Hasta La Motion!

philmCGI team

Animation and VFX studio, philmCGI, which has always focused on quality driven content, is now working on quite a few national and international projects.

Recently completing six years in the industry, philmCGI has collaborated with noted filmmakers, producers and artists, on characters and narratives that last and has been focused on creating content that is relatable and has international appeal.

Anand Bhanushali

Speaking to AnimationXpress, philmCGI managing directors Anand Bhanushali and Arpan Gaglani informed, “We’re working on multiple projects both in VFX and Animation. Though we can’t disclose details about them, we’re working on an international animated feature and a series for a European production. Along with that, a lot of VFX work for Indian films and OTT projects that are globally resonating, are also on the plate. You’ll hear from us soon on this.”

The studio has prioritised good storytelling and compelling scripts since its inception. The team also has a few IPs that are national in flavour but internationally relevant.

Commenting on completing six years in thriving industry, Bhanushali said, “It feels surreal. It has been a super journey so far where we got to work on some amazing projects and are blessed with a great team but everyday we still feel like it’s the beginning and a lot of good work is yet to come. The journey has been fantastic, full of hard work and perseverance by each and every member of the team. We hope to keep delivering the best quality work and keep improving ourselves with every project.”

Arpan Gaglani

philmCGI specialises in 2D/3DAnimation – from conceptualisation to screen writing to designing to delivering the final frame for feature films, series work, OTT, and Edutainment. They also provide VFX services right from shoot supervision to delivering high-end VFX shots for all formats.

With six summers of experience, philCGI intends to deliver quality content, better than the previous one. Added Gaglani, “Our vision is to be in sync with technology as it is essential for content creation, and also being involved with great VFX and Animation content being created in India to stay on top of what’s happening on a global level.”

The studio operates out of a spacious rented house away from the hustle bustle in Pune – Koregaon park, surrounded by trees with open space, garden. There are high chances one would find an artist sipping a cup of tea/coffee on a regular day and doing his work.

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Electronic sports(esports) is reaching new heights worldwide, as one of the most exciting professional sports in the world. Despite this, women in esports, are not as common as the number of men involved in it. While critics will put it down to sexism and supporters will put it down to marketing strategies, there are still a few who are changing the way females are perceived in the world of esports.

According to interpret’s 2019 report- female esports watchers have a 30 per cent share compared to all esports watchers; however, it has consistently gained gender share nearly every quarter since 2016 with a total growth of 6 per cent over the last two years.

The one who play games considerably in  esports on console/PC, only 35 per cent are female, of those that consider themselves esports watchers, 30 per cent, and of those that watch esports leagues, 20 per cent.

Casual gaming, however (defined as those who log many hours on mobile and few on PC/Console) is dominated by females (66 per cent). The report also discloses “Extremely low female involvement in major esports titles like CS:GO (24 per cent Female), DOTA 2 (20 per cent female), Hearthstone (26 per cent female), Rainbow 6: Siege (23 per cnet female), and even Overwatch (26 per cent female) highlights the core challenge in attracting more female esports fans.”

However  earlier in 2019, the Entertainment Software Association reported that 45 percent of U.S. gamers are female, yet women make up a scant portion of the professional esports player pool. Executives for games like League of Legends and Overwatch say they are eager to add women to pro rosters, where players can make hundreds of thousands of dollars. Yet LoL’s Championship Series hasn’t had a female gamer since 2016, and the Overwatch League’s inaugural season featured just one.

Reasons behind such less numbers of female players worldwide?

Many says the industry is known for harassment, bullying and toxic behaviour. Taking example- at the Gamergate scandal of 2014, when a group of male gamers organised to target women throughout the industry. Women say they feel marginalised within the community and are routinely subject to nasty comments about their ability or appearance. For elite gamers, much of it comes from fans, but opponents and teammates are sometimes just as challenging. At the lower levels, women are often bombarded by hyper masculinity in a space where most everyone is anonymous.

