Friday, December 18, 2009
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Avatar: Movie Review
“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart,” said William Wordsworth. Thus, without letting our admiration for James Cameron come in the way of our verdict on ‘Avatar’, with a heavy heart, we’ll have to say that we found Cameron’s highly anticipated, expensive motion picture ‘Avatar’ not living up to our expectations.
Many who have seen the film have an opinion that since so much time (10 years), effort and sweat has gone into creating stereoscopic 3D effects for the film, and combining live and computer animation, one ought to appreciate it. True as it might be, at the end of the day, if a film fails to establish an emotional connect with the audiences, no effects whatsoever can salvage it or make it special.
Coming to the story, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is an ex-marine who is forced into participating in Avatar program. The program is setup by humans and comprises of encroaching a distant moon Pandora as it has an abundance of precious minerals on its land. However, getting hold of Pandora won’t be easy as humans can’t breathe on it. Also, the warrior Na’vi tribe resides in it.
In order to encroach Pandora’s land, one has to be able to breathe its air and thus become one of the Na’vis. Scientists thus create these genetically-bred human-Na’vi hybrids known as Avatars. The Avatars have a Na-vi body and a human DNA. Jake becomes one such Avatar...human kind’s weapon to make truce with Na’vis and thus force them to evacuate their planet. As Jake starts shuttling between his human and Na’vi body, he starts getting emotionally attached to Pandora and there begins the conflict between his medium of existence.
Avatar begins well but goofs up as it progresses. The story which seems promising initially starts faltering the moment Cameron shows Jake fall in love with a Na’vi woman. The film then on becomes just another clichéd love story where a hero will save his lover and her people from the villains. The villains happen to be humans here who now want to wage a war on the Na’vis as they refuse to give in to their demands. Jake even readies himself to battle it out with the humans to save his Na’vi tribe... things people do for love! If the love wasn’t clichéd enough, Cameron even makes his hero single out the lead villain and engage him in a one-to-one fist fight with him!
Avatar begins well, drags tremendously in between and then picks up on its pace towards the climax, but its too late by then. Titanic oozed romance and we loved it but the setting of Avatar didn’t require romance as its prime ingredient. This wrong move of Cameron transforms a sci-fi ‘Avatar’ into a highly clichéd run-of-the-mill dramatic love story set against a war backdrop.
The film is a visual delight, but lacks an original plot. This visual treat doesn’t make up for the weak storyline. The infusion of human trauma in an idyllic fantasy setting doesn’t seem to be a good idea! Avatar loses direction somewhere along the way, and its huge length plays spoil sport too.
Performances are decent, but not outstanding. Unfortunately, so is the film! However, ‘decent’ is not what one expects from a James Cameron.
Method Journeys to Solar System for Black Eyed Peas
Visual effects studio Method recently collaborated with Little Minx director Ben Mor on the music video for the Black Eyed Peas Billboard Top 10 hit, Meet Me Halfway. The video dispatches the four members of the Black Eyed Peas to different corners of the solar system: Fergie languors in a lush jungle, willi.i.am rides an elephant on a moon of Jupiter, apl.de.ap levitates above the ground of a desert planet, and Taboo hovers at the surface of the sun, wearing an astronaut suit.
As they sing longingly about their desire to be together again, will.i.am unlocks a portal that appears in each location. The Peas step through the portal and the video ends with a shot of four comets careening through the Earth’s atmosphere.
More shot the footage on partial sets built on blue screen and left it up to Method to extend the environments, from the desolate moonscape to the verdant jungle to the looming sun.
“Ben provided us with a spread of pictures and photos, then our matte painters took those concepts and fleshed it out to create these environments,” explains Method’s Creative Director Aron Hjartarson. Method relied on matte painting and CG set extensions to create four dramatically immersive environments, and the transition from set to set extensions is seamless.
“The word epic was in my mind from the beginning”, explains Mor. “I wanted to make it feel like once you’re done watching the video, you’d wanna see the movie.”
Method also granulated the footage to create a low-tech visual texture versus an overly sharp and crisp finish. “We tried to achieve the vintage prime lens look, which ends up giving you that Penthouse porn shoot softness,” explains Mor. In effect, the video conveys a surreal hybrid of futuristic and ancient aesthetics.
A centerpiece of the video is the sun sequence. Taboo floats at the surface of the sun, bathed in a hot orange glare. The sun’s surface roils with flames and casts golden rays onto Taboo’s visor. “It’s tricky to pull off that really hot-texture look and keep it convincing,” says Hjartarson. “We dove into look development and came up with a superb, white-hot aesthetic.”
“Method really came through for me, and I couldn’t be any happier with their creative strength and collaborative approach,” comments Mor. “Method was able to pull a substantial look and environment extension in an obscenely short amount of time and I’m proud of the results.”
As they sing longingly about their desire to be together again, will.i.am unlocks a portal that appears in each location. The Peas step through the portal and the video ends with a shot of four comets careening through the Earth’s atmosphere.
More shot the footage on partial sets built on blue screen and left it up to Method to extend the environments, from the desolate moonscape to the verdant jungle to the looming sun.
“Ben provided us with a spread of pictures and photos, then our matte painters took those concepts and fleshed it out to create these environments,” explains Method’s Creative Director Aron Hjartarson. Method relied on matte painting and CG set extensions to create four dramatically immersive environments, and the transition from set to set extensions is seamless.
“The word epic was in my mind from the beginning”, explains Mor. “I wanted to make it feel like once you’re done watching the video, you’d wanna see the movie.”
Method also granulated the footage to create a low-tech visual texture versus an overly sharp and crisp finish. “We tried to achieve the vintage prime lens look, which ends up giving you that Penthouse porn shoot softness,” explains Mor. In effect, the video conveys a surreal hybrid of futuristic and ancient aesthetics.
A centerpiece of the video is the sun sequence. Taboo floats at the surface of the sun, bathed in a hot orange glare. The sun’s surface roils with flames and casts golden rays onto Taboo’s visor. “It’s tricky to pull off that really hot-texture look and keep it convincing,” says Hjartarson. “We dove into look development and came up with a superb, white-hot aesthetic.”
“Method really came through for me, and I couldn’t be any happier with their creative strength and collaborative approach,” comments Mor. “Method was able to pull a substantial look and environment extension in an obscenely short amount of time and I’m proud of the results.”
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Malayala Manorama & Clusters Proudly presents - Mega Seminar on Visual Effects in Films
Clusters, one of the leading Animation and Visual Effects school and
Rhythm & Hues, a Los Angeles based Academy Award
Rhythm & Hues, a Los Angeles based Academy Award
winning film production studio specializing in Visual Effects is conducting a
seminar on Visual effects. Rhythm & Hues studios is known for
its contribution to a great number of Hollywood feature films in the last
21 years, movies like The Golden Compass, A Night At The Museum I ,
Superman Returns, The Chronicles of Narnia, Alvin &
The Chipmunks and many more. Aspirants who want to build
a career in film and Visual effects can directly interact with technical person
to clear their doubts.
