Hasta La Motion!

With a stellar speakers list, this year, Animation Masters Summit have managed to create buzz.

Day one ended by honouring the legend of animation Raman Lal Mistry, the creator of the iconic ‘Doordarshan’ logo animation. What keeps the animation industry growing is the passion one has, he said in a candid interview with us. Keeping the essence of 2D animation, animators must focus more on the technique which is kind of getting lost, added he.

With the learnings from Mistry, the second day of AMS began with master Vivek Ram, the Senapati of Vaanarsena Studios showcasing his amazing work in 2D animation. With an experience of over 20 years, Ram is famous for his creative intelligence and his major inspiration has been Amar Chitrakatha and Ramayan.

Considering the growing popularity for 3D animation in kids’ genre, even Ram feels that the younger audience is not aware of the 2D animation and its techniques. A creative soul, Ram in his enriching presentation managed to get applause for every art he showcased. The audience were in awe of certain facts he shared from mythology.

Beginning his session with ancient paintings and sculptures, he took the audience on a ride to ancient India and informed all how the art has evolved over time, keeping the basics intact.

The display of the intelligently created logo of Vaanarsena grabbed attention of all present in the hall. Ram thinks that these Indian stories need to reach as many people, as they take one into the world of ancient ‘Bharat’. His basic philosophy in portraying stories and setting character designs is through heavy research and new age personification.

Ram’s Myth-o-Katha gifs have created quite a stir and people actually waited for the creative yet informative gifs to enter their inbox every couple of days.

The animated short, Durga created by him is another great example of how beautifully 2D animation can tell stories in the simplest manner. The audience were englamoured and the animated short received a huge round of applause. Ram spoke about how the 16 plus age group audience in India is not exposed to good content in animation. Making this his primary objective, he wants to evangelize animation for the young adults in India.

When asked about creating superheroes, Ram quickly replies, “I don’t find it necessary. There is so much fantasy and valour in the Indian stories like Ramaayana and Mahabharata, which consists of so many superheroes. They are awe inspiring.”

Ram, with his works is taking the technique of 2D animation back in limelight. He beamingly said, “2D animation is surely making a comeback.”

Indian screenplay writer and trans-creator Mayur Puri found Ram’s projects extremely necessary and important for the young generation and he asked Ram that he must continue to share it with the world.

The post Animation Masters Summit 2019 saw the creative side of animator Vivek Ram appeared first on AnimationXpress.

Having started their journey in 2012 with a team of only five members, Prayan Animation Studio has come a long way. Despite many challenges and obstacles, they have shown zeal and determination to become one of the top 2D animation studios in the country. Since today marks the seventh anniversary of their successful journey, we take a look at their accomplishments over the years.

The synergy of two like-minded souls; CEO  Vinayan  V and COO  Remesh Rao led to the inception of Prayan Animation Studio which has maintained its reputation as one of the best in the market over the years. Their commitment and ethos have led a flourishing team of young creative minds comprising creative directors, animators, illustrators, layout artists, storyboard artists and producers.

Not only have they dealt in indigenous projects but also spread their wings globally having worked for international clients of repute. Their success is also a credit to their socially-conscientious approach and their belief in supporting each other, fostering a healthy working environment.

Their services include 2D animation, 3D animation, illustrations, children’s book, comic books and they have worked for major clients from countries like the United States of America, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Germany.

Furthermore, they plan to reach newer heights and take their expertise to a whole another level. As they describe, their prioritise zero time lag and desired quality deliverance as their ideal goals.

On top of all this, they have succeeded in bringing up a new brand named  Explainer Video Maker which consist of a dedicated team exclusively for explainer video making. Within this limited period of time, they have helped many organisations and startups to showcase and brand their products/services to the targeted audience by delivering explainer videos.

Their sister concerns are SEO website India and Prayan Infotech, a leading software development company in India serving all kinds of design, software and web development. They are aiming to reach a strength of 300 employees and spread their wings all over the world within the next three years. Having initiated efforts for creating own animation series and excel in the animation film industry, they look forward to achieving this goal before celebrating their 10th anniversary.

For more details please visit:https://www.prayananimation.com

The post Prayan Animation Studio completes seven years in the animation industry appeared first on AnimationXpress.

