WHEN THE MENTORS FOUND THEIR MENTOR

Kolkata, 31^st March, 2009 : The word “Animation” is all about Soul as “Anima” means SOUL in Latin. Unfortunately, technology has obliterated the soul from our animation.

Some 15 odd mentors from Arena Park Street were to find this out over two days in the sanctum of academics at Jadavpur University courtesy the infallible, energetic, enthusiastic and adorable Prosenjit Ganguly aka PJ.

On 29^th March 2009 the day began with a quote of Brad Bird:

“The first step in achieving the impossible believing that the impossible can be achieved"

and this was enough to charge up everyone present.

Animation is an art of visual communication, based on conceptualization. Here Film is the Soul and Art is its Heart.

The essence of the program can best be summed up in the words of John Lassetter:

“Computers don’t create computer animation any more than pencils create pencil animation. What creates computer animation is the artist.”

Thoughts should always reflect the imagination irrespective of the field of application whether it be animation, screenplay writing or even graphic designing.

The core element of unique art form always needs a medium to express. And graphics or animation films (narrative / non narrative) are one of the finest mediums to communicate. Technology is only required to deliver the expression or to communicate the thoughts that we develop.

The entire bunch began the day by honouring legends like Charlie Chaplin, Satyajit Ray and few academy award winning filmmakers and made the day very nostalgic.

We all watched some great films including:

o I met the walrus

o Creature Comfort

o Every Child

o Balance

o Octupodi

o Cat came back

o An occurrence at the Owl Creek’s bridge

PJ also emphasized on the essentials of character design-its universe, treatment of films, screenplay, pitching, storyboarding etc. He explained brilliantly the importance of conceptualization, aesthetic sense and skills, in the process of film design with the help of these films.

The most interesting part of that two-day session was that both the days all the mentors were given assignments. They were given crayons and papers (the most fundamental tools) and they had to paint to the rhythm of sounds of flute and Tchaikovsky. The exercise was designed to cure the fear of colour from our minds.

PJ ended day 1 with an assignment on pitching ideas. He gave all of us a premise or brief wherein we were to prepare the concept and story for a PSA (Public Service Announcement) of 20 seconds to be aired on TV and whose message was that “Ghosts exist but we don’t have to be scared about them”

Day – 2 began with the pitches and turned out to be another brilliant session since the experience of pitching ones idea was new and unique for most if us.

The two-day long session was to discover the ART from HEART, ACT from ACTING and above all the SOUL from ANIMAtion (Anima means Soul in Latin). And to get the Soul we have to “Live in Animation.” Obliterated

We would like to thank PJ personally from the core of our hearts as he has made us learn the fun and artistic way of playing with colors- it’s all about “RHYTHM & SKETCH”… Thanks a lot and hope to see you again with few more assignments for us..!

- Arundhati Halder

Misgivings about the HAT Methodology

A lot has been said and written about the HAT methodology and it is time that we started implementing it effectively without any further delays. We can implement it effectively only if it is interpreted correctly. So let us first clarify misgivings about this methodology.

We all tend to get ensconed in our comfort zones and are very reluctant to break the mould in which we have been living all our lives even though their may be better options available only if take the effort to find it.

Reluctance and misgivings about this methodology stems from this fact. We are all very confortable in doing thigs the way we have been doing and are un willing to take the extra effort to understand anything which is away from our comfort zone. That is the reason there are misgivings about this methodology.

For once this methodology does not say that "tools" or software are not important. We are simply saying that there exists a world beyo9nd this too. All we are saying is that learning just "tools' or teaching just "tools" does not a good animator make.

The Design Visulasitation, Pre-Production and Post-Production aspects of animation film making are equally, if not more, important to the film making process as is production or tooling.

So in effect we are ADDING these aspects to our training methodology and in no way SUBTRACTING anything from it. The aspects other than tooling are a PLUS rather than a MINUS to the overall training that we intend to provide to our students.

Dear Students, Please note the PLUS. and Dear Trainers, Please wake up and smell the coffee. If you want to create good animators, you both need to break your comfort zones and dive head on into this methodology.

In case anyone has any misgivings about this, please feel free to contact me and I shall be happy to assist you in understanding this process. My email is ramesh@arenaparstreet.com

You may also write to me if you want to add somehing to what we are saying. I will welcome comments from the readers on this issue.

Looking forward to a healthy debate.

Arena Park Street students bowled over by HAT Trick of Shilpi Chauhan Chakraborty

Friday, June 20th: In continuation of the HAT methodology, about 100 graphic designing entusiasts from Arena Park Street participated in the first of the trilogy of workshops named HAT-Tricks conducted by Shilpi Chauhan Chakraborty, an NID alumnus and a freelance graphic designer by profession at The Academy of Fine Arts conference room.


Ms. Shilpi Chakraborty started the workshop by asking the students to draw/sketch or paint whever comes to their mind when they think of a celebrity like Bipasha Basu.

