ASIFA India

Asifa India is proud to present an exciting session on Motion Capture Techniques in this month’s CG Meetup in Hyderabad. Watch how it is done, in a live demo!
Interact and learn what Motion capture is all about.

Sessions details:
* Introduction to Motion Capture technology
* Different Motion Capture techniques. (Body Facial Fingers etc)
* Example of Motion Capture (practical exercise)
* Example of data cleanup and data solving (practical exercise)

Date: Sunday, 18th May 2008

Venue:
Mobility Art Studios Pvt Ltd
2A, Annapurna Studios
Road No. 2, Jubilee Hills
Hyderabad 500033, India

Timings: Session 1: 11.00 am
Session 2: 3.00 pm

To Register please send an email to : cgmeetup@asifa.in

Hurry Limitied Seating!!!
Entry FREE of Cost!
Looking forward to seeing you all there!

A special meet-up on Women in Animation (WIA) was conducted on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at National College, Bandra, Mumbai- India. The programme was Sponsored by Nvidia’ “Women In Technology” and supported by Asifa India, AnimationXpress.com, Rhythm & Hues, cgTantra.com and allaboutanimation.com.

The event had a crowd of around 450 people which included students, animators, scriptwriters and teachers; majority of them being women. The format of the program was simple, Screening of films made by Indian Animators and filmmakers, followed by a panel discussion. and last but not the least was the screening of Shelley Page’s collection of films done by European women.

An interesting range of films was presented in the Indian Section with ‘Mukund and Riaz’ by Nina Sabnani, ‘In The Air’ by Simi Nallaseth, ‘Printed Rainbow’ by Geetanjali Rao, ‘Aparajita’ by Kanupriya ,’When Bugwan Got Squished’ by Nandita Jain, just to name a few.

This was followed by a short introduction to WIA by Saraswathi Balgam, President, WIA Indian Chapter.

Saraswathi Balgam

Next was the panel discussion, consisting of a number of eminent women animators in the industry such as Tehzeeb Khurana, Sherry Bharda, Simi Nallaseth, Geetanjali Rao, Shilpa Ranade, Nina Sabnani and Rekha Thorat, Moderated by Saraswathi, the panel consisted of women coming form all aspects of animation, like education, children education in animation, independent film-makers, animators to VFX Supervisors.

Panel Discussion

The discussion was focused around on the journey of these women, the challenges women face in animation, a few other general Q&A by the audience. Each one of the panelist brought in their experience and views to the table making it a diverse and informative discourse.

Rekha Thorat: WIA volunteer/Animator

Talking about the challenges they faced as women in the field of animation, the panelists shared that, “It is difficult to actually be on set in awful circumstances and constantly play second fiddle to demanding directors and film stars. They think animation is about post-production and animators can perform miracles,” said Sherry Bharda. “Being a woman can make it tougher.” One needs to gain an amount of trust to get work done well. Some of the panelists, such as Simi are “lucky” because their husbands help them with their children. Others like Shilpa have to try and balance their work and family as it is “hard on the kids.” Many even take their work home or take their kids to work.

Sherry Bharda

Shilpa Ranade

There has been a change in the last seven or eight years where the number of women in the field of animation has increased. In the question-answer session, some of the important points made were the importance of a good script and story, the need for a Writer’s Guild and research in animation, the need to learn the fundamentals of animation and of learning 2D animation before 3D, the lack of foresight in animation, the unnecessary stress on only learning to use softwares, the need for niche schools in India and the need for not only writing in animation but also about animation. Indian animators should use diverse content and not just mythological content and software companies in India should keep in touch with what students want, as is done in the west.

Geetanjali Rao

After the panel discussion, Laura Dohrmann of NVIDIA shared her experience of being one of the few women working in technical training , along with the core values of Women in Technology, NVidia’s outreach program for Women.

Laura Dohrmann from NVIDIA

The finale of the program was the screening of some of the award winning films made by European Women, compiled by Shelley Page, the European Representative of DreamWorks Animation.

Shelley Page

Shelley has a large collection of award winning films made by students all over the world. Some of the award-winning films Shelley screened in the event were Annecy Award winner City Paradise by Gaelle Denis of Passion Pictures Production, Oscar nominated Badgered directed by Sharon Coleman from National Film and Television Studio, Loop by digital film makers Supinfocom in France, UNICEF award winner No Limits by Filmakademie in Germany, Annecy Award winner Wojna and Voodoo, Blindspot and Oktapodi from Gobelins School in Paris.

