Anirudh Bhalotia

Bye Bye Blogger : My Last Post

2010-03-14T11:29:00.005+05:30

All-right, its not that I am shedding my blogger cape and completely moving away from the exciting word of blogging. But I am moving away from Blogger and onto Wordpress(WP)!!! Why ?

WP has more features, more ways to customize in terms of themes, widgets.
Blogger no longer meets my demands. It was great when I started blogging as its really easy to get started but somehow I felt restricted by Blogger at many different levels.
No matter what template we choose in Blogger, somehow all the blogger sites have an inherent look which makes all the blogs same to an extent in terms of appearance.
In keeping long term view of my plans, WP is way more compatible than Blogger would ever would be. What long term plan? Well subscribe to my blog in WP to stay abreast with all the exciting things I have in the pipeline.

Now having said, its been a truly enjoyable journey so far here on Blogger. Thanks to Blogger I am now 280 posts old spread across 57 categories! A very big achievement for me when I look back during signing up for a blog and had no clue what I would be posting about!!!

So from now onwards you can/should/better catch my blog posts at -

http://abtheanimator.wordpress.com/

Yay!

Now initially my WP blog may look a bit incomplete and you miss few of the things I have here, but worry not, as I am still in the process of migrating everything. If even after sometime you don't find some thing which will simply mean that I no longer wanted it and will be replacing with much more exciting stuff.

So without further ado, visit my new blog and make sure you subscribe/rss the feeds in order to not miss anything.

Looking forward to your continued patronage as always!

Cheers,
Anirudh

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 6th March 2010 - 12th March 2010

2010-03-06T10:55:00.000+05:30

The Dark Knight(2008)

Genre - Action/Crime/Drama

Directed By - Christopher Nolan

Cast - Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart

Whats It About - Batman, Gordon and Harvey Dent are forced to deal with the chaos unleashed by an anarchist mastermind known only as the Joker, as it drives each of them to their limits.

New Podcast From "Speaking Of Animation " : Avatar with Richard Baneham

2010-03-04T10:40:00.003+05:30

Richard Baneham

The super fun and crazy folks at "Speaking Of Animation" have come out with their new Podcast.

Excerpt from the site -

" We are excited to bring you our “Avatar” podcast with Richard Baneham!
Richard sat down with us to discuss his role as the animation director on the film and to answer all of our questions about the animation process on Avatar. "

Check out the Podcast !

Animators, here Are Two Absolutely Must Read Articles !!!

2010-02-27T12:18:00.002+05:30

There are so many articles we all come across thanks to the million of blogs and other sites. But sometimes few articles actually resonate deep within you and it has affected you so much in a positive way that you want to go on the roof and shout ! Well here are two articles which deserve that kind of shouting on and on !

What's the Most Rewarding Thing of Being an Animator ? - thanks Shawn(Kelly)

It's All About the Drive : If You Really Want to be an Animator, It Will Happen! - thanks Aaron(Hartline)

Cheers,
Anirudh

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 27th February 2010 - 5th March 2010

2010-02-27T10:34:00.001+05:30

Batman Begins(2005)

Genre - Action/Crime/Thriller

Directed By - Christopher Nolan

Cast - Christian Bale/Michael Caine/Liam Neeson/Gary Oldman

What's It About - The story of how Bruce Wayne became what he was destined to be: Batman.

Stop Motion Short - Out Of A Forest

2010-02-17T17:35:00.001+05:30

Simply wonderful !

Out Of A Forest from Tobias Gundorff Boesen on Vimeo.

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 13th February 2010 - 20th February 2010

2010-02-13T23:54:00.001+05:30

Fast & Furious(2009)

Genre - Action/Crime/Drama

Directed By - Justin Lin

Cast - Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez

What's It About - Brian O'Conner, now working for the FBI in LA, teams up with Dominic Toretto to bring down a heroin importer by infiltrating his operation.

Toy Story 3 : Brand New Full Trailer

2010-02-11T22:39:00.000+05:30

Disney has released a new full trailer for Toy Story 3 !

Trailers and Movies the bigger size the better ! So watch it here till you get to savor it in a 3D screen near you !

Out Now : Animation Mentor February'10 Newsletter

2010-02-11T18:55:00.000+05:30

Another info-packed newsletter from Animation Mentor !

BLOG Revamp, Done !

2010-02-06T19:04:00.004+05:30

Hello friends !

Yes! Finally I have managed to change my Blog, more Visually with slight content change which would be more prominent hopefully in times to come.

What has changed -

I have a plain white theme(template), against the colored them before. I found this more pleasing or may be because I had got bored of the previous template. Also content looks more elegant on a white seamless template. Though I am keen to experiment with different colors using the same template, but for now and for a good enough time this would remain.
I now have a face suitable for public consumption and hence my photo in the Profile !
About me text has changed because who I was when I started this blog and who am I at present has also gone thru many different transformations at different levels.
The right navigation links is now less cluttered with only those links which I truly like. Before it was all about filling as much on my Blog. I still want to edit/add a few things though. All in due time !
Post wise, I have a few ideas in mind which would be slightly different in nature than what I have been posting now. Again, all in due time.

I guess that's all about it ! Let me know whether you like this new design or if you have any suggestions in any aspect of my blogging endeavors !

Looking forward to your patronage as always !

Thanks !

Cheers,
Anirudh

Time To Revamp and Clear the Clutter !

2010-01-24T08:22:00.005+05:30

Hello friends,

Its been around 2 years since I first took the step to enter the blog-o-sphere. When I started I didn't have much of a road map ahead as to what I am going to be posting now. But within no time, I was in the groove and was having fun posting on my Blog.

Though I was always were picky and careful as to what I wanted to post about, I have realised over time my blog became a bit cluttered. Also I have seen many blogger(s), have a revamp/re-design of their blog occasionally and I thought why not try it myself. I believe this is part of the process of growing up at different levels !

So on a note to clear the clutter and revamp my blog, I have decided to put all my postings on hold and come back with a new blog. The change will be more in the form of appearance and may be a bit about the content as I am still quite clear what I want to share on my blog and so the essence will still remain the same.

If I have made sense so far through my posts, I look forward to continuing the tradition in future too ! :-)

Thank you!

Cheers,
Anirudh

P.S. - I cannot commit a certain time frame, when the revamp will happen, it can happen in a day or a week or a couple of weeks, but its my endeavor to make it happen asap.

Animation Mentor Newsletter - January 2010

2010-01-17T18:19:00.002+05:30

Another info-packed newsletter from Animation Mentor is out !

Check it out here !

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 9th Janurary 2010 - 15th January 2010

2010-01-09T12:18:00.003+05:30

Husbands and Wives(1992)

Genre - Drama/Romance

Directed By - Woody Allen

Cast - Woody Allen, Mia Furrow

What's It About - When their best friends announce that they're separating, a professor and his wife discover the faults in their marriage.

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 2nd January 2010 - 8th Janurary 2010

2010-01-02T10:53:00.004+05:30

The Informant(2009)

Genre - Comedy/Drama/Crime

Directed By - Steven Soderbergh

Cast - Matt Damon

What's It About - The U.S. government decides to go after an agri-business giant with a price-fixing accusation, based on the evidence submitted by their star witness, vice president turned informant Mark Whitacre.

New Trailer : How To Train Your Dragon

2010-01-01T17:59:00.001+05:30

Goodbye 2009, Welcome 2010 !

2009-12-31T18:32:00.004+05:30

In a few hours, 2010 will be here...whew....another set of 365 days passes by !

Regardless of how 2009 turned out to be for you, its my hope that 2010 will be much much better in all aspects for you !

And it will be if you believe in yourself and do the best you can in whatever you do ! Remember it doesnt matter how you fare in comparison with some one else, but what really matters is how you fare yourself with what you were yesterday and what you are today !

Wishing you a truly fulfilling 2010 ahead !

Cheers,
@|b

Importance Of Staging 'aka' Composition !

2009-12-29T19:23:00.012+05:30

Recently I saw a movie - The Reader. This is a brilliant movie in many many aspects, be it the story, the performances(Kate Winslet bagged an Oscar for her superb performance) by almost everyone who came into focus in any frame, production design, the look and feel of the entire movie and the amazing work done from a Director's point of view in terms of Camera Angles and directing the viewer's eyes to the place which actually matters - Staging or Composition. I really recommend watching this movie.

Now this post is not about the movie per se, but to talk about how important Staging/Composition is in film-making(be it live-action, animated or a blend of both) with examples taken from the movie - The Reader. I have chosen 3 frames which stood out for me as to how powerful Staging can be to impact/heightened the story and the scene in particular and make the viewer see what has to be seen. Now this not to say, rest of the movie has bad staging, but for me these Framing were the cream so as to speak ! Watch the movie and see what else stands out for you !

So lets get started -

Frame - 1

To break it down in terms of shapes and lines -

In the above picture, from the Staging itself you can instantly understand who is leading the scene here or where the Director wants you to focus on.

Any frame can be framed in a million ways. This one works beautifully but so can many others. The key is to choose what will work best in any given situation.

Notice the green lines, how the objects, the characters in the scene are placed or are shot in such a way that naturally your focus will go on the circle where the action is taking place. Now the characters can be moved around as desired, but the background(props, objects) in this case doesnt have the flexibility to be moved around at will because of the scale of the set.

Again there can be a million different designs of how a classroom can be, but here this one seems perfect because the people behind the camera were able to squeeze out all the juice required. If the set was different, definitely the framing would have been different too.

Too many choices in any aspect can be good or bad. For films this is the really difficult part as there are no set way or rules to do it this way or that. There are so many different permutations and combinations possible and considering an equal no. of contrast in the audience, to have something which will please all is definitely not possible but if you can please majority of them you have done your work !

Frame - 2

To break it down in terms of shapes and lines -

Another fantastic example of a good framing. See how the stairs on either side, the character on the left side and the two characters on the right side converge in terms of geometric shapes to the people in the circle. Also notice the triangle which gets formed due to the placement of the characters in the scene.

There is another triangle on top of the circle thanks to the stairs on each side.

So two opposite triangle, both pointing to where it matters most. Awesome stuff !