 

Toonz Media Masters Summit witnessed a profound proliferation of insights by Gummy Bear International’s CEO Christian Schneider. The session titled What is important in an Animation? observed the fundamental requisites for creating successful animated content.

Gummy Bear International CEO Christian Schneider

Gummy Bear International CEO Christian Schneider answered this question at the ToonZ Master Summit. Outlining the important steps before coming up with the Animated content, he spoke about creativity and ideas. Speaking about how important finalising the idea and bringing it to the real world is, he further discussed the significance of the script stage which he dubbed as the most difficult one as it involves the struggles of setting up an agreeable storyline.

Toonz Media Master Summit

Highlighting the next step of storyboarding, he shared, “A storyboarder shouldn’t do something that he doesn’t agree upon” He further discussed how it is necessary to avoid all struggles in the content.

Shedding light on how making mistakes is a part of the learning process, he added that mistakes also help in making the content better. The usefulness of the trial and error has been a core part of his journey. Pointing out how smart children are, he explained, “Kids have the best sense of what is good and what is not. One should keep this in mind before creating an animated series.”

Jocularly addressing himself a bear after his iconic character Gummy Bear, he also shared how he and his son have spent over a decade with Toonz on building the global IP. Schneider hinted at the possibility of a Gummy Bear movie, “A Gummy bear with superpowers”. Enlarging on what made Gummy Bear such a success, he broke down his principle approach into three parts; Gummy Bear equals to song plus visual plus text.

Music has been a key differentiator for Gummybear. According to him, his passion for music led him to transform himself from a tax consultant to a global animation master. Till date, he has produced most of GummyBear’s music videos. Its success is evident in its path-breaking records; 15 billion views and more on Youtube.

We hope such summits are held more often so more and more animators can be inspired.

The post Christian Schneider shares his insights at Toonz Animation Masters Summit appeared first on AnimationXpress.

CJ 4DPLEX, the world’s leading cinema technology company, together with Warner Bros has announced that the live-action Pokémon adventure, POKÉMON Detective Pikachu, will be opening worldwide by 10 May, is coming to select theatres in the ScreenX format.

“We are very excited that Pokémon fans will soon be able to enjoy the fun, comedy and adventure of POKÉMON Detective Pikachu and be able to immerse themselves in the full potential of ScreenX.We are thrilled to partner with Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures in bringing this experience to audiences in our newest cinematic format,” said  CJ 4DPLEX  CEO JongRyul Kim.

POKÉMON Detective Pikachu will be the third Warner Bros film to be released for 2019 in the panoramic, 270-degree premium cinema format. The new film is part of an earlier six-picture agreement between the two companies that includes New Line Cinema’s Shazam! and The Curse of La Llorona, currently in cinemas; Warner Bros. highly anticipated Godzilla: King of the Monsters, opening on 31 May; and two more yet to be announced for 2019.

ScreenX is the world’s first multi-projection theatre technology that allows a 270-degree panoramic movie watching experience. ScreenX allows the audience to go beyond the frame of the traditional movie screen, utilising a proprietary system to expand the centre screen image to the side walls, surrounding audiences with imagery and providing a sense of being inside the movie.

“We couldn’t be happier to expand our ScreenX slate and invite fans around the world to experience this much-anticipated new Pokémon adventure with the full immersion that this breakthrough technology can deliver. As a company, we’re committed to creating unparalleled movie-going experiences for our customers, and CJ 4DPLEX has been a terrific partner as they continue to push the frontiers of technology to deliver our stories in exciting new ways,” said Warner Bros head of international distribution Thomas Molter. ”

ScreenX adds another dimension of creative possibilities for audiences to enjoy when seeing POKÉMON Detective Pikachu. The 270-degree experience opens up a whole new world as Pokémon pop up everywhere, filling all the three screens, and epic battles put audiences in the middle of the stadium as Detective Pikachu’s lightning attacks strike from the left and right panels while action unfolds on the main screen.

The post Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures ties up to release ‘POKÉMON Detective Pikachu’ in 270-degree panoramic ScreenX format appeared first on AnimationXpress.

Raman Lal Mistry

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.

DoorDarshan Logo Evolution

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.

The post Animation industry veteran Raman Lal Mistry talks about the animation scene at Animation Masters Summit 2019 appeared first on AnimationXpress.