Image for Shelly’s Collection

The event ended on a very positive note with the promise of more such events to come. The support and enthusiasm of both the students and the professionals was overwhelming and we hope to get the continual support to host many more such events.

Asifa India is proud to be a Media Partner for the 13th FMX Conference on Animation, Effects, Games and Digital Media, in Stuttgart, Germany starting from the 5th of May 2008.

FMX is the primary European meeting of the digital community. Presenting cutting edge digital entertainment, the conference addresses the interests of professionals in creation, production and distribution from all corners of the industry. Innovative approaches in the animation, visual effects and gaming industries create a focus for discussions about the convergence and future of digital entertainment.

Meet top names in the industry as they present their latest achievements, interview with recruiters searching for new talent and test hard- and software innovations directly with developers – all in an open atmosphere of qualified discussion and informal encounter. The level of knowledge and experience and the openness with which it is shared has made FMX a set date for cg professionals all around the world.

fmx/08 takes place from May 05 – 08, 2008 in Haus der Wirtschaft, Stuttgart, Germany.

For more information and detailed programs please visit their website:
www.fmx.de

First, thank you very much for your continued support and positive feedback regarding the highly successful ASIFA India CGMeetup series.

ASIFA India is proud to inform you that in lieu of our normal CGMeetups, this month, we are working together with Women In Animation India, to bring you a very special event focused on the themes of celebrating the art of animation and the roles and inspiration of women in our industry.

This event will be structured similarly to the usual CGMeetups, and will have screenings of a variety of animation films created by women, both from India and from around the world, plus we will have in attendance several leading women from our industry to informally share their experiences and adventures so far.

Plus, we will also have a special session called “Shelly’s Eye Candy” which will be presented by Shelly Page of Dreamworks Animation. Shelly, has collected some of the more amazing, funny, and inspirational animation films from around the world which she will share with the audience in her session.

Finally, thanks to the continued support of nVidia, and their “Women In Technology” group, there will be several goodies given away to the audience at the event.

The event is being held on Wednesday, 23rd April, 2008 5:00pm at National College, Bandra (W) and is free of cost to all attendees.

To pre-register & reserve your seat, email wia.ind@gmail.com or just show up at the venue.

We are looking forward to seeing you there at this wonderful event!

Animation has always been an exciting topic!!

And in this month’s Animation Case Studies we looked at a vast variety and different styles of animation. Ranging from 2d to 3d to mix media, we had a power pack show with Studios like Crest Animation Studio, Famous House of Animation, Graphiti Multimedia and Rhythm& Hues, showcasing their works.

The presenters were full of energy and so were the 450+ crowd for this month’s CG Meetup on Animation Case studies.
The event began with the presenters form Crest led by Mehul Hirani, discussing their series: “Wordworld”. Wordworld, was a colorful, word-rich place where a wacky troupe of WordFriends, who are characters first and words second, go on comic adventures. Completely 3D in nature they discussed the challenges they faced during execution and how it proved to be learning experience for all the people involved.

Next on was Famous House of Animation’s E. Suresh who wowed the audience by the range of work they do. He spoke in depth about the Levis Slim ad , the conceptualization process and the various challenges faced. Interesting bits were the story and character development. he also touched base on their recent ‘Indian Premier League AD-KarmaYudh’ and also ICICI Chintamani and Buladi films. Each of these adverts had a different approach and was quite interesting to know their conceptualization process!

The short break was more for conversations with people wanting to interact with the speakers. Following the break, the speakers, Deepak Chachra and Kailash Shah, form Graphiti Multimedia, took on the stage with their project `World of OO” a collaborative project along with Joanna Ferrone from Honest Entertainment. They primarily focused on modeling and texturing and about what all steps had to be taken in the creation of the characters so to give us the required animation. They also showed a couple of sequences that were done on the project.

The last presenters for the evening were the animators Kedar Raut, Sachin Surayvanishi and Nikhil Salvi form Rhythm & Hues Studios, who discussed their runaway Christmas Hit: Alvin and the Chipmunks’ They discussed the flow of process of animation within the studio with detailed shot breakup of two shots. They also touched base on the character look, and the challenges of animating the same in a live action environment.

Over all an exciting meetup which ended with an excited audience member winning a NVidia Qurdo Fx Graphic card!
Keeping looking forward to many more meetups like these.
Asifa India team.