Frame - 3

To break it down in terms of lines and shapes -

I simply love this one ! See how everything is framed to direct you to the circle. Also notice how the characters are place. See how the objects in the set also converge to the circle. You change one placement and the entire scene attains a fresh new composition. What if the girl was placed in the same row as the boy who is sitting on the table? What if the camera was placed somewhere else, say it was the left side from the character in the circle or it was on top, in the middle between the characters and focusing on the circle? It would look a whole different than it is now !

The magic of Staging and Composition !

Gesture Drawing : 29/12/09

2009-12-29T18:55:00.003+05:30

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 26th December 2009 - 1st January 2010

2009-12-24T15:16:00.004+05:30

Blue Velvet(1986)

Genre - Drama/Mystery

Directed By - David Lynch

Cast - Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper

What's It About - After finding a severed human ear in a field, a young man soon discovers a sinister underworld lying just beneath his idyllic suburban home town.

Must Read : Carlos Baena On Feedback

2009-12-22T10:27:00.004+05:30

"Everybody needs feedback, and it's a heck of a lot cheaper than paying a trainer."

- Doug Lowenstein

In any field feedback is the easiest and the fastest way to grow. If you stay isolated in your own cocoon you have no idea what you are missing.

This goes specially in Animation where its(should be?) mandatory to get and give feedback as Animation is all about team work and bouncing off ideas can have a powerful impact(both positive and negative) on our work. Now the key here is not everyone can take or give feedback in the way it should be. In my personal experience I had many bitter experiences where in when I gave feedback, they thanked me by sending me infuriating mails asking how can I criticise their work, that I have no right to my opinions, I am in no way superior to give feedback...blah blah blah.

And then when I asked for feedback, it was as if they had some personal grudge against me and this was their once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get back at me with vengeance. They pointed all the mistakes in all aspects of my life but just leaving a small bit of it...that was in the context of my work I showed them !!!

Now I am not saying that I am a "Yoda" in giving or taking feedback, but the examples I gave were at the two extreme opposite ends of a spectrum and clearly their reaction was not warranted at all.

Now I can go on and on, but it seems prudent to direct you to read what Carlos Baena(Animator, Pixar and Co-founder Animation Mentor) has to say about giving and receiving feedback.

Though everything in that article makes a lot of sense, there is one line which I think every Animator should have it posted somewhere where they can see it all the time :

"It's important to know that getting feedback is about improving a shot, and not judging the animators skills."

@|b

Gesture Drawing : 21/12/09

2009-12-21T22:48:00.002+05:30

Short Film : Alma

2009-12-19T10:36:00.000+05:30

Alma from Rodrigo Blaas on Vimeo.

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 19th December 2009 - 25th December 2009

2009-12-19T08:33:00.002+05:30

Milk(2008)

Genre - Biography/Drama/History

Directed By - Gus Van Sant

Cast - Sean Penn/Emile Hirsch

What's It About - The story of Harvey Milk, and his struggles as an American gay activist who fought for gay rights and became California's first openly gay elected official.

Gesture Drawing : 18/12/09

2009-12-18T12:46:00.006+05:30

This one is more of object than gestures, but nevertheless an exercise in drawing.

Gestures -

Mindblowing : Iron Man 2 Trailer

2009-12-17T10:33:00.001+05:30

Does this look awesome or does it look awesome ??!!

I would happily leave the discretion to any discerning viewer !

Gesture Drawing : 16/12/09

2009-12-16T21:40:00.002+05:30

Stunning Short Film : French Roast

2009-12-16T19:01:00.003+05:30

I am a bit late to holler this one out as I have come across this one been mentioned on so many blogs/animation sites already. But in case you still happened to miss this one, this is a beautifully done short film by Fabrice Joubert a former Animator but currently wearing the hat of an Animation Director.

This short works splendidly on many different levels be it Animation, look and feel of Characters, Staging, Lighting and so on.

And it has also been nominated for an Academy Award in the Animated Shorts category !

Watch the film !

Check out the production blog !

@|b

Gesture Drawing : 15/12/09

2009-12-15T23:55:00.000+05:30

New Animation and Podcast Site On The Block

2009-12-14T19:13:00.005+05:30

If you have been following my blog, you will know that I am a huge sucker for Podcast in the field of Animation(besides other areas like Music, Health, Educational and so on).

In terms of Podcast for Animation the only two which comes to mind(and the only two that exists in my knowledge!) is Animation Podcast and Spline Cast. The good news is there is one more now !

To quote from the site -

Who are we?

Well, we’re four professional animators currently working in the animation industry. Having been inspired by Animation related podcasting ourselves, we sought out a chance to help give back to the same community that informs, inspires, and entertains us. Speaking of Animation was created to deliver even more engaging content. Come along with us as we interview our friends and fellow artists about their craft and thoughts on animation.

Now these professional animators are from DreamWorks Animation Studio and they would be speaking to super talented people within their studio(not only Animators), people who are not in the lime light or very well known but nonetheeless they play a huge role in entertaining us thru the work they do to make those movies.

For me these Podcast are a huge source of information and inspiration as after hearing their experiences and journey, we realize that in our continuous struggle to grow in our creative pursuits, we are not alone and that everyone goes thru this at some point or the another. If they can do it, so can we !

Also my huge respects to these four guys doing this and also to the people who would be interviewed in the Podcast. These things takes time and to take out time from their as it is grueling and busy schedule is a very noble thing to do and simply shows their community spirit and their passion to share their knowledge !

So head straight to this site without any detour !

@|b

Starting A New Habit - Gesture Drawing !

2009-12-14T19:03:00.005+05:30

I used to do gesture drawing on and off, but unfortunately it never really transcended to a habit. But now I really want to nail this down as an everyday habit like I brush my teeth/take a bath/eat breakfast and so on.

It will be my endeavor to post at-least 10 drawings everyday. These drawings will not be a mark of my draftsmanship but rather my effort to understand human anatomy, line of action and how just the body language in a few very rough lines can convey so much. All this is to help me in my Animation in terms of posing, as poses are without doubt the foundation of any and every good animation. Once you have the main key/storytelling/golden poses working for you, then its all about building on top of that.

So here my poses for today -

Any suggestions on how to improvise in this direction is very much appreciated.

Cheers!

@|b

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 12th December 2009 - 18th December 2009

2009-12-13T11:04:00.002+05:30

Rocky III(1982)

Genre - Action/Drama/Sport

Directed By - Sylvester Stallone

Cast - Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Carl Weathers

What's It About - When Rocky is defeated by a brutal challenger, Apollo Creed offers to retrain him in order to regain his fighting spirit.

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 5th December 2009 - 11th December 2009

2009-12-04T23:06:00.004+05:30

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

Genre - Comedy/Crime

Directed By - Robert Zemeckis

Cast - Bob Hoskins, Joanna Cassidy

What's It About - A toon hating detective is a cartoon rabbit's only hope to prove his innocence when he is accused of murder.

New Theatrical Trailer - Toy Story 3 !!!

2009-11-29T19:43:00.002+05:30

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 28th Novemeber 2009 - 4th December 2009

2009-11-27T18:06:00.002+05:30

Rocky II(1979)

Genre - Drama/Sport

Directed By - Sylvester Stallone

Cast - Sylvester Stallone

What's It About - Rocky struggles in family life after his bout with Apollo Creed, while the embarrassed champ insistently goads him to accept a challenge for a rematch.

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 7th November 2009 - 13th Novemeber 2009

2009-11-06T23:57:00.004+05:30

The Shining (1980)

Genre - Horror/Thriller

Directed By - Stanley Kubrick

Cast - Jack Nicholson

Whats It About - A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future.

First Teaser Trailer : Dreamworks Animation - How To Train Your Dragon !

2009-11-03T08:27:00.003+05:30

Trailer of this highly awaited movie is out ! For me, if the movie is as endearing as this Trailer, Dreamworks Animation has raised their previous benchmark set by Kung Fu Panda.

Have a look and decide for yourself !

@|b

Animation Reel September 2009

2009-10-30T23:38:00.003+05:30

After much delay, procrastinating and then time managing, prioritizing, I have finally compiled a reel for myself to gauge my progress and growth as an Animator on a consistent basis.

Animation Reel : September 2009 from Anirudh Bhalotia on Vimeo.

If you like it, a lot of credit goes to the wonderful Animation Mentor Community, for their generous and continuous supply of feedback.

If you don't, then its entirely my fault, but please feel free to point out where I can improvise, so that my next reel is much stronger than this.

Thank You !

@|b

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 31st October 2009 - 6th November 2009

2009-10-30T15:06:00.004+05:30

Cat Ballou (1965)

Genre - Comedy/Western

Directed By - Elliot Silverstein

Cast - Jane Fonda, Lee Marvin

Whats It About - A woman seeking revenge for her murdered father hires a famous gunman, but he's very different from what she expects.

Catch Up Time : 26th October 2009

2009-10-26T17:33:00.012+05:30

Hello Readers,

Sorry for the very erratic flow of posts since last 4 weeks. Its been a very challenging time since last one month. Challenging physically and mentally, but I would say more mentally. Allow me to explain.

P.S. - What I am about to share may not be interesting to many of you and that's fine. But I believe there is a lesson to be learn from here and hence the very idea of this post.

Also I am not sure whats my real motive is to write this post. May be its a way to share my experiences and in the process feel lighter within myself, may be its a way to let others know what all can happen out of the blue and be prepared for it. Or it may also end up being amusing or stupid or fun to read what ever follows from here on. Or it may be to find out what you would have done had you been in my place. So any feedback is most welcome.

2nd Oct'09, me and my family moved to another house. Fortunately we found another one in the same area where we were staying before, so there was a comfort of knowing the surroundings against exploring everything from scratch.

Now ironically, the main shifting was a breeze, we had hired professional movers and packers to pack and move the goods and thankfully they stood by their claims of being professional and efficient. But what followed(and still following) has been nothing less than nightmare.

I want to add that the amount of phone calls I had to make in the last month, was equal to the amount of calls I normally make in around 9-12 months. Now you may ask why ! Well read before and you will know why !!

