“Animation to me is about instilling life into anything. An animation artist is a mix of an anatomist, psychologist and doctor”
Animation ‘xpress Apna Artist
Starting this week, Animation ‘xpress gets you a spanking new series,‘Animation ‘Xpress Apna Artist’. Likes, dislikes, inspiration, aspiration, pressures, proud moments, fascination, obsession, quirks …the works. Stay tuned every week as Animation ‘xpress’ Prachi Shinde takes a peek into the life of an animation artist, into the many things that make being an animator so fascinating.
Proving the trite but true axiom “mighty oaks from little acorns grow”, is our Animation ‘xpress Apna Artist, Rebatikant Chand, fondly known as Chand in his peer group. Chand is a successful Technical Director, currently at UTV Toons and he has achieved this prestigious position because of his hard work and fascination for something as artistic and as exhilarating as animation.
Chand hails from Bhubaneshwar, Orissa, the city of temples. He was a book worm in his childhood. Most of the time he used to pour into books, devouring as much knowledge as his mind could assimilate. He was also fascinated with temple sculptures and carvings, visiting temples regularly to gaze at the various sculpted structures. Art forms were his passion right since childhood. It was only later in college that Chand discovered his interest wavering towards animation.
It all started when, in his third year of B.E. Software Engineering, Chand joined as a trainee in a software firm in Bangalore. Everyday after work Chand got habituated to hanging out at experimental theatres where artists enact roles that are given to them off-the-cuff by the audience. During these sessions Chand learnt about the existence of animation from his friends. He got influenced with the fact that animation could help him utilize his technical skills to satisfy his inclination towards aesthetics and open doors for him into a new artistic world. So he decided to pursue a full fledged career in this field. Although he started working towards a career in animation at a later stage in his life, Chand inadvertently was used to early versions of 3d software in his college days, little knowing that these softwares would play a major role in his professional life.
Another interesting fact was that, some years back, Animation was not considered as a career or something to which one can dedicate one’s life. Same was the case with Chand’s parents. They were not positive about his decision to shift gears and take up animation from scratch. Chand’s parents came from an academic background so they expected him to pursue a popular career option like an MBA degree. Although Chand was focused on a career in animation, he started preparing for CAT, which he now candidly calls ‘boring’. But by that time the animation bug had already invaded his head. Slowly his parents have realized the value and seriousness of animation as a career and chand says that it is only because of his parents’ backing he has been able to come this far.
His search for the right place to start his career in animation brought him to MAAC, Mumbai and Workstation. Although he picked up the nuances of animation at Workstation, he felt an immense need to gain practical experience. So Chand joined MAAC and soon started working in Maya Entertainment Ltd. At MEL, he got the opportunity to work on good projects like Sonpari, Karishma ka Karishma, Mandrake, Movies like Oops,Hawa and Music Videos like Pyar ka Jashn. In this regard, Chand says “Bollywood taught me all about tough dead lines, dealing with clients, competitive production atmosphere and other such stuff”. Chand also learnt a lot about art and aesthetics from the senior artists at MEL.
Honk Toot and Swo-Swoosh for Holland – 3D animated Series that chand has worked on at UTV
Chand next joined UTV Toons in October 2003. Initially he started as an animator and today his role has evolved to that of a technical director. Says Chand, “When I joined UTV, the demand for 3D animation globally was just beginning to grow. Back then UTV Toons was full of 2D artists who were learning and making the transition to 3D animation. Learning curves are always full of challenges and I who joined in as animator ended up multi tasking , prime amongst my responsibilities being trouble shooting which I could manage thanks to my technical background”
The techno creative Chand managed to solve technical issues for the team members, of course there was always regular guidance and support from the robust technical team at UTV.
Chand feels that he has been very fortunate to get the job of a TD and he earnestly thanks UTV for giving him this opportunity. Describing his feelings, he says “I am grateful to the UTV Team for confidently giving me such a responsibility without considering my young age
Magic Cellar for SABC-3D Animated Series that chand has worked on at UTV
A regular day
His daily routine starts with a bumpy auto ride to his office, no buses or bikes for Chand. The reading addict prefers rickshaw so that he can enjoy reading a novel on his way to work.
Now that’s what one would call making the most of your time!!
