Drishti 2010

The Event
The 8th edition of “Drishti”, the annual CG exhibition and Placement Mela organized by Arena Animation – Park Street, Kolkata is being held on 3rd & 4th of April this year followed by a Placement Mela on the 5th.

The objective behind this exhibition is to showcase the design and film making abilities of the students of Arena Animation – Park Street and exhibit the skills that they have acquired for the viewers to judge whether the impact is Holistic or not.

More than 150 students are expected to participate with their works in this exhibition.

Venue & Dates

The venue:
Ashutosh Birth Centenary Hall
(Inside Indian Museum)
27 Jawaharlal Nehru Road,
Kolkata – 700 016

Time:
3rd April 2010, 4-8 pm
4th April, 2010, 2-7pm
5th April, 2010, 11-5 pm (Placement Meal at Campus)

Chief Guest
Drishti 2010 would be graciously inaugurated by the veteran octogenarian Mr. Mahendra Kumar who specializes in Cut-out Animation and has worked with Directors like Ritwick Ghatak as cinematographer. Mahendra Sir has worked extensively with the stories of Lotte Reineger and his story telling abilities can still raise a few goose bumps for the listeners.



Judges for Drishti 2010

The works of the students would be reviewed by the following judges:

• Mr. Debasish Deb
Mr. Deb is a famous cartoonist and illustrator from Kolkata. Graduated from Govt. Art College. And has over 15 years experience in this field. Presently attached to ‘The Telegraph’ as a cartoonist and has illustrated many children’s books.

• Mr. Ambar Nair
Mr. Nair received his BA in Economics/Finance and Computer Science from Macalester College in St. Paul, MN, USA in 1998, and has worked in several industries with leading companies such as Lehman Brothers in New York, Ajilon LLC in Minneapolis and St. Jude Medical in Minneapolis. He has primarily lived in Minneapolis for ten years, working in the consulting industry as well being involved in starting several businesses such as a performance automobile company, a graphic design studio, and a software company, before returning to India in 2004. Though his work experience has primarily been in consulting, he has always had an interest in animation, and worked in the field as a hobbyist up until 2005, when he founded Blowfish FX. Currently he is the CEO of Blowfish Fx.

• Ms. Debjani Mukherjee
Ms. Mukherjee is an independent film maker. She is currently working on a graphic novel, a travelogue. She has started out making films as a student in college, even before she joined NID. She is very fond of experimenting with the forms keeping in mind the narrative (or the non-narrative) and its natural flow. She has worked with sand, film strips, water color on glass and other objects and their expression in animation films. There are about 10 short films that she have completed and few of them are Sattala Bari (The Seven Storied House)-Music Video (2009) {It was nominated at The 16th Golden Elephant Awards, International Children’s Film Festival’ 2009 held in Hyderabad, Nominated at Silver Salt Animation Festival’2010} , Chai Break (2008) {1st Place at Digicon Tokyo, Japan 2008, 1st Place at FICCI Frames BAF Awards 2009,Special Jury Mention at Monstra International Film Festival Lisbon, Portugal 2009,Special Jury Mention at Asifa India 2009, Nominated at Kol.katha 2009}, Tuccho Music Video (2009) etc.

The New Dimension of Drishti 2010

Every year we add a new dimension to this event. In the eighth year, we plan to hold the Placement Mela at Campus on a larger scale where the works of our students will not only be showcased to the people from the industry but also create an opportunity for them to select the right candidates of their choice, based on the quality of work on display. Some of the companies will also conduct an aptitude or technical test for the benefit of the students.

In addition the format of Drishti has been sufficiently tweaked keeping in mind the shift in focus of our students from “software” to animation film making.

Placement Mela:

The placement mela is scheduled on 5th April 2010 and about 6-7 local companies are expected to recruit. Some of the prominent ones among them being:
1. Festoon Media (Web Designing & Multimedia)
2. Animatzione (2D Animation)
3. Club D7 Holidays (Web Designeing)
4. Ani2Pix (3D Animation)
5. Elecom Toons (3D Animation)
6. Blowfish F/X (3D Animation)
7. Tara TV (Graphic Designing & 3D Animation)

More than 75 students have so far enrolled for the Placement Mela and are preparing hard to get that coveted job in the company of their dreams.