She went on to draw a comparison beween “Chacha Chowdhury” the immortal comic book character and a graphic designer and explained to the student that like Chacha Chowdhury, a graphic designer’s “dimag” needs to run faster than a computer. She emphasised that the entire “Design Process” needs to be followed before one sits in front of the computer while designing a graphic.



She illustrated the various aspects of the Process including Purpose, Research, Conceptualisation (Idea/Story), Visualisation (Idea Development / Visual Style) and Implementation. She explained to the students that the moment they sat in front of the computer without working on these aspects, their creativity and ideation process would get subdued by their urge to beautify their designs.

She also showed some animation films developed by the students of NID which were truly appreciated by all. She explained the style, characterisation, dialogues and timing of these films and gave a totally new perspective to animation film making to the students who are mostly tilted towards software and give little importance to these aspects. She expained that the films were memorable because of their uniqueness and this aspect needs to be brought into the designs to be created by them in future.

After explaining the above processes, she again asked the students to redo their concept idea about Bipasha Basu and the results were dramatically different.


The students with good visualisation were asked to explain why they did what they did and the good entries were given spot prizes by her.

Mr. Ramesh Ruia, the Director of Arena Park Street termed the event as the starting point in the process of weaning away the students from their leanings towards tools and introducing them to the design visualisation and pre-production aspects of the animation development process in tune with the Hat Methodology introduced by Arena Park Street.

The Process Note on The HAT Methodology

Animation is an art form which is not only timeless but also contemporary. It is a complex art requiring loads of creativity, somewhat akin to constructing and furnishing a new home to make it liveable.

Similarly, learning animation is not restricted to learning tools or software – just like a carpenter or mason alone cannot build a house for you. He needs support from other allied functions like architect, engineer, interior designer and other functionaries.

The animation development process starts with an idea and ends with a film. A film which tells a story for a specific purpose, be it entertainment, education or even information. An animation student is like the Director of a film who not only has to select a story, but also has to choose his cast, location, music, art, promotion, finance and other numerous aspects. Hence the animation development learning process is incomplete if one learns only the tools (software).

The HAT methodology addresses this issue and is designed to provide “Active” animation learning to the student. A student being trained under this methodology develops a pssion for his line of work and actually thinks, lives, and breathes animation to eventually earn from animation.

Drishti 2008 - The Creative Face of Arena - Park Street

The Creative Face of Arena Park Street
Kolkata:
The art gallery of Indian Museum of Kolkata recently housed a digitally created art exhibition of Arena Animation (Park Street) students that left the audience spellbound. “Drishti ‘08” as was called, displayed 83 digital art work on the 15th and 16th of March 2008.

Noted artist Bijan Chowdhury inaugurated the exhibition by painting a picture of “Porajita Bir” (defeated warrior). Speaking on the occasion he said that it was an honor for him to inaugurate the show. The renowned artist was extremely impressed by the creative talent of the young exhibitors and said that multimedia and computer graphics have become a force to reckon with in the world today. Being very optimistic about the great career prospects in the animation industry, Mr. Chowdhury advised the aspirants that in order to make a mark, one also needs to be aware of Pan Indian and International developments in creativity in this dynamically changing field.

Atreyee Kar, the placement executive of the Arena Animation informed “our students have displayed immense creative talent. Through shows like this we hope to wean them away from ‘tool based’ to ‘design & visualization’ based approach to graphic designing, a demand often repeated by the industry where these students are likely to be placed once they complete their course with us.”

The show was judged by a panel of eminent personalities in the art and advertising fields. The experts included, Mr. Atin Basak- eminent painter and winner of 1999-2000 Charles Wallace India Trust Arts award, Mr. Sourav Pal- B.V.A., Art Director, Ad Infinitus, Kolkata, Mr. Basudev Mali-B.V.A., upcoming artist and sculptor, Mr. Barunansu Sarkar-Regional Head, Aptech Ltd.

The experts were full of praise for the students and encouraged them to work harder. The professionals appreciated this initiative of Arena Animation and for giving the young artists a platform to reach out to the world.

Mr. Sourav Pal said that the merger of paintings and graphics was extremely good and there was a lot of talent in sketching. He also added that this kind of exhibitions would inspire the students to improve their creative skills.

Mr. Atin Basak advised that the students must incorporate more “feeling” into their creations and that he expected Arena Park Street to encourage students to build an attitude of creating beauty on canvas using digital tools.

Mr. Basudev Mali said that the overall standard of works on display was excellent and that it was tough to choose the winner. Mr. Barunansu Sarkar said “I enjoyed the captions as much as the works and the usage of theme based captions enhanced the charm of the digital output. The students have successfully demonstrated that visualization is more important than the tool used to create the final output”.

Debojoy Chanda of Indiatimes.com wrote: “Interestingly, at first glance, one could well be fooled into thinking that the paintings were handmade. Deepmala Srivastava's painting Yaar bina chain kahan re, portraying a teapot and teacups upon a sofa sans any drinkers is as good as manually painted. The same can be said of Debojyoti Mukherjee’s representation of a pastoral setup, named Gori tera gaon bara pyara.