Strike ONE (STRIKE as in Baseball, 3 STRIKES and you are down and out)
To begin with, a day before I was about to move, I called my Phone/Internet Service Provider to take a request for shifting my connection so that my old number remains the same and also I 'thought' it would be a faster process against applying a new connection. Alas how wrong I was.

It took 16 harrowing days and 100 calls to get the connection finally set up at my new place.

I would like to mention that on day 15, I was so fed up/frustrated/angry/irritated of this delay which was affecting my other work, I got myself a portable modem which cost me around 3 months of my rental which I pay normally to my Service Provider. The moment I got the modem, it seems as if there was an instant vent up of all my not-so-desirable inner turmoil and I felt so much more relaxed. If only I knew it was just a matter of one more day. Or who knows it was an intentional play of cards by the almighty.

Now the side effects of all this was that I used to be very irritated all day long. The irritation was not entirely because of the delay but because of a lack of concrete response from my Service Provider as to what exactly is the problem and precisely by when can I expect my connection. Everyday whenever I used to call them, they used to say it will be done today, but that today came after 16 days.

Strike TWO
Next came the pain of getting my Air-Conditioner(AC) set up. Now there were two steps in getting it set up. First was to make a provision in my window for the AC to fit in and second was to get the delivery of the AC and getting it fixed by the technicians.

Luckily the AC's were delivered reasonably on time. It was getting it fixed which turned out to be a long long wait. I called the concerned people to come to my house to take the measurements of my AC and do the needful in the Window. The person said he will be at my place in 15 mins.

Can you imagine that, that 5 mins came after 5 days and 25 calls. Even till date I am unable to find the exact answer as to why it took so much time. All I heard was excuses like "was busy", "rains", "weekend came", "I went on leave" and so on. I mean is work ethic totally dead. And why all this was happening only with me ?

There is more, the person came finally, they took the measurements, they said they will have to make an Aluminum Frame to hold the AC to make sure there are no gaps. I asked how many days, they said 2. I thought I have waited so many days, 2 more days wont hurt. I said ok and requested them to speed up if possible. Now my guess is that the definition of "speed up" for that person was to "take extra time". The frame came after 4 days !

Fortunately the final installation was done the same day as the frame arrived. Whew, had to wait close to 10 days for a good night sleep in a cool environment.

Strike THREE
Last week while animating on my desktop, suddenly everything went still in my comp, nothing was moving, I tried to restart using Ctrl+Alt+Del, nothing. Tried to reboot directly from CPU, again nothing !!! Finally I had to remove the plug from the main power source to switch it off.

I kept my fingers crossed and started it again. What I dreaded happened. Monitor started blinking with no display whatsoever. Also the lights on the CPU were not blinking which meant nothing was happening in the CPU. I thought may be its one of those times, when suddenly it goes off and suddenly everything comes back to normal. I tried again 3-4 times, no luck. I decided to give it a break and only after few hours, I tried again, but no improvement. Finally I decided to call my Computer Technician from a Computer Vendor(from where I have an Annual Maintenance Contract) and have a look. He came, tried every possible trick he knew, still no luck. Finally he said he will have to remove the motherboard and take it to his testing center to find the exact cause. He said, if the motherboard is fine, it may be a Power Supply problem in which case, next day itself he will get a new Power Supply. But if its the motherboard issue it can take more time. I asked him how many days. He said he cant say until he checks it thoroughly and promised to give me a call next day itself. Now this was Tuesday. Till Friday I didn't hear anything from him. I called them around 10 in the morning and some stupid operator said that she is aware of my problem and will give me a call back. Till 8 in the evening no call came. I tried calling back but no response, which means they have wrapped it for the day.

I called them the next day and blasted the hell out of them. They promised to call back. Finally after a few hours, the owner(of the company who had my Annual Maintenance Contract) themselves called, apologizing like a criminal pleading for mercy and said they will give me a replacement the same day. Saturday passed, Sunday passed and no replacement came.

Then today I thought enough is enough its time to take some real action. I called them and threaten to cancel all my Contracts I had given them thru various sources. In addition to this I told them to give me my motherboard back as they were too useless to repair it and that I shall get it fixed by somewhere else. They said to kindly wait for one last time and that they will call me in 15 mins to tell me the exact date when I will get my motherboard. They called in 10 minutes and said that on Wednesday they will surely come and fix my motherboard. Now I really don't know whether they will stand by their word or again one of their empty promises, but I am really hoping that they do, as its been close to 8 days, all my animating and other work has been on hold and I am feeling like a new born baby, totally helpless to do anything.

Now is this really a co-incidence that I was been served by pathetic customer service on and on with no end in sight ?? Or is it that God wanted to test my patience and my character ??

But one good thing happened, because of my desktop crashed I was forced to tackle my laptop problem which I have been ignoring for a long long time. My laptop had problem of bad sectors in the hard disk and shutting off automatically and abruptly at no particular interval of time. I got a new hard disk and also fixed the problem of shutting down abruptly. Apparently there was some issue of Thermal Sensors on the CPU. Whatever that means !

FOUR (its not really a STRIKE)
On hindsight may be this is the problem which is making me over-react to the above strikes. Since we moved in, I have applied to a few places(in my city) to offer my services as a 3D Character Animator. Its been almost a month and no replies yet. I understand these things takes time, but is it too much to ask even for some notification, whether yes or no. If its Yes I can jump with joy and even if its No, I will at-least know whats working and whats not and get on to tackling those issues. Some one has said "no news is great news" but here in this case its definitely not doing me any good. I sometimes really wonder, some things/actions/events just cannot be explained in human simply understandable terms.

Now you may be wondering what is the lesson behind all this. For me it is :

1. Things wont be hunky dory all your life. Regardless of how good life is going for you, there will be times when nothing, nothing at all seems to work. Thinking otherwise is being extremely naive !

2. You can never have enough patience because how much ever you feel you are cool and composed, there will be events that will just freak you out and drain all your patience.

3. Every event good or bad is an experience.

4. There IS a reason why anything is happening in your life.

5. To practice letting go. To not revel in good things/event for long and to not drool over not so good things/events for long.

6. To not judge any event, just savor it in the present moment and take it as it comes. The definition of good or bad is nothing but your viewpoint at work.

7. Never never never give up. I will be very forthcoming, this time in my life has tested me the most. But I am determined to not let it get the better of me. I will keep going regardless of what happens. If I have to walk against very strong winds, so be it.

8. Find your own avenues in these trying times, which can make you relax a bit and get distracted from all the negatives. For me its being with myself. When I am alone and quiet I feel my batteries recharging. Introspecting is a very powerful tool. Try it.

9. Appreciate the presence of your near and dear ones in your life. Without doubt I have been in the worst of my moods and behavior in the last one month than I have ever been in my whole life. But I am thankful to my parents for their undying love and support all the while despite my erratic mood swings and temper. I am convinced God made parents because he couldn't be everywhere at the same time.

10. When you are at the very low of your life, see the good part, the only way you can go from here on is UP ! I absolutely feel the same currently.

Before I get deeply engrossed in emotional talk, its seems prudent to wrap this post up. I really don't know what made me write and share all this with the world at large. But I am feeling a lot better, bringing all this up and sharing with you.

If you have anything to share in the context of this post - be it your experiences of testing times, be it advise/suggestions for me, be it about how you would have handled it if you where in my position, please feel very free to do the same.

Thank You !

@|b

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 17th October 2009 - 23rd October 2009

2009-10-17T12:22:00.003+05:30

Oldboy (2003)

Genre - Drama/Mystery/Thriller

Language - Korean

Directed By - Chan-wook Park

Cast - Min-sik Choi, Hye-jeong Kang, Ji-tae Yu

Whats It About - After being kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years, Oh Dae-Su is released, only to find that he must find his captor in 5 days.

Event Coverage : Anifest India'09 - 18th September, Mumbai, India

2009-09-28T22:42:00.005+05:30

Last Friday (18th September) I attended Anifest India'09, an event which is for animators, by animators and which was organized by The Animation Society Of India(TASI). Incidentally it was my first Anifest India whereas it was the 5th Anniversary for Anifest India. Better late than never !

P.S. - This is not the entire coverage of all the 3 days, but whatever I could attend. Also instead of a passive coverage (just mentioning verbatim whatever happened in the event) I decided to throw in my views also, where-ever I felt the need to share something.

Thanks to CGTantra for all the images !

As with every Animation related event in India, I go with neutral expectations, nothing great, nothing less and so far I all the events I have attended I have come out feeling satisfied and content.

The track record continues !

Ok I will admit I had a slightly higher expectations with this one, as this event was focused primarily on Animation, unlike other similar events, where the focus invariably goes to marketing the sponsors, most of the time they are training institutes which makes it even worst and the content of the event takes a back seat. Since this was for animators, by animators the vision itself was a lot different from the organizer's point of view.

Now there is a management lesson here the way I see it. How any event/project turns out, matters a lot on how the people at the helm wants it to be and what vision they have. Here the people organizing and handling were very clear what they wanted and what they didn't wanted and it clearly showed thru out the event. My guess is that around 8-12 people were involved full time since many months chalking out everything for the event. Yes they had the fantastic support of numerous volunteers, may be a hundred overall, but what made them contribute fully and efficiently was the guidelines set right at the start.

P.S. - I would like to add that I was not part of the organizers and haven't spoken to any of them, so I am not very sure how they made it happen, but I sense this must be the framework they glided along. (If any of the organizers are reading this, kindly correct me if I am wrong or if I am missing something)

Now coming back to the event...thanks to the way it was organized, registration, etc was a breeze. In less than 10 minutes I was done with everything and all ready to savor the first session.

I want to add, volunteers do play a huge role in any event. They are like an icing on the cake, if its good, it can enhance the taste, but if its bad it can make the cake taste horrible.

Here all were very smiling, cordial and friendly. In few of my previous events, some volunteers had no interest and it seemed as if were there because a gun was put on their head. You see a smile its contagious, you see a depressed face, its contagious as well. Got the idea ?

