BEYOND BORDERS: INDIA AS AN ANIMATION & VFX HUB

Visual effects (VFX) and animation are today synonymous with films, and there are numerous techniques that have been developed and are in use to make the output more attractive and easier to create.

We have moved from relying solely on practical and physical effects to seamlessly integrating computer generated imagery (CGI) to create the extraordinary.

When we think of VFX or animation, the first name that comes to mind is Hollywood.

This is not without reason with names like Disney (the first major player in the animation film world), Pixar (which produced thse first computer based 3D animation feature film, Toy Story), Rhythm & Hues (the name behind the VFX for The Golden Compass and Life of Pi, both of which won awards for visual effects).

Moving Picture Company (recent and upcoming VFX work in Alien: Covenant, Passengers, Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Transformers: The Last Knight). But what might surprise you is that a lot of the work that you see in these films was, in fact, done by Indians in India!

Most of us never see the credits list at the end of a film, but if you have, you will know what we are talking about. This is because of the trend of outsourcing, or obtaining goods and/or services from an external supplier that is gaining traction in the entertainment industry lately.

 

Let us take a look at the reasons why India is a prime choice for outsourcing animation work from Hollywood.

Strong technical background: It is certainly not without reason that India has established itself as a breeding ground for capable workers in technical fields like engineering and the sciences.
Historically, there has been a mentality that one should ‘be a doctor or engineer to be successful’ and it can even be said that us Indians have a knack for the technical in our genes.
As far as creativity goes, too, we are not lacking. In the film world, the Indian film industry produces near about a thousand films every year, and most of these (the numbers stand at around 75%) use VFX in some capacity or the other.

There are also a number of production houses that are well equipped with the kind of hardware needed to deliver high quality work; while most are domestic as far as the source of work goes, some are being targeted by international filmmakers who want their work to be done well.
The computer and digital content creation is the medium of choice for most studios these days, and with the recent political push towards internet based content consumption, and institutes of repute like MAAC Kolkata (Chowringhee | Rashbehari | Kakurgachi) to teach aspirants, there is a huge potential to tap from.

English-speaking workforce: With several billion speakers, English is possibly the most global language in today’s world. Also, it is the language of choice as far as computers, visual effects and animation are concerned.

This has a twofold impact – not only does it provide an advantage in the market by making content accessible to a worldwide audience, but it ensures that the people involved in creating visual effects and animation have as little difficulty as possible when using software to aid their work.
With its sizeable proportion of educated population coupled with the fact that English is one of the official languages used in the country, India has one of the largest populations of English speakers across the globe, and this gives us an edge over other countries that are hubs for outsourcing animation to.

Cost effectiveness: Level of skill and communication ability aside, the other important player that draws foreign productions to India is the relatively low cost of completing a production in our country.

To put things in perspective, animators and visual effects artists and studios in India require (on average) one fifth of the production cost that would be required for the same project to be completed in its home country.

Considering the market oriented nature of the world nowadays, this combination of low cost and high efficiency makes India a natural and top choice for foreign producers who want affordable and polished work in their productions.

Over the past few decades, animation and visual effects has slowly and steadily integrated itself into mainstream media – not only film, but also in television (most notably, cartoon programs), the advertisement industry (on the web, broadcast and print platforms) and the internet (through the advent of video on-demand services such as Amazon Prime and Netflix).

More and more major international players in the VFX and animation world are expanding their borders to either open a branch office for work in India (for example, Moving Picture Company or MPC, which most recently worked on the VFX for Disney’s live action feature of The Jungle Book, sourced most of its work through the Bengaluru office) or to start an Indian division (The Walt Disney Company, Dreamworks, Technicolor).

These are, for the most part, faring well with a favorable job outlook for aspirants to the world of animation and VFX.

As we learnt at the MAAC Manifest held recently at the Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata, the visual effects and animation industry in India is booming like never before.

With the recent global proliferation of media content that uses intensive visual effects and animation, and socioeconomic measures in the country sending more and more people towards digital content; it is more and more imperative that we provide a high quality output. MAAC Chowringhee | Rashbehari | Kakurgachi can help you make the most of this trend by gaining you access to the requisite knowledge as well as placements in these studios.

In past years, our students have been successfully placed at major studios of international repute such as Prime Focus, Prana, NY VFXWALLA, Dreamworks, Technicolor, Disney, MPC, Rhythm & Hues and Pixar, in positions both of VFX and animation.

They have worked on blockbuster Hollywood films such as Life of Pi, Godzilla, Avengers and more. If working for one of these famous studios is your dream, then walk in to your nearest MAAC Kolkata centre today and get started on building your career today!

