From RRR and Bahubali fame DOP KK Senthil Kumar, the MPC team behind the creatures of Poacher to the previs team of Tiger 3, the first day of VFX and More (VAM) Summit 2024 witnessed exclusive sessions with high-profile guests, filmmaking experts as well as VFX industry veterans as speakers.
In this year’s theme – The Quad Quest – the key speakers highlighted the collaboration among directors, cinematographers, VFX supervisors and art directors in storytelling.
Day one started with customary lamp lighting amidst the august presence of Goodbye Kansas chairman of board Per-Anders Wärn who flew down from Sweden along with other industry stalwarts. That was followed by the opening address by AnimationXpress founder, chairman and editor-in-chief Anil NM Wanvari, and a special note by FICCI AVGC-XR Forum chairman and Punnaryug Artvision founder Ashish Kulkarni.
The day began with a panel discussion on Demand for Visually Rich Narratives Spread Across Languages, Platforms and Genres. The panellists tried to dissect challenges in production and strategies for meeting audience expectations. Speakers on this panel were: renowned director, producer Ken Ghosh; GSEAMS founder, producer, creator Kartk D Nishandar; director/DOP Juhi Sharma; Annapurna Studios chief technical officer C V Rao; Redchillies.VFX chief creative officer & VFX supervisor Harry Hingorani and Signpost India CTO Syed Haseeb Arfath. The session was moderated by Framestore managing director (India) Akhauri Sinha.
In the most awaited session post the panel, Kumar spoke to AnimationXpress’ Wanvari in a fireside chat. Renowned for his exceptional work in Telugu cinema, Kumar gained widespread recognition for the films he made with acclaimed director SS Rajamouli. Kumar is the man behind the camera of hit movies like Magadheera, Eega (Makkhi), Bahubali: The Beginning, Bahubali 2: The Conclusion and RRR. In the conversation at VAM 2024, Kumar spoke about his working style, collaborating with directors and VFX supervisors, working on RRR and lots more.
Post this, Nube Studio, Nube Cirrus & Ventana Studios founder and Fundamental Pictures producer & managing director Navin Shetty spoke to Wanvari about Exploring the Interplay of Colour Grading and CG-VFX. Shetty is an artist and an entrepreneur who has worked on commercials, episodics and acclaimed films like Omkara, Kaminey, Force, Kahaani 2, and Badhaai Ho. Recently, his studio has contributed to The Goatlife, The Railway Men, Gehraiyaan, Kota Factory, An Action Hero, Kaala Paani, Yeh Kaali Kaali Aankhen and many more.
Apart from the main hall this year, the venue also comprised a large exhibition area that students and delegates thronged to visit the company booths as well as to network with fellow people from the industry.
In the session Goodbye Kansas: Journey to India, Goodbye Kansas managing director Chris Jestico presented a comprehensive breakdown of the globally acclaimed Swedish studio’s journey through award-winning VFX, digital animation and motion capture for movies, game trailers and commercials. Jestico spoke about the company’s vision of how their virtual production services help shape creative collaboration with clients and why Goodbye Kansas’ CG cinematic experience in the games industry helped drive advanced VFX work for films and episodics.
Unreal’s authorised instructor Rajdeep Paul shared insights on What’s New in Unreal Engine 5.4. Paul has specialised in visual effects and CG, and currently works as a technical artist for real-time 3D development in the PC/VR space. He has worked with global brands like Nissan, Ford, UFC, while training professionals in Unreal Engine.
The regulars of VAM Summit look forward to the making of sessions every year. This year, in the session Bringing Digital Creatures to Life, the VFX studio MPC explained how they created CG animals in the Tamil film Leo and the Prime Video series Poacher. VFX Supervisor Jateen Thakkar, CG Supervisors Mangesh Kushaba Awate and Dhiraj Singh Chaudhari from MPC explained how they created the popular hyena sequence in the Vijay-starrer Leo. The team then took the audience through the process of creating more than 30 animals in Poacher. The series director Richie Mehta had shared a video message as well, narrating his experience of working with the MPC team.
India has become a hub of outsourcing due to its talent pool, competitive pricing, and favourable exchange rates. In India as a Global VFX Outsourcing Hub: Opportunities and Evolution, speakers highlighted factors that have contributed to India’s emergence as a global hub for VFX outsourcing, the evolution of studios from outsourcing to full-service facilities, and the advantages India offers compared to other outsourcing destinations. Speakers were Bot VFX CEO & co-founder Hitesh Shah; Hoop VFX founder & managing director Priyanka Balasubramanian; Labyrinth Cinematic Solution founder & CEO Siddhartha Jayakar and Company3 director of production R Parthasarathy. The discussion was moderated by Kulkarni.
Data is at the heart of every industry’s transformation, and this is where Synology plays an important role. In the next session – Ignite Creativity and Protect Dreams: Synology’s Storage Solutions – Synology solution manager Stanley Chang shed light on how the company enables businesses to manage, secure and protect their data wherever access is needed, from flash to disk to multiple cloud architectures.
In the session Generative AI in New Age Content Creation, Adobe senior solution consultant Mohd Yaman explained the latest AI-integrated features in Adobe’s software. He showed how artists can easily replace various elements in a picture using the software’s tools.
The summit further included an engrossing panel discussion on Crafting Immersive Experiences: The Intersection of Creative Workforce and New Tech in Content Creation. This panel delved into how technology is revolutionising the way we create immersive experiences. The panellists were: Famous Studios managing director Anant Roongta; Whistling Woods International vice president & CTO Chaitanya Chinchlikar; MediaMonks chief creative officer (Art & Tech) India John Paite; 88 Pictures creative director of VFX Rajeev Rajasekharan; I-C-E Studios (soon to be VolumX) founder Anant Haldia and Adobe business leader of mid markets for India & South Asia Shoban Babu. Bot VFX’s Shah moderated the session.
The last session of the day was From Concept to Cinematic: Previsualisation Process of Tiger 3 presented by yFX team – studio head Sherry Bharda, CG supervisor Lennard Pinto and VFX supervisor Nanda Kumar Nair – along with Tiger 3’s DOP Anay Goswami and production designer Mayur Sharma. The team explained the challenges in the previs of the Salman Khan-starrer film, and the rigorous shoot process in the unfavourable conditions.
Building upon the quest to understand storytelling craft, production pipelines, and technological advancements, the 2024 edition forged new pathways while continuing to honour excellence through the prestigious VAM Awards.
VAM Summit and Awards 2024 was organised on 2 and 3 May at Nesco, Goregaon in Mumbai. It was co-powered by Adobe and Autodesk. This year’s Networking Partner was Goodbye Kansas and NY VFXWAALA; Gold Partners were ARK, Autodesk, Epic Games, Foundry, Zeiss; Associate Partner was Synology; Lanyard & Badges Partners were Basilic Fly Studio and Micron, Industry Partners were Benq, Disk Archive, 88 Pictures, Hoop VFX, Famous Studios, Annapurna Studios, PhantomFX, White Apple Studios and Huion. The Outdoor Partner was Signpost India while LED partner was Absen. The community partners were Diva, IFTPC, IWCC, VEGAS, VES India, WICA and TVAGA.
Also read: VAM ’24 Day 2: DOPs, VFX supervisors & virtual production cinematographers take centre stage
Also read: VFX and More (VAM) Summit & Awards 2024 honours champions of Indian VFX industry; here is the list