Artists from the animation industry as well as aspiring students attended the cgTantra & ABAI organised “Learn Inspire Grow” event held on 18th February in Bangalore. And true to its name, the event was indeed inspiring and a learning experience!
The event started with the National Anthem followed by the ABAI and The ITC Infotech animation show reel. The Chief Guests Anand Parthasarthy, Consulting Editor, The Hindu with renowned Film Director and Theater Personality Kavitha Langesh, honoured the event by lighting the auspicious lamp. In his welcome address, Chetan of Antz Animation Academy spoke about the purpose and aim of hosting such an event and how organisations like cgTantra and ABAI can help the community grow.
Marking the start of the event Anand Parthasarthy shared his views about the need of artistic skill sets to be nurtured by the students more and not only the knowledge of the software. He stressed on fact that, “The industry which is poised to be the next big thing after the IT Industry, needs the young guns of today to be ready to face any challenge and growing all aspects to satisfy the current demand. There is also a need to bring in more local flavour to our animation industry.”
Continuing after Parthasarthy, Kavitha Langesh took the stage and shared her film making skills and the belief in the fact that although Indian animation industry is at a very nascent stage now, the future seems to be bright and the audience would be soon exposed to much better quality and more local flavoured content.
The series of sessions for the day started with a bang as the veteran animation director Dhimant Vyas delighted the audience with the presentation of his experiences while doing Ardman Studios‘ Creature Comforts. Alongwith explaining the process of Clay Animation, he also showed the various techniques of Character Design, Set Design, Rigging, Animation and Lighting.
Next was the mighty pencil session by Shyam Shriram and Vinayak from Anirights Infomedia, Bangalore and was moderated by P.C. Vikram. Within half an hour, Vinayak shared the knowledge of creating Concept Art in Photoshop using the Wacom tablet. After Vinayak, Shyam showcased the techniques of sketching by making a portrait of a volunteer from the audience.
The character designing genius, Siju Thomas was up on stage next. He designed, posed and detailed a Centaur creature within the short duration of the workshop. He also shared some healthy tips about Character/Creature pitching techniques to a director. Furthermore, he showcased his mastery in 3D Sculpting and with the work flow between softwares like Maya/Max and Sculpting Tools like Zbrush/ Mudbox.
A perfect end to this series of session was the Aniright‘s case study on the multiple Award Winning animated short Film, The Bad Egg. This Session was conducted by Bala, Director of the film and moderated by cgTantra Bangalore representative Vinod.
Bala presented the making of the film from script to screen in a very lucid manner going to the very details of how the idea was formed in his mind and what all experiences they had to go through to give the kind of Dark Look for the short film. The case study was presented explaining the various aspects of Film Making like Character Design, Set Design, Layouts, Animatics, FX, Animation Styling and Staging. He also explained how use of a Mix Media of Flash, Photoshop and 3D helped them achieve this new look which has won them accolades and awards all around the world.
Concluding the evening Chand, Gokul and Abhishek administrators of cgTantra alongwith the Bangalore representative shared their future plans. They also thanked the sponsor for the event WACOM and supporters- ANTZ, ISearch and EFactor. Joining them, Dr. Suparno Chaudhari from ABAI also thanked everybody associated with the event.
Speaking to AnimationXpress.com regarding the event, Chand said, “It was a truly enriching experience to see such talent coming together in the spirit of cgTantra‘s philosophy of “Learn Inspire and Grow”.