Categories

Drishti 2010 will showcase art work of some new categories including

a. Single frame cartoons (Repeat from last year)
b. Visual Story Telling (Repeat from last year)
c. 3D Scenes (New)
d. Students Film (Repeat from last year)
e. Faculty Film (Repeat from last year)

Other Attractions

In addition to the exhibition, the event will be peppered with a lot of activities to keep the atmosphere buzzing and electrified. Some of these activities include a Jam session, face painting and many on the spot competitions including writing captions/dialogues for a set of cartoons.

Mr. Ramesh Ruia, Director of Arena Animation – Park Street said that he was extremely excited about Drishti, since now the students film from Arena Park Street have started getting recognized and nominated in major film competitions. The overall quality of the student’s works has undergone dramatic improvements over the years which is evident from the fact that Arena Park Street ended up winning 9 out of 10 awards in the inter Arena student works competition held recently. These awards were won across all the categories indicating a Holistic improvement in the works of the students. “I hope the hard work of the students get translated into jobs for some of them during the Placement Mela where some of the prime animation companies of Kolkata are recruiting."

Stop Motion Unveiled for the students of Arena Park Street

Followed by a successful Stop Motion seminar, the students of Arena Park Street experienced a very inspiring and helpful 3 days workshop on Puppet making and Stop Motion, which was conducted by Delwyn Jude Remedios.

About Delwyn Jude Remedios:
He completed his PGDP Animation and Film Design from National Institute of Design. From clay to paper to sand there isn't a medium which he hasn't experienced and brought the best out of it. His film ‘Chai Break’ secured 1st Place at FICCI Frames BAF Awards 2009 and Digicon Tokyo, Japan 2008. It also received a Special Jury Mention at Monstra International Film Festival Lisbon, Portugal 2009 and Asifa India 2009. Another film titled ‘0200’ has also bagged the 1st Place at Monstra International Film Festival Lisbon, Portugal 2009 and 2nd Place at Digicon Tokyo, Japan 2008. His latest film ‘Deluge’ has been nominated for TVCA this year.


On Day 1, an eager bunch of about 15 students were divided into three groups with the assigned task of coming up with a story concept and idea for a short stop motion film. The rest of the day was spent in discussing the ideas and thrashing out the detailing of the characters and the flow of the story, with inputs and guidance from Delwyn.

They were asked to bring the “ingredients” like aluminium wires, thermocole, M-Seal and Leukoplast for the rigging of the puppet the next day.

They ended the day by watching a few short films on stop motion, some of the NID diploma Projects and a full length feature film titled “My Neighbor Totoro” by Miazaki. The students were full of excitement and their enthusiasm and eagerness could be felt by the animated conversations as they trooped out of the classroom.

Some of them took out Delwyn for Chaat and Kulfi in the rain washed streets of Kolkata in the evening. An experience, which they will cherish as memories.

On Day 2, Delwyn taught puppet making using the ingredients the students brought with them and showed them the process and technique of creating a base for the models for the characters of their planned films. Some of the adventurous amongst them even created a quadruped character even though they were only shown how to make a biped character.

Delwyn explained to the students the importance of creating light weight characters to facilitate the animation process.

There was also a brainstorming session for the storyboards of the stories decided upon by the three groups. Delwyn shared a few tips and tricks of drawing and made suggestions for treatment and stylization of the scenes.

There was another feature film screened, titled “Coraline” which left the students spellbound. The session was wrapped up with the screening of a few of Delwyn’s works. The assignment for the day was to complete the storyboard before the next day.

Evening menu for the day was Egg Rolls and more street food, courtesy students.

Day-3 was the day for the final wrap up of the concept and storyboard and the students were told to prepare the animatics for their films before venturing into final production.

Sensing opportunity a lot of students also discussed their upcoming films, projects and concepts with Delwyn and he patiently heard each one out and gave his valuable suggestions for improvements wherever needed. He suggested them to watch a lot of films to enrich their experience of film making by taking pointers and learnings from these viewings.

