Hasta La Motion!

Simulating realistic digital humans in film and television is known as the ultimate frontier of visual effects. It takes thousands of hours and hundreds of artists to create a virtual human that contains all the physical details of a real-life person.

Among other things, Technicolor India head Biren Ghose spoke about MPC’s experience of creating digital humans. MPC created a digital double in the year 2004 in the movie Fast and Furious 7 when Paul Walker had shuffled off his mortal coil due to a car accident.

Paul Walker (digital double)

He shared, “It became our job at MPC to make sure we could map him, map his images from his previous footage. We had to work with his brother. we had to figure out how to create that.”

MPC’s first digital double experiment was a huge success. Another project in which they had to create a digital double was Terminator Genesis. They had made a young Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie where the older one was already acting.

He recounts, “When we did this perfect job everybody was happy and the studio tested it and when they tested it the audience didn’t believe this was young Schwarzenegger because they’re used to seeing him and his physiology has changed so from a perfect Schwarzenegger we had to make him a little imperfect so now they could believe this is Arnold Schwarzenegger.”

Photo-real imagery has its own challenges; one of which is uncanny valley.

Many are not aware about the digital double in the movie Jungle. Whilst the boy was real in majority of  movie, they had to create a digital double for adventurous sequences. He noted, “for a good percentage of the movie I can’t tell you how much…. maybe less than a quarter the boy is not real because he was jumping off a cliff and onto a buffalo and jumping into the fire etc according to the script. That required us to create a digital double.”

He added, “And many of you would know that the interaction between the real and the CG is not the easiest thing to do. And I think all of us are kind of getting there to make sure that it doesn’t interrupt the beauty of the storytelling.”

Making of Making of Rachel

MPC has done a brilliant job in the Oscar-winning movie Blade Runner 2049 where they created a body double of the character of Rachel. Speaking about the making of Rachel, he shared, “they couldn’t find a match for casting Rachel, So neck upwards, Rachel is not real. and this really shows you where the state of the art is.

Its true that studios can bring CG actors to life in convincing ways. Latest advancements in artistry and technology has shined the spotlight on digital actors.

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Temple Run is one of the most popular games franchise that cuts across all age-groups, dominating almost 55 percent of the market share of gaming apps on the Android platform.

Temple Run

At the recent IGDC (India Game Developer Conference) at Hyderabad, Imangi Studio CEO Walter Devins gave an insightful presentation on various aspects of game development. Extolling the importance of mindfulness, he further elaborated on their ethos and meditative-work-culture where his employees are expected to not use their smartphones during meetings which has increased performance and efficiency. Between light-hearted series of video clips featuring a live-action monkey running behind Imangi Studio members and sapient piece of advice on game development, Devins spilled the beans on the upcoming game additions and maps too.

Speaking to AnimationXpress, Devins revealed, “We listened to our Indian players and we created a map called Jungle Map, and has two Indian characters. And that map is really popular in US and UK because Indian lore and culture is really popular in the rest of the world. India is becoming more and more sophisticated in terms of technology, education and economy.”

He added, “We have 15 new maps and 22 characters that we’ve come out with and are continuing to work on and we are launching two versions of the game, starting next year”

While one of these games is scheduled to come out in October next year, and the other temple run game in 2021. We can’t wait for the upcoming versions!

The post Temple Run: New developments on the game franchise coming soon appeared first on AnimationXpress.

The projector played the visuals as the crew associated with the projected formed a huddle. “This is not good,” said the director while switching off the projector with his remote. The lively room went ghost-quiet. After a pause, he scanned the studio-room full of crew members and jubilantly exclaimed, “This is very good!” “No one could tell it is CGI! In fact, I would like to tell them that I shot the scene at the location itself,” he added

Expanding the landscape of storytelling, visual effects technology has advanced by leaps and bounds over the years. For far too long, visual effects industry has been unfavourably relegated to more of a technical occupation however this notion couldn’t be far from the truth. The craft of visual effects encompasses a complex mix of creativity and technical prowess and a firm understanding of filmmaking according to VFX veteran Indranil Roy who recently rolled back the time in the much-acclaimed Bangla movie Hiralal The Uncredited Role.