The artistic ideas too were commendable, especially considering the fact that the artists concerned are not professionals. Chandan Das’ Love without End, Amen, a portrait of Mother Mary, leaves a lasting impression upon the viewer. So does Subhajit Adhikary’s An Ocean of Memories, dealing with the lined face of an old woman”.

The winners of the exhibitions were:
1st Prize: Rimzim Sinha for Is raat kee subah nahin, a thought provoking work depicting the agony of a widow and her plight.

2nd Prize: Debojyoti Mukherjee for Mondo meyer upakhyan,(The saga of a spoilt girl) depicting the erosion of values in our society over time.

3rd Prize: Tanaya Ghosh for All I have to do is dream, a touching scene capturing one of the many moments of solitude in old age.

The popular choice awards were won by:

1st Prize: Subhajit Adikary for An ocean of memories, about memories of the times gone by in the eyes of an ageing woman.

2nd Prize: Sandip Chowdhury for Cheeni Kum a realistic detailing of the interiors of a coffee shop.

3rd Prize: Subhashish Samajpati for Love is immortal a 3D graphic capturing the eternal emotion of love.

There were numerous other activities involving the students which were conducted on Day 2 of the exhibition. The visitors could have their portraits sketched by students and there was a perpetual queue for getting one.

Mr. Basudev Mali conducted a clay modeling workshop and showed how in simple steps one could mould clay to create interesting objects like an elephant, cow or tribal doll. The students and some visitors thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and proudly took home their prized clay creations.

Mr. Ramesh Ruia, Director of Park Street chapter of Arena Animation wants to now enlarge the canvas of Drishti to include students and professional from all over India to participate in the competition next year.

Arena Idol 2008 by Arena Park Street

Arena Idol 2008 was organized on Saturday the 12th of April 2008, at Kala Kunj, Kolkata by Arena Animation, Park Street. The chief guest for the occasion was the well known actress June Malia and the Guest of honour was Arijit Dutta, V.P. of Eastern India Motion Pictures Association.

The occasion was the grand finale of the talent hunt in fields like story writing, Sketching, painting, photography, logo and web designing, sound mixing and animation.
More than 150 students from Arena Animation, Park Street participated in the talent hunt and the entries were judged at various stages of the competition by various experts in the relevant fields. During the show, the final nominees’ works were displayed and the winners announced for each category.

The special part of the evening was inviting the parents of the winners on stage to present the prize to their wards. A very touching and emotional gesture, which was appreciated by everyone.

The students’ best projects for each semester also received prizes and “Bheje Ka Kamaal” the 3rd Semester 3D animation by the students was really enjoyable and well done.

The show was anchored by Aditi Paul, RJ of Radio Meow (104.8 FM) and the award ceremony was peppered by performances in mime and short skit by the students. Speaking on the occasion, Ramesh Ruia, Director of Arena Park Street emphasized that “Creativity” was an important part of animation and often training institutes ignored this vital component. We want to create an environment to encourage lateral thinking and wean away the students from their focus on “tools” and guide them in to thinking about the creative side of animation too, hence this event, added Ruia.

June Malia and Arijit Dutta, both re-iterated that the future for the animation students was bright and that there was tremendous scope for building a sound career in this field. Mr. Dutta appreciated the effort by Arena, Park Street to encourage creativity.

The Arena Idol 2008 award went to Noorul Ahmed for all round performance and he received a cash prize of Rs. 5000/- along with a trophy.

A cheque for Rs. 5100/- was also handed over to Asha Niketan, a home for mentally challenged by Arena, Park Street as part of their CSR programme, and the same was handed over to them by June Malia.

Over all a very rewarding and emotional event.

For more details visit www.arenaparkstreet.com or write to mailbox@arenaparkstreet.com

The "H.A.T." Methodology for Animation Training

The HAT or “The Holistic Animation Training Methodology” is a unique training methodology which is proprietary to Arena Animation at Park Street and is designed for Maximum Impact in animation learning and creative take-away by the students.

The methodology fuses and crafts the latent talent hidden in the animation student with the eclectic skills required to be an animator and works to the advantage of both, the learner and the requirements of the industry where they are likely to be placed eventually. In other words the end product of this methodology is a “placement ready” candidate.

Just like one cannot become a “Fashion Designer” by learning “tailoring”, one cannot become an “Animator” by learning “Software” alone.

The H.A.T methodology disengages the student’s mindset from mere “tool” or “software” leanings and forces their creative juices to flow. It teaches them to use software as a tool to achieve their objective and not as the objective itself – a common mistake made by most training schools in India.

This methodology encompasses all the aspects of animation development and makes the student go through the entire animation production pipeline including “design visualisation” & “pre-production”. Emphasis is given on story, screenplay, script, sketching, drawing and other creative dimensions like acting, direction, music, costumes, background and critical analysis to bring out the best in terms of creativity in an animation film.
For more details about the methodology and how it can impact your learnings, please write to mailbox@arenaparkstreet.com