Hasta La Motion!

In the midst of COVID19 mobile gaming is skyrocketing, to take a leap of faith 19-year-old CEO Srikanta Magaji is all set to launch social gaming app GOGAME. GOGAME allows one to  play their favourite games and earn real money at the same time.

The application, will be soon available in iOS and Android which aims to bring next-level gaming experience to the table, with social features.

GOGAME CEO Srikanta Magaji says, “With the mission of capturing a young audience and redefining gaming and social experiences, I am launching GOGAME . Being a gamer all my life, I know the “Wow” moments gamers crave. To take the gaming experience to the next level, we built GOGAME to provide real value, which makes a positive impact in gamer’s life.”

The app has features like sharing stories, pictures to create original content, or snap any picture to share with the peers and also allows one to like, follow, and share similar to any other existing platforms.

GOGAME initially starts with 7+ games from all categories, where one can play any game, join any contest, and win real rewards or earn money. One just need to play games, and connect with their friends to view the real winner. GOGAME App is expected to launch in the month end of May 2020, it has competitive games which allow players to play and earn with social aspects like stories, profile likes, comments, and so on.

The post 19-year-old Indian to launch real money social gaming app for mobile appeared first on AnimationXpress.

Actress Freida Pinto feels working on an animated project is very different as “you have to first enhance your imagination while you are recording”. She says one also has to lose all the inhibitions, and then only one can get to the essence of the character.

“The animated world is pretty different from film and television. You have to first enhance your imagination while you are recording but you also have to lose all the inhibitions because then you just have to be the character. You can’t think twice,” Pinto said.

Pinto recently worked on an animated series Mira, Royal Detective, which is weaved around Indian culture and traditions. She has voiced the character of Queen Shanti who appoints the kind, empathetic, intelligent and confident little girl named Mira to be the Royal detective to her kingdom.

Talking about her experience as a voice artiste, Pinto added said, “It was a really interesting experience of being a voice artiste because I don’t do this so often. This was kind of a no-brainer. I had to do it as soon as they told me about the show and the characters. But I feel the exaggeration that comes with voicing these characters, when you don’t have any visual reference because the animation is happening side by side while you are voicing it.”

Set in the fictional land of Jalpur, Mira, Royal Detective follows the life of Mira, a commoner who is appointed to the role of royal detective by the queen. The series released also stars Leela Ladnier, Kal Penn, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Hannah Simone, Jameela Jamil, Aparna Nancherla, Aasif Mandvi, Karan Soni, Maulik Pancholy, Sarayu Blue and Sarita Choudhury.

The post Freida Pinto shares her experience while working on an animation project appeared first on AnimationXpress.

Industry veteran and well-known name in the Indian animation industry is now going to share the valuable experience he has with animation enthusiasts, through an animation school. “I have always been inclined towards the teaching and promotion of animation. I had faced many problems when I was starting up in the industry, there were hardly any guidelines or courses for learning character animation and storytelling. So I feel it’s my duty to pass on my learnings to others now,” said More.

More feels the need of a proper dedicated institution that really caters to the demand of the animation industry in India. The work culture and content is very different from the other countries, so More feels that his experience of handling the Indian mindset of the clients is a major plus that will be noticed in this course.

More is starting the course for beginners with the basics of character animation. “I am not going to create a software oriented course. It’s always going to be content and quality oriented,” More added. He also hopes to branch into animation, VFX and maybe game design as well.

There is no age barrier, anyone interested in learning this craft can enroll. These courses are going to be short and to the point and most importantly very pocket friendly. With the current situation, More plans to keep it online, using web seminars and workshops. And will start with the basics of character animation course in a month’s time.

“In today’s market of super fast content creation, the only saviour of the quality of your work is the proper knowledge of animation. Knowledge can save time and time is money. So I believe I am starting at the right time,” he concluded.

So, all enthusiasts out there! It’s time to make the most of the free time in your hands and too much overflowing creativity. Enroll to this amazing course and get your feet rowed in this every growing and demanding industry of animation.

The post Animator Vaibhav More to start his own school of animation appeared first on AnimationXpress.

The mythology of Lord Ram— has played a significant role in the cultural zeitgeist of the Indian subcontinent. Generations after generations have celebrated the deity multiple times through— local Ramayana street plays, oral recitations and on-screen portrayal, making the ideals and scruples upheld by Lord Ram— inextricable parts of our daily lives.

Such is the magnitude of this legend that — only recently the lockdown induced-retelevising of Ramayan drew the most amount of eyeballs —  ever witnessed in the history of television.