First Session : Character Animation & Story Telling by Bill Miller

Bill Miller

Session Brief as given in the schedule - This session explores how a better understanding of story can help you bring out more character and empathy in your animation. Using examples from classic films, we will break down concepts such as, film, structure, scene structure, subtext, character arcs and point of view. Your job as an animator is telling a story and this session will show how to animate your scenes keeping the big picture in mind.

About Bill - Bill had stints in Dreamworks Animation as an Animator, then was a faculty at Takshaa Academy(Bangalore, India) and at present is with Visual Computing Labs(VCL), formerly called Tata Elxsi as a Producer. If you havent heard of VCL, they made India's first 3D Full Length Animated Feature - Roadside Romeo.

They couldn't have got a better way start the event. This event is nothing less than the real meaty/juicy part of Animation and something which at the end of the day is what we Animators strive to excel.

But unfortunately Bill reached the venue late, thanks to the pathetic traffic in Mumbai. It was a weekday and peak hours. I don't blame him.

So the session instead of 10 AM, started around 10:30-10:45 and because the next session was schedule at 11:40, this session hardly lasted an hour or so. What a pity considering that Bill was hosting it very well and kept the audience glued thru out. Now this is a session which deserves a full day for sure. There is so much to talk about, so much to discuss, so much to learn from different footage from movies. I really hope TASI organizes such session for a full day with lunch/tea breaks in between. It would be a real treat(pun intended) for all !

As to the actual content of what Bill spoke out, to me it sounded a lot similar to what Robert McKee says thru his book STORY and in his seminars, which is good because there is no better than Robert McKee to learn about Story and his book Story is without doubt the bible for Story Writing and learning the ropes about it. And since my guess is that 99% of the audience wouldn't have heard about Robert McKee or his book, you can imagine how useful Bill's session would have been to the audience if it was a whole lot longer.

Bill also recommended a few movies which are exceptional from a story point of view and also in the way they are crafted. Sorry but I only remember the ones I haven't seen - Misery, The Verdict.

In the end of the session there was a Question and Answer session, which as always is very very interesting to me !

QNA Session

The questions which stood out for me were -

What defines a character's personality ?
How to Animate/Show personality when there is no audio involved ?

I really cant recall what was Bill's answer to them, but these are very very important questions and since I have some more from the sessions which followed, I will try to answer them in a separate post. So keep watching this BLOG !

Second Session : Entertaining India by E. Suresh / Rudra Matsa (2 sessions on the same topic)

E. Suresh

Rudra Matsa

Session Brief as given in the schedule - This session aims to explore the future of creating content in India and also for Indian audiences. Watch and learn as those who have managed to cross over, share their secrets to success.

About E. Suresh - Alumni from NID, currently Content Developer at Famous House of Animation.

About Rudra Matsa - His forte consists of Hand-Drawn Animation and also Manga Style of Anime.

Since this session followed up Bill's session, I was really hoping it better be good. And also because Bill's session was not extended even by a minute so that the next session could start on time. Yes I know I was putting undue pressure on the speaker of this session, as all the organizers were doing was stick to a schedule to be fair to all the speakers. But in future, it really wouldn't harm too much to have some extra time in hand for any unforeseen circumstances.

This session was as good or even better than Bill's, primarily because it got the minimum time it deserved. It was not rushed or hurried along. The other reason being that E. Suresh speaker was very good and the content and the topic was very inspiring for me.

E. Suresh is a veteran in the Indian Animation space, who started sometime around 1998, when Animation was hardly known in India. What stood out for me was when he spoke about the challenges/obstacles he faced when he wanted to sell his Animated content, how it was very difficult to sell during those days, how no one was ready to take a chance and buy Animated content. To me this is a very good example, of how we need to be passionate about what we are doing and at the same time add persistence and perseverance in our endeavors. E. Suresh had all three of them and in the end it paid off.

Now I should add here that E.Suresh's expertise is not 3D Animation to the likes of Disney/Pixar (he humbly admitted the same on stage too), but more of other forms say Stop Motion, Cut-out Animation and so on.

Artwork Copyright - Famous House Of Animation

Contrary what media may say, the truth is that Indian Animation Industry is going thru its worst phase, since the boom started in 2005-2006. As of now, Animation in India can be broadly divided into 2 categories - 2D and 3D. Several made-in-India 2D and one 3D feature have been released in India in the last 2-3 years, but overall the performance has been disaster to say the least. So if we can find other mediums/areas in Animation, build our expertise and bring it on to mainstream just like 2D and 3D, it will result to many new, different but positive possibilities at many different levels. New medium will demand more professionals, which in turn will create many new jobs. And once we are able to generate local content which can be consumed by the local market, it will be a turning point for the Industry. Right now 80-85% of the work in 2D/3D is outsourced, but because of the global financial meltdown, outsourcing took a massive hit and India got affected directly as its exposure to outsourcing is huge.

Though the type of Animation E. Suresh is doing, it has a decent local market in areas of Ads, for channels like MTV, Channel V among others but if we able to expand this to TV and Feature, it will certainly help to promote new mediums and at the same time, create new jobs and reduce our dependence on foreign markets.

Overall a very good session by E. Suresh and I would love to hear more from him in the future. And I am sure I will !

Next session on a similar topic was conducted by Rudra Matsa. He started by showing what kind of work he and his team was doing, which I think is very very good.

Artwork Copyright - Rudra Matsa

But to be frank, if the enthusiasm level in previous session was 90%, in this session it took a nose dive and was around 40-50%. I think the reason being that the audience was not very sure what Rudra's session was about and they were at some level not able to connect with what he was saying. At-least that was the reason for me, personally speaking. He kept jumping from one thing to the next, which made it worst. To describe it best, it lacked the fluidity and flow which is required to keep the audience engrossed. But I have to give credit to Rudra for attempting this. It takes a lot of courage to stand in front of a thousand plus audience and host a session. I have no doubt that with repeated attempts, Rudra will be able to host sessions in a much better way.

As with the first session, these 2 session also had some very interesting questions. A few questions were answered just by Rudra and for a few even E. Suresh chipped in with his views. Overall the questions which deserve more discussions are -

Is India conducive for Content Creation ?
Proper courses for different animation disciples ?
Can we position ourselves with our animation in the global animation industry ?
What is the most essential skill to be an animator ?

Third Session : Animation and eLearning by Sameer Sahasrabudhe

Sameer Sahasrabudhe

Session Brief as given in the schedule - eLearning is growing as a massive industry and animation has become a staple component of it. The requirement of the animation techniques and style may be a bit different from the conventional entertainment domain, but the fundamental remains the same. This session will present an array of the existing styles and forms of animation prevalent in the eLearning domain, with a few case studies.

Staying interested in sessions after lunch has always been challenging to me, specially when the lunch served was good, as in this case. What made it slightly more difficult was the nature of the session. It did have many good info. Actually it was suppose to be a BLENDER session, where people from BLENDER, were suppose to do a demo on how powerful BLENDER (as an open source and free 3D application) is compared to other known software like Maya, Max, etc. But due to swine flu scare, Anifest India had to be rescheduled at the last moment and hence they couldn't make it as per the new dates. Still the short Big Buck Bunny which was made entirely in BLENDER was screened and every-time I see it, I love watching it as I did when it first came out.

Image Copyright- BLENDER

Unfortunately that's all I could remember from this session.

In future, I really hope the sessions immediately after lunch are power packed and interesting to keep the momentum going.

Fourth Session : Screening of Short Films made by Students and Teachers/Trainers

I would be frank, I stayed post-lunch primarily for this one. Watching films made by Students is always very very exciting, as it brings so much variety in terms of the films been made, as every student is so vastly different in his/her perception of film-making.

There were around 28 films by students and 4 by Teachers/Trainers.

Without doubt the students film were far far better than the Teachers/Trainers.

All these films were vying for the Tasi Viewer's Choice Award(TVCA).

We had to choose just one movie each from Students and Teachers/Trainers category. So in order to remember which ones were good...I rated them all out of 10.

Out of the Students film, around 7-8 films crossed the 8 mark for me. Many were in between 5-7 and an equal number between 1-4.

Out of the Teachers/Trainers, it was heavily skewed. One was around 6 for me and rest 3 less than 2 !!!

Overall I am happy by the selection of Students Films, but the Teachers/Trainers category could have better selections for sure. May be they got just a limited number of entries and these four were better than the rest.

This session went for a good 2 hours, but the good thing is it hardly felt long. So yes I thoroughly enjoyed this session all the way.

It was tea break and time for me to head back home !

Overall Anifest India'09 performed well on the expectations I had. I have been also told that the rest of the sessions on the remaining days were good and very informative too. Hopefully next year I will be able to attend on all the 3 days.

Kudos to TASI for Anifest India'09 !!!

@|b

Siggraph Asia 2009 : Computer Animation Festival Trailer

2009-09-28T18:53:00.001+05:30

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 26th Septemeber 2009 - 2nd October 2009

2009-09-26T13:18:00.004+05:30

Office Space (1999)

Genre - Comedy/Romance

Directed By - Mike Judge

Cast - Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston

Whats It About - Comedic tale of company workers who hate their jobs and decide to rebel against their greedy boss.

Animation Test - Pantomime

2009-09-23T11:00:00.003+05:30

On similar lines of my previous Anim Tests, this time I wanted to do a Pantomime. These Anim Tests is my endeavor to keep pushing and exploring my skills.

Pantomime in my view is one the toughest thing to do in Animation, because all you have is an empty slate and you have to make a meaningful performance out of it. When you Animate to a audio clip, you have the cues in the Audio itself, as to how the timing can be, where are the main accents and so on. But in Pantomime you have nothing at all. That's what makes it so challenging and at the same time very very rewarding.

Initially I had also planned to have a full detail facial performance built in the scene, but then I wanted to further push myself and emote just using the Body Language primarily.

Physicality & Pantomime from Anirudh Bhalotia on Vimeo.

Whether I have succeeded or not, feedback is most welcome ! Thanks!

@|b

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 19th September 2009 - 25th Septemeber 2009

2009-09-19T09:52:00.005+05:30

Les quatre cents coups aka 400 Blows (1959)

Genre - Crime/Drama

Directed By - Francois Truffaut

Cast - Jean-Pierre Leaud

Whats It About - Intensely touching story of a misunderstood young adolescent who left without attention, delves into a life of petty crime.