Since Delwyn had a flight to catch in the evening and wanted to go on a tram ride, the students gladly went along with him and along with the tram ride also treated Delwyn to a river cruise on the Hooghly and fed him ice-cream to sweeten his departure from Kolkata.

Overall it was a fun and exciting experience for this bunch of animation enthusiast from Arena Park Street and they finally bade farewell to Delwyn but not before extracting a promise for him to come back soon.

The students learnt a lot of tips and tricks about animation film making and were left behind with a lot of memories and learning which, hopefully, they would utilize in their next animation venture.

Drishti 2009 Rocks!

Ashutosh Centenary Hall at the Indian Museum was abuzz with the vibrancy of the creativity of the students of Arena Park Street during their annual CG exhibition and placement mela Drishti 09 on the 30th and 31st of May 2009.

Day -1: Kolkata, May 30th:

The exhibition was inaugurated by the noted cartoonist Mr. Chandi Lahiri. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Lahiri Said “Students shouldn’t clamour for jobs but concentrate on their work and practice at least 100 drawings every day. If they practiced hard enough, the jobs would come automatically”. He went on to emphasise that computers were meant to create what the artist wants and not dictate the outcome of the work. It should be used as a mere tool. Mr. Lahiri was kind enough to sketch an image for the waiting audience.

More than 110 students submit about 165 works in the categories of Cartoons, Caricature, Digital Art, Visual Story, Film Poster & Animation Film

“For the first time ever even the faculties of our institute have made animation films and are competing for a cash reward of Rs. 5000/- in a separate category” said Paromita Dutta, the Drishti Coordinator. “To my knowledge, no other institute in India has ever attempted this and the whole purpose of this exercise is to inspire and motivate the students into making more and better animation films” said Dutta.

The judges, Mr. Sarbajit Sen (Independent Cartoonist & Film Maker), Mr. Amit Sengupta (FTII, Pune alumnus and Film Maker) & Shilpi Chauhan Chakraborty (Freelancer & NID Alumnus) were impressed by the work and felt that the overall quality of student films was as good, if not better than the faculty films.

The highlight of the day was the screening of the faculty films for which most of the audience was keenly waiting. “Deserted” a blend of narrative and non-narrative styles, made by Saikat Mazumder (Centre Academics Head) and Somraj Chatterjee (2D Faculty) about the state of mind of a terrorism victim was simply amazing and deservedly won the first prize in this category

The second prize went to “Jai Ho” by Arundhati halder and Arnab Chatterjee about “Rights being Wronged” by the politicians.

“Journey to Hell”, the 3rd Prize winner was a short story about effects of smoking and had a tremendous impact on the audience.

In the students’ category, “Destination” an experimental film in stop motion was an instant hit with the audience and they simply loved its look and feel.

The 2nd prize went to “Nightmare” a 2D film and the 3rd prize was won by another stop motion experimental film “Every Minute Counts”.

Faculty Films:
1st: Deserted
2nd: Jai Ho
3rd: Journey to Hell


Student Films:
1st: Destination
2nd: Nightmare
3rd: Every Minute Counts

The results of the other categories are listed below:
Cartoons
Winner-Tapon Roy
Runner-up - Soam Sankar Samanta
Runner-up (2nd) - Anthony J. S. Dingdoh

Caricatures
Winner - Runa Bose
Runner-up - Tapon Roy
Runner-up (2nd) - Gopal Krishna Chandra

Digital Art
Winner - Subhamay Sarkar (Fashion)
Runner-up - Deepak Nonia (Yeh jo desh hai mera)
Runner-up (2nd) - Jerry Chan Lyngdoh (Sargam)

Visual Story
Winner - Anthony J. S. Dingdoh
Runner-up - Debashish Biswas
Runner-up (2nd) - Saikat Saha

Film Poster
Winner - Jahangir Alam
Runner-up - Subrata Singha Mahapatra
Runner-up (2nd) - Khokan Pal

The icing on the cake for Day-1 was the face painting which was an instant hit and the students thoroughly enjoyed getting their faces painted with vivid and outrageous graphics ranging from football, spider, butterflies, lizards, dragons and even animals. Mr. Ruia, the Centre director was seen proudly sporting an “Inca” look on his face painted by the students. The frenzy to get their faces painted continued till late in the evening and the students thoroughly enjoyed themselves.