Technical Session by Mr. Dileep Varma, Rhythm & Hues Studios
On 12th December 2009, Saturday 10.30 am. at SP Grand Days,
Trivandrum, Kerala, India
On 12th December 2009, Saturday 10.30 am. at SP Grand Days,
Trivandrum, Kerala, India
Call us & register for free now @ +91 97470 10001
Monday, November 30, 2009
Most Schools and institutes are places where they teach how to click buttons in 3D software’s… A short story By Clusters Animation Mentor Raghu
Most animation Schools and institutes are places where they teach how to click buttons in software’s. It has been long since people are being cheated without even knowing it. Wake up guys!! Stop from being fooled.
Forget words like "diploma", "degree", "PG", "Engineering in animation", "animation specialist professional". Animation Studios just don't give a damn to what papers called "course certificate" you have. It’s only your work that’s going to get your foot inside the doors of a big studio. Demo-reel is one of the most important things a student of should focus on. Find out what makes a demo-reel different than others.
Don’t get caught up into institutions promising to make you into animators by learning software! Don’t get carried away by people telling you learning software is animation. They'll mostly teach you modeling, rigging n Not the Real art of animation. SOFTWARE IS JUST A TOOL just as Pencil is a tool. You have a pencil in your hands since you were a child. But not everyone who can hold or scribble with a pencil is an animator. In the very same way, not everyone who can use Maya or flash or 3ds Max is an animator. Get into Animation only if you are really Passionate about it!
Watch a lot of animated movies! Understand the motion, dynamics, and acting. Also watch all types of movies, don't restrict yourself to animated ones. Get these books "The animator's Survival Kit - Richard Williams" and "The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation". Study those books, Read them, don’t just flip through looking at beautiful pictures, Don’t copy from those books. Get a pencil and start sketching.. go out.. a nearby park, a Cafe and observe people and their movements, behavior.
Search the internet for articles.
Watch a lot of movies - live action as well as animated. Watch movies more meaningful than staple Bollywood masala flicks. If you want to learn software to complement your animation skills, you can just buy tutorial DVDs from the internet and learn from it. In the end it turns out a lot cheaper, BUT remember, this is only for understanding the software which is just a pencil and paper for an animator.
If you really want to study animation and not remain jobless or work in some dingy institute, don’t put importance on the software. S/W is totally secondary.
Now is the time!!
The Internet is here at your finger-tips, make use of it.
Go to YouTube, search for demo reels of animators.
Check out blogs of animators.
So if you seriously want to learn the subject of animation go find out some nice schools where they will be concentrating more on the subject rather than giving importance to software .If you are good at subject like how things move around, on what properties and principles they act , you can do the task no matter which software/pencil you are using.
There are few art schools where you will be trained under mentors who got lot of production experience, who love what they are doing and still striving hard to master this art of animation. There are few schools in India providing proper animation training. Get there curriculum, speak with the existing students and check out their demo reels and then Join
Good Luck Guys
Regards
Raghu Varma P
email: raghu@clusters.in
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Prime Focus VFX Adds Sparkle to New Moon - November 25th, 2009, 09:34 AM
Prime Focus VFX, formerly Frantic Films VFX, has completed 175 visual effects shots for the Summit Entertainment release, “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” directed by Chris Weitz. Prime Focus contributed a majority of the film’s most frequently featured visual effects, including CG water, atmospherics, CG matte painting and environment work, and the “Diamond Skin” effect on Edward and the other vampire characters. “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” is based on the popular series of novels by Stephenie Meyer.
Prime Focus’ newly expanded Vancouver studio, which has become the VFX hub for the company’s North American operations, handled the bulk of the work on “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” which was shot on location in British Columbia. Key effects included creating apparitions of the Edward Cullen character and custom designing the “Diamond Edward” effect, whereby Cullen’s skin sparkles when coming into contact with sunlight.
Director Chris Weitz and his Visual Effects Producer Susan MacLeod tasked Prime Focus with evolving this signature Diamond Skin effect so that Edward’s skin refracted light as if diamonds were embedded under his skin.
The Prime Focus team, led by Visual Effects Supervisor Eric Pascarelli, went through extensive look development to achieve this effect, and used as its inspiration Greek Thassos marble, a very white, translucent material with flecks that reflect light very efficiently. The team even had a slab at the office for the CG artists to use as reference.
Prime Focus’ Vancouver studio also collaborated with its Digital Matte Painting department in Los Angeles (headed by Ken Nakada) on recreating the movie’s Forks High School, as well as craggy cliffs overlooking the ocean and other 100-percent CG environments depicting the movie’s Washington State locale. Prime Focus also contributed CG water for multiple scenes and two elaborate time passage sequences featuring the Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) character in complicated multipart motion control shots.
For the cliff scenes, Nakada and his team designed the entire landscape using several locations in Vancouver’s Whytecliff Park as reference material. The team also provided on-set VFX supervision for MacLeod and Weitz on a greenscreen shoot at Vancouver Film Studios of a stuntman jumping 70 feet off a tower as a camera rig does a 270-degree tilt, following him from the top of the cliff until he hits water. Additionally, Prime Focus created several digital doubles and did face replacement for the actors jumping off the cliff.
Overall, a team of 45 across Prime Focus Vancouver and Los Angeles were brought onto “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.” Prime Focus’ key software packages included Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3ds Max and Autodesk Mudbox for 3D modeling, eyeon Fusion for compositing, Prime Focus Software’s Krakatoa for particle rendering, Prime Focus Software’s Flood and Flood: Surf for fluid simulation.
About Prime Focus
Prime Focus is a global Visual Entertainment Services group that provides creative and technical services to the film, broadcast, commercials, gaming, internet and media industries. The group offers a genuine end-to-end solution from pre-production to final delivery - including previsualisation, equipment hire, visual effects, video and audio post-production, digital intermediate, digital asset management and distribution.
Prime Focus employs more than 1200 people with state-of-the-art facilities throughout the key markets of North America, the UK and India. Using its ‘worldsourcing’ business model, Prime Focus provides a network that combines global cost advantages, resources and talent pool with strong relationships and a deep understanding of the local markets.
RELATED LINKS:
www.primefocusworld.com
www.newmoonthemovie.com/worldoftwilight
Friday, November 20, 2009
New Deal Create Minature Effects For Watchmen
The much-anticipated release of Watchmen features high-tech mechanical and pyrotechnic effects created by New Deal Studios (NDS). The award-winning effects team at New Deal engineered a water tower to collapse onto a burning miniature tenement rooftop, spilling water onto the fire and allowing a split second window for the superheroes to save the day. A team of 60 artists from design, fabrication, effects photography, and digital combined their artistry to orchestrate the thrilling fire effects and bring the whole sequence to life.