Animation Mentor September 2009 Newsletter !

2009-09-16T23:06:00.003+05:30

Another info packed newsletter from the folks at Animation Mentor.

At a glance :

Check it out !

Register here if you haven't already and to make sure you don't miss any from now on !

@|b

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 12th September 2009 - 18th September 2009

2009-09-12T08:01:00.000+05:30

Traitor(2008)

Genre - Crime/Drama/Thriller

Directed By - Jeffrey Nachmanoff

Cast - Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce

Whats It About - When straight arrow FBI agent Roy Clayton heads up the investigation into a dangerous international conspiracy, all clues seem to lead back to former U.S. Special Operations officer, Samir Horn.

New Spline Cast From Spine Doctors

2009-09-06T10:51:00.002+05:30

Andrew Gordon of Spline Doctors has a new Spline Cast with Ricky Nierva, Production Designer on Pixar's UP !

As always its a pleasure to hear this one too.

Direct Download

On iTunes

@|b

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 5th September 2009 - 11th September 2009

2009-09-05T08:50:00.000+05:30

Get Smart(2008)

Genre - Action/Adventure/Comedy

Directed By - Peter Segal

Cast - Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson

Whats It About - Maxwell Smart, Agent 86 for CONTROL, battles the forces of KAOS with the more-competent Agent 99 at his side.

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 29th August 2009 - 4th September 2009

2009-08-29T08:00:00.002+05:30

Rocky(1976)

Genre - Drama/Sport

Directed By - John. G. Avildsen

Cast - Sylvester Stallone

Whats It About - A small time boxer gets a once in a lifetime chance to fight the heavyweight champ in a bout in which he strives to go the distance for his self-respect.

Princess And The Frog - New Featurrette on Cartoon Brew TV

2009-08-22T10:38:00.004+05:30

Quote from Cartoon Brew -

" This week on Cartoon Brew TV, we offer an exclusive behind-the-scenes clip, courtesy of the Walt Disney Company, from their forthcoming hand-drawn feature, The Princess and the Frog.

In the video, supervising animator Bruce Smith (Bebe’s Kids, The Proud Family) discusses the character of Dr. Facilier, the villain of the film, and how voice actor Keith David influences the animators work and the character’s performance. David is shown performing and being directed by John Musker and Ron Clements. There are also some brief bits of pencil tests and color footage that hasn’t appeared anywhere else on the web.

After witnessing Disney abandon their hand-drawn films several years ago, and watching the rest of Hollywood consumed by CG, it’s incredibly exciting seeing classical character animation being produced on this scale. Sometimes you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. The Princess and the Frog marks the return of a beloved moviegoing tradition: the classic Disney fairy tale, and no one is rooting harder for this film to be a success than I. Based on this preview, and clips screened at Comic-Con, I’m convinced the studio is on the right track.

We thank the Walt Disney Company for allowing Brew readers this early peak at their film. The Princess and The Frog opens in LA and NY on November 25, 2009, and nationwide on December 11, 2009. "

Watch it here, its really good !

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 22nd August 2009 - 28th August 2009

2009-08-22T10:29:00.003+05:30

Taken(2008)

Genre - Action/Crime/Drama

Directed By - Pierre Morel

Cast - Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace

Whats It About - A former spy relies on his old skills to save his estranged daughter, who has been forced into the slave trade.

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 15th August 2009 - 21st August 2009

2009-08-16T08:21:00.003+05:30

No Country For Old Men(2007)

Genre - Crime/Drama/Thriler

Directed By - Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

Cast - Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin

What Is It About - Violence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon some dead bodies, a stash of heroin and more than $2 million in cash near the Rio Grande.

Inka Bola : Beautiful Short From Gobelins

2009-07-29T11:29:00.005+05:30

Inka Bola yet again re-affirms that work coming out of Gobelins's is as amazing, as beautiful , as impeccable as ever !!

Have a look and decide for yourself !

Also a little bit of behind the scenes -

Teaser Trailer - Alice In Wonderland

2009-07-25T12:53:00.003+05:30

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 25th July 2009 - 31st July 2009

2009-07-25T10:13:00.003+05:30

Gandhi (1982)

Genre - Biopgraphy/Drama/History

Directed By - Richard Attenborough

Cast - Ben Kingsley, Rohini Hattangadi

Whats It About - Biography of Mahatma Gandhi, lawyer who became the famed leader of the Indian revolts against the British through his philosophy of non-violent protest.

#3 - In Conversation With AM Student Steven Hughes On His Short Film, Animation and Life In General

2009-07-19T00:10:00.001+05:30

This is #3 in the series of conversations I have started with my fellow Animation Mentor(AM) schoolmates. You can find #2 here and #1 here.

This time its Steven Hughes who is also participating in the Virgin Media Shorts Competition with his wonderfully animated short - The Icarus Effect.

You can watch Steven's short in all its glory here. I wish him all the best for the competition !

So without further ado, lets get this started !

Anirudh Bhalotia (@|b) - Hello Steven, thanks for your time and getting this conversation started. Tell us a bit of yourself, like how did you get into animation, how did you hear about Animation Mentor (AM), when did you graduate from AM and what you been doing/working on currently?

Steven Hughes (SH) - Hi Anirudh, I guess friends would say that I was always an arty person, and I first started using 3D graphics on an Amiga way back in the day, about the time Pixar released Tin Toy. The only Studio animation then was 2D and Quantel Paintbox ruled TV video effects, so I was always encouraged to get a 'proper' job instead. I am finally looking to change that and work in digital animation or visual effects. Living in the UK means there isn't quite the selection of studio's that there are in California, but there is still a great choice out there.

AM is one of those things you hear about but are never quite sure if it's for you. I had visited the web site but was still undecided about signing up, but then two things happened; I realized that I needed structured training, and a chat with a forum friend who was currently working through AM showed me his progress reel and that convinced me that AM was exactly what I was after. I graduated from AM in September 08, also known as Graduating Class 9. I'm currently taking one of those 'short breaks' now I have finished my short film.

@|b - Congrats for your short film – The Icarus Effect. It’s looking great with nice animation, lighting, rendering, overall a very well package short indeed. How much time did you get to work on this right from the story stage till the final output as we see it?

SH - Thank you, I am pleased I managed to finish it...

I worked through the standard AM process for the short, with 3 months for story development, planning, layout and animatic. During this time I also created most of the digital assets (modeling, rigging, texturing), although I would still tweak these throughout production especially when I needed a break from animating. It was also a great time to start finding the sound effects needed and even recording my own, as this always takes more time than expected. It's worth considering the music you want to use as well, which does help set the pace of the film, but it can take a while to find a musician to help out, or to license some music.

Then there was 3 months of animating, where I was putting in around 25 hours a week as well as doing my full time job. After graduating I took a short break from my short film, dabbling with some minor things, such as the look and feel for the security camera shot, and the shader for the forcefield. The short break turned into a longer break, until finally I saw a competition by Virgin Media Shorts - there is nothing quite like a deadline to really focus your efforts. By this point I had a lot of work to do and not much time, so you get to make creative decisions very quickly and get creative with workarounds to problems. This means that ultimately you are making compromises, and nothing is going to be 100% to your satisfaction, it just needs to be good enough for the time you have. This final push took about 6 weeks, and I even borrowed a friends PC to render on while I worked on other shots. Once again I found myself putting in long hours just to get it done as I couldn't get any time off work. I finally submitted the film with less than 24 hours before the deadline.

@|b - As someone who is into the process of making his own short, I had quite a tough time brainstorming ideas and then finally get onto some idea which can be used for story telling in an interesting way. What was your process for getting the basic story outline nailed down? Or rather from where did you get this idea from, was it your own experience or remembering someone else’s or something like that? What advice in this context would you like to give to aspiring animators who would like to get started with their own short films at some point of time?

SH - Yes, the story creation can be hard to deliver 'on demand', and I found that in the early stages it was more about the evolution of a story idea. I had some personal criteria as the building blocks to my short which helped define the story; as digital animators we don't always visualize the use of light and shadow so I wanted to utilize that as part of the visual style, and I also wanted a story with a lot of physicality to allow me to explore more body mechanics. And a jet pack, that was key, who doesn't love a story with a jet pack! And no, unfortunately this is not built on personal experience ;)

I knew I had to stick to 30 seconds for my short if I was ever going to get it done in the time I had available, and it started out at 30 seconds but ended up getting a little longer in order to make the story work. So really it could only have one punch line, one message in such a short amount of screen time. Some of the details in the story actually come out as you start laying out the shots, finding what works and what doesn't, layering in other visual clues for continuity etc. The story really is something that grows from the original draft. Whatever story you want to tell make sure it's one that you enjoy, because you'll be working on it a lot. When you hit those times where your motivation starts to drop (and we all have bad days) you will find you can be carried along by the desire to complete something you want to do, rather than working on something you have to do.

@|b - What was the biggest challenge you came across during making this short film and how did you overcome it? Were there some problems which kept cropping up time and again during the pursuit of getting your short done?

SH - I find that you do get that one problematic shot, the one you just can't get quite right, and the one you dread starting work on again; it might be the camera move that isn't working, a pose you can't lock down, almost anything, and you just can't seem to get it quite right. That is something you just have to work through.

However, since it is a short film you end up facing all the challenges of production, from concept through to render times. While there were technical issues to resolve, as well as stylistic choices to be made, I think the biggest challenge was the motivation to complete the film after graduation. I'm very driven by deadlines, it helps me to focus my efforts in the area's needed to complete the work in the timescale, so when the deadline for completing the animation passed (my graduation), it was hard to start on the final phase of lighting, tweak the models, finalize the textures, and polish the animation. After all, we all want our short film to be perfect, and without a deadline it is too easy to keep dabbling until it is perfect. Setting your own goals is good, but for me personally I needed to find a reason to work on a shot until it's complete, and more often than not I would have a more compelling reason not to work on it. It was only when I wanted to enter my short into a competition that I had a new deadline and the drive to finally finish my short film.