Through books, radio, television, films, and animation— the message of righteousness, triumph of good over evil, commitment and love, Ramayana continues to — enrapture audiences of all ages to this day.

Despite substantial balladeering of the lord, the mention of Lord Ram has not been without controversy. Right from Jai Shree Ram slogans to passionate exhortations for the establishment of Ram Rajya, the hint of hard-line fundamentalism has often set the staunch devotees at odds with the exponents of liberal secularism.

Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust chairman Mahant Nritya Gopal Das recently announced the construction of the bullet-proof Ram temple.

Putting an end to the century-old dispute, the Supreme Court on 9 November 2019 paved the way for the construction of a Ram Temple by a Trust at Ayodhya (Birth-place of Lord Ram). Communicating its verdict, a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had said – “The faith of the Hindus that Lord Rama was born at the demolished structure is undisputed.”

Spurred on by enormous donations, Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust chairman Mahant Nritya Gopal Das recently paid obeisance to deity Ram Lalla and announced the construction of the bullet-proof Ram temple.

Let’s look at some of the best portrayals of Lord Ram across VFX and Animation that won our hearts over the years :-

Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama

Produced by Yugo Sako and directed by Sako, Ram Mohan and Koichi Saski, Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama will always be a cherished classic animation. Originally aimed to cater to the younger audience, the elaborate themes, smart screenplay and witty animation piqued the attention of adults too, making it a hit on channels like POGO or Cartoon Network, where it was broadcasted. Right from the legendary Lord Rama’s battle scenes to the use of magical weapons to the superhuman creatures down to the apt landscapes, the animated adaptation did full justice  to Valmiki’s original tale.

Ramayan (1986)

Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan which left Indian television viewers nostalgic with its rerun amid lockdown went on for three years and was a massive success back in 1986. The show reportedly drew the collective focus of the Indian audience towards mythological shows, kickstarting a trend that refuses to budge to this day.  Special Effects Generator (SEG 2000) was used to shoot the iconic scenes including the war sequences with flying arrows and thundering clouds. If the shoot was to happen in the morning, the creation of fog was shown via the smoke from incense sticks. During the night time, if there was a scene where clouds had to be shown, it used to be done with cotton. To depict Brahmand (Intergalactic space) behind Lord Shiva, a background screen was used which showed the photos of planets via a slide projector.

Ramayana (2008)

Having worked on the script for about six months with this team, Anand Sagar, son of Ramanand Sagar remade Ramayan in 2008, two decades after the first epic enthralled a nation new to television. The series was shot at Sagar Film City in Baroda (now Vadodara). Omang Kumar designed the sets and Nisha Sagar designed the costumes. This

Sita Sings The Blues

Sita Sings the Blues is a 2008 American animated musical romantic comedy-drama film written, directed, produced and animated by American artist Nina Paley. It intersperses events from the Ramayana, light-hearted but knowledgeable discussion of historical background by a trio of Indian shadow puppets, musical interludes voiced with tracks by Annette Hanshaw and scenes from the artist’s own life. The ancient mythological and modern biographical plot are parallel tales, sharing numerous themes. The movie also courted criticism from the hard line Hindu Nationalist political parties for its portrayal of Lord Rama’s wife Sita.

Ramayana The Epic

Ramayana: The Epic is a 2010 Indian computer-animated film from Maya Digital Media. Directed by Chetan Desai and produced by Ketan Mehta, it was released by Warner Bros. India on 15 October 2010.
Mehta. Mehta was of the view that the Ramayana holds still appeal in the present age, thousands of years after it is said to have been written and that it would be difficult to translate the grandeur and the setting of this epic in live action, rendering animation the only way to retell it in all its glory.

The post Ramayana: Portrayal of Lord Ram across Animation & Visual Effects appeared first on AnimationXpress.

Starting from 25 March midnight, we are now undergoing lockdown 4.0 till 31 May 2020. In the meantime, a lot has happened. While we, “the privileged” class are already getting tired of the “boredom”, “social distancing”, “staying at home” and other things, there’s a large number of distressed and helpless people for whom “home” and being quarantined is a luxury. Yes, I’m talking about the migrant workers.

Having lost their jobs, no food and even no permanent shelter, these poor souls were forced to walk back to their respective homes when the authorities and Government failed to provide them with basic transport during lockdown while the NRIs were airlifted from different parts of the world.