According to Ian Hunter, NDS Co-Founder/Visual Effects Supervisor, this sequence required exact precision of the burning flames to match principal photography. “Our flame effects needed to be controlled and choreographed to the production’s pre-vizualization,” he explains. “A rooftop and a partial wall with windows was built and plumbed with propane lines for the fire effects. One shot required that the camera move around the entire miniature building and pass over the roof through the fire, so the flames had to be very controllable. The balance of the building below the rooftop was extended digitally.”
The planning of the photography for this sequence was crucial because of the pyrotechnics. The NDS art department sent CAD accurate models of the backlot and miniature to the digital department where Supervisor Robert Chapin and CG Artist Jeff Benoit positioned them along with models of effects equipment, huge screens, articulated camera crane and track. Using camera moves from the production provided previz, the NDS team created a real-viz version of the shot.
Camera moves as well as model, crane and screen placement were exported and used by production for the set-up of photography. “We had an extremely difficult camera move which had to cover 180 degrees over the width of the entire set which was going to be engulfed in flames. Not only did we want to match our previz on set, but we needed to make sure our camera rig didn’t go up in flames,” said Chapin. Having real information of all the elements involved with photography matched with the previz allowed the effects and photography team to plan out the difficult photography, saving time and money.
The digital models created of the miniature in the design phase were then used to generate blueprints which gave the fabrication crew the exact measurements needed to construct the 1/3scale tenement roof and wall. Leading the design and miniature fabrication was crew chief, Forest Fischer. Fischer’s team built the 16 ft. x 40 ft. long rooftop and 4 ft. diameter by 8ft. tall water tank within a nine week period. The model had substructures built of lumber double-sheathed with a drywall fire barrier. Model makers laminated walls with sheets of brickwork cast in hydrocal, then lined the roof with sheet metal and cut fire pits into the roof for the propane jets that would provide the fire effects.
Lead pyrotechnician Kelly Kerby led a team of four to lace the miniature with propane lines and over 30 gas jets that would be timed to camera for the flame elements. There were additional fireboxes used to simulate the flames from unseen windows that were later created digitally. Each propane jet was equipped with a valve so that the height and intensity of the flame could be controlled. This allowed the fire effects team to bring the flames up to the desired performance level when the camera rolled and then to a safe “idle” position between takes.
The big finale of the sequence was the water tower collapse. NDS’ Mechanical Effects Supervisor, Scott Beverly, designed and engineered the effect in the software program Solidworks, which allowed him to run simulations of the action and find any weaknesses in the design before moving forward with fabrication. The water tank had a steel frame lined with bender board and waterproofed with sprayable urethane with one side of the tank made of breakaway material so that it would crush when it hit the rooftop. The tank was mounted on a hydraulically controlled weak knee which allowed the mechanical effects team to choreograph the movement and control the fall rate of the tower to provide a performance as designed in the previz by the Director and VFX Supervisor.
The camera rolled at 54 frames per second and Director of Photography, Tim Angulo, covered the tank collapse with a Technocrane move that swung the camera toward the tank. Two additional cameras were used to capture a close-up and a higher angle. NDS Supervisor Ian Hunter triggered the button that collapsed the tank and sent thousands of gallons of water across the set in a split second. And that’s how a few unseen visual effects heroes used a bit of movie magic to save the day.
About New Deal Studios:
New Deal Studios was founded in 1995 by Matthew Gratzner, Ian Hunter and Shannon Blake Gans. This artist owned and operated, independent company is housed in two buildings in Marina del Rey, California. NDS has developed over the years into a full-service production and visual effects studio unlike any in the world. NDS contributes to each project by using a diverse palette of artistic tools that range from the art department, workshop, production, to the digital department and DI suite. Creativity and solid management practices are the foundation upon which NDS has grown over the years and why all major studios continue to entrust NDS with high-profile projects such as Iron Man, Hancock, Batman: The Dark Knight and upcoming films Night At The Museum 2, Whiteout, 2012, Alice in Wonderland, Terminator: Salvation and Shutter Island.
According to Ian Hunter, NDS Co-Founder/Visual Effects Supervisor, this sequence required exact precision of the burning flames to match principal photography. “Our flame effects needed to be controlled and choreographed to the production’s pre-vizualization,” he explains. “A rooftop and a partial wall with windows was built and plumbed with propane lines for the fire effects. One shot required that the camera move around the entire miniature building and pass over the roof through the fire, so the flames had to be very controllable. The balance of the building below the rooftop was extended digitally.”
The planning of the photography for this sequence was crucial because of the pyrotechnics. The NDS art department sent CAD accurate models of the backlot and miniature to the digital department where Supervisor Robert Chapin and CG Artist Jeff Benoit positioned them along with models of effects equipment, huge screens, articulated camera crane and track. Using camera moves from the production provided previz, the NDS team created a real-viz version of the shot.
Camera moves as well as model, crane and screen placement were exported and used by production for the set-up of photography. “We had an extremely difficult camera move which had to cover 180 degrees over the width of the entire set which was going to be engulfed in flames. Not only did we want to match our previz on set, but we needed to make sure our camera rig didn’t go up in flames,” said Chapin. Having real information of all the elements involved with photography matched with the previz allowed the effects and photography team to plan out the difficult photography, saving time and money.
The digital models created of the miniature in the design phase were then used to generate blueprints which gave the fabrication crew the exact measurements needed to construct the 1/3scale tenement roof and wall. Leading the design and miniature fabrication was crew chief, Forest Fischer. Fischer’s team built the 16 ft. x 40 ft. long rooftop and 4 ft. diameter by 8ft. tall water tank within a nine week period. The model had substructures built of lumber double-sheathed with a drywall fire barrier. Model makers laminated walls with sheets of brickwork cast in hydrocal, then lined the roof with sheet metal and cut fire pits into the roof for the propane jets that would provide the fire effects.
Lead pyrotechnician Kelly Kerby led a team of four to lace the miniature with propane lines and over 30 gas jets that would be timed to camera for the flame elements. There were additional fireboxes used to simulate the flames from unseen windows that were later created digitally. Each propane jet was equipped with a valve so that the height and intensity of the flame could be controlled. This allowed the fire effects team to bring the flames up to the desired performance level when the camera rolled and then to a safe “idle” position between takes.
The big finale of the sequence was the water tower collapse. NDS’ Mechanical Effects Supervisor, Scott Beverly, designed and engineered the effect in the software program Solidworks, which allowed him to run simulations of the action and find any weaknesses in the design before moving forward with fabrication. The water tank had a steel frame lined with bender board and waterproofed with sprayable urethane with one side of the tank made of breakaway material so that it would crush when it hit the rooftop. The tank was mounted on a hydraulically controlled weak knee which allowed the mechanical effects team to choreograph the movement and control the fall rate of the tower to provide a performance as designed in the previz by the Director and VFX Supervisor.
