Hasta La Motion!

“I have a question about the animation space in India” this statement was heard several times during the past three days at the Anifest India 2016 organised by The Animation Society of India (TASI). A festival ‘For the animators – By the animators’ witnessed a great deal of questions and the industry experts attending the festival answered all of it to the best of their knowledge.

The fest opened with the first ever India premiere of Laika’s animated film Kubo and the Two Strings at Whistling Woods International auditorium. It was not surprising to see that the auditorium was packed with over 250 people eager to witness the phenomenal film on the first day of the fest. TASI had also premiered Laika’s Boxtrolls during Anifest 2014.

Knowledge outpoured in abundance to the curious minds who assembled on the second day of the fest at Jai Hind College Auditorium. Sessions covering a variety topics like Interactive Light Animation Workshop by Vaibhav Kumaresh from Vaibhav Studios and Ranjit ‘Tony’ Singh, Blender and its potential by Niyal Parmar and Pratik Solanki from Weybec Studio and Behind the Scenes of The Jungle Book by Amit Sharma from MPC enlightened the audience.

Creativity and craftsmanship took the rudder as the audience dived into the third day of the fest at the same venue. Chetan Sharma from Animagic explained The Art of Storyboarding and Visual development, Dhimant Vyas shared his idea behind the creation of animated short Every Drop Counts, Shyam Deshpande and Arnab Roy from Zynga Games drew light on the Life-cycle of a Gaming Asset and Debanjan Nandy highlighted the whole process of filmmaking and his journey in creating the award winning film Chhaya.

Each presentation was followed by a Q&A session where the audience inclusive of young aspirants, early animators, arts students, interns, professionals and even teachers posed a bunch of questions to the industry speakers. In fact, it was enlightening to see that some of the Q&A sessions were longer than the presentations. It clearly indicated the interest level of the audience, the thirst for knowledge and essence of active participation.

Anifest India 2016 team

Apart from the sessions, a variety of films like Monkaa, Big Buck Bunny, Cosmos Loundromat, Dunder, Death Sails, Rippled, Light animation commercials, few of Chetan’s storyboard commercials (Happydent White, Bisleri and Bijlipur), Every Drop Counts and Chhaya were showcased. Out of which, Kubo and the Two Strings and Dunder received the first ever India premiere.

Anifest India 2016 encouraged and appreciated the art among the audience with a storyboarding contest. The winners of the contest received graphic tablets by Wacom. A team of around 20 volunteers were also felicitated with certificates for their contributions to make the festival possible.

The most interesting aspect observed throughout were the Q&A sessions and to feed the hunger, the organisers opened the festival for the audience for a Q&A / feedback session with Ranjit ‘Tony’ Singh, Vaibhav Kumaresh, Gayatri Rao and Chetan Sharma on the final day. This session witnessed a  range of questions raised by the audience concerning different aspects of the animation space of India, studios, artists, education system, work culture, pay cycle and kind of projects.

One interesting and relevant question was thrown at the jury – What should one do when a company shuts down?

Tony replied to this by saying, “Join a studio gauging the employer and the studio’s history. Don’t enter the studio just because someone had told you about it, enter only after doing your research.” Kumaresh further added, “There are times when even big studios pulls down its shutters; in these scenarios unfortunately nothing can be done.” Sharma went on to mention that, “There are times when studios are opened up without the founder having any knowledge about the industry. In these cases, he hires personnel who have been in the industry for long with reputable studios. However, he fails to understand what kind of experience does the personnel hold. There are times when a fresher in the industry due to his/her skills supervises a personnel who has 15 years of experience. That’s why one must understand, years of experience doesn’t matter, what matters is the work.”

From left: Ranjit ‘Tony’ Singh, Vaibhav Kumaresh, Gayatri Rao, Chetan Sharma

Having said that, there are times when employees leave the workplace before completing their contract period or serving the notice time because they get an offer from the other studio. Commenting on this issue Kumaresh said, “When employees leave early, it shows their integrity and commitment. Not just employees, this also shows the mentality of the employer as he/she is asking you to leave an organisation in midway. So it all boils down to one’s own decision and how do they want to go ahead in their career.”

Sharma ended by saying, “You can only commit on what can you do, not what others do. So as an artist concentrate on your work and not let other factors distract you from your goal.”

TASI, senior founding member, Ranjit ‘Tony’ Singh said, “The turnout in terms of numbers is not important. What is important is that the people who land up here for the festival should get a fulfilling experience. In future, we will see some more films from Indian studios that are available. Every year the endeavour has been to get new content and interesting topics so for the next Anifest we will maintain the same.”

TASI, core committee member, Vaibhav Kumaresh commented, “The quality of every session has increased every year. The Q&A sessions were great as the audience were so curious, engrossed and interested to know more about; be it a creative session, technology talk or an interactive workshop. We are trying our best to give as much as we can to the audience and we will continue to do so.”

‘For the animators – By the animators’ Anifest India 2016 organised by The Animation Society of India (TASI) has definitely quenched the thirst of a footfall of around 200-250 each day. Imparting knowledge, displaying creativity, showcasing art, targeting various issues and answering queries, Anifest India 2016 has filled the young aspirants with abundant knowledge in three days.

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