And remember… at the end of the day in the world of media, the only thing limiting you is your own imagination.

Rath Yatra 2017Competition Celebrated At Maac Kolkata

With the end of June coming soon the monsoon season has showered on many a occasions to make out lives fresh and delightful from the rage of summer. Here at Maac Kolkata we celebrates Ratha Yatra competition being held at the centre.

 Monsoon, the queen of seasons is not just an ordinary season.

It brings delight to many a faces; the farmers look forward for this season as their silver lining, the availability of fresh water in water bodies like ponds and river; and the underground water table, with all of these factors cumulatively contributing to the health of the economy of India.

Monsoon brings many a joy, like the increase of Hilsa the tastiest fish ever, then there is the famous Rath Yatra scheduled to be held in Odisha’s pilgrim town Puri held hugely every year, where people from all across the country try to visit just to get a touch of the ropes of the chariots pulled from the Jagannath Temple.

Many a mythical tales related to Rath Yatra’s origins exist that reflect the socio-religious thinking and beliefs of the people of that region.

Gleeful devotees celebrated this day when Lord Krishna, after the triumph over the inglorious uncle Kangsa, gave their darshan in Mathura in a chariot with his brother, Balaram.

Whereas followers in Dwarika celebrate this day as Lord Krishna, with Balaram, took Subhadra – their sister, for a ride on a chariot to show the city’s splendid beauty.

Ratha-yatra is derived from the Sanskrit words, Ratha which means the chariot or carriage, and yatra which means voyage or excursion. In other native Indian languages such as Odia, the phonetic equivalents are used, such as rotho and jatra.

Many a chariots have been famous in the pages of history and television. From Arjuna’s chariot rode the fiercest on battle field, to the chariot Alexander rode on to come to India.

To the Ben Hur’s chariot to Bhallaldeva’s chariot they all have been outstanding, outrageously interesting and piece of art, but to commemorate the iconic chariot festival at Maac Kolkata with MAAC Chowringhee, Kakurgachi and Rashbehari had organised a little occasion where the students gathered together to rejoice their childhood.

With the esteemed faculties having being actively participant over the occasion the students felt a gasp of relief as it were their first time at something like this.

They were given the chance to relive their days back when they at the evening accompanied by their parents got out on the road and and pulled the mighty chariot their little hands could pull.

They had in them the idols of Jagannath, Balaram and Subhadra ; and pulled them to their maternal uncles house.

As little ones we enjoyed this a lot and looked forward to this day every year.

So on 23rd and 24th of June the students  at Maac Kolkata were given the task of building their dream Rath (chariot).

Excited students were very happy and got engaged with the work in their hands, all of them brought their bits and pieces of craft-able material to build chariot they thought could quench their thirst of chariot building. Colourful papers, little thermocol balls, glittered ribbons, it was a gala time.

The two day event brought a tremendous response and students taking interest made the administration very happy and proud.

The students were gathered in the venue after lunch and were given the space they required and they shone bright with creativity.

All their eyes and hand busy with the prop in hand. The seriousness and dedication led them to make some of the most stunning and great creations.

We can see an elegant creation of a pillar based chariot, with greenery cast on the two storeys of the chariot.

The marvelous red flag on top looks stunning and the deer horn emblem on the chariot smartly symbolises the loving bond of Lord Krishna with nature as he is seen in many  pictures with a deer and a cow. Sweata Roy has done an beautiful job.

Askash Das here has made an towering chariot similar to the ones in Jagannath Dham at Puri.

The pyramidal structure on the straw based support is an excellent combination; with the toothpicked wheels and base covered with numerous thermocol balls Aakash certainly has done a wonderful job.

The patterns in the pyramidal structure equally attractive and it’s one of a kind chariot.

Now we see Diya Das holding her chariot with pride and accomplishment.

The chariot looks gorgeous and is decorated to with a colourful range of structures.

The resting seat in the chariot resembles the throne like structures in kingly palaces, the flowery decor on the our side is much appreciated by the eye of the beholder, the crown looking roof is very similar to the ages of Mahabharata and Ramayan where horse pulled chariots were symbols of royalty.

The wheels were cleverly crafted from thermocol cubes wrapped in with paper ribbons. And the swan figurines personifies our dreamier depths and feelings.

Priyanka Sen has also made a beautiful chariot, with the colour purple used overall signifies the close touch to Lord Krishna’s attire, and the bell hanging from the roof looks pretty neat.

The garland dressing from each corner is soothing to eye and brings a bit of serenity to our soul.

Priyanka Sen has also made a beautiful chariot, with the colour purple used overall signifies the close touch to Lord Krishna’s attire, and the bell hanging from the roof looks pretty neat.

