato, Elliot Newman and Adam Valdez.

Disney described it as “technologically groundbreaking” approach and not as live-action.

In photo-realism artist reproduces the image as realistic as possible through various digital devices like 3D Scanning, multiple camera capture etc.

Tremendous amount of research and recording of still photography occurred under the guidance of cinematographer Caleb Deschanel to reproduce the reality on the screen.

Director Favreau wanted to make this film in documentary style so creative team visited forest of Kenya to observe and record images of forest land, jungle animals so that they can represent it accurately in digital platform.

Places like Yellowstone National Park and Mono Lake served as inspiration for the Elephant Graveyard and Serengeti National Park inspired the Pride Lands.

Jon Favreau avoided conventional Motion-Capture technique in this movie and relied completely on photorealistic CGI shots.

MPC added new level of details in digital characters look, animation and how the skin and the fur behave.

The Lion King utilized Virtual-Reality technology where cameras were placed in virtual space to emulate live –action production.

Dozens and dozens of African landscape were designed digitally with immense effort so that audience can appreciate the beauty of the place.

To recreate the real world every aspects of lighting, shading, depth of field were taken into account.

Digital Compositing played a big role in this movie as the key focus was on creating reality.

Shooting In Virtual Environment

The Lion King was shot in virtual reality simulated environment.

Every environment was digitally made and every character was key-frame animated.

VR system enabled cinematographer to create the scene he wanted and then shoot it in real world; VR headset transported cinematographer to virtual set.

At MPC new software were developed for this movie to create scenes with a shaky-cam look of a handheld camera.

Cinematographer Caleb Deschanel actually could change the landscapes, virtual lights, dolly track, camera lenses in huge virtual environment using software option.

Rob Legato VFX supervisor took the virtual production of this film to the next level as he said “Favreau turned ‘The Lion King’ into narrative documentary about animals and nature trying to co-exist in The Circle of Life.

Virtual production reduced time, budgets and physical challenges of shooting on location.

For this film artists worked across studios in Los Angeles, London and Bangalore to deliver magnificent CGI shots.

Photo-Real Characters

Supervisor Adam Valdez at MPC said that they shot 12,000 photographs and whittled it down to 1600 shots of movie.

Through the art of photorealism the team combined the best of live-action into the animation.

Enormous planning and care went into creating the natural world of Kenya into virtual digital screen.

Making realistic animals was the most challenging aspects for animators at MPC.

Animators used artificial intelligence to make virtual characters act in ways that mimicked real animals.

Around 86 various different animal species were brought to life for the film.

MUFASA

MPC made remarkable effort in producing new software for more complex fur shading, rendering and skin simulation.

New software provided so realistic looking Mufasa that you can see minute detail of the skin.

At MPC animators designed each character by paying close attention to anatomy, fur or feathers, texture, shading of eyes and movements were made authentic according to real life.

Animation Supervisor Andy Jones animated the body muscles according to the body weight.

Animators worked together to make the 3D sculpting of animals as real as captured photographs of animals in Africa.

Each photorealistic character took about nine months to fully develop and was built by mix of real-life references and characters from original movie.

Disney successfully blended together live-action with virtual reality, CG animation and photo-real imagery.

SIMBA

For designing Simba, Adam Valdez focused on cubs of Masai Mara game reserve in Kenya.

Above image shows how Simba was crafted step by step from the scratch to the furry cute little cub.

Lot of times were spent in managing the millions of body hairs of Simba during the animation.

Simba’s hair patterns and shades were decided by software and by placing all details correctly Simba emerged as real lion cub.

Giving movement to Simba’s tiny legs was another big task for the animators.

Individual characteristic of each animal, their way of movement, behaviour, looks everything was photo-real.

Cute and Ugly combination of Timon and Pumbaaa needed research work to find out how they stand, move and what is the function of their paws.

Hyenas

Faces of Hyenas had skull shapes and efforts were given to sculpting their eyes and teeth to highlight their threat as they are scavengers in ecosystem.

Animators faced challenges in providing facial expressions to the animal characters; they focused on jaw motion, corners of the mouth and lips for facial movements.

More attentions were given on choreographing the action to convey emotions rather than on mouth such as jumping on the rocks, display of affection between parents and children, prancing around the watering hole etc.

Over all The Lion King opened up new possibilities for the filmmakers to represent reality through photo-real animation.

Connect with us to know more on Photo-Real Animation.

Maya or Blender 3D Software Battle

Today in this blog we will discuss on which is a better as a software Blender and Maya.

Both Blender and Maya is a 3D Computer Graphics Software and are available on Windows, Mac OS and Linux.

Blender is available freely whereas Maya is a licensed product.

Maya and Blender have their own properties and limitations.

Both of them are used for creating animated movies, visual effects, 3D models and video games.

They have helped the professional as well as independent filmmakers in creating their master pieces.

Let’s take a look on both the software individually one by one.

Maya Is Award-Winning Software

Maya was originally developed by Alias Systems Corporation but currently owned by Autodesk Inc.

Maya is mainly used in large studio productions.