Saloni ‘Meow16k’ Pawar

While talking to AnimationXpress Indian female driven CS:GO esports team GE:Rayne, team captain Saloni ‘Meow16k’ Pawar, who started her self-motivated gaming journey at the age of 15 said, “Gaming has always been a taboo. The male players have dominated the gaming culture and it was like only men are suppose to play. When I started playing  I have been told girls don’t play all these games why are you playing ? At the initial level it was a bit of struggle but once you are more into the community and you are introduced to gamers in the community at that time everything changed. At the same times girls don’t actually feel comfortable to reveal their identity while playing games even I used to do that.”

One of the biggest drawbacks of the industry is that no matter how much women try to put their best foot forward for an inspiring journey there are always hindrances in the ecosystem which puts blockages in the form of sexist and judgemental remarks. The same has been the experience for Shagufta Iqbal, who is a streamer (Apex legends, PUBG, CSGO and so on), influencer and associated with an esports organisation called Entity gaming. She says, “Even though the gaming industry is dominated by males, I have put my name up there with all the males! I do receive some mean comments but I just ignore and I don’t let it affect me since at the end of the day, I love gaming and nobody can stop me from doing what I love.”

Seconding Iqbal on how she move forward with gaming ignoring nuisances that she have to face Pawar simplifys by saying, “gaming community has two sides one is positive and other one is negative side and getting into a community it will have both good and bad experience. It is good to accept and move ahead for what you want. Mainly girls are very much insecure of their indentity and they are exploring newer side in the community.”

What other ways one can move forward?

Becoming an esports player becomes easy when one build up their team and move forward together as a team. “What helped us was unity I think if you help yourself by finding four other women along with you who enjoy this game, I think it will be really nice because when you have companions with you, it becomes easy, you know the corners. I think if you have friend that are interested, just get them on board and start anew,” Pawar shared her experience.

It is always important for a woman esports player is to stick to what she really wants to do. Inspiring all other women esports players, Pawar adds, “There’s going to be a lot of bullying and stuff. People will say, ‘go back to the kitchen’. Meanwhile, all you have to do is be consistent enough in what you’re doing, know what you want to do and keep doing it no matter what anyone says. You have to keep achieving your goals.”

We are sure there are many female players out there, who are even today afraid to share their identity as a ‘female player’ however their style of playing games is equal to a pro esports players irrespective of their female gender. We would like to say you are not the only one and esports is for all!

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Whether it is the whodunnit cases, the intrigue, the chase, the action or perhaps a combination of all of these variables that culminate into a looming international threat, there is something gripping about the spy/action thriller genre that pulls the viewers in. Indian OTT space has capitalised on the winning formula, dishing out hits like Sacred Games, Bard of Blood and the Amazon Prime special Family Man that was hogged up by the viewers. In order to seamlessly depict the imagery for such stories, visual effects need to be abundantly infused. OTT giants in the content ecosystem have notched up the quality of visual effects by miles over the past few years.

For the unversed, it is an Indian action-drama series created by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. Starring Manoj Bajpayee and Priyamani, it tells the story of a middle-class man secretly working as an intelligence officer for the T.A.S.C, a fictitious branch of the National Investigation Agency.

FutureWorks Media Limited Motion Graphics Artist Siddhesh Kemaye

Family Man, itself, emerged as a giant success in the apotheosis of OTT specials. AnimationXpress recently spoke to FutureWorks Media motion graphics artist Siddhesh Kemaye who was associated with the project. In a candid chat, he shared his experience of working for India’s best spy thriller and talked about the quality checks the OTT giant maintains for its content.

On being asked about the capacities in which he served as a visual effects artists, he answered, “Mainly Chroma Removal compositing, FX like blast shots, dust particles, CG which includes Helicopter sequence and Vfx Motion Graphics in each and every episode.”

The rising level of vfx sophistication is evident all throughout the OTT sphere, especially Family man. Speaking about the software they made use of to depict the images, he noted, “For Blast shots we used Maya and Houdini Softwares, for CG/Lighting/Texturing/Modelling, we used Maya software and for fight, chase sequences & other shots we did compositing in nuke software.”