The camera rolled at 54 frames per second and Director of Photography, Tim Angulo, covered the tank collapse with a Technocrane move that swung the camera toward the tank. Two additional cameras were used to capture a close-up and a higher angle. NDS Supervisor Ian Hunter triggered the button that collapsed the tank and sent thousands of gallons of water across the set in a split second. And that’s how a few unseen visual effects heroes used a bit of movie magic to save the day.
About New Deal Studios:
New Deal Studios was founded in 1995 by Matthew Gratzner, Ian Hunter and Shannon Blake Gans. This artist owned and operated, independent company is housed in two buildings in Marina del Rey, California. NDS has developed over the years into a full-service production and visual effects studio unlike any in the world. NDS contributes to each project by using a diverse palette of artistic tools that range from the art department, workshop, production, to the digital department and DI suite. Creativity and solid management practices are the foundation upon which NDS has grown over the years and why all major studios continue to entrust NDS with high-profile projects such as Iron Man, Hancock, Batman: The Dark Knight and upcoming films Night At The Museum 2, Whiteout, 2012, Alice in Wonderland, Terminator: Salvation and Shutter Island.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Exploit yourself is a Spec commercial inspired by NIKE
Directed by Carl Rinsch, Expliot yourself talks about your own limits.
The project is hot off the press and is intended to speak for the studio. You know, so much hard work never tasted so good for us once we saw the final outcome. Our wish was to show off the nerve and spark and freshness of the city with the strength and power of modern sport competition, all in a whole 3d environment. It had to be striking new and spirited, and yet dramatically credible.
We wanted to blend a robot state-of-the-art technology with the fresh elegance of the sport make, all set on the cutting edge stage of the more current TODAY. The bionic guy owns the skyscrapers and fifty meters jumps among metropolis concrete towers are just second nature to him. This is the place where he feels at home, and this is the feeling of freedom and force we wanted to convey .
‘Exploit Yourself’ talks about pushing your limits just for the sake of it. We see no competition or race but the one we all got within, still we keep trying to beat ourselves up. Faster runs, quicker movements, higher jumps: strength, pain, muscle, sweat, determination, thirst. Trying one’s best, never give up, create an enemy when there’s not one, the feeling of suffering for self beating. Winning in front of your eyes, winning for your eyes only, and never stop making you BETTER. Who said life at the city was placid?
The project is hot off the press and is intended to speak for the studio. You know, so much hard work never tasted so good for us once we saw the final outcome. Our wish was to show off the nerve and spark and freshness of the city with the strength and power of modern sport competition, all in a whole 3d environment. It had to be striking new and spirited, and yet dramatically credible.
We wanted to blend a robot state-of-the-art technology with the fresh elegance of the sport make, all set on the cutting edge stage of the more current TODAY. The bionic guy owns the skyscrapers and fifty meters jumps among metropolis concrete towers are just second nature to him. This is the place where he feels at home, and this is the feeling of freedom and force we wanted to convey .
‘Exploit Yourself’ talks about pushing your limits just for the sake of it. We see no competition or race but the one we all got within, still we keep trying to beat ourselves up. Faster runs, quicker movements, higher jumps: strength, pain, muscle, sweat, determination, thirst. Trying one’s best, never give up, create an enemy when there’s not one, the feeling of suffering for self beating. Winning in front of your eyes, winning for your eyes only, and never stop making you BETTER. Who said life at the city was placid?
The Runner -Exploit yourself- from BLR_VFX on Vimeo.
The Making Of Exploit Yourself
MakingOf -Exploit Yourself- from BLR_VFX on Vimeo.
Digital Domain’s Game Face for ‘Assassin’s Creed II’
Digital Domain forces viewers to stare deep into the faces of the freshly deceased in “Eyes,” a television commercial for “Assassin’s Creed II,” the new third-person action-adventure video game from Ubisoft. Directed by Andrew Douglas of Anonymous Content via ad agency Cutwater, the spot demonstrates Digital Domain’s expertise in working with the contours of the human face.
But instead of creating a fully computer-generated version à la The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Digital Domain applied digital production techniques to give the live-action actors a haunting, hyper-photorealistic quality.
In “Eyes,” a bell tolls as the spot opens on a close-up shot of a pair of very still and vacant eyes. The camera pulls out to reveal that they belong to the macabre face of a recently slain medieval soldier. Other crime scenes follow, showing the just-murdered faces of corrupt noblemen, criminals and other victims. The final face is that of a cloaked man, his skin dewy and his eyes moist. The Assassin Ezio, who is the main character in the game, blinks and turns, taking viewers seamlessly into Assassin’s Creed II game footage.
“Our goal was both to give Douglas’ shot footage a hyper-photorealistic treatment, but to also make the actors appear so believably dead, it really takes the viewer aback,” said Vernon Wilbert, visual effects supervisor, Digital Domain.
“We found this aesthetic by re-lighting and adjusting the live-action faces, treating them so they had a waxy, plastic and synthetic feel to them, while retaining the essence of the photography. From our experience creating digital human characters, we built an intimate knowledge of how light affects human skin. What’s interesting about this project is, we reversed it, using digital tools to relight the skin to take away the appearance of life.”
For an even more unsettling effect, Digital Domain meticulously extracted all movement from the actors such as twitches and blinking, while digitally adding in atmospheric movement like candlelight flickers, water ripples and flies buzzing about.
To achieve the closing shot of the actor playing Ezio as he seamlessly morphs from live-action into an in-game character, Wilbert and his team walked the director through a virtual set within the game, as Douglas evaluated lighting and scenery as if doing a virtual location scout.
“It’s interesting how the same issues that happen on a live-action set can also happen within the game engine,” added Wilbert. “The light in the video game would change, or we’d have to wait for the moon to come back into scene, or the shadows would shift. Andrew Douglas was a great collaborator, and was completely at ease directing action in the virtual world. This converging of the techniques and tools of moviemaking and gaming is something we’re going to be seeing a lot of in the future.”
Digital Domain is an Academy Award®-winning digital production studio with a reputation for innovation and artistry. The studio has created visual effects for 75+ movies that have collectively generated more than $12 billion in worldwide box-office sales, including most recently, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button for which it won the Academy Award for Visual Effects.
A creative giant in advertising, Digital Domain works with a stellar group of A-list directors including David Fincher, Mark Romanek, Joseph Kosinski, Carl Erik Rinsch and more. Industry recognition for Digital Domain’s advertising work includes many Clio, AICP, and Cannes Lion awards and other industry honors. The company is continually pushing into new territory and is being recognized for its pioneering work in photo-real digital humans and productions that bring the worlds of movies, games, advertising and the web closer together.
But instead of creating a fully computer-generated version à la The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Digital Domain applied digital production techniques to give the live-action actors a haunting, hyper-photorealistic quality.