Day – 2, Kolkata May 31st:
Another action packed day with activities and the hall was packed with students, their parents and friends. The highlights of the day were the Magic Show and The Ventriloquist with his puppet. The icing on the cake was the Placement Mela in which two companies interviewed about 65 students.

The students, specially the prize winners were seen proudly escorting their parents and friends to see and appreciate their respective works.

Saikat Mazumder, the Academic Head said that the best part about an event of this nature is the fun everyone has, initially to compete and later while enjoying the appreciation not to mention participating in the various activities. “We all had fun making the films and it shows in the works. We have successfully weaned away the students from thinking just software and the results are visible in the number of experimental films produced this year.” He went on to add.

Mr. Ramesh Ruia, the Director of Arena Animation (Park Street) was extremely elated by the show and said “This year we have enlarged the canvas of Drishti by holding a placement mela along with the exhibition which has boosted the confidence of the students and helped the recruiters to identify potential talent. The thing to note is the paradigm shift from directionless computer works to the creative side of student’s talent. The categories like Visual Story, Caricatures and Cartoons and films have been attempted keeping in mind the requirement to develop the Pre-production skills of our students. Next year we plan to add the dimension of master classes by industry experts and convert the exhibition into an annual fest for our students”.

Stings & Smiles

The first HAT-Trick workshop for 2009 was organised by us at International Club on Saturday, 11th April 2009 and the conductor was none other than the celebrated illustrator, cartoonist, scriptwriter, film maker and painter Mr. Sarbajit Sen.

“Lines crookedly drawn – features exaggerated – oddities blown out of proportion – we often tend to think that is all about cartoons. Too simplistic, isn’t it” is how Sarbajit Sir introduced visual scripting for comic strips to his audience.

He went on to explain to the audience that cartoons were almost certainly about having fun. Whether it be the about an experience we have on pour daily life, whether about the current trends in news – sports, politics or others, or whether about something totally imaginary.

The art of story-telling, visually, is more complex than narrating and in the process more fulfilling for the creator. For animation students it is all the more important since it guides the film development process and works as a storyboard for the film maker’s script. Cartoons or comic strips are not bound by any language and the medium is powerful enough to communicate without the aid of “language”.

Comics have a visual language which is universal and speaks for itself. To further illustrate this point he shared a “French” comic strip about a man feeding a crow and no one had any difficulty in understanding the story even though the dialogues were in French.

He encouraged the participants to create a story in three or more frames based on their day to day experience, the political situation or anything which came to their mind, to illustrate his point and upon request from the audience, picked up the pen and started illustration on ‘Concept”

This got the students started and everyone squatted on the floor and started “illustrating” their own ideas on paper. Sarbajit Sir encouraged everyone to discuss their ideas with him and approach him if they got stuck....

Students approached him in droves and he patiently went through their work guiding them and encouraging them with his remarks and suggestions. The queue to get their work assessed was increasing by the minute and one could see the happy faces of those who could squeeze through.

Eventually time ran out and Mr. Sen promised that he would look at each and every work in details later and would be happy to leave his comments about them for the students to see.

In the end Mr. Sen encouraged students to scribble a lot and do freehand sketching exercises to improve their drawing skills and asked them to develop their sense of observation of day to day happenings and be more aware of them.

The winning student comic was an entry by Tapon Roy.



Mr. Ramesh Ruia, the Director of Arena Animation Park Street announced that Mr. Sarbajit Sen would conduct a longer duration workshop for the interested students at the academy and those interested could register their names for the same.