The garland dressing from each corner is soothing to eye and brings a bit of serenity to our soul.

Other participants like Peacock pulled chariot by Sagar Biswas proud student of Maac Kolkata, the jewelled red chariot by Somarita Poddar all the other participants who wholeheartedly joined this crusade to bring back the days of our.

 Childhood back they all deserve a sincere thanks.

“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky” as Rabindranath Tagore said so we wish and monsoon to  add colour to everyone’s heart and soul.

Maac Kolkata has been leading students to a better prospect and ushering them with every ounce of knowledge on the diverse field of 2D and 3D based entertainment.

Maac Kolkata bothers to bring back nostalgia and a touch of sensitivity everyone’s life because Maac Kolkata cares, as cultural critic James Wolcott wisely said “Everyone is entitled to his own Nostalgia”.

So are you a creative person by heart and soul then just come quickly and hold our hands at Maac Kolkata. We promise you to give your dream career.

Maac Kolkata MANIFEST 2017: AN OVERVIEW

22nd June 2017 was a special day  at Maac Kolkata for those at MAAC Chowringhee | Rashbehari | Kakurgachi, as students, faculty and staff alike gathered at the Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata for a unique experience.

Every year, Maac Kolkata organises the MAAC Manifest, a 3D and VFX seminar hosted with the novel aim of providing a platform for students to gain insight directly from stalwarts of the media world.

The organisation of the event is spearheaded by Mr. Naveen Choudhary, whose entrepreneurship and dedication facilitated the presence of this year’s esteemed speakers: Mr. Pete Draper, one of the founders of Makuta Studios, and Mr. Abir Aich, AVP-Academics of MAAC India and a media professional for the past 18 years, despite their packed schedules.

There was an air of excitement in the auditorium as everyone gathered for the event. The emcee for the event was Sajan Samuel, and with everyone gathered on time, the inaugural lamp was lit by Mr. Draper, Mr. Aich and Mr. Choudhary shortly after 10AM.

The speakers for the day were introduced, and Mr. Draper took the stage.

 Makuta Studios, under the supervision of Mr. Draper, most recently worked on the visual effects (VFX) for the blockbuster Baahubali: The Conclusion, and the first topic of discussion for the day was on the VFX journey of the film.

The Baahubali duology has been lauded for its grand visuals, and it wasn’t hard to see why as Mr. Draper explained the hard work and lessons that were integral to the development of what we saw on the silver screen.

There is a common phrase among some filmmakers, to ‘fix it in post(-production)’, that Mr. Draper explained was a totally incorrect way to go about VFX.

With the sheer magnitude of VFX being used in films these days, it is essential that planning be done from the pre-production stage itself, as the most obvious and important aspect of VFX is the very first word: visual.

VFX exists mainly to augment – or add to – the action that the audience sees on the screen, not to ‘fix’ what went wrong during the production (or in layman’s terms, shooting) stage.

Also, while VFX helps reduce the costs of production to a great extent by taking away the need to physically create imaginary worlds, it doesn’t come cheap; there is equipment to be bought to help the time-consuming digital work that needs to be done.

As he put it, creating realistic CG is extremely difficult because in most cases, everyday things are being replicated digitally.

As a result, the output that is being delivered needs to be flawless; the smallest missed detail will seem odd to the viewer because what they are seeing is things that they interact with on a daily basis and are intimately familiar with.

Everybody is an expert in their own right. With this in mind, Mr. Draper and his team worked closely with the production crew of Baahubali in order to plan out shots in a way that would ensure that things could be made to happen seamlessly.

Baahubali is an epic two-part film.

The VFX for the first film was done primarily by Firefly Studios in Hyderabad, while that for the second was dome mainly by Makuta Studios with Mr. Draper as the supervisor. Look development was crucial for such a grand project, as every kingdom being shown had to be visually distinctive as well as reflect the kind of land it was.

Maheshmati was designed to be industrial and overbearing, with repeated use of the elephant motif as their sacred goddess took the form of the elephant.

In contrast, Kunthala Rajyam – the home of princess Devasena – was softer and calmer, with more blues and greens in the colour palette.

It wasn’t just the individual kingdoms that needed planning, but the river that connected them as well; there is a lengthy sequence in the film where Amarendra Baahubali and Princess Devasena travel by a swan boat to Maheshmati on the river, through which we get closer glimpses of the latter kingdom.

The landscape of the events of the film was designed and pre-visualised in 3D well before production work began, so that the shooting could be planned efficiently.