In “Eyes,” a bell tolls as the spot opens on a close-up shot of a pair of very still and vacant eyes. The camera pulls out to reveal that they belong to the macabre face of a recently slain medieval soldier. Other crime scenes follow, showing the just-murdered faces of corrupt noblemen, criminals and other victims. The final face is that of a cloaked man, his skin dewy and his eyes moist. The Assassin Ezio, who is the main character in the game, blinks and turns, taking viewers seamlessly into Assassin’s Creed II game footage.
“Our goal was both to give Douglas’ shot footage a hyper-photorealistic treatment, but to also make the actors appear so believably dead, it really takes the viewer aback,” said Vernon Wilbert, visual effects supervisor, Digital Domain.
“We found this aesthetic by re-lighting and adjusting the live-action faces, treating them so they had a waxy, plastic and synthetic feel to them, while retaining the essence of the photography. From our experience creating digital human characters, we built an intimate knowledge of how light affects human skin. What’s interesting about this project is, we reversed it, using digital tools to relight the skin to take away the appearance of life.”
For an even more unsettling effect, Digital Domain meticulously extracted all movement from the actors such as twitches and blinking, while digitally adding in atmospheric movement like candlelight flickers, water ripples and flies buzzing about.
To achieve the closing shot of the actor playing Ezio as he seamlessly morphs from live-action into an in-game character, Wilbert and his team walked the director through a virtual set within the game, as Douglas evaluated lighting and scenery as if doing a virtual location scout.
“It’s interesting how the same issues that happen on a live-action set can also happen within the game engine,” added Wilbert. “The light in the video game would change, or we’d have to wait for the moon to come back into scene, or the shadows would shift. Andrew Douglas was a great collaborator, and was completely at ease directing action in the virtual world. This converging of the techniques and tools of moviemaking and gaming is something we’re going to be seeing a lot of in the future.”
Digital Domain is an Academy Award®-winning digital production studio with a reputation for innovation and artistry. The studio has created visual effects for 75+ movies that have collectively generated more than $12 billion in worldwide box-office sales, including most recently, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button for which it won the Academy Award for Visual Effects.
A creative giant in advertising, Digital Domain works with a stellar group of A-list directors including David Fincher, Mark Romanek, Joseph Kosinski, Carl Erik Rinsch and more. Industry recognition for Digital Domain’s advertising work includes many Clio, AICP, and Cannes Lion awards and other industry honors. The company is continually pushing into new territory and is being recognized for its pioneering work in photo-real digital humans and productions that bring the worlds of movies, games, advertising and the web closer together.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
The 10 Best Companies Supporting the Arts in America
Arketype, an advertising and design firm based in Green Bay, Wisc., will receive one of the BCA TEN awards at a Nov. 19 gala at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
BCA stands for Business Committee for the Arts, a division of Americans for the Arts that each year honors 10 companies whose policies and actions have been most beneficial and friendly toward the arts. The BCA TEN have been named every year since 2005.
In addition to Arketype, the following corporations will also be honored on Nov. 19:
Adobe Systems, San Jose, CA
Applied Materials, Santa Clara, CA
Brainforest Inc., Chicago, IL
Dollar Bank, Pittsburgh, PA
Duke Energy, Charlotte, NC
Hanesbrands Inc., Winston-Salem, NC
Reliance Standard Life Insurance Company, Philadelphia, PA
UMB Financial Corporation, Kansas City, MO
Williams & Fudge Inc., Rock Hill, SC
In a statement, J. Barry Griswell, chairman of the BCA executive board, said, “These businesses are being recognized for their exceptional involvement in the arts throughout the workplace and in their communities. They provide the arts with significant financial and in-kind support, and they incorporate meaningful arts-related programs into lives of millions of Americans. This year’s extraordinary honorees are corporate leaders who are developing and sustaining arts and arts education programming in towns of all sizes across the country.”
All the corporations on the list will release statements soon, but Arketype’s seemed sincere and endearing:
“The arts and creative thinking have been fundamental to our business and to our mission since our beginnings in 1992. Arketype continues to put its wholehearted support behind the arts because of its tremendous power to educate, enlighten and build a powerhouse culture that creates a successful community.”
Per the press materials, Arketype delivers “high-concept design, custom animation, and video” and “partners with a variety of likeminded clients, big and small, and transforms market insights into compelling, stimulating, and even disruptive communication that gets its brand partners noticed. The firm is the leading catalyst behind ‘Better by the Bay,’ an economic branding initiative for the greater Green Bay community.” To learn more, click here.
The BCA was founded in 1967 by David Rockefeller to bring business and the arts together. The group’s mission is to ensure that the arts flourish in America by encouraging, inspiring and stimulating business to support the arts in the workplace, in education and in the community. Americans for the Arts is the leading nonprofit organization for advancing arts in America
BCA stands for Business Committee for the Arts, a division of Americans for the Arts that each year honors 10 companies whose policies and actions have been most beneficial and friendly toward the arts. The BCA TEN have been named every year since 2005.
In addition to Arketype, the following corporations will also be honored on Nov. 19:
Adobe Systems, San Jose, CA
Applied Materials, Santa Clara, CA
Brainforest Inc., Chicago, IL
Dollar Bank, Pittsburgh, PA
Duke Energy, Charlotte, NC
Hanesbrands Inc., Winston-Salem, NC
Reliance Standard Life Insurance Company, Philadelphia, PA
UMB Financial Corporation, Kansas City, MO
Williams & Fudge Inc., Rock Hill, SC
In a statement, J. Barry Griswell, chairman of the BCA executive board, said, “These businesses are being recognized for their exceptional involvement in the arts throughout the workplace and in their communities. They provide the arts with significant financial and in-kind support, and they incorporate meaningful arts-related programs into lives of millions of Americans. This year’s extraordinary honorees are corporate leaders who are developing and sustaining arts and arts education programming in towns of all sizes across the country.”
All the corporations on the list will release statements soon, but Arketype’s seemed sincere and endearing:
“The arts and creative thinking have been fundamental to our business and to our mission since our beginnings in 1992. Arketype continues to put its wholehearted support behind the arts because of its tremendous power to educate, enlighten and build a powerhouse culture that creates a successful community.”
Per the press materials, Arketype delivers “high-concept design, custom animation, and video” and “partners with a variety of likeminded clients, big and small, and transforms market insights into compelling, stimulating, and even disruptive communication that gets its brand partners noticed. The firm is the leading catalyst behind ‘Better by the Bay,’ an economic branding initiative for the greater Green Bay community.” To learn more, click here.
The BCA was founded in 1967 by David Rockefeller to bring business and the arts together. The group’s mission is to ensure that the arts flourish in America by encouraging, inspiring and stimulating business to support the arts in the workplace, in education and in the community. Americans for the Arts is the leading nonprofit organization for advancing arts in America
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Image Engine Nukes District 9
When a client steps up to tell the world that you’ve done good work, especially when it’s on
a rip-roaring box office success, then you know you’ve got the formula spot on.