The success of the seminar can best be judges by what the students had to say:

“Ek do teen char, Sarbajit Sir is a superstar” - Sushama Shaw

“The program was simply stunning and I learnt a lot” - Tanushree Biswas

“It was an excellent experience as well as opportunity to interact with a person
like Mr. Sen. I enjoyed drawing, sitting on the floor. Thanks to Arena Animation – Park Street” - Kumar Ajay

“Idea of comics became more clear” - Sangita Ray

“This seminar laid the foundation for learning storyboarding, which is so important for creating script for animation” - Tapan Roy

Biography

Petrov was born in the village of Prechistoye (Yaroslavl Oblast) and lives in Yaroslavl.He studied art at VGIK (state institute of cinema and TV). He was a disciple of Yuriy Norshteyn at the Advanced School for screenwriters and directors (Moscow).After making his first films in Russia, in Canada he adapted the novel The Old Man and the Sea, resulting in a 20-minute animated short — the first large-format animated film ever made. Technically impressive, the film is made entirely in pastel oil paintings on glass, a technique mastered by only a handful of animators in the world. By using his fingertips instead of a paintbrush on different glass sheets positioned on multiple levels, each covered with slow-drying oil paints, he was able to add depth to his paintings. After photographing each frame painted on the glass sheets, which was four times larger than the usual A4-sized canvas, he had to slightly modify the painting for the next frame and so on. It took Aleksandr Petrov over two years, from March 1997 through April 1999, to paint each of the 29,000+ frames. For the shooting of the frames a special adapted motion-control camera system was built, probably the most precise computerized animation stand ever made. On this an IMAX camera was mounted, and a video-assist camera was then attached to the IMAX camera. The film was highly acclaimed, receiving the Academy Award for Animated Short Film and Grand Prix at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival.

After this, Aleksandr Petrov has maintained a close relationship with Pascal Blais Studio in Canada, which helped fund The Old Man and the Sea, where he works on commercials.

He returned to Yaroslavl in Russia to work on his latest film, My Love, which was finished in spring 2006 after three years' work and had its premiere at the Hiroshima International Animation Festival on August 27, where it won the Audience Prize and the Special International Jury Prize. On March 17, 2007, My Love will be theatrically released at the Cinema Angelika in Shibuya, (Japan) by Studio Ghibli, as the first release of the "Ghibli Museum Library" (theatrical and DVD releases of Western animated films in Japan).

Filmography :

Director1988—Marathon, Марафон (Marafon) (directed and animated with Mikhail Tumelya)

1989—The Cow, Корова (Korova) (after Andrey Platonov)

1992—The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, Сон смешного человека (Son smeshnovo cheloveka) (after Fyodor Dostoevsky)

1997—Mermaid, Русалка (Rusalka) (after Alexander Pushkin)

1999—The Old Man and the Sea (after Ernest Hemingway)

2003—Participated in Winter Days, 冬の日 (Fuyu no hi)

2006—My Love, Моя любовь (Moya lyubov) (after Ivan Shmelev)

Art director

1984 By a Wave of the Wand, По щучьему велению (Po shchuchyemu veleniyu) (directed by Valeriy Fomin, cutout animation)

1985—Tale of a Small Fry, Сказочка про козявочку (Skazochka pro kozyavochku) (directed by Vladimir Petkevich, paint-on-glass)

1986—Welcome, Добро пожаловать (Dobro pozhalovat) (directed by Alexei Karayev, paint-on-glass)

AWARDS :

1988—Ottawa International Animation Festival: Welcome, "Grand Prix"

1990—Berlin International Film Festival: The Cow, "Honorable Mention" in the category "Best Short Film"

1990—Academy Award for Animated Short Film: The Cow (nominated)

1990—Ottawa International Animation Festival: The Cow, "OIAF Award for Best First Film"

1992—Bombay International Documentary, Short and Animation Film Festival: The Cow, "Golden Conch for Best Animation Film"

1992—Ottawa International Animation Festival: The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, "Audience Award" and "OIAF Award for Best Production Between 10 and 30 Minutes in Length"

1993—Cracow Film Festival: The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, "Special Mention for the depiction of a crucial subject in the form of animation"

1997—Cinanima: The Mermaid, "Grand Prize"

1997—International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film: The Mermaid, "Honorable Mention" in the category "Animated Films and Videos"

1997—2nd Open Russian Festival of Animated Film: The Mermaid, "Best Animator of a Drawn Film", "3rd Place Rating by Audience Vote"

1998—Academy Award for Animated Short Film: The Mermaid (nominated)

1998—Ottawa International Animation Festival: The Mermaid, "Craft Prize" in the category "Best Story"