@|b - How important was the research/pre-production/planning process on getting your short done and looking back what is that one thing which you wished you had done more of?

SH - The planning stage is immensely important, and scheduling your time for each task. Once you have the basic draft of the story you can storyboard the shots. Sketching this out is fast, and you can try different ideas out very quickly. Once you have that, you need to move on and setup your layouts. I actually stuck to my storyboards very closely, they were a great reference later on when I was trying to get the composition for a shot right, a couple of times I had placed a camera and thought it was ok, then when I referred back to the storyboard I was able to match what I originally imagined and it felt like the visual aspect of the shot improved. That’s not to say to should always stick to the storyboard, there are enhancements you make along the way which dictate changes in different aspects of a shot (composition, animating to camera etc). One example is that I actually ended up adding in the burley security guards very late in the initial stages, but it was essential for the story to work. If you overrun on time for one task you need to save time elsewhere, so don't overrun! If this means it isn't quite perfect then that is how it has to be. Only at the end will you know if you have any time to revisit anything you feel needs more love and attention.

The rigs for the props also changed throughout production, as I would find a need to do something specific to suit the animation and the rig would need to change. It would have been nice if all my props and characters were finished before I started animation, but it isn't always possible work that way. I'm not sure if there is something I would have done more of, but there certainly is something I wish I had more of, and that was time!

@|b - Different animators have their own ways of reference and planning. Some prefer doing a lot of thumbnailing, some just can’t get by without doing video reference or some do a bit of both. What’s your way of reference, something to keep you in check and avoid taking a detour from the main essence of the shot/scene you working on?

SH - For the character work I start with thumbnails to find something that is close to what I visualize. Then I found it very beneficial to use video reference - however I am no actor, so the video reference is exactly that; a reference, as it helps me understand the timing. I can be hard to judge the time needed for some shots, such as if a heavy lumbering move across the screen. By quickly filming some reference you can lock down the timing, and then you also have reference for the body mechanics or the facial poses. Sometimes there is some subtlety in a reference that you find appealing so you work it into a shot, and it might be something you never planned for originally. Referring back to the storyboards was one way I made sure I was staying true to my original ideas.

Here are a couple of storyboards, concept drawings I did in the planning stages -

@|b - For any beginner in animation, there is always the temptation of making an epic right from your first independent short. What’s the ideal duration a first timer should strive for so that he doesn’t eat more than he can chew and also enjoy the entire process of actually seeing the short from story to screen?

SH - Ah, the epic first film, I think we all start there (I know I did). To know how long your short should be you need to start by understanding how much real time you have available to dedicate to the project. Generally people are not very good at estimating how much time something will take. Your gut instinct, your intuition will often mean you don't allow enough time so you have to allow for that, but it's something you get better at with experience. Depending on what you want to portray in your short will also help determine the duration; two characters on screen who interact a lot will mean you have twice the animation work for the same length of screen time. Conversely a medium shot of a single character that is mostly standing in place requires much less time to animate for longer screen time. For someone starting out I would recommend no more than 30 seconds - which really means that you should plan for 20 seconds and you'll find it will take 30 ;) But I would also add that you should try and use a single character for your first short, avoid dialogue, and keep the environment as simple as possible. By being realistic you stand a better chance of completing it and having something nice to use on your reel.

@|b - What keeps you inspired as an artist as I am sure there would be times when no matter what you do or how work you hard, things just don’t go your way. What keeps you inspired and motivated and are there any other creative endeavors you pursue to keep your creative juices flowing and keep things in perspective? As I understand it’s very important to take a break often rather than struggling with something for extended period of time and not getting anywhere. Your thoughts on this?

SH - Yeah, those are some interesting topics. We all have bad days where we find we can't animate for toffee. At times like that I like to switch gear in the production and I may work on a bit of modeling, or maybe texturing, even a concept sketch, anything that keeps the production moving forward but that also takes your mind off the problem. Even then there are times you can't focus at all, which is usually the body's way of saying 'enough!’ At these times it's time to take a breather, do something enjoyable, if it's the evening I might watch a movie or play the guitar. Inspiration comes from many places, even going out for a meal can give you food for the mind as well as the body (a chance to do some people watching). I do get inspired when watching films or other peoples work, there are some amazing artists out there.

@|b - What’s the best advice you ever got and something which you want to pass on to your fellow animators?

SH - The best advice I ever received when I was starting out was "to get involved with a forum". As long as it's a friendly community the feedback you can get will be essential, it can help you to grow as an animator as well as to improve a shot. Don't take other peoples comments personally and you will benefit tremendously from it, you need a thick skin!

@|b - On a concluding note, any words to students who are waiting to get their first job in the industry?

SH - I'm actually reminded of a quote by Randy Pausch which struck a chord with me when I heard it, "brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people".

@|b - Thanks once again Steven, for taking the time to do this wonderful conversation.

SH - Thank you Anirudh, it’s been a pleasure.

You can reach Steven and see some of his other work on his site.

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 18th July 2009 - 24th July 2009

2009-07-18T07:48:00.003+05:30

Casablanca(1942)

Genre - Drama/Romance

Directed By - Michael Curtiz

Cast - Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid

Whats It About - Set in unoccupied Africa during the early days of World War II: An American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.

Coming Up Next : What Can/Should Animators Do In Downtime

2009-07-14T11:33:00.005+05:30

P.S. - This is just an intro about my upcoming post and not the post itself.

Lately I have come across many discussions, emails, questions as to whats the future of Animation (specially in my country, India) looks like and what should we do about it to get employed or remain employed. Majority of them are from freshers/beginners, very newly inducted into production or are waiting to get that ever so elusive first break in the industry.

So I thought it would be prudent to give some thought to it and see if I can come up with something worth pondering or at-least answer some questions I have been asked. Though this post has been motivated keeping in mind whats happening in the Indian Animation Industry and what can Animators(or to-be) do, but I am filled with hope that what I am about to share will resonate across diverse set of Animators(or even in general artists and may be even people looking for jobs or already in jobs but fearful of whats going to happen next) regardless of which part of the world they are from.

Now I really desist the very over-hyped-blown-out-of-proportion word "recession" and hence I am using the word "downtime".

Also I am totally not going to get into details, of industry figures and statistics, so I wont be mentioning any studio names and what current work they have and what work they plan to get in the near future. My post will be primarily about what we can do at an individual level. We cant influence the circumstances around us, but we can for sure influence how we react to it and what can be done by each one of us.

So its all about what you can/should do at all times, whether the time is good or not so good. This post will be more about self-growth yet offer practical suggestions which will enable you be more pro-active about your circumstances/challenges/setbacks/failures instead of being reactive towards them.

I have to admit that whatever content I am sharing it with you has been condensed and sourced from different resources in the form of people I talk to, books, audio books, blogs, podcasts, seminars and so on and also layered with my own thoughts. Having said that the reason I am sharing it with you is that I am 100% convinced that you will definitely be able to relate to some if not all. I have myself tried and still trying many of them and hence that's the reason of my conviction that it will be useful for you. Its my sincere intention to help people by sharing whatever little I know and not to just increase the eyeballs/traffic for my blog. But again use your own discretion and then decide what makes sense for you personally.

Depending on how much I come up with, the post may be divided into multiple posts for ease of reading.

Also for the first time, I am making this a collaborative post where in you are more than free to send any suggestions yourself and I shall include this in a different post dedicated to just the views I receive from different people explicitly. Needless to say by due credit will be given.

You can send your suggestions/views by email(mentioned in my profile) / or using the comment section below/ or on Twitter.

Thank You !

@|b

P.S. - I am sure you would have noticed the image above where a ray of light seeps into the otherwise dark room. Its my endeavor that this post will do the same for you, doesn't matter how small the effect might be.

Woo-Hoo ! I Am The Winner Of The Animation Mentor Student Choice Award !!!

2009-07-12T08:14:00.004+05:30

You read that right !

Just a few hours before, Animation Mentor had their graduation ceremony in San Francisco, US, where I was announced as the winner in the category : Forum Ninja !
(Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend the graduation in person)

This is a huge honor for me and I am totally ecstatic at the moment !

Thanks a million to Animation Mentor, you all rock !

Cheers!

@|b

P.S. -For more details on what the award is about, kindly visit my earlier post when I was nominated !

Animation Mentor July 2009 Newsletter Out Now !

2009-07-11T21:50:00.002+05:30

As the post title is self-explanatory, another info packed newsletter for July 2009 is out from Animation Mentor.

Check it out here!

Register here to make sure you don't miss any from now on !

Cheers!

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 11th July 2009 - 17th July 2009

2009-07-11T08:28:00.001+05:30

Double Indemnity(1944)

Genre - Drama/Thriller

Directed By - Billy Wilder

Cast - Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck

Whats It About - An insurance rep lets himself be talked into a murder/insurance fraud scheme that arouses an insurance investigator's suspicions.

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 4th July 2009 - 10th July 2009

2009-07-04T08:23:00.002+05:30

Sunset Boulevard(1950)

Genre - Drama/Film-Noir

Directed By - Billy Wilder

Cast - William Holder, Gloria Swanson

Whats It About - A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent-film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.

Podcast : Animation Conversation Dot Com

2009-07-03T18:24:00.005+05:30

I was told about this site from one of my friends and I am really surprised how come very few people or aware of it.

Its an Animation podcast, where they have a conversation(now weekly) about Animation, workflow, movie-reviews and sometimes they also have a guest on the show. So far the guests have been Keith Lango(fantastic 2 hr conversation), Tomm Moore(Company Director, Cartoon Saloon) and Hans Gunnar Brekke (Animator, Tippett Studios).

They have also had several round table on topics like "Acting", "Realizing your ideas", "Making animation your career" which are super interesting and stuffed with loads of information.

I strongly suggest checking out their conversations.

You also have the option of subscribing it in iTunes or downloading their Weekly Podcast in MP3 format.

@|b

Self Growth : Taming Anger

2009-07-02T21:51:00.004+05:30

As mentioned in my previous post, Self Growth is one of my many endeavors I want to explore as much as I can. Though I have shared a few articles here and there, from now onwards I will be doing it on a more regular basis.

