Bangalore based multimedia & web development studio Synergy Images has created a CG character, ‘Zampano’ for a mainstream bollywood movie Friends Forever.
Being produced by Delhi based Cellulite Dreams, the movie is a live action cum CG venture and revolves around a childhood toy turned friend called Zampano, who helps the heroine succeed in love.
Starring Hrishita Bhatt, Ashmit Patel and Shweta Kunoor, the VFX talents that are involved with the movie are Director Soumitra Ranade and VFX director Biju D. The duo had earlier worked together on Jajantaram Mamantaram.
Zampano has a screen time of 36 minutes and poses a considerable challenge for the team working on him.
Speaking to Animation ‘xpress, Synergy Images CEO Malini Subrahmaniam said that,”15 animators are working day in and out to create the 3D animated Zampano who has a screen time of 36 minutes. We have begun the work in January 05 and hope to complete our part of the work by August ’05.”
“All the pre production and production of Zampano will be done by our studio while the post production part will be managed by the producers” she added.
Will the CG and VFX in Friends Forever match upto Hollywood standards?
Answering the question, VFX director Biju D replied that,”We are slowly getting there but it will take a while. You cannot compare Bollywood with Hollywood for a many number of reasons, the prominent ones include money and experienced talent.”
“We have used HDRI, Motion Capture, Keyframe Animation and have also done a bit of tweaking to match the lighting of Zampano with the shots.” he added.
Speaking his part for visual effects, director Soumitra Ranade added,”People say only SEX and SRK sell in bollywood, but i would like to add that SFX sells as much, its only some time before the producers and financiers realise this. And I would like to give credit to our producer Rashmi Seengal (Head, Cellulite Dreams) who has great conviction in CG and FX”
Way to go!