He agrees that OTT giants are progressively becoming the stairway for high-quality VFx work, given their commitment to dishing out premium streaming services and originals. He adds, “The VFX which was used back in 90’s in shows like Shaktiman,Ramayan etc. The Vfx which is now used in current films and web series, the graph has evidently increased. I want to specially mention Family Man. Even they had set a low budget for post production, we managed to give best quality VFX.”

Family Man still – Credits – Amazon Prime Video

The post production process of any content worth its salt is a tricky business. Especially the VFX-heavy projects go through a mountain of challenges before they are ready and up for mass consumption as directors are hardly impressed with the VFX imagery in the first go. Images go through several rounds of improvements in the post production stage.

Speaking about the difficult shots and challenges he faced, he shared, “Being a motion graphics artist, I had to make many PIP shot interfaces which was quite challenging for me and my whole team. Specially in the making of T.A.S.C force interface as this particular interface was required in mostly all the episodes. Even the opening and ending title sequences were quite challenging for us as it was not easily approved by the director so we had to make lot of changes according to him.”

He shared, ” The making of blast Sequence for the second episode was really challenging for the whole VFX team because that particular sequence was made at least 15 to 20 times as there was a difference of opinion between the director Raj & DK and the VFX Supervisor in selecting the perfect blast shot.”

All that said, the final output was indeed a masterpiece that was binged by millions of viewers to a point that we can’t wait for the second season! Stay tuned for more updates on Family Man franchise!

The post All about ‘The Family Man’s VFX appeared first on AnimationXpress.

Disney is developing a lifelike remake of its 1942 animated feature Bambi. Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Captain Marvel, Tomb Raider) and Lindsey Beer (Sierra Burgess Is a Loser, Chaos Walking) will write screenplay. Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz and Andrew Miano will produce under the banner of Depth of Field.

Bambi will roam in a digitally created photorealistic forest and interact with animals that have been brought to live action cinema via a hard-drive not a soundstage.

The Hollywood Reporter, however, reports that the studio is aware of the less weighty plot of Bambi and is not aiming to shoehorn a larger narrative onto the classic tale. The 1942 film was adapted from the 1923 novel Bambi, a Life in the Woods by Felix Salten.

Looking at the success of previous year’s Lion King and Aladdin which made huge at the box office, Disney’s list of live-action remake only continues to grow. Mulan will be coming out in March and a Cruella De Vil movie is coming next year. Other films on the remake slate include The Little Mermaid, Lilo and Stitch, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

The post ‘Bambi’ will be Disney’s next live-action remake appeared first on AnimationXpress.

Renu Nair

Dream Theatre has brought on board Renu Nair as the general manager for Consumer Products.

In her new role, Nair will be responsible for growing the consumer products business across Dream Theatre’s representations in Entertainment and Lifestyle lines of businesses, across India and South Asia. She previously served as the sales director and Consumer Products head at Mattel India. Prior to Mattel, Nair was at the Walt Disney Company as Consumer Products associate director.

Jiggy George

Speaking on this appointment, Dream Theatre founder and CEO Jiggy George said, “We are excited to have Nair on board. She brings a wealth of cross category experience and a keen understanding of the market. It is an exciting time for the licensing business in India and her appointment will bring laser focus to revenue growth as well as our strategic partnerships, across our brands.”

“I am thrilled to join Dream Theatre. Its rich brand representation portfolio is poised perfectly for driving growth and value across Consumer Products businesses and partnerships”, added Nair.

Dream Theatre leverages the power of licensing to ‘CREATE, REPRESENT and DISTRIBUTE’ iconic brands in South Asia. These brands are focused on Entertainment, Sports and Lifestyle businesses. Dream Theatre represents The Smiley Company, Sanrio, Liverpool Football Club, Real Madrid, FIFA 2018, The Pokémon Company, Rovio amongst other brands for Licensing and Merchandising in India and South Asia. Dream Theatre represents ChuChu TV, the most popular kids network of channels on YouTube, globally for their licensing and merchandising portfolio. The company also manages content syndication for key brands and creates and retails products via Dream Theatre group companies.

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