I came across this fantastic article on getting a grip on our anger. Though I strongly suggest reading the full article, here is an excerpt which is super useful for me and should be for you too -

"

There’s now widespread agreement among anger experts that it’s better to evaluate angry feelings before acting on or even accepting them. Williams is a leading proponent of this view; he recommends asking yourself four specific questions whenever you feel angry:

Is the situation or event that triggered my anger important? That is, is the thing that triggered my rage something that threatens my well-being?
Given the situation or event, is my anger appropriate? Faced with the same circumstances, would the average person get angry?
Is the situation modifiable? Is there something I can do to change it for the better?
Is it worth it to try to modify the situation? That is, is it worth my time and effort?

"

Source for the above excerpt.

So next time you get angry or are on the verge of getting, ask yourself the above 4 questions.

@|b

Catch Up Time : Done With Animation Mentor, What Next !

2009-06-29T12:14:00.002+05:30

P.S - It will be a long post but hopefully worth your time ! Thanks in advance for reading.

(This image was chosen after a lot of thought and purpose! Read on to find out why!)

I am writing this post after considerably introspecting my life as it happened in the last 2 years with more emphasis on the course I was doing at Animation Mentor (AM) and how it has influenced my life for good.

First things first, my course finished last week and now I am officially an Alumni of AM and not a student. This feeling itself is wrapped in different layers of excitement, growth, optimism, sadness, inspirational and so on. More on this below.

Almost around 2 years back in September 2007, after working as a full time 3D Character Animator for close to 4 years, I found out that getting up in the morning to go to work was a painful chore and I was really not enjoying my work. The reason I was not enjoying my work was that I was not learning anything new, I was animating like a mechanical mass of flesh, getting scenes, animating, showing for approval to my Animation Director, sending to client, getting it approved....this process went in a circle and on and on. So I felt it was the right time to take a hiatus and get back to some learning before I get totally disconnected from Animation all-together. Around the same time AM had released a couple of its student's work and I had no doubt this was the place to go to and re-invent myself or rather discover myself all over again.

I strongly believe that everything happens for a reason and looking back at my life, every event (good and not-so-good) makes total sense as to why it occurred. I also feel it was my destiny that the timing of the release of AM's student work coincide with the time I was not feeling good about my work and it was a signal that it was time to take the plunge.

Now in my community/culture/social circle/mindset of many many people I know....leaving a job and going back to education was considered foolish/stupidity/throwing your leg on the axe and so on. In short it was not favored at all. It was more like once you get a job, work for few years, then get married, start a family and so on. I was strictly against this normal course as I felt we get one life and it’s not about going from one station to next but rather enjoying the time in between. What’s the point of doing things just because others have been doing it and what’s worse is doing it unwillingly. If you strongly believe in something and which you feel is right in the long run, by all means go for it. There will always be naysayers because they don't want others to do the things, which they want to do but cant. They are like fire, you pay heed and it’s like putting fuel to it, you ignore them and they will smoke out soon enough.

So after a month of leaving my job, my journey began at AM and it seemed as if I was in a total different mindset now and that the whole world was working together to make me happy. It was a fantastic change from the mundane job to being a student and learning so many new things day after day. I used to stay awake way past my normal time, yet used to get up with so much energy and passion to start a new day of learning.

Joining AM was without any doubt one of the best decision I would have taken regarding my career. The mentors are top notch people working in the industry since many years in the form of Animators, Lead Animators, Animation Supervisors, Creative Directors and so on. In the last 2 years whatever new Animated Features have released, almost all the mentors are featured in the credit list of different movies. I have never really waited for Credits before, but now it’s one thing which I will not miss for anything, as the joy of watching your friends/mentors name in the Credit list is amazing.

Also what’s the charm of being in AM, apart from the education is the community of people including Mentors, Students and the AM Support Staff. Everyone is so very helpful, down to earth and wants each other to succeed. Now considering that majority of the mentors have a full time job in creating the next blockbuster to entertain us, they make sure to be there whenever we need them. Be it E-critiques, Live AV QNA, emails, forums, they respond as soon as they can. Which in my honest opinion shows them how much they care about people having the same passion and tells a lot about how wonderful they are as human beings. Hats off to the entire AM community!

Its crazy to look back how fast 18 months passed by (It was actually 21 months since I had taken one term break(3 months), since me and my family moved to a new city). The curriculum at AM is very well structured, tight, it forces you to be disciplined and have a very good way of managing yourself and your time. This is where AM tricks you. You join AM thinking it’s all about animation, but you get so much more apart from Animation. You become more disciplined, you value time so much more, you plan your day in order to make it as efficient and productive as ever, you meet so many different people from diverse geographical locations and cultures, you cultivate new lifelong friendships...I can go on and on. In brief AM is a complete package provided you are open to learning and personally speaking it had a very profound positive impact on my life. An impact for which the results are definitely not instant but in the long run, I know and I can feel it that I made a very judicious choice of doing AM.

That's one reason why I am having mixed feelings now since I am no more a student. I am happy to be able to finish AM and excited for what’s in store for me in the near future, but I am also a bit scared to not go off track and get into a comfort zone. Since AM is based on a real industry environment, we have weekly deadlines and a very strict structure of constantly evaluating our work. Now out of AM (at least till I am able to get back to working), it would be no easy task to keep animating and make sure we have deadlines on whatever we do. Without deadlines it’s only a matter of time before I start slipping and losing sight of my goals and tasks. I will keep you all posted on how I fare on this one.

Now a little about using the image in the beginning of the post. Before joining AM, I was not sure about where my life as an animator was going. I was just going with the flow and was totally oblivious of the path forward, whether it was a corner or a turn I had no idea and in all probability either of the two would have thrown me back as I was totally ignorant to see the things in a broader perspective. But now I feel like that little plant/sapling, who at least knows where he has to grow and move on next. It may be small now, but the key is that the foundation/root has been laid and now it’s all about nourishing and taking care. Similarly by no means I am animation-ninja yet, but at least I know (and thank you AM for that), about my strengths and weaknesses, what makes a good animation and an animator, developing and eye for detail, having a good workflow to name a few. (Though I have come across many people who when I say I am doing AM, believe that I need not study anymore and that just being from AM, guarantees me a job in PIXAR or equally big studios. How misinformed can people get? I am planning to have a separate post on this though as this really frustrates me to no end.)

Coming to the million dollar question of what next, now since I am done with AM? Well to start with, my short is far from completion. Only if I was able to limit my short to 30 secs I would have been able to wrap it while in AM, but not compromising on the story I had to increase the duration and now it’s almost double to around 55 seconds or so. I don't regret it one bit, since it’s better to have a longer duration than to trim it to 30 seconds and confusing the audience as to what the short is about. Having said that it’s not that we can do just 30 seconds, I was clocking close to 25 seconds a week when I used to work, but that's a different story and many factors were responsible for that. Each short is different with its own challenges and complexity and each animator have their own skill level. So finishing my short is one the top priorities for me.

At the same time, I am going back and polishing my old shots for my reel. Yes it’s time to enter the big (bad?) world of job hunting and then being a professional animator (good!). After going thru the grind, I am raring to contribute all that I have learned (and continue to learn) to where ever I get an opportunity to work.

I am also thinking of starting new animation shots in different categories like Pantomime, Body Mechanics and Acting. I may also have a progress log here, right from planning to the end to get as much feedback and share a bit about my workflow and also to continue learning from others and growing. Let’s see how it goes.

There is one more area where I have gone a sea change in the last 2 years and that is personality development /self-growth. I have had numerous personal challenges (and continue to have) and thanks to many people and resources online and offline, I was able to overcome many and I am working on overcoming others. This is one area where EVERYONE struggles at some point of time in their life, but are to scared of feared to admit (and it amazes me why, we all are human it’s OK to err at different level and to learn from it). So it’s my deepest endeavor to help people overcome their personal struggles and to share my experiences with them and vice versa. It’s my way of paying forward (and paying back) all the good things I learned from different sources. It’s very important to pay forward any good deeds anyone has done for you, because if everyone does it, the world will be a much better place to live.

So as you can see, I have a LOT on my plate as of now. I just hope I am not eating more than I can chew. Yes I will be stretching myself definitely which is intentional but I don't want to let my task(s) overwhelm me and end up avoiding everything all-together. This is the part where my readers - YOU, can play a huge part to help me be on track. Nothing like having a diverse group of people to bounce ideas constantly. It helps to elevate our perspective at various different levels. This is the beauty of technology and the internet; it makes collaboration and communication so seamless 24x7.

Before writing this post I had a certain idea of what I want to share here, but as I began, more ideas, more thoughts, more content kept cropping and I felt appropriate to share them too. So if you feel this post looks a bit unstructured, my apologies, but please do let me know.

A LOT is coming from my side in the coming days. Tighten your belt and watch this space.

Talk to you soon!

Cheers,

@|b

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 27th June 2009 - 4th July 2009

2009-06-27T09:18:00.005+05:30

Unforgiven(1992)

Genre - Drama/Western

Directed By - Clint Eastwood

Cast - Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgon Freeman, Richard Harris

Whats It About - Retired Old West gunslinger William Munny reluctantly takes on one last job, with the help of his old partner and a young man.

Animation Mentor Co-Founder and ILM Lead Animator - Shawn Kelly, On Radio Alice@97.3

2009-06-25T10:54:00.005+05:30

There is a super fun interview of Shawn Kelly(ILM Lead Animator and Animation Mentor Co-Founder) on Radio Alice@97.3 where he talks about Transformers, what its like to be animator, what does an animator do and many more cool crazy stuff.

Check it out!

@|b

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 20th June 2009 - 26th June 2009

2009-06-20T08:31:00.003+05:30

The Brave One (2007)

Genre - Crime/Drama/Thriller

Directed By - Neil Jordon

Cast - Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard

Whats It About - A woman struggles to recover from a brutal attack by setting out on a mission for revenge.