1998—Zagreb World Festival of Animated Films: The Mermaid, "Grand Prize"

1999—Academy Award for Animated Short Film: The Old Man and the Sea2006—11th Hiroshima International Animation Festival: My Love, "Audience Prize" and "Special International Jury Prize"[3]

2006—International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film: My Love, "FIPRESCI Prize for Best Animation" [4]

2007—12th Open Russian Festival of Animated Film: My Love, "Grand Prix", "Best Direction" and "Best Visuals"

2007—XVII International "Message to Man" Film Festival: My Love, "Grand Prix"2007—Academy Award for Animated Short Film: My Love (nominated)

to learn more :http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0678154/http://animator.ru/db/?ver=eng&p=show_person&pid=735

wow !! that was quite an info !! :)

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

Out in the Open… (Sorry PJ, we stole your line!)

19 March, Prinsep Ghat, Kolkata: The recent Holi celebrations seemed to have had a Santiniketan-effect on Arena Park Street as the entire T-T-S (Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday) batch were taken out of doors for their classes. All the mentors and their students met in front of the CAB Club House (Eden Gardens) at around 9 in the morning to kick start the day with some Perspective-drawing at the Customs Grounds.

the group assembles

The day began with an hour of intensive drawing sessions with the mentors helping, guiding, sometimes rectifying mistakes of the students as they tried their hands at live perspective drawing. It was a welcome break from the mundane routine of indoor classes. Trying to visualize landscapes, buildings and different structures from the confines of a classroom gave way to a much more effective and helpful way of drawing-as-you-see-it from different angles. Initially the mentors had to explain the purpose of an outdoor study such as this and gradually the interest level of the students started to grow. It was interesting to see a few students breaking away from their group of friends to get a better view of their subject of interest. Every student was armed with their sketch books and pencils and it was a treat to watch the budding animators getting a first-hand experience of field study.

 '

explaining the purpose

the most popular object of interest

    

budding animator 1

budding animator 2

budding animator 3, 4, 5 and more...

more animators

By 11.30, the team reached the next stop where the rest of the day was to be spent.  A long walk to reach the Prinsep Ghat helped the students get into the mood and a ‘learning is fun’ kind of an atmosphere built up gradually. After a short break of fifteen minutes, the group was divided into two halves. The first semester students made up Group One, while the second, third, fourth and fifth semesters constituted Group Two.

While both groups studied the same topics through the day, the treatment had to be different for the new students of the First Semester as they have not yet been introduced to the nuances of animation. As the mentors posed for them, they drew stick figures and got their queries answered.

perspective drawing lessons

the perspective of a train

our destination of the day

what a sight!

After the much awaited lunch-break, everyone came back for another session of classes. While the first semester students were introduced to The Principles of Animation, the rest of the group had a thorough revision of the same topic. The students acted, posed, mimicked and showered queries on their mentors for this interactive session. The topics covered in the day were as follows -

1.       Nature Study:

a.                   Perspective

b.                  Composition

c.                   Texturing 

d.                  Colour Tone

e.                  Light And Shade

2.        Action and Posing:

a.                   Line of Action

b.                  Stick Drawing

c.                   Principles Of Animation

d.                  Acting

 

when students and mentors posed alike!

The students thoroughly enjoyed the sessions because of the vast difference in the learning environment from the day-to-day 2 hour classes. For once, there were more than 8 students in a class, hence there were different kinds of queries that the students were exposed to by their peers. Second, there was more than one mentor explaining one topic; hence students received more knowledge on every topic.

 

principles of animation for sem - 1

The day ended with a session on Colour Theory with a practical demonstration on Colour Tone and Light & Shade as the sun set behind the huge monument erected in honour of James Prinsep. As the students dispersed for the day, the mentors sat down for a review of the entire day’s proceedings; to take feedback, to discuss and to chalk out a plan of the step of action.

colour theory @ sunset!

Every person on this trip realized that there is a lot more to animation than Max and Maya, a day out in the open had managed to open a lot of eyes to the reality that the Holistic Animation Training Methodology has been trying to drill into these minds for quite some time now.  

Looking forward to the next trip…