Armed with The Foundry’s Nuke compositing software, Image Engine was the lead VFX
vendor on District 9 - the debut feature from director Neill Blomkamp.
The Vancouverbased VFX studio completed 311 shots on the film, which grossed $130m worldwide in its first five weeks. The quality of the work was such that Blomkamp declared, “Image Engine has done absolutely top tier, brilliant work that far exceeded my expectations.”
The VFX workload focussed the studio’s efforts on creating digital aliens that populate an
area of Soweto, South Africa, known as “District 9”. In addition, Image Engine developed
the alien mother ship, digital helicopters and digital Casspir troop carriers as well as
miscellaneous shots that required computer-generated gore.
Blomkamp approached Image Engine because of their strong film visual effects pipeline,
highly-regarded R&D department, and complex creature experience on projects including
Slither and Kingdom Hospital. VFX for The Incredible Hulk, Watchmen, The Orphan, and Law
Abiding Citizen also feature amongst the company’s motion picture credits, and were all
completed using Nuke.
District 9 !2009 Columbia Tristar, Inc. All rights reserved. Images courtesy of Image Engine.
“In show business the deadline is always yesterday,” says compositing supervisor Shervin
Shoghian. “But Nuke is fast, which helped our artists spend more time being creative and
less time waiting for renders. Along with its advanced 3D compositing capabilities, which
allowed us to do more, Nuke also proved a huge help in getting conceptual work done and
addressing the director’s ongoing requests quickly.”
Image Engine acquired Nuke in 2007. It currently has 49 Nuke GUI licenses and over 100
render licenses all running on Linux, apart from a very small number operating on Mac for
legacy reasons. Most of the VFX work on District 9 was completed in Nuke at 2K (2048 x
1152) at 1.77:1 aspect ratio, with around 10% completed at 4K (4096 x 2048), enabling
the director to pan across and zoom into certain plates.
“We used to be a Shake-based company, but we’re now fully-converted to Nuke,” says
Shoghian. “It is so versatile, and no other application comes close in performance or
features. Nuke’s 3D workspace is the new paradigm for comping today and into the future.
Other systems are either archaic, not nearly as fast as Nuke, don’t run on Linux, or are
generally way more expensive and much less flexible.
“Essentially for us, Shake’s timeframe was up. It wasn’t capable of doing the level of VFX
we wanted to do, and not capable of integrating into a modern pipeline. Furthermore, our
artists wanted a more robust toolkit. So when The Foundry took over Nuke, we decided to
jump on the bandwagon early and enjoy the journey with them.”
Image Engine deploys Nuke from the start to the end of its VFX pipeline – from the raw
VFX plates right through to the final DPX render – and at multiple stages in between, as
Shoghian explains.
“We use Nuke to undistort and degrain the original image plates to make clean plates ready
for post. We use it exclusively for compositing, and regularly import 3D cameras, geometry
and EXR renders from our CG systems via FBX. Our lighters use Nuke too to relight CG
elements and quickly render out ‘slap comps’ to check work-in-progress. Nuke is also
integrated as a frame buffer, so we use it as a viewing tool and export full resolution DPX
scenes via Truelight LUTs to watch calibrated dailies with the director in our theatre. We
also finish every shot in Nuke by regraining and applying a balancing colour grade. It’s a
multi-purpose application.
“One other important feature is that, because of Nuke’s open architecture, our team can
write code and develop Gizmos to help with a range of VFX tasks,” he adds.
A key part of Image Engine’s work on District 9 involved the removal of stand-in actors
from selected takes to create clean plates ready for the compositing of the CG aliens. This
was complicated by the fact that the cameras were often handheld.
Using Nuke’s 3D workspace, the team was able to construct what Shoghian describes as a
“3-dimensional virtual set” of each scene. 3D tracking and camera data from the selected
plates was imported into Nuke, along with precision HDR photographic stills of the original
location sets, plus reference plates without any actors and the selected live action takes
with the stand-ins.
District 9 !2009 Columbia Tristar, Inc. All rights reserved. Images courtesy of Image Engine.
District 9 !2009 Columbia Tristar, Inc. All rights reserved. Images courtesy of Image Engine.
“By projecting the various HDR stills and plates on to cards, we were able to construct a 3D
plate in Nuke,” he explains. “As there was no motion control used on the live action, the
camera passes often did not match, but because of the array of elements we were working
with, plus tools to warp and stretch images in Nuke, we were able to create seamless joins.
We then used Nuke’s tracking and roto tools to remove the stand-ins from the scene, and
make the plate ready for CG comping.
“Before Nuke, doing all of this would have involved laborious and hugely time-consuming
hand, eye and 2D tracking, pasting stills on to plates, trying to cheat motion blur, depthof-
field and parallax effects, as well as rotoscoping elements back over top and underneath
the CG and live action.
District 9 !2009 Columbia Tristar, Inc. All rights reserved. Images courtesy of Image Engine.
“But in Nuke’s 3D environment the fact that you’re working in Z-depth and have multiple
cameras around the scene, you get so much for free – motion blur, parallax, depth-of-field.
So long as you have nicely tracked cameras to begin with, then the sky’s the limit. Also, you
can degrain at the start, regrain at the end, and then render out to DPX.”
With the plates made-ready, the task at hand was how to composite the CG aliens with
efficiency. To speed the process Image Engine’s R&D team developed a Nuke Gizmo capable
of auto-assembling the multiple Maya CG and 3D Delight render passes of the aliens – such
as diffuse, specular, sub-surface, preference, position, RGB, shadow and occlusion passes –
all to pre-scripted colour standards. With the aliens pre-built and pre-graded courtesy of
the Gizmo, the lighters were able to focus on the art relighting in Nuke, adding point and
spotlights and adjusting their qualities.
“This meant we could easily react to the director’s requests to adjust the way an alien
shone, or to finesse the gamma, brightness and specularity of selected areas of each alien.
On a practical level it was a highly-efficient and productive way to work. We could quickly
make nuanced changes and view the results in Nuke, rather than going back into Maya to
make changes and waiting for new renders to appear. This alleviated the pressure on our
CG and lighting teams, and was fundamental to delivering convincing results.”
As for getting the VFX team up to speed on Nuke, Shoghian says, “Most, if not all, of our
artists come from Fusion or Shake backgrounds. Once you give them a good lesson as to
the general working principles of Nuke, they are well on their way to comping shots.
Typically, if the artists understand the foundations of compositing, it’s just a matter of
finding the button in Nuke, and the GUI helps the artists find their way around it.
Furthermore these same artists love Nuke so much that often they only want to work on a
Nuke show or pipelines in the future, so training artists on Nuke has been an easy process.”