The movie was acclaimed for its storytelling as well as the depiction of British India at the Kolkata Film Festival. Indranil Roy spoke to AnimationXpress over a cuppa about his VFX journey. Although he had worked extensively in the craft of visual effects in Kolkata, he recounted his first project in Bollywood back in 2008 that co-incidentally required him to recreate the same British India themed gothic structure; Victoria Terminus (now renamed as CST station).

Speaking about his VFX foray in Mumbai, he shared,“1920, a horror movie was a challenge in itself. Vikram Bhatt gave us a simple brief. He wanted something that wasn’t done before,” he shared. Not only did Roy’s computer-generated VT station impress Bhatt but also made headlines in the newspapers owing to its realism and intricacy.

At the time, he was working at EFX Prasad corporation and VFX scene was in its first flushes. Unlike now, filmmakers were skeptical about the potential of computer generated imagery.

Indranil Roy’s success brought his way another project which posed a bigger challenge. His friend who is an eminent ad-film director came to him with as many as three animation films. After months of experimenting and seeking help from other animation studios, the director had finally begun to lose hope. To his rescue, Roy realised the exigencies of the situation and took up the project in his hands. Ingeniously cracking the problem with piquant animated designs on his personal computer at home, he made the timely submission of the seeming-impossible project.

He shares, “There was almost no time left. It was a challenging situation. I had to complete these three films single-handedly on my home PC in three days by working round the clock without sleep. After delivering these three films I just fell into the sofa in the post production studio and sank into deep sleep.”

Despite the time constraints, his efforts paid off as one of these three animation films bore fruit and earned him the country’s most prestigious award of the advertising industry – ABBY Award, 2009, Goa Fest, Film Craft – Animation and another film was featured in international top five, adforum.com.”

Having made a dent in the advertising space, projects began to come his way. His first VFX  project in Mumbai, under his own company’s banner (Golden Ratio), was a commercial for Reynolds 045 pen featuring master blaster Sachin Tendulkar as the brand ambassador.

Creating VFX imagery is always a challenge. His next project in the advertising space needed him to create an entire shipyard in CG. At the time, the ad-director couldn’t find a real one to shoot at and the project had to be delivered in the span of ten days. While ad-film makers were agnostic to the potential of VFX, Roy was confident about his solution and delivered it to the best of his ability.

Having solved pressing problems in the ad-films, he bagged another Bollywood VFX project called Break Ke Baad.  “However there is an interesting story behind it,” he adds. The director (Vicky Bahr) was almost sure he was going to ruin the ad film and feigned dissatisfaction with the final output of the ad-film over the phone before abruptly hanging up on Roy. After then minutes, Roy got a call from him asking him to report at Kunal Kohli Productions’ office.

Telling an anecdote he narrates, “I still remember on the first day of the shooting, one of the biggest VFX studio in Bombay (owned by one of the biggest corporate firm of India) came with a foreign Visual Effects Supervisor to meet Mr. Vicky Bahri in the set to pitch for the VFX of the film. Mr. Bahri told, “I have given a lot of trouble to Indranil while making the Araldite commercial. I did not trust him at all. But he has proven that I can trust him. He deserves the film.”

Speaking about his experience, he shares, “So I bagged the first independent feature film under my own company banner – Golden Ratio. It was after a few months of quitting my job with EFX. Apart from the other VFX shots, the director asked me to create an interesting credit sequence.”

After the release of the movie, the opening sequence garnered praise by film critics for its inventiveness and design. Pankaj Sabnani of Glamsham.com wrote, Break ke Baad has one of the best opening credits that we have ever seen. Right from a cinema screen to a t-shirt to steps to a terrace floor, the opening names appear innovatively, leaving a grin on your face.”