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 13th June 2009 - 19th June 2009

2009-06-13T11:34:00.004+05:30

Lost In Translation(2003)

Genre - Comedy/Drama/Romance

Directed By - Sofia Coppola

Cast - Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson

Whats It About - A movie star with a sense of emptiness, and a neglected newlywed meet up as strangers in Tokyo, Japan and form an unlikely bond.

Animation Mentor June 2009 Newsletter Is Out !

2009-06-09T11:16:00.003+05:30

Animation Mentor's (AM) monthly newsletter is a great resource of things related to Animation : industry trends, short films, tips and tricks, etc and to an extent what AM is all about.

Their June 2009 newsletter is out.

If you havent registered yet, I suggest you do it here and check out their stuff.

@|b

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 6th June 2009 - 12th June 2009

2009-06-06T09:21:00.003+05:30

Tender Mercies(1983)

Genre - Drama

Directed By - Bruce Beresford

Cast - Robert Duvall, Tess Harper

Whats It About - A broken-down, middle-aged country singer gets a new wife, reaches out to his long-lost daughter, and tries to put his troubled life back together.

#2 - In Conversation With AM Student Christiaan Moleman On His Short Film, Animation and Life In General

2009-06-01T19:08:00.000+05:30

This is #2 of the series of conversations I started with my fellow Animation Mentor(AM) schoolmates. You can find #1 here.

This time I am in conversation with Christiaan Moleman who went out of the way and made a very beautiful 2D Animation short film - "Teddy" during his time at AM.

Anirudh Bhalotia (@|b) - Hello Christiaan! Thanks for your time and getting this conversation started. Tell us a bit about yourself, how did you get into animation, how did you hear about AM, when did you graduate from AM and what you been doing/working on currently?

Christiaan Moleman (CM) - I started animating using trueSpace when I was still in high-school. I went to college for game art and animation (though the course was labeled Game Design) in the UK and after that I started as an animator at a games outsourcing company in Amsterdam.

I heard about AM from Shawn, whom I'd been asking a bunch of newbie questions about animation. Just before I started my first job, I enrolled in the second ever class of AM, doing assignments evenings and weekends.

In Class 5 I decided I needed more time to focus on my short film so I quit my job and did Class 6 full-time. I graduated in 2006 with a film that was very much not finished yet, so as I set out to look for jobs, I continued working on it.

I got hired at Arkane Studios in Lyon, France, which is where I am at the moment.

@|b - Congrats for your short film - Teddy. It has come out beautifully and to see a short film in 2D is so very refreshing in today's 3D world ! How much time did it take for you to get this done right from getting the story to completion?

CM - At AM, I did three months of part time pre-production, and three months of full-time production. After that I got a new job so my time was limited(evenings and weekends again), but I spent about another year and a half working on and off to complete it.

@|b - What made you choose 2D as a medium for your short? Have you been working as a traditional artist since sometime ? What are the advantages/disadvantages of using 2D over 3D and vice versa?

CM - I do 3D all day at work so if I'm going to animate in my free time, 2D makes a nice change. I also like that it's more spontaneous. You spend less time fighting with your tools and more actually animating. I like 3D, but I think the software we're stuck with is pretty counter-intuitive. Another reason was a purely practical one : I wanted to do a film with three major characters and a fairly elaborate exterior background. I know how to model and rig, but building three characters and an environment in the time we had was clearly not feasible. The cost of drawing an extra character is minimal.

@|b - As someone who is into the process of making his own short, I had quite a tough time brainstorming ideas and then finally get onto some idea which can be used for storytelling in an interesting way. What was your process for getting the basic story outlined nailed down ? Or rather, from where did you get this idea from, was it your own experience or remembering someone else's or something like that? What advice in this context would you like to give to aspiring animators who would like to get started with their own short films at some point of time?

CM - Train rides ! Sitting with a pencil and notebook and writing down random ideas until something sounds good...

The inspiration has to come from somewhere though. I considered what I wanted my film to achieve. I didnt want to try to be funny. I wanted to do a story I had an opinion about. I remembered seeing the documentary "Death in Gaza" and thought his could be something different...

Now I have never been to Palestine and I dont know what it's like to grow up in a warzone, but I have two brothers, so I know what it's like to fight over toys with your siblings, and I'm often struck by how children seem to see the world a lot clearer than adults. Even if your chosen theme doesn't map directly to your own experience you can find something in there that you can speak honestly about.

@|b - What was the biggest challenge you came across during making this short film and how did you overcome it? Were there some problems which kept cropping up time and again during the pursuit of getting your short done?

CM - I struggled with the drawing and definitely staying on-model was a problem. Keeping proportions consistent while getting the right expression out of the characters was a constant fight and the final frames a result of many many revisions.

@|b - How important was the research/pre-production/planning process on getting your short done and looking back what is that one thing which you wished you had done more of?

CM - Crucial. Without research and planning you are stumbling around in the dark. You can't know everything, so read up, get reference and figure out what you want to do. If I could go back I would have quit my job sooner so I would've had time to do proper model-sheets and character tests before starting production.

@|b - Different animators have their own ways of reference and planning. Some prefer doing a lot of thumbnails, some just can't get by without doing video reference or some do a bit of both. What's your way of reference, something to keep you in check and avoid taking a detour from the main essence of the shot/scene you working on?

CM - I thumbnail a lot, but I also try to do (or get) reference when I can. Big fan of BBC Motion Gallery, but You Tube is also great. Getty Images also has some good stuff, though more for locomotion than acting reference. A lot of it is staged.

@|b - For any beginner in animation, there is always the temptation of making an epic right from your first independent short. What's the ideal duration a first timer should strive for so that he doesn't eat more than he can chew and also enjoy the entire process of actually seeing the short from story to screen?

CM - 30 seconds is perfect.

@|b - What keeps you inspired as an artist as I am sure there would be times when no matter what you do or how hard you work, things just don't go your way. What keeps you inspired and motivated and are there any other creative endeavors you pursue to keep your creative juices flowing and keep things in perspective? As I understand it's very important to take a break often rather than struggle with something for extended periods of time and not getting anywhere. Your thoughts on this ?

CM - Hmmm... seeing the awesome work done by everyone around me is a constant inspiration and going back to my favorite films and games (or trying new ones) always helps remind me what I'm doing in this medium.

I love traveling to new places and experiencing new cultures and languages. I definitely think it's healthy to have interests outside of animation and personally I find ancient history and mythology endlessly fascinating.

@|b - What's the best advice you ever got and something which you want to pass on to your fellow animators?

CM - This advise was not given to me directly, I read about it on James Hull's Seward Street. It's something Eric Larson said to Glen Keane (paraphrased slightly) :

"Don't cheat your audience"

The audience will never know all the things you "didn't" do, so never take the easy way out when you could have done something more true or entertaining...

@|b - On a concluding note, any words to students who are waiting to get their first job in the industry?

CM - Don't get discouraged, never wait and keep working on your portfolio. If you have the drive to keep improving, getting your foot in the door is a matter of time.

@|b - Thanks once again Christiaan, it was an interesting and inspiring conversation.

CM - My pleasure!

You can reach Christiaan thru his site here.

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 30th May 2009 - 5th June 2009

2009-05-30T17:46:00.000+05:30

The Station Agent(2003)

Genre - Comedy/Drama

Directed By - Thomas McCarthy

Cast - Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson, Bobby Cannavale

Whats It About - When his only friend dies, a man born with dwarfism moves to rural New Jersey to live a life of solitude, only to meet a chatty hot dog vendor and a woman dealing with her own personal loss.

Toy Story 3 : First Early Teaser Trailer In Delicious HD !

2009-05-29T22:17:00.003+05:30

Have a preview here or watch it in HD right here !

P.S. -The first half of Buzz Lightyear(till the part when light goes off) has been animated by Animation Mentor Co-founder and PIXAR Animator Carlos Baena !

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 23rd May 2009 - 29th May 2009

2009-05-22T22:23:00.003+05:30

About Schmidt(2002)

Genre - Comedy/Drama

Directed By - Alexander Payne

Cast - Jack Nicholson

Whats It About - Warren Schmidt is a man in his 60's. While trying to run his daughter's life, he realizes that he wasted his.

Woo-Hoo!! Got Nominated For Animation Mentor(AM) Student Choice Awards !

2009-05-18T11:44:00.007+05:30

I write this post with utmost humility and humbleness. I have been nominated for Animation Mentor(AM) Student Choice Awards in the category of Forum Ninja and it feels so awesome !

What Forum Ninja actually means is some one who has been actively and creatively involved in the AM Community thru the inbuilt Forum on the school online campus.

For me Forums is a very strong and immensely helpful facet of AM, more so because AM is an entirely online school compared to the other convention brick-and-mortor Animation schools. So the best and fastest way to interact with my fellow students and not just from my class is thru Forums.

To be frank I never imagined to be bestowed by this wonderful gesture by the AM Community and this just re-affirms my faith in AM all the more.

Winning or losing is totally irrelevant as being nominated itself is a huge honor for me considering that these awards are based entirely on the feedback from Students.

Thank you AM !

@|b

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 16th May 2009 - 22nd May 2009

2009-05-15T20:28:00.005+05:30

Sideways(2004)

Genre - Comedy/Drama/Romance

Directed By - Alexander Payne

Cast - Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen, Sandra Oh

Whats It About - Two men reaching middle age with not much to show but disappointment, embark on a week long road trip through California's wine country, just as one is about to take a trip down the aisle.

The 6 Rules for Superior Energy and Fitness by Robin Sharma

2009-05-12T11:22:00.003+05:30

Inspiration/motivation/self-help, is one area which I wanted to share and discuss on my blog, but due to time constraints couldnt really devote time to it. Though I did start a bit on it from this post, still there is a LOT to write about it.

Hopefully in the near future. In the meantime I will try to post snippets here and there.

Finally Arrived ! Full Movie Trailer - The Princess And The Frog

2009-05-10T10:45:00.003+05:30

2D Animation back to its glory !

Isn't it beautiful !

The Princess And The Frog related Disney Video Interviews

2009-05-10T00:03:00.007+05:30

Disney has posted one minute video interviews of people related to their much awaited 2D feature film : The Princess And The Frog.

One Min With