Hasta La Motion!

Autodesk just concluded the 2016 edition of its annual Autodesk University event at CIDCO Exhibition Center, Navi Mumbai. Replete with interesting sessions and famed dignitaries from various sectors of the industry where the use of Autodesk softwares galore, the event aimed at providing insights to the futuristic projects which are rising in collaboration with Autodesk’s offerings.

Autodesk, senior vice president – APAC, Patrick Williams initiated the event with the opening keynote. His statement was focused on how the usage of the latest technology is helping in accelerating the manufacturing processes in India. He further asserted that given the growth of the manufacturing industry is on the surge, it is an absolute necessity for the manufacturers to be equipped with the latest technology in order to optimise their efforts and minimise the time consumption, which is the need of the hour. It was focused on offerings from Autodesk in respect to the industry.

Next up was Autodesk India and SAARC, managing director, Pradeep Nair. He spoke about the role of Autodesk in the ‘Make in India’ campaign initiated by the Government of India. Autodesk has provided their cloud based software tool for Computer Aided Design (CAD) solution, Fusion 360 at very low costs or even free in case of small entrepreneurs and MSMEs as a part of MoU they signed with the Maharashtra government.

Soon, the stage was handed over to Autodesk, senior vice president – worldwide sales and services, Steve Blum, but not before he made a rocking (and quite dramatic) entrance with a jeep, turban, black shades, dancers and the Kala Chashma song bustling over the speakers. His statements reflected more on the new age designing innovations that different companies were trying with the assistance of technology. Some of them included, Under Armour, the company which launched the world’s first completely 3D printed shoes for athletes, using Fusion 360, an Autodesk’s offering, McCarthy Buildings Companies which saved around 17000 man hours by integrating cloud to their system and many others.

He further mentioned some other exciting projects from Autodesk, which include their project with the Government of Rajasthan where they have digitally re-created the heritage monuments, so that they can be experienced for a longer period of time. He also shared anecdotes from their project where they have collaborated with NASA and Smithsonian Museum to create a digital replica of the original Apollo 11, the capsule that landed on the moon.

Next, Pinnacle Info solutions, CEO, Bimal Patwari spoke about their endeavours which were hastened and polished by the use of Autodesk softwares.

The last bit before lunch was the launch of HP Workstation by HP Workstation DSO and Attach, country manager, Chetan Hingu.

After the lunch break, we ventured into the Media and Entertainment section of the sessions.

First came in RealPage India, senior manager, content service operation who spoke about 3D as a service in the SAAS environment.

Next session saw the two leading gentlemen from Redchillies.vfx, CCO/VFX supervisor, Haresh (Harry) Hingorani and COO/VFX producer, Keitan Yadav enlightening the attendees with the process of the making of ‘Fan’. How they created ‘Gaurav’, the fairly younger looking version of Shahrukh Khan who looked extremely vibrant, coupled with the action sequences from the movie and the overall VFX usage in the movie, it was a session filled with the VFX prowess of Redchillies.vfx.

The ‘Fan’ session concluded and gave way to Lakshya Digital, head of production, Anando Banerjee, who spoke about the gaming industry and the opportunities it has for aspiring pupils. Firstly, he listed the games which are leading the charts in their respective platforms/genres and inevitably mentioned Pokemon Go and how a game can become a crucial tool for marketing and take over the world by storm. Proceeding further, he explained the qualities a game artist must possess in order to make his/her mark in the industry, he went on to explain the other professional roles available in the gaming industry, which included product managers, game testers, audio designers, localisation experts, writers and community managers. Then he hopped on to the topic of Just Cause 3. The third person action-adventure game developed by Avalanche Studios and published by Square Enix follows the protagonist Rico Rodrigues whose art and design had been created by Lakshya Digital largely, including many environment pieces, props and more.. He further revealed that for content creation they used softwares like Autodesk Maya and Autodesk Mudbox and Shotgun software for collaboration/production tracking.
The whole process of creating Rico from Just Cause 3 started from a generic male body mesh and followed the process till it came to life in an high resolution character.

Next in line was the TBS Digicon Awards India Chapter, where various projects from animators including the short film ‘Chhaya’ were awarded.

Toonz Animation, technical director, Arjun Thekkumadathil came in and explained how Autodesk’s Shotgun software has made it easier for them to collaborate. He also spoke about how notes and revisions were efficiently tracked. It has a pop-up notification through a messenger which makes this cloud-based software optimum for smooth co-ordination between people. He also opened up about how working with vendors have been made easier through the integration of Autodesk softwares as it has facilitated a smooth flow of regular updates and tracking with vendor studios, made it easier to manage resources and abolished the usage of tiresome excel sheets.

Then the stage was taken by Yash Raj Films, VFX supervisor, Deepal Dass who took everyone through the journey of VFX integration in the movie Sultan. The VFX shots, challenges, sequences and phenomenal results was showcased quite vividly which you must have not noticed while watching the film on the big screen. You can get a clear idea and check some of the VFX sequences here.

Finally, to conclude the event, it was time for MPC India, head of compositing, Amit Sharma to take everyone on a stroll through the process on how the fantastic jungle world and its residents were created in Disney’s The Jungle Book. Check the VFX sequence creation from the movie here.

The Jungle Book scene wherein Mowgli’s digi-double’s lower half of his body was used

The event was pretty rewarding with a plethora of stalls which portrayed Autodesk’s applications in various fields in the industry and the crowd flocked them. Everyone collected their mementos from the event and bid adieu to the venue in the wait of next year’s edition.

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