Roy shares that it is not the first time his creativity for an opening sequence was praised as it turns out he had created an opening sequence for a television show before he came to Mumbai. He says, “Before coming to Bombay I worked in Kolkata almost for fourteen long years. I mainly used to work for the commercials on local, national and international brands. But the work which became very popular was an opening credit sequence for a bengali television show for women called Prothoma. I enjoyed creating that montage because I could introduce a very urban Bengali style (which is purely my own style) of illustrations to this.”

After Break Ke Baad, his next project Guerrilla was a serious feature centered on the liberation war of Bangladesh in which three million bengalis were subjected to genocide by the Pakistani Army. “The movie was directed by Bangladesh Liberation Army’s youngest commander Mr Nassiruddin Yusuf. It had received Netpack Best Asian Film Award in Kolkata Film Festival,” he recounts.

“I feel honoured to be associated with projects that have depicted the epoch-making events in the timeline of history,” states he.

Elaborating further, he shares, “Depicting the Bangladesh liberation movement that led to the creation of a whole new country, depicting the story of the first filmmaker of India and the famous historical battle of Saragrahi,”

He did his first television VFX for a finite series titled 21 Sarfarosh for Discovery Jeet which later was adopted by Netflix too. The series bagged the Indian Telly Technical Award for best visual effects. This was followed by the next project which he describes as “the great opportunity to work with one of India’s most revered VFX supervisors Mr R.C. Kamalakannan in Syeraa Nrasimha Reddy.

In this day and age, we can hardly imagine a movie without visual effects enhancing the visuals. Therefore, it becomes even more important to recognise the visual effects artistry in what Roy aptly describes as filmcraft.

The post Indranil Roy: Story of an illustrious journey into Visual Effects filmcraft appeared first on AnimationXpress.

Indian gaming industry is spurring the growth story of Indian media and entertainment industry in 2019. This year’s growth story is not only limited to game-creation and profitability but also the increasing fertility of the gaming landscape which has eventually seen the rise of newer avenues in the ecosystem.  Although this year has brought economic slowdown, pulling down India’s GDP growth under five per cent, however the domestic gaming industry continues to leap in 2019 in terms of reach, innovation, global recognition and so on.

In India nearly three-fourths of the market is occupied by online and mobile gaming platforms. Online gaming, as a segment, is estimated to be a $1.1 billion opportunity by 2021, according to Google-KPMG. By then, India is expected to have more than 628 million gamers.  In a separate report, the All India Gaming Federation (AIGF) projects that there will be around 300 million online gamers by the end of 2019. “The evolution of digital and online gaming models is leading to a surge in the number of online gaming players over the last couple of years,” AIGF explains.

Over the last decade, especially in the last 5 to 6 years, Facebook games like Farmville and Candy Crush have been a rage. Games like Clash of Clans and most recently PUBG, CoD have caught the imagination of the young Indian crowd – extracting hours at length on the interface. The in-app purchases in these games present the developers with great financial viability.

NASSCOM data suggests that India’s mobile games market will be worth $1.1 billion by 2020, and number of users projected to become 628 million by then. With this increased headroom for growth, major players in the gaming industry are more willing to invest a substantial amount in the country. Industry big-wigs like Alibaba and AGTech Holdings have already invested in the market. Tencent too has evaluated its opportunities in India. StomStudio partnered with mobile game publisher Gamesbond to create mobile games in India. Considering most of the aspects we have listed  five reasons which we think are responsible for to make this year of gaming:

Rise of the fantasy sports :

The fantasy sports segment in India, has witnessed a massive transformation since the last two decades of its launch. Indian fantasy sports platforms accounted for 80.62 per cent of all investments until Q1-2019 and  thus  there  has been huge rush of fantasy sports platforms in India.