As the environments were created digitally and live-action sequences had to be integrated into those environments, it was essential that the real and the virtual matched.

Sets had aged since the first film due to human interaction and natural weathering, this had to be reflected in the digital assets as well.

A lot of the area models were redesigned to add more detail for the close-up shots. Notable examples Mr. Draper shared were the King’s court and the citadel of Maheshmati.

A lot of elements, such as pillars, trellises, and the detailing on the Swan Boat, were used as instances or repurposed in a different area of the kingdom to cut down time and maintain uniformity.

Not everything is simple to solve, however. The corridor for the arrow dance sequence in Devasena’s palace where the camera follows the arrows had to be recreated in 3D after shooting – while the shot was initially slotted for 3-4 days, it took nearly three months to complete!

For the fields and forests, it wasn’t possible to get live references, so the team had to make do with images from the internet based on which the assets were created for the shots.

The rudders on the swan boat had been designed facing the wrong direction, and fixing it was a costly mistake.

Each day of shooting had around 30-40 lakh rupees invested, so mistakes had to be avoided as far as possible.

Some establishing shots for the kingdoms had to scrapped as well. Six different shades of green were used for chroma shots, and some footage was of poor quality but had to be used properly despite the fact.

VFX is all about illusions and making people believe that the unreal is real. In order to do so, it is important to be practical and grounded in the real.

At the same time, cinema is removed from reality and calls for suspension of disbelief. Striking a balance between the two is the biggest challenge, which was best seen in the sequence of Bhallaldeva’s statue falling in the climax of the film, and the shot of the arrows zooming down the corridor and killing the soldiers in the arrow dance sequence.

The rampart fight sequence, while depicted as a continuous shot in the film, actually used seven cutshots for the actors’ actions. Camera tricks, practical effects and digital magic all work together to make the final output.

After explaining the making of the film, Mr. Draper concluded his talk with showreel tips for those ‘crazy people’ who want to make their career in VFX.

The first 15 seconds, he stressed, are the most important to capture the attention of the studio so the best works go in first.

The other point he stressed was professionalism: no thanking X, Y, and Z, and if you’ve collaborated with others for a shot, mention who did what so that your contribution can be focused on.

After this, he was presented with a memento and Mr. Aich took the stage to speak about the media industry as a flourishing career option.

With nearly two decades of experience in the media industry, and several years curating content for MAAC’s courses to push it to its place as a leading educator in animation, VFX and multimedia, Mr. Aich gave an eye-opening presentation on the media industry and the career options that it presents. While film and VFX is the most obvious and glamorous option when one thinks of a career in media, there are numerous alternate options that are coming to light in this day and age.

And that film is the best-paying of media careers is also a myth. For a career in media, one can choose from film, TV, advertising, game development, print media (such as magazines, newspapers) and digital or internet-based media.

India has the second-largest internet user base in the world… and As Mr. Aich pointed out, internet access is what makes our smartphones ‘smart’.

Recent socioeconomic measures implemented by the government have increased the number of smartphone and internet users drastically, generating the need for more content to satisfy these new customers and thereby creating thousands of lucrative job opportunities for aspiring media professionals.

Mixed media, too, is a booming industry. There are now smartphone applications and wearables that allow users to combine content from print media with audiovisual media (like videos), or design spaces virtually for demos before construction (a VR-prototype that is being developed by Microsoft).

Or even visualise consumer goods in spaces like one’s home before purchasing them (an initiative by Swedish furniture giant IKEA, which is planning to launch in India very soon)!

Students can now use the skills that they learn from their courses at Maac Kolkata and push boundaries like never before. After all, Mr. Aich noted, most media students will go into careers outside of film and VFX, and learning the opportunities available is essential to deciding the direction you want your career to take.

After the event, both the guest speakers visited MAAC Chowringhee and interacted with the students and faculty and shared more tips. Mr. Draper saw some of the student works on display in the centre, and that inspired him to do a live demonstration by shooting a video on his mobile to explain the need for contrast in tracking and chroma removal.

This is a great advantage that students at Maac Kolkata have, to interact with the legends of the field directly in the familiarity of their centres and gain invaluable guidance and advice.

In past years at Maac Kolkata, we have had people like Tom Alter (renowned actor), Rajiv Chilaka (creator of Chhota Bheem), Sanath PC (director of Firefly Studios) and Prasad Sutar (VFX supervisor at NY VFXWalla) share their experiences both onstage at the Manifest and in the centre directly with students and faculty.

We are thankful to have Mr. Naveen Choudhary, head of Maac Kolkata, to thank for pushing relentlessly forward to make these events happen, and we look forward to scaling new heights at next year’s Manifest!