Last month Ace Animation director Vaibhav Kumaresh returned from his 3 month trip to Belfast, Ireland where he was invited by Irish animation studio flickerpix to direct ‘Horn OK Please’ a stop motion animation short. His visit also included a short 3 day trip to the famous Aardman studios.
Vaibhav shares a ‘first person account’ with Animation ‘xpress readers.
“Let me begin by giving you a short brief about myself. I am a fine arts graduate that joined the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad in 1995 for the course in Animation Film Design. That’s when I was introduced to animation! Thereon it was an action-packed exciting two and a half years of exploring the medium of animation and myself.
Once out of the NID, I joined Famous Studios in Mahalaxmi, and was one of the key members involved in building their animation studio. Five years at Famous gave me enough time to put my learning into practice and learn even more. I got to produce animation films of various kinds and in different mediums, got to work with teams, manage projects and clients. Most important, i got to introduce clay animation as a successful animation medium in the Indian animation industry.
In 2003, my wife Suranjana and I setup our own animation studio: Vaibhav Studios. I can very confidently say that over the past 2 years, we along with our team members have created some of the best and most entertaining Indian animation films.
Last year, Joel Simon, Director, Flickerpix Ltd.: a clay animation studio in Belfast, Northern Ireland contacted us for his next clay animation short film titled ‘Horn Ok Please’.
He had seen our work and wanted us to direct the animation for his film. We were very much honoured and at the same time, it was a big responsibility. We had to go to Ireland, as the entire production would have to take place over there! It was a brilliant opportunity for us to showcase our talent abroad and vice versa. Although we had produced animation films for clients abroad, we had always carried out the production in India. This would be a new experience for us: new work environment, new approaches to filmmaking, new people, new processes, and of course a new place! Suranjana and I went there for a period of 3 months (we didn’t want to be absent from Mumbai for longer than that!).
‘Horn Ok Please’ co-funded by the British Council Northern Ireland, the Irish Film Board and Flickerpix Ltd., is planned to be a 5 min short clay animation film about a Mumbai Taxi driver! The film was planned as a fusion of animated clay models, hand drawn 2D and computer generated 3D backdrops. Production began in early March 05 and the film is expected to be completed by September 05.
The team was a fusion of Irish, British and Indian talents! Joel has co-scripted the film with Scott Boldt and is also directing it. Apart from supervising the overall production, Joel would also light up the models and animate the puppets. Robin McFarland the in-house model maker and set designer built the miniature taxi in which a majority of the film is set. He also handled the model making and additional props and accessories. Suranjana, a product designer by profession, created all the miniature props and accessories used by the characters. Jasbeer, an animation trainee also from India handled the compositing, camera and light setups.
Palzor, another animation student from India is currently creating the hand-drawn backgrounds for the film along with Dean who is helping out with building the computer generated 3D environments. Ian Palmer a local sound engineer would handle the sound design for the entire film, while the music for the film is yet to be scored by a renowned composer in Belfast.
I involved myself in the entire process, supervising the visual scripting of the film, designing the characters of the story, animatics, model making, dialogue recordings, the animation direction as well as key animation. My main interest was in performing and experiencing the entire process in a new environment and I tried my best to do so in the 3 months that we had.
At Aardaman : Suranjana, Vaibhav, Tom & Mikey
Halfway through the project in Belfast, I got some exciting news. Tom Gasek, a senior visiting animator with the Aardman animation studios had invited Suranjana and me over to Bristol to show us around the Aardman Studios and also introduce us to the people there! As most of us know, Aardman animation is one of the best animation studios in the world, specializing in clay animation. They have 3 Oscars to their credit and to this day, they create films of the highest quality with the help of utmost passion and involvement. It was a great opportunity and honour for us to interact with the best and see them in action! We spent three days visiting the various studios that Aardman has within Bristol, getting a detailed insight into their work process and discussing work with the crewmembers. We also had time for lengthy discussions with Tom. It was extremely inspiring and motivating to see such a huge organization approach their work with such passion and involvement. No wonder they are the best in the world.
Back in Belfast, the process was just getting more interesting. Different parts of the film were coming together and taking shape. Our three-month period was also nearing completion. My main task now was to animate as many shots as possible before I left. I also made my notes and sketches for the remaining shots for Joel and the other animators to follow after I had left.
Our UK trip was a memorable experience: just what we had expected. It was a very successful collaboration and I am sure it will open up avenues for more Indian animation folks to contribute to international projects. I am sure there was a lot of learning on both sides. I was very happy with output we created and I hope they were too! I sincerely wish the entire team all the very best with the remaining bit of the film and hope that the final product will make us all proud.