The journey of fantasy sports platform started with Dream11 with the tag as the game of skill and not the game of luck . Despite that the platform has underwent various hurdles to prove that how the gameplay of  ‘game of skill’ is completely different from the ‘game of luck’. As soon as Bombay highcourt gave the clean chit after dismissing the PIL which  claimed that the promoters of Dream11 were encouraging gambling and also not paying Goods and Services Tax (GST), Indian fantasy sports industry kept blooming.

Fantasy sports brand Gamezy founder and CTO Prithvi Singh said “We are happy and welcome the decision taken by the Bombay High Court. This move would be an impetus to the fantasy sports market in India. Fantasy gaming users can now continue to enjoy the sport without any apprehensions. The nature of this sport basically arises out of user’s superior knowledge, judgement and attention thus labelling it as skill based games. Additionally, users have protection guaranteed under the Article19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India.”

Although before that there were plenty of fantasy sports platforms who have emerged with Dream11 following the game of skill gameply came under uncertainty, post the verdict it was sigh of relief for the platforms. Today from one ( which was Dream11) fantasy sports platform  India now  have emerged into 70 different platforms catering various  games  and not just limited to cricket. Also this year Dream11 has expanded its wings as well in March Dream11, has launched FanCode, an ad-free multi-sport aggregator platform, offering a wide spectrum of content, commerce and community engagement. The platform has already amassed over one crore users.

Dream11 CEO and co-founder Harsh Jain said, “It has been fascinating to witness the evolving landscape of Indian sports and the rapid rise of fan engagement. Our latest offering, FanCode, aims to be the single aggregator platform that will connect the evolved sports audience with relevant sports products and services. Under the capable leadership of Colaco and Krishnan , we can expect to see FanCode changing the way an Indian sports fan consumes sports online.”

Also this was the year of cricket because of ICC cricket World Cup 2019 and IPL 2019 was around and for Indian fans, cricket is like religion. “WorldCup is a special tournament, all Indians wait for this for four years. Fantasy sport gave these fans an option to express themselves off the field” said fantasy sport game My11Circle head of business, Saroj Panigrah. And thus most of the fantasy sports brands has rolled out various campaigns by investing on celebrity sports ambassadors, tournaments to attract audience.

Because of sports enthusiasts and the huge market possibilities many platforms have attracted decent amount of investments as well. This includes Mobile gaming startup Nazara Technologies along with listed casino gaming company Delta Corp, have together invested Rs 40 crore in fantasy sports player, Halaplay Technologies. Also most recently Minneapolis-based fantasy soccer platform Starting 11 receives $5 million dollar investment from Indian investor Brand Capital as we are approaching to the year 2020 which possibly will be the year of soccer because of FIFA World Cup 2020.

Game creation

This year the game developers have put their best foot forward in the creation of the games with innovative designs, engaging gameplay, attractive interface and so on. From cooking games to war games to VR games the domestic game developers have explored it all.

Starting from Green Gold animation have have played the gaming card in 2019 pretty well  with their animated IP Chhota Bheem.

Firstly the launch of their new game Chhota Bheem Swachh Bharat Run in collaboration with Nazara technologies  before the republic day.The game was inspired by prime minister Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. This was a part of Nazara’s Play4Good initiative wherein a mobile game is being used to educate young children with good values to keep their surroundings clean.

छोटा भीम का बड़ा समर्थन!

Thank you Chhota Bheem, for strengthening the team that is fulfilling the dream of a Swachh Bharat.

This valuable support will surely motivate more youngsters to join the movement. https://t.co/vjPU50DSoJ

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 26, 2019

Secondly they have rolled out Chhota Bheem Kung Fu Dhamaka game  on Andriod, iOS as well as VR devices in  collaboration with Gamitronics just before the launch of the movie Chhota Bheem Kung Fu Dhamaka . As Green Gold Animation founder and CEO and TVAGA president Rajiv Chilaka stated that with “Kung fu Dhamaka game, our expectation is to set a new benchmark for Indian games.”