This software has already received few Academy Awards for Technical Achievements.

It has various tools for modeling and animation.

An artist can create 3D models in various formats and then animate those models by using animation tools.

Maya has wide tool sets for photorealistic imagery.

It can be used for simulation, modeling, motion graphic, rigging, virtual reality, UV mapping and character creation.

It is well-known for very detailed and realistic characters development.

Maya is widely used in the film industry from the time of 2000 film Dinosaur.

It has been used in the films like Spider-Man, Ice Age, Lord of the Rings and many more.

Maya’s software interface is customizable; skilled developers can take their productivity to a higher level.

Developers or artists can easily access to Maya Embedded Language (MEL) which can customize the interface by writing down scripts.

Rendering In Maya

Maya has Arnold Renderer to solve complex rendering problems.

Arnold Renderer helps to render high-quality images quickly and efficiently so that artists can spend more time in creation and less time on rendering.

Maya’s robust tool enables the artist to create complex animation tasks; it provides better quality animations.

Maya has powerful toolkit to sculpt the intricate right expressions.

It can open multi projects at the same time.

Maya offers cloth simulation and particle simulation for smoke, dust and spray.

Maya supports ‘Mash’ which is a node-based tool for Motion Graphics.

Maya is heavily used in Film and Television medium by professionals to produce stunning visuals for promotional television commercials to complex animations.

Video Games companies uses modeling tools of Maya to create realistic environment within the games; 3D human figures can be developed easily with this software.

Car designing companies also make use of Maya software to create car models with detailed shape plans; interior of the car components can be shared and reviewed by clients with the help of this software.

Maya’s streamlined toolsets allows developers to produce stunning digital art works.

It is the favorite software for top animation studios like Blue Sky Studios, MPC (Moving Picture Company), ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) etc.

Definitely Maya has certain components which are far superior to Blender but that doesn’t means Blender is despicable.

Blender also possesses unique functionality which makes the task easier for professionals.

Before selecting between Maya or Blender the artist should consider the project requirement, budget and the skills of the modelers.

Blender Is Free And Open Source Software

Blender was started as in –house tool for NeoGeo, a Dutch commercial animation company; it has been already used for television commercials in various parts of the world.

Similar to Maya, Blender also has features like 3D modeling, texturing, rigging, skinning, fluid simulation, particle simulation, animation, motion graphics and UV mapping.

Unlike Maya, Blender supports non-linear video editing and composition.

Blender has in-built Video Editor which allows basic actions like video cuts and complex tasks like video masking.

Blender Video Editor supports live preview, Luma waveform, Chroma vector-scope and histogram displays.

Video Editor has 32 slots for adding videos, images, audios and effects; it also enables audio mixing, syncing and waveform visualization.

Blender comes with in-built compositor which allows the artist to do everything within the program without exporting to third party programs.

Blender Compositor has splendid library of nodes for creating camera effects, color grading and much more.

Compositor is an essential part of Visual Effects or VFX; Blender Compositor can render multilayer OpenEXR files.

OpenEXR files are high dynamic range image file format used for movies.

Full compositing with images and video files is possible through Blender’s Compositor feature.

Hollywood directors have used Blender to produce stunning VFX for the movies and television series.

Other than video editing and compositing; Blender has Python scripting for tool creation, import/export from other formats and task automation.

Python scripting is an object oriented programming language which helps in adding functionalities.

Rendering In Blender

Rendering animation in Blender is bit easier.

Blender’s Cycles is a path-tracing render engine.

Cycles Renderer produces fast, flexible and realistic results.

Cycles uses GPU (Graphic Processing Unit) for faster rendering.

Blender Is Under The Shadow Of Maya

Blender is ideal for small-scale studios or for freelancers or hobbyists.

In the battle between Maya and Blender; Maya wins according to the users because its interface is more clear and standard.

User Interface of Maya is simple and effective on many forums.

Maya is easy to learn as it has expressive tools whereas Blender is a bit difficult to grasp.

To create 3D model; the artist must select the most user friendly 3D modeling software between Maya or Blender; because if the software is not user friendly then lot of time will go waste in searching process.

Maya as a licensed product has lesser bugs whereas Blender is more bug-prone and needs infixes with each version.

Blender is popular among interior design and architecture students because of its amazing tools for texturing and lighting whereas Maya is meant for video gamesdevelopment as it has lot of option for environment creation.

Hence both Maya and Blender are equally good as a 3D application.

Get in touch with us to know more about Maya and Blender.

Super MAAC ites Takes Credit For Super 30

Today in this blog we will share the challenging yet interesting artistic experiences of three musketeers who where once the students of MAAC Chowringhee.

Let us introduce you with Suhel Rahman, Sandeep Chatterjee and Prasanta Biswas who all recently worked in the Post-production stage of the movie Super 30 as a VFX Roto/Paint Artist under the guidance of director Vikas Bahl.

Movie Super 30 released in theatres on July 2019 is based on the life of mathematician Anand Kumar and his educational program Super 30.

