The huge number of participants who thronged the Animation Day held at Gujarat Organised by Xplora Design Skool in association with Education Times – The Times of India, was the testimonial of its success. Although it was a state level event inviting entries from more than 15 cities of Gujarat, some entries came from other parts of India as well. The turnout of the two day event was over 6500 attendees. The fascinating aspect was that the participants included not only students who had come there to enjoy their field of interest but also others interested in learning about the various alluring disciplines of animation.
Speaking about the outcome of the event, Rohit Swarup of Xplora Design Skool said, “The complete event went on very well. We organised it with an objective to spread awareness about animation across India and the response that we received was elephantine. We can say with confidence that we have definitely achieved our set target and the result couldn‘t have been better than this.”
Ninad Shastri of Xplora Design Skool commented, “The idea was to recognize and appreciate our students who strive for excellence and provide them with the right platform to showcase their talents. Also when such diverse exhibits are presented by students it gives an opportunity for each student to explore beyond his/her own skills, and to recognize, appreciate and absorb alternative creative art and talent that other students have, thus, opening up their mind and creating an environment of overall development of a Designer (Animator or multimedia professional).”
Gujarat Animation Day had various components which drew huge appreciation from the masses as well as Industry alike.
With gaming being the craze, a Mega Gaming Challenge had been arranged titled ‘Xterminate – Gaming Xplodes‘. This contest was for people who are crazy for gaming. Approximately 20-25 gaming portals were set up for the same. The Gaming Competition saw almost 1200 entries with over 250 teams actually participating in the event. This goes to show how crazy youngsters are for gaming; however, what caught everyone by surprise was that the youth not only participated in the Gaming contest but were also curious and went through understanding the entire process of Game Development and Animation. This contest was pitched between participants and college teams in a network gaming environment (FPS, Strategy and Car Racing games), wherein teams (of 2/ 4 members) and individuals participated. The games for the contest included Unreal Tournament, Age of Empires, Need for Speed – underground.
The contest was won by:
XTERMINATE
GAMING XPLODES
PRIZE NO.
NAME OF THE WINNER
NFS
1ST PRIZE
KALPESH CHAUHAN – (Maharaja Agresen Vidhyalay) Ahmedabad
2ND PRIZE
GAURAV MITTAL-(Maharaja Agresen Vidyalay)
3RD PRIZE
VISHRUT RAJPRIYA Xplora Design Skool student
AGE OF EMPIRE
1ST PRIZE
RAVINDER & SHARDUL
2ND PRIZE
PRADUMANSINH RAOL & KAUSHAL PATEL
UNREAL TORNEMENT
1ST PRIZE
CHINATAN JOSHI, HARSHIL PATHAK, EDWIN JOHN, GIRI.Y.
2ND PRIZE
MAYUR PRIYANI, GAGANDEEP, MANAN SHAH,KALIND RATHOD
3RD PRIZE
PATEL SAUMIL, PATEL MITESH, RAVAL SOUMYA, JATIN VANJANI
Story and Script writing Competition titled ‘Xaggerate‘, the theme for which was ‘India in 2050‘.
Herein the participant wrote a Script and Story using minimum of two characters of their imagination. He/she described these characters, an environment and the story depicting “India as in 2050”. Colleges pitched their teams for creating a short story and script on “India in 2050”, detailing of script and character, story telling skills, plot, character description, premises, dialogue and logical sequence of description as well as presentation were the judging criteria just to name a few. Top 15 scripts from the total entries of 41 sent in were short listed by a panel of judges. From those top five entries were called for presentation. Animators got to learn a lot through the insight provided by professionals and academicians on the role of story and scripts writing in Animation, and of course, the significance of presenting their concept well before an audience was a learning experience for both professional as well as amateur Animators.