Shoghian says the decision to join the Nuke bandwagon has paid off. “The Foundry keeps
upgrading Nuke and adding new features all the time. We’ve been very impressed with Nuke
5.2 – the improved Python capabilities, support for Red RAW footage and metadata are
fantastic innovations that are making us look at how we can work more efficiently. We’re
really excited about the next generations of Nuke too. Who would have thought there
would be 3D tracking in NukeX 6.0? Not to mention lens warping and distortion tools?
“I’d love to see The Foundry sell tons of Nukes,” he concludes. “They are inventive and
excited about their product, and that’s really good news from a user’s point of view. Unlike
most other manufacturers, The Foundry listens to artists and develops accordingly. Unlike
other comping software out there, Nuke really is based on what digital artists want and
need.”
District 9 !2009 Columbia Tristar, Inc. All rights reserved. Images courtesy of Image Engine.
District 9 !2009 Columbia Tristar, Inc. All rights reserved. Images courtesy of Image Engine.
a rip-roaring box office success, then you know you’ve got the formula spot on.
Armed with The Foundry’s Nuke compositing software, Image Engine was the lead VFX
vendor on District 9 - the debut feature from director Neill Blomkamp.
The Vancouverbased VFX studio completed 311 shots on the film, which grossed $130m worldwide in its first five weeks. The quality of the work was such that Blomkamp declared, “Image Engine has done absolutely top tier, brilliant work that far exceeded my expectations.”
The VFX workload focussed the studio’s efforts on creating digital aliens that populate an
area of Soweto, South Africa, known as “District 9”. In addition, Image Engine developed
the alien mother ship, digital helicopters and digital Casspir troop carriers as well as
miscellaneous shots that required computer-generated gore.
Blomkamp approached Image Engine because of their strong film visual effects pipeline,
highly-regarded R&D department, and complex creature experience on projects including
Slither and Kingdom Hospital. VFX for The Incredible Hulk, Watchmen, The Orphan, and Law
Abiding Citizen also feature amongst the company’s motion picture credits, and were all
completed using Nuke.
District 9 !2009 Columbia Tristar, Inc. All rights reserved. Images courtesy of Image Engine.
“In show business the deadline is always yesterday,” says compositing supervisor Shervin
Shoghian. “But Nuke is fast, which helped our artists spend more time being creative and
less time waiting for renders. Along with its advanced 3D compositing capabilities, which
allowed us to do more, Nuke also proved a huge help in getting conceptual work done and
addressing the director’s ongoing requests quickly.”
Image Engine acquired Nuke in 2007. It currently has 49 Nuke GUI licenses and over 100
render licenses all running on Linux, apart from a very small number operating on Mac for
legacy reasons. Most of the VFX work on District 9 was completed in Nuke at 2K (2048 x
1152) at 1.77:1 aspect ratio, with around 10% completed at 4K (4096 x 2048), enabling
the director to pan across and zoom into certain plates.
“We used to be a Shake-based company, but we’re now fully-converted to Nuke,” says
Shoghian. “It is so versatile, and no other application comes close in performance or
features. Nuke’s 3D workspace is the new paradigm for comping today and into the future.
Other systems are either archaic, not nearly as fast as Nuke, don’t run on Linux, or are
generally way more expensive and much less flexible.
“Essentially for us, Shake’s timeframe was up. It wasn’t capable of doing the level of VFX
we wanted to do, and not capable of integrating into a modern pipeline. Furthermore, our
artists wanted a more robust toolkit. So when The Foundry took over Nuke, we decided to
jump on the bandwagon early and enjoy the journey with them.”
Image Engine deploys Nuke from the start to the end of its VFX pipeline – from the raw
VFX plates right through to the final DPX render – and at multiple stages in between, as
Shoghian explains.
“We use Nuke to undistort and degrain the original image plates to make clean plates ready
for post. We use it exclusively for compositing, and regularly import 3D cameras, geometry
and EXR renders from our CG systems via FBX. Our lighters use Nuke too to relight CG
elements and quickly render out ‘slap comps’ to check work-in-progress. Nuke is also
integrated as a frame buffer, so we use it as a viewing tool and export full resolution DPX
scenes via Truelight LUTs to watch calibrated dailies with the director in our theatre. We
also finish every shot in Nuke by regraining and applying a balancing colour grade. It’s a
multi-purpose application.
“One other important feature is that, because of Nuke’s open architecture, our team can
write code and develop Gizmos to help with a range of VFX tasks,” he adds.
A key part of Image Engine’s work on District 9 involved the removal of stand-in actors
from selected takes to create clean plates ready for the compositing of the CG aliens. This
was complicated by the fact that the cameras were often handheld.
Using Nuke’s 3D workspace, the team was able to construct what Shoghian describes as a
“3-dimensional virtual set” of each scene. 3D tracking and camera data from the selected
plates was imported into Nuke, along with precision HDR photographic stills of the original
location sets, plus reference plates without any actors and the selected live action takes
with the stand-ins.
District 9 !2009 Columbia Tristar, Inc. All rights reserved. Images courtesy of Image Engine.
District 9 !2009 Columbia Tristar, Inc. All rights reserved. Images courtesy of Image Engine.
“By projecting the various HDR stills and plates on to cards, we were able to construct a 3D
plate in Nuke,” he explains. “As there was no motion control used on the live action, the
camera passes often did not match, but because of the array of elements we were working
with, plus tools to warp and stretch images in Nuke, we were able to create seamless joins.
We then used Nuke’s tracking and roto tools to remove the stand-ins from the scene, and
make the plate ready for CG comping.
“Before Nuke, doing all of this would have involved laborious and hugely time-consuming
hand, eye and 2D tracking, pasting stills on to plates, trying to cheat motion blur, depthof-
field and parallax effects, as well as rotoscoping elements back over top and underneath
the CG and live action.
District 9 !2009 Columbia Tristar, Inc. All rights reserved. Images courtesy of Image Engine.
“But in Nuke’s 3D environment the fact that you’re working in Z-depth and have multiple
cameras around the scene, you get so much for free – motion blur, parallax, depth-of-field.
So long as you have nicely tracked cameras to begin with, then the sky’s the limit. Also, you
can degrain at the start, regrain at the end, and then render out to DPX.”
With the plates made-ready, the task at hand was how to composite the CG aliens with
efficiency. To speed the process Image Engine’s R&D team developed a Nuke Gizmo capable
of auto-assembling the multiple Maya CG and 3D Delight render passes of the aliens – such
as diffuse, specular, sub-surface, preference, position, RGB, shadow and occlusion passes –
all to pre-scripted colour standards. With the aliens pre-built and pre-graded courtesy of
the Gizmo, the lighters were able to focus on the art relighting in Nuke, adding point and
spotlights and adjusting their qualities.
“This meant we could easily react to the director’s requests to adjust the way an alien
shone, or to finesse the gamma, brightness and specularity of selected areas of each alien.