His Shri Ganesh (way of beginning things) at office is making an elaborate ‘to do list’ with post-its stuck all around just so that he doesn’t forget anything.
Speaking about his work routines and the practice that he follows to stay more efficient, Chand candidly shared, “I always move around with a voice recorder at hand, the moment anything important comes up that I need to note, I simply record it. This ensures that I don’t miss out on anything. People find it funny at times, but it really works well for me”
He lives here in Mumbai with his three colleagues who are also into animation, one among them being Abhishek Chandra with whom he cofounded cgTantra. They watch movies almost everyday. Every time they finish watching a movie, one of the roomies, Vaibhav Dubey (lighting lead at UTV) analyzes the cinematography aspect and the entire group ends up discussing the whole movie.
His Goals
To build an in-house 3Dsoftware.
To design his dream production pipeline.
Chand wanted to start an online forum, where artists could showcase their work and share knowledge. So along with his friends Abhishek and Dada, Chand launched a forum called www.cgtantra.com.
Today cgTantra.com is the biggest online community of Indian Digital Artists with around 3000 members from all genres of the Computer Graphics field. Besides serving as a showcase, artist gallery and publishing Interviews and profiles of artists working in major studios, cgTantra also provides a platform for the artists to share their knowledge and views on a wide range of topics through its diversified Forums and Discussion Boards which are categorized into the various specializations of the CG Industry.
The trio had sown the seeds to see tantra grow like a tree. They want to take Tantra to the remotest of places to spread awareness among people especially parents. An interesting activity that Tantra did was to conduct a cgtantra meet-up in Chand’s hometown Bubhneshwar. The meet was attended by a lot of sculptors and painters. All these artists were made aware that there is more that can be done to still carvings and drawings through animation. Tantra has conducted meet ups in different cities, but this particular meet-up was followed by a seven hour long open session in which parents, enthusiasts and other curious people were made aware of what animation was and the potential that it has as a career.
Chand wants to conduct workshops in Engineering colleges to let the engineering students realize the immense potential the animation industry holds for IT and programming which is still at a very nascent stage.
An incident he remembers
At the Bhubaneshwar CGTantra meet-up, (this was after hanuman was released) a college boy came to chand and asked him “Is it true that around 200 people work for 24 hours for around two three months and generate 2 seconds?
His hobbies
Watching movies, plays and concerts, reading all types of books
Objects of desire
I want the best PC in the world.
I also want a Smart Camcorder.
My dreamhouse is beautifully build wooden construction right on the beach with lots of coconut trees, and a sleek Mitsubishi Pajero right there on the sands for me to move around in. Most important, the house must have my pc and a wireless connection.
Collection of
Above 200 – 300 CDs and DVDs of movies, both live action and animated from different parts of the world which he has collected along with his roommates.(loves Robert Rodriguez’s and Kurusowa’s movies)
Has lots of animated movie posters in his house. Antiques and books.
His favourite Vacation Spot
“My favourite spot is back home in Orissa. A beach at konark where one can see dolphins, yes dolphins you read that right.”
His favourite books
‘Rain Maker’ and ‘The Firm’ by John Grisham and Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code.
His favorite animated movie
MONSTERS Inc . He likes it coz there is “Mike Wizowski” – the witty little single eyed green monster in it.
Favorite character
‘Jerry McGuire’. The never give up attitude of this character is what appealed to me.
Animation to Chand is
“Instilling Life into anything”.
An animation artist is a mix of an Anatomist, Psychologist and Doctor.
The best Piece of advice you were given
I got the best advice from Pushkaraj Bagwe, my ex-Animation Director at UTV:
Be Humble and learn to share was something he always preached.
What advice would you give to students and freshers?
‘Learn the art not the tool’
Comments on Anifest India 06
For me as an artist, Anifest looks like a great meeting place, best for networking and lots of fun. And the main attraction for me is Vaibhav Kumaresh’s workshop. I am looking forward to it.
I am also pretty excited about the workshop that I will be doing on 30th with my colleague Shibu Menon. Its going to be about – “Streamlined Production Pipelines” and have started working on it to make it as interesting as possible.
Comments on Animation ‘xpress
“Animation ‘xpress is like the Times of India for Animators and Animation industry”
Magic Cellar and Honk Toot Swo-Swoosh Images courtesy : UTV Toons
Accompanying icons illustrated by Prachi Shinde