The contest was won by:
1ST PRIZE HIRAL PATHAK
2ND PRIZE RAJESH VAISHNAV
3RD PRIZE SHAIL DELIWALA
‘Xhibit – Be Crowned as the Lord of Animation‘,
Where entries had been invited for Animation Show reel / Demo Reel (Professional and Amateur separate category). Through this category, Xplora Design Skool wanted to honor Animators from amongst us for creating master pieces. Professionals and amateurs sent in their existing work entries. Students from many institutions participated in this category, which was finally won by:
1ST PRIZE CHETAN GAJJAR
2ND PRIZE HUSSAIN KHARODAWALA
3RD PRIZE HARISH GOHIL
The next interesting contest was ‘Xpression‘, which was a Creative Drawing Competition with the theme ‘India Rising‘. The aim was to inculcate the spirit of dreaming and putting the dreams on paper through this unique contest for school and college students. “India Rising” saw almost 92 entries from various schools and colleges. Drawing and sketching being an integral part of Animation profession, a lot of students actually saw for the first time how their paper drawing and sketches could be then put on computer, while on the other hand, young animators realized what significance Drawing and Sketching plays in Animation profession.
The contest was won by:
JUNIOR LEVEL CHETAN GAJJAR
1ST PRIZEE AZBA KHAN (MT. CARMAL SCHOOL)
SENIOR LEVEL
1ST PRIZE DIPALI DAVE
2ND PRIZE KHUSHBU RAJYAGURU
‘X Factor‘ the annual student work display was showcased,
This activity saw over 3000 work display, which formed the most exhaustive work displayed ever in India. The exhibition also had live student work display in areas such as Claymation, Live software tricks, Live Portrait and Cartoon development, Great Animation, Web Development and Graphics work by the students. The icing on the cake was provided through a unique section that saw sketches, oil painting, glass painting, fabric painting, pencil work, photography, bead work, clay work. This section was presented with an objective to recognize creativity beyond computers.
WEB DESIGNING
1ST PRIZE
RAVINDRA GOHEL
Theme
1ST PRIZE
CHIRAG AUDICYA
GRAPHICS
1ST PRIZE
KRUTI MAJMUDAR
Theme
1ST PRIZE
SAURAV BARUAH – GAUHATI
ANIMATION
1ST PRIZE
HUSSAIN KHARODAWALA- SUPERSPECILIZATION PROJECT
Theme
1ST PRIZE
AMIT BHARADWAJ & RAJESH VAISHNAV (CHILD LABOUR)
UNIQUE
Over All 1st
BHAVESH RAJPUT – Pencil work on paper
1ST PRIZE
CHETAN GAJJAR – Oil painting
2ND PRIZE
GRACE – Photography
3RD PRIZE
CHINAL SHAH – Bead work on cloth
In order to add to the knowledge dissemination, experts from the related fields conducted seminars for the visitors as well as students who attended these seminars from various institutes besides the Xplora Design Skool students and faculty. The seminars saw experts coming down from Canada as well as Mumbai.
Rupert Morris conducted a live workshop on ‘Organic texturing for human face‘ and another one on ‘Building texture and lighting‘, all in Maya. He also conducted a seminar on his experience at EA, requirements for game development and gaming pipeline.
Guru Vaidya from Autodesk talked about tips and tricks in Maya 2008. While Vishal Bhende, expert from Adobe spoke on Magic with Photoshop.
Anand Gurnani, Co-founder and CEO, AnimationXpress.com conducted a seminar on ‘Career opportunities in the field of Animation and Gaming‘ and shared his views on what skills are expected from an animator by the industry.
The large display of talent in the event attracted rave reviews not only from students but from parents and visitors as well. One of the proud parents of a participant expressed, “I am thrilled and my eyes are wet seeing my daughter‘s work being displayed on such a stage. I am sure I can now be rest assured that she has chosen the right career in animation looking at the opportunities it presents and thanks to Xplora for providing students with such a platform to display and recognize their talent.” An impressed visitor opined, “A great experience, honestly, I never felt that anything of this scale could ever be done in Gujarat, such diverse creative talents and their exhibits at display have opened my eyes to the world of Design and Animation and more so my mind towards this great field of Creativity.”