On a practical level it was a highly-efficient and productive way to work. We could quickly
make nuanced changes and view the results in Nuke, rather than going back into Maya to
make changes and waiting for new renders to appear. This alleviated the pressure on our
CG and lighting teams, and was fundamental to delivering convincing results.”
As for getting the VFX team up to speed on Nuke, Shoghian says, “Most, if not all, of our
artists come from Fusion or Shake backgrounds. Once you give them a good lesson as to
the general working principles of Nuke, they are well on their way to comping shots.
Typically, if the artists understand the foundations of compositing, it’s just a matter of
finding the button in Nuke, and the GUI helps the artists find their way around it.
Furthermore these same artists love Nuke so much that often they only want to work on a
Nuke show or pipelines in the future, so training artists on Nuke has been an easy process.”
Shoghian says the decision to join the Nuke bandwagon has paid off. “The Foundry keeps
upgrading Nuke and adding new features all the time. We’ve been very impressed with Nuke
5.2 – the improved Python capabilities, support for Red RAW footage and metadata are
fantastic innovations that are making us look at how we can work more efficiently. We’re
really excited about the next generations of Nuke too. Who would have thought there
would be 3D tracking in NukeX 6.0? Not to mention lens warping and distortion tools?
“I’d love to see The Foundry sell tons of Nukes,” he concludes. “They are inventive and
excited about their product, and that’s really good news from a user’s point of view. Unlike
most other manufacturers, The Foundry listens to artists and develops accordingly. Unlike
other comping software out there, Nuke really is based on what digital artists want and
need.”
District 9 !2009 Columbia Tristar, Inc. All rights reserved. Images courtesy of Image Engine.
District 9 !2009 Columbia Tristar, Inc. All rights reserved. Images courtesy of Image Engine.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Animation and Visual Effects industry in India
The animation industry is poised to touch more than USD 1.5 billion by 2009, according to an industry forecast by Anderson Consulting. The entertainment portion of the animation, gaming and VFX industry grew by 24 percent over the previous year and is estimated at Rs.13 billion ($260m) in 2007, up from Rs.10.5 billion in 2006, according to a report by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Ficci) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC).
Studies show that India will need 25,000 more professionals by the close of 2009. The industry currently has only a little over 10,000 professionals working in the field. As a result of this demand many institutions have been set up throughout the country to provide animation education, and there are now about 100,000 students who are undergoing training in animation, VFX and gaming.
Foreign producers, already impressed by the country’s proven success in the IT industry, are increasingly looking at India to cut costs. Indian animation studios offer services at lower costs due to the availability of skilled yet cheaper manpower. The salary that one has to pay in the US is 6 to 15 times that of India.
Indian Animation/VFX companies: Pixion, Crest Communications, UTV Toons, Famous Animation House, Jadoo Works, Maya Ent., Visual Computing Labs (Tata Elxsi Limited), Pentamedia Graphics, Prana Studios, Color Chips and FX House India.
Academy Award winning Hollywood Visual affects studio Rhythm & Hues set up a facility in Mumbai to take advantage of the highly skilled and low cost of labor. The Mumbai studio worked on sequences for films such as Daredevil, Garfield the Movie from Fox, Scooby Doo 2 - Monsters Unleashed from Warner Brothers, Welcome to the Jungle (aka The Rundown), The Cat in the Hat, and The Chronicles of Riddick from UniversalStudios.
Indian software firm Compudyne Winfosystems acquired Los Angeles based effects house Digital Art Media (DAM), a company which provided visual effects on films such as Independence Day, Dr. Dolittle, Men In Black, The Nutty Professor and Spy Kids. DAM set up an office in Banglore, India to avail of the skilled labor and considerably cheaper cost of production.
Sony Imageworks purchased controlling interest in FrameFlow based in Chennai which is now expanding its operations to avail of India’s competitive advantage in this area.
India’s competitive edge in the market include the following:
> A vast base of English speaking manpower: animation, which requires a familiarity with the English language, benefits when the work is outsourced to India. Besides, a number of initiatives are underway in the country targeted at creating skill manpower for the animation market
> Presence of animation studios: a number of Indian cities already boast hi-tech animation studios (equipped with state-of-the-art hardware and software), which are successfully completing projects from overseas companies.
> Low cost of animation services: India’s edge in terms of pricing is stated to be unmatched. Compared to other countries, Indian animation houses charge extremely low rates
> India’s large entertainment sector: Owing to a prolific entertainment segment, India has a readysupply of content developers.
by Emmanuel Pappas
Studies show that India will need 25,000 more professionals by the close of 2009. The industry currently has only a little over 10,000 professionals working in the field. As a result of this demand many institutions have been set up throughout the country to provide animation education, and there are now about 100,000 students who are undergoing training in animation, VFX and gaming.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Foreign producers, already impressed by the country’s proven success in the IT industry, are increasingly looking at India to cut costs. Indian animation studios offer services at lower costs due to the availability of skilled yet cheaper manpower. The salary that one has to pay in the US is 6 to 15 times that of India.
Indian Animation/VFX companies: Pixion, Crest Communications, UTV Toons, Famous Animation House, Jadoo Works, Maya Ent., Visual Computing Labs (Tata Elxsi Limited), Pentamedia Graphics, Prana Studios, Color Chips and FX House India.
Academy Award winning Hollywood Visual affects studio Rhythm & Hues set up a facility in Mumbai to take advantage of the highly skilled and low cost of labor. The Mumbai studio worked on sequences for films such as Daredevil, Garfield the Movie from Fox, Scooby Doo 2 - Monsters Unleashed from Warner Brothers, Welcome to the Jungle (aka The Rundown), The Cat in the Hat, and The Chronicles of Riddick from UniversalStudios.
Indian software firm Compudyne Winfosystems acquired Los Angeles based effects house Digital Art Media (DAM), a company which provided visual effects on films such as Independence Day, Dr. Dolittle, Men In Black, The Nutty Professor and Spy Kids. DAM set up an office in Banglore, India to avail of the skilled labor and considerably cheaper cost of production.
Sony Imageworks purchased controlling interest in FrameFlow based in Chennai which is now expanding its operations to avail of India’s competitive advantage in this area.
India’s competitive edge in the market include the following:
> A vast base of English speaking manpower: animation, which requires a familiarity with the English language, benefits when the work is outsourced to India. Besides, a number of initiatives are underway in the country targeted at creating skill manpower for the animation market
> Presence of animation studios: a number of Indian cities already boast hi-tech animation studios (equipped with state-of-the-art hardware and software), which are successfully completing projects from overseas companies.
> Low cost of animation services: India’s edge in terms of pricing is stated to be unmatched. Compared to other countries, Indian animation houses charge extremely low rates
> India’s large entertainment sector: Owing to a prolific entertainment segment, India has a readysupply of content developers.
by Emmanuel Pappas
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)