With pangs of hunger and helplessness, these workers walked day and night to reach their ‘homes’ or ancestral places. ‘But what are flies to wanton boys?’- 16 migrant workers were run over by a goods train on 8 May in Aurangabad when they fell asleep on the track being tired, unknown of the fact that Goods trains were not stopped during lockdown.

There has been a lot of writing and criticisms across the media and social media platforms, but here’s an animated short of 60 seconds created by former Disney India animator, Debjyoti Saha that gives you a reality check and a tight slap on your privileged demands. Part of the Korona series, this one is the fifth of the slot which portrays a grim, stark sad reality of the migrant workers. The video has gone viral on social media with 23 lakh views on Instagram itself with multiple shares on Facebook (23K).

Speaking about the animated video Saha told AnimationXpress, “I wanted to talk about the country-wide migrant crisis since its inception. Strangely enough, I noticed a pattern of news getting constantly irrelevant with new news. Even though the various problems of the migrants were highlighted at various instances, the urgency died away with new articles and features. I’m sure this article will meet a similar fate, but their misery won’t. This video was created to spread the message of acknowledging our privilege and using it to better the lives of the unfortunate in our own ways. Public memory is short. This news will soon fade away, but I hope the message stays.”

The Korona (meaning “Don’t” in Bengali) series features five films till now, each focusing on a deep rooted problem in today’s society in the light of the global pandemic. Starting with the excessive propagation of fear, to the doctor’s plight when they were garlanded with a pat on the back but their needs weren’t met with, to the extreme racism and Xenophobia that people in the North-East had to deal with even with the low amount of cases there, the ridiculous long queues across the country that left social distancing go for a toss due to the opening of liquor shops, and the crisis of migrants. 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Korona 2.0 With Lockdown 3.0 coming into effect, people are losing it entirely in their homes after running out things to do. Right then, they are given the worthy task of single-handedly pulling the falling economy of the country in lockdown, and dedicated countrymen step out in large numbers across the country, and line up in front of liquor shops through the day. A brilliant masterstroke indeed. But in this thirst and desperation, people seem to have forgotten the very basics of safety, rows of people stacked together in qeues stretching kilometers long, not for food, water, calamity or heading home, but for a few litres of a liquid that’ll kiss their problems goodbye (till the next morning) Cheers #animation #2danimation #animationfilm #animatedseries #indiananimation #korona #korona2.0 #coronavirus #corona #lockdown #economy #alcohol #oldmonk #possession #nocountryformigrants #poverty #stayhome #staysafe #staypositive #staydrunk #detox #covid_19 #india2020 #pandemic #dosanddonts #artistoninstagram #artoftheday #animatorsoninstagram

A post shared by Debjyoti Saha (@debjyoti.saha) on May 7, 2020 at 7:35am PDT

Added he, “Migrant workers have been walking thousand miles to their homes without a vehicle or even a pair of slippers in many cases. As the government and few other organisations/people offer help in pockets, it is not enough to help the entire population of migrant workers in the country. On the other hand, I see the people fortunate enough to be in the comfort of their homes, including me, are pouring their hearts out on social media, cribbing about getting bored at home doing household chores, finding their inner chefs cooking up a storm, overhoarding “essentials” in fear of missing out and complaining about the WiFi/internet connection. I’m sure the lockdown is tough to deal with for every individual, but if we think about the problems the less unfortunate are facing, most of our problems will seem frivolous and petty. This sparked the idea of creating a film that would reflect the contrast of these two lives.”

Recently Bollywood actor Sonu Sood hired buses and sent a large number of migrant workers back to their homes along with essential items.

Debjyoti Saha

The films are not production heavy and are mostly idea driven. They are second/minute-long films with a satirical take to realise the deep rooted issues that’s happening around us in society. It took him about four to five days to complete each film. They were animated in Adobe Photoshop and basic composited on Adobe After Effects.

“The fourth animated short in the series depicted rightly how people rushed like madmen to quench their thirst after a long dry spell, risking their lives and others’ to the virus. Apparently it was great for the economy but might have been in poor taste, to be honest,” shared Saha.

The next episode of the Korona series is coming soon, before the lockdown is lifted. These shorts make us think that the things we are complaining about may mean the word to somebody. These are challenging times, but one thing the pandemic has taught us to be kind, empathetic, compassionate and be grateful. Let’s come out as changed individuals and let’s not take these people and their lives for granted.

The post Animated short from ‘Korona’ series depicts a stark picture of the privileged and the pained appeared first on AnimationXpress.