The Animation Masters Summit 2019 honoured dignitaries from the animation and media industryt. Animation veteran Raman Lal Mistry was titled the legend of animation industry. While speaking to AnimationXpress, Mistry shared his insights as he witnessed the scene right from its inception.
As a veteran in this industry, how do you see the animation Industry going ahead?
Being a jury member at NID, I address the students, so I understand that people have less knowledge of 2D animation and prefer creating digital animation which I find slightly wrong. You hardly achieve the skill that you require on paper and pencil. And, that is the ideal way of doing it.
You are the creator of the iconic Doordarshan logo. How was the idea generated back then?
It was first given to the classroom where students were told to design a logo. Then one of the logos was selected. I had taken over it for the animation. It took
me almost one year to get it approved. It elapsed a little over a minute with music composed by Pandit Ravi Shankar and the shehnai was played by Ustad Bismillah Khan.
Do you think with the technology of today the logo would have been generated more quickly?
Definitely yes! But even we tried doing it in various ways. We had given it in black and white first then colour came on TV so we gave another idea to came it more computerised image. Even later the same thing has been done but in colour, using the same animation.
How do you think students of today are taking animation as a subject. Are they doing it just because it is trending or are they really passionate about the subject?
There are several reasons to choose animation. Largely I have seen people won’t find in any other discipline any job so some people think of learning Animation and go outside for work. People have a very wrong concept of choosing an animation. They think they don’t have to make any drawings. People have that notion in their minds that you can do straightaway everything on a computer. That is a concept that plagues many minds in India. The other thing is that very few people will say that it is not that without any basic skill of drawing, good sense of visualisation or other things which they think is very minor.
I used to conduct classes after I retired from my job. Some students came from the U.K, they wanted to learn animation and I asked them if they have already learned 3-D before coming here and they would yes. So, I would tell them that it is not enough, you have to learn the basics of 2D animation. You know how to make the character in 3D but you don’t know what the character is or how the character should be.
If given a chance, what would you like to change in the designing education system today?
Actually, institutions like NID primarily focused on creative animation. They focus more on character design, story-telling, direction and visualisation which are the most important things to learn. Those are the kind of people that are required in the industry, not the one-dimensional digital people.
Do you think there is unrevealed talent in India?
Absolutely! I think the opportunity is limited. The other thing is the money part because they want their money returned. They are focused on profit in a short space of time. They never think in the long term. And they always look for the international market. But, if we start one character and use it meaningfully, it will become popular.
What message would you like to give to the aspiring animators?
They need to give more emphasis on the concept. The second thing is the quality of animation. The third thing is visualisation, it should be extremely good. The fourth thing is good direction good presentation.