Three Musketeers Of MAAC Chowringhee

Meet artist Suhel Rahman who joined ADVFX Plus Course as a student in MAAC Chowringhee Centre and passed out in the year 2017.

Artist Sandeep Chatterjee also completed ADVFX Plus Course from MAAC Chowringhee Centres in the year 2017.

Artist Prasanta Biswas too like Suhel and Sandeep has done the ADVFX Plus Coursefrom MAAC Chowringhee Centre in the year 2017.

You may be wondering about what is the speciality about ADVFX Course.

Well ADVFX is the advanced level VFX Course designed to provide fundamentals and advanced level skilled VFX techniques to the aspiring students.

Presently VFX or Visual Effects plays key role in the field of entertainment whether it is feature films, television programmes or games.

MAAC’S ADVFX Course covers vast range of subjects from storyboard for 3D filmmaking to Fluid Simulation, Stereoscopic Conversion, Editing and lot more.

ADVFX Course prepares our students for extremely professional VFX industry.

Under this course students learns about highly technical software like 3D Max, Blackmagic Fusion, Final Cut Pro, Houdini, Nuke and other 3D designing and compositing tools.

After completing this course student can choose any of the career options like Video Editing, Matte Painting, Graphic designing Artist, Roto Artist etc; there is many career paths for this ADVFX Plus Course.

All MAAC Centres have studio like environment for practical sessions to provide young artists experience of professional field.

During the MAAC days Suhel Rahman, Sandeep Chatterjee and Prasanta Biswas participated in 24FPS event which held every year under the guidance of MAAC faculties and industry professionals.

They showcased their talent at the event and their short film won award under VFX Challenge category.

Event 24 FPS is an excellent platform for our young candidates where the best comes up in forefront after a tight talent hunt procedure.

This event prepared three of them to compete in the professional world.

Now days both Hollywood and Bollywood movies are made with the integration of live-action and Visual Effects.

In film industry demand for skilled and trained VFX artist is growing to work on national and international projects and to bring director’s vision to life.

Suhel Rahman, Sandeep Chatterjee and Prasanta Biswas after completing their ADVFX Course in 2017 appeared for their campus interview and they cleared it in one chance.

Three of them were selected to Red Chillies VFX Company located at Mumbai.

Premier Red Chillies VFX Company

It is the talent and hard work which landed three of our MAAC student Suhel Rahman, Sandeep Chatterjee and Prasanta Biswas into Red Chillies VFX.

At Red Chillies VFX they are working as Roto/Paint Artist.

As Roto/Paint Artist their work is quite challenging; each new project brings new challenges for the artist to work on.

They tackle complex Rotoscoping work like removing or separating the character from the background of an image and replacing the background or placing the character in different image of the shot.

Roto/Paint Artist removes the wires, does the image compositing, colour correctionand shares new ideas.

They need to perform their work in great detail so that audience should not feel the visual jerk and could see the seamless images on screen.

Roto artists work in a team under the supervision of VFX department head.

Our Alumni Suhel Rahman, Sandeep Chatterjee and Prasanta Biswas as Roto/Paint artist have worked in Bollywood movies like Zero, Badla, Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga and very recent one Super 30.

The VFX team including Suhel Rahman, Sandeep Chatterjee and Prasanta Biswas won the Best VFX award for the movie Zero in the year 2018.

In film Zero; Shah Rukh Khan played the role of dwarf Khan where he was shrank to 4 feet 6 inches for the screen; Red Chillies VFX team delivered lot of efforts to create this amazing appearance of the actor.

Our MAAC musketeers put their best into this film and their hard work received recognition in the form of award.

Our Musketeers Suhel Rahman, Sandeep Chatterjee and Prasanta Biswas shared the VFX task for the film Badla along with other Red Chillies VFX artists.

This movie too has VFX heavy sequences crafted by the VFX team.

Suhel, Sandeep and Prasanta have contributed also in the film Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga as Roto/Paint Artist.

Praises Earned Through Hard Work

Super 30 is the recent movie where Suhel Rahman, Sandeep Chatterjee and Prasanta Biswas contributed as a VFX team under Red Chillies VFX production.

The above image is the acknowledgement card mentioning the name of Suhel Rahman along with other VFX artist of the production house.

Sandeep Chatterjee’s name is also present with Suhel in the title credit of Super 30 film.

Here is the name of Prasanta Biswas mentioned on the title card of the film.

Within the VFX team of Red Chillies each and every artist has equal contribution in making the story on the life of mathematician Anand Kumar stunning and seamless.

Roto/Paint artist job is quite herculean task; it needs lot of effort, patience and co-ordination with the team members.

So the credit that they earned for movie Super 30 is really valuable and most worthy reward.

Suhel Rahman, Sandeep Chatterjee and Prasanta Biswas have made us proud and has set example for the trainee artists.

We know that in future we will get to see more of their impeccable digital VFXprojects on the big screens.

MAAC Alumni are constantly leaving their impressions in the premiere studios and production houses around the world.

Our best wishes are always with them.

Explore our vast digital courses through MAAC Kolkata Centres.