Speaking of VR games JetSynthesys launched India’s first multiplayer VR cricket game, Sachin Saga VR  along with a VR set. As JetSynthesys vice chairman and managing director Rajan Navani “for the first time in India and around the world, players can experience cricket in VR in physical locations wherever they are, since it’s the most portable and lightweight headset they can carry around and play with their friends. We have seen great consumer feedback so far and these consumers are now craving a new form of gaming which didn’t exist before among millions of gamers in India”

Apart from that  the indie gamers  have shown what can be achieved  with proper game designs   taking example  Mukti, In the shadows,Yodha, Cursed Arena, Bonfire 2 Forsaken, Gamedev Beatdown, Yodha, 1971: Indian Naval Front and many more  have raised the bar in the ecosystem.

In addition to that one of the unique expansions around the gaming ecosystem named  Ogre Head Minis were the launch of small games they create in the studio as prototypes and play during their free time just for fun. As the series name suggests, these were small games made in the span of a couple of days or a week by the studio and are fun-sized packages of thrill and entertainment.

Also Indian hyper-casual games have taken a platform Pocket League has witnessed 100,000 registrations, with over 20 million game replays and average time spent per user per day of 30 minutes. Pocket League’s co-founder Karan Khairajani shared the journey of hyper-casual games platform has been marvellous. They have launched the hyper-casual game platform Pocket League android app in early November where one can earn real cash by playing hyper-casual games available in the platform.

International recognition of Indian indie developers

 It has always been a proud moment for all when Indian indie game developers received recognition around the world.  It is very inspiring to witness when an Indian game developer receives international recognition despite all the struggles and the hurdles they face while developing a game.

This time at Casual Connect Europe 2019 an Indian Indie studio Street Lamp Games bagged ‘Best Mobile Game’ award for the game BOMBARIKA designed by Mahesh Athirala. Not only that the game has been nominated for four other awards as  Street Lamp Games CEO and founder Deepak Gurijala expressed “We never expected that we’ll be in the nominations among this tough competition but our game BOMBARIKA end up getting nominated for four awards – Best Game Design, Best Game Art, Best Innovative Game and Best Mobile Game’.”

Not only that playbae’s games In The Shadows bagged the “Best Puzzle Game” of 2019 accolade at Tencent Gaming Without Boundaries (GWB) Awards. PlayBae founder Nakul Verma shared “To my extreme surprise, ITS had won the “Best Puzzle Award” beating a lot of unique games in its category. Unfortunately, I could not go to the event to collect the award but Tencent has offered to help in the journeys of developers like me in promotion and development.” Not only that at the GameDaily Connect Asia 2019 In The Shadows was also nominated for the prestigious IndiePrize Awards and was awarded with the Most Innovative Game Title.

In addition to that IAF game featuring Abhinandan nominated for ‘Google Award. As part of the 2019 Users’ Choice winners, the official Indian Air Force Android game has been nominated among the top 10 most popular games of 2019. However Call of Duty Mobile grabbed the top spot and won the Users’ Choice award.

Although we have mentioned few of them but if the that hardwork everyone  pays off behind creating a game  worth an award hope to see more and more in near future.

Also BigCode Games managing director Vaishnavi Palleda being invited as a speaker in Mobile Growth Summit (MGS) 2019 in San Francisco. In fact, she is the only woman entrepreneur representing India alongside top gaming companies across the world. She said “I feel so proud to represent India at the Mobile Growth Summit 2019, San Francisco. It’s a proud moment for our country and also for me to be the only woman entrepreneur. I am very happy and excited to showcase our game from India on global platform, one of the largest summits in the world. I am grateful to MGS 2019, for selecting me as a speaker at the conference.”

Innitiatives

Game development scene in India is constantly leaping and the Indian gaming enthusiasts are diving into gaming as a viable career option.

Games for the wellness of society are one of the areas where game developers have been exploring over the years. Being one of the gaming hubs, Hyderabad has recently launched four-day program  Games for Good: Designing Games with a social impact at T-Hub in the association of the U.S. Consulate General Hyderabad and the Indo-American Centre (IAC). On hand to open the event were U.S. Consul General in Hyderabad Katherine Hadda and Government of Telangana IT Secretary Jayesh Ranjan.

The idea of the workshop is to communicate and inspire more video game designers to use their skills in creating video games that address social issues. In a candid conversation, Animation Xpress spoke with U.S Embassy and Consulate India assistant public affairs officer Akash Suri said, “Diplomats are always thinking about how we can get our messages across to people. Countries like India, our messages are often the same as what the Indian government wants to talk about. We also want to talk about trafficking, water rights, water scarcity and so on. We typically might use stuff like film diplomacy or music diplomacy and others but in this case, we thought why don’t we try gaming diplomacy for the first time?”

Apart from that Telengana Government has played crucial role and IndiaJoy is the most visible aspect of Telangana’s drive in the AVGC sector. It has a very aggressive AVGC Policy which it drafted  two  years ago in order to attract investments.

In addition to the industry beacons, the present Telengana government is playing a pivotal role in supporting and developing the animation industry  with various policies  among which the proposed plan of creating IMAGE Tower which will be “the ultimate destination for animation, gaming and entertainment in the country,” Chilaka expressed. The state policies and the creation of IMAGE Tower will aim to transform the animation ecosystem as it aims to create job opportunities, new investments and the rush of creating more and more animated fresh content.

Some of the highlights of other policies are :

• Reimbursement of GAME production cost for GAMING Companies which has developed online, mobile, console Game upto a maximum of Rs.5 lakhs per Game for one company per annum. (For SC/ST and Women Entrepreneurs – Rs.10 lakhs per game).
• 25per cent subsidy on lease rentals up to Rs.5 lakhs per annum up to a period of 3 years (For SC/ST and Women Entrepreneurs – 50 per cent subsidy on lease rentals up to Rs.8 lakhs per annum).
• 100 per cent reimbursement on first transaction and 50 per cent reimbursement on 2nd transaction of stamp duty, transfer duty.
• Admissibility of Industrial Power category tariff for AVGC Companies.
• For creating public awareness and creating employment opportunities for Youths in
• Animation, Visual effects, Gaming & Comics industry, Government will conduct stateof-the-art national/ international scale events, conference and exhibitions on annual basis. Example: IndiaJoy the largest congregation of gaming, animation, VFX, esports and entertainment events in India have attracted delegates from around the world.
• Participate in national/ international conferences and exhibitions conducted by industry to promote this sector.

Indian Cosplay 

With the esports rush in India Costume play or ‘cosplay’ has become an indispensable part of pop culture celebrations in recent times and taking gaming avatars has become one of the biggest trends in the gaming industry as well.

The International known as the biggest cosplay competition across the country it was a surreal moment for the Indian Cosplay Community who’ve made their mark in the biggest stage of Dota 2. The International usually features the most talented of the lot. But this year, it was exceptional. For India This was by far the most impressive cosplay contest in the history of TI as two Indians made their mark at TI. Rohit Kailashiya aka Redemption Props took home the ‘Best in Show’ category with his impressive Treant Protector’s Boreal Sentinel Cosplay. Another Indian Cosplayer, Medha Srivastava won the ‘Best Technique’ category with her surreal Legion Commander – Seige of the Artic Hall Cosplay.

Like China and South Korea, India is experiencing strong growth in online gaming. With between 35 to 50 million internet users, the country is attracting interest from the online video game industry, which is difficult to hack.

To conducted by KPMG, the number of game development companies in India today stands at around 275. This number was a mere 25 in the year 2010.One of the factors driving the growth of the video game market is its large number of cybercafés with more than 100,000 in 2006, 40 per cent of which are used to play online.KPMG indicates that India is already the largest emerging market when it comes to gaming industry. As investments continue to rise, the video game market is expected to grow rapidly in India.

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