Asifa India has announced a session titled ‘Behind the Scene from Avatar – The Way of water’ by renowned Weta FX supervisor Pavani Rao Boddapati on 13 April 2023 from 11 am to 12.15 pm IST. The session will be followed by a half an hour of Q&A.
Avatar-The Way of Water won the Academy Award for visual effects at the 2023 Oscars, as well as a Bafta and Critics Choice Award in the same category. The Weta FX team developed a neural network-based facial system to help create the characters in photorealistic quality on screen.
One of the speakers – Boddapati – is an Indian artist from New Delhi, who began her visual effects career at Rhythm and Hues in Los Angeles before joining the lighting team at Wētā FX for James Cameron’s Avatar. She moved on to Rise of the Planet of the Apes and worked as a CG supervisor on all three of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit films.
Boddapati was also CG supervisor on Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials and on Steven Spielberg’s The BFG. She was a sequence VFX supervisor on Alita: Battle Angel, for which she spearheaded the underwater sequence for the Crashed Warship environment. She has been leading the development of Wētā FX’s next generation water pipeline. As part of this, a cross-functional team of artists and researchers across disciplines integrates lighting, fluids, rendering and animation to create photorealistic water for any conceivable situation or sequence. This monumental work has led to her role as a VFX supervisor on Avatar: The Way of Water.
International Animation Day (IAD) fests at locations like Nashik, Indore, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad got a massive turnout and support from leading studios, academic institutes/colleges and Universities. Various Asifa India sub-chapters organised a lot of engaging competitions, workshops & series of knowledge sessions.
IAD is sponsored by Unreal, DNEG, Creative Multimedia, Dancing Atoms, Arena Animation, and IACG Multimedia. IAD is supported by AVGC-XR, MP, Horizon Institute of Design, Animagic India, KVD Academy & Destiny Logic & over dozen global partners including Annecy, CTN, AWN, View Conference, Siggraph, Animation Magazine, Sony Talent League etc.
During March, World Animation Day festival was organised by the IAD-Kolkata team headed by Ramesh Ruia of Park Street Arena. Other experts included DNEG India animation supervisor Animesh Maitey; creator, storyteller, artist and facilitator Siddhartha Maskeri and DOP & virtual production consultant Gautami Vegiraju.
The IAD Mumbai event was coordinated by Devashree Vora from Andheri Arena and speakers like DNEG India animation supervisor Hitesh Barot; visual film designer & pre-production artist Rupali Gatti; Green Rain Studios co-founder Karan Parikh; Plexus co-founder Yashoda Parthsarthi and VFX supervisor & animator Abhirama Tejas graced the occasion. Award of Excellence felicitation ceremony was also organised at Mumbai to recognise all the professional and students winners of 2022-23.
On 28 March, IAD-Nashik with coordinator Madhavi Pagariya and presenters, the event included DNEG India’s Ramachandra Birje; Studio V Sync co-founder & CEO Mehul Hirani; Vaibhav Studios director Anand Babu; Rudu Studios’ Serena Dhillon & Aadya Raj and animation film designer Shikha Sharma.
The Pune event was organised during the High Performance Design Summit with Asifa India at Dr. DY Patil School Of Design in Tathawade, Pune. It marked the presence of Asifa India president Sanjay Khimesara; DNEG India VFX head Jigesh Gajjar and other experts.
Another festival was organised by Asifa India & PHD Chamber of Commerce in Delhi on 8 April at PHD House Auditorium. It was an inclusive event that brought AVGC-XR Industry of Delhi NCR together.
Event was graced by Prasar Bharti additional director general Kanchan Prasad; AAFT University of Media & Arts chancellor and Noida Film City/Marwah Studios founder Sandeep Marwah; Asifa India president Sanjay Khimesara; PHDCCI CEO & secretary general PHDCCI Saurabh Sanyal and many more.
After the Inaugural Session, Dancing Atoms founder Saraswathi ‘Vani’ Balgam presented a session on script writing & storytelling. It was followed by fireside chat between PHDCCI assistant secretary general Shalini Sharma; MESC CEO Mohit Soni and STPI director Subodh Next, CDL founder Charuvi Agrawal presented a case study on The Journey of Shri Hanuman IP.
Tinkle Magazine editor Gayatri Chandrashekharan took a session on Reading to Watching Amar Chitra Katha. Powerkids Entertainment CEO Manoj Mishra conducted a session on Made in India IP for the world. Post lunch session started with Rhythm Gandhi, UAI, Unreal Community who took a session on Epic Games and Unreal-It’s Real.
Other IAD sessions included: Careers in Gaming by Keywords Studios associate technical director Ajay Shekhar, Behind the Scenes of Stranger Things-Season Four case study by DNEG India lead animator Virendra Kishore and Behind the scenes of The Social Chameleon by Citrus Ink Studio founder & CEO Vrinda Sood and two of her leads. Final event was a panel about Delhi NCR as an upcoming hub of AVGC with Aditya Singhal, Anando Banerjee, Kamal Pahuja, Deepak Deopa and Vrinda Sood.
Show stoppers of the festival were four workshops taken on 3D sculpting by Lakshya digital character art lead Laxminarayan Ghara, storytelling by Soulify founder Siddharth Maskeri, concept art by Citrus Ink Studio’s Ravindra M. Biswas and children story book creation using ChatGPT & Mid Journey by Mugafi cofounder Vipul Agrawal.
Participants had an amazing experience. Apart from these knowledge activities, a lot of cultural performances, job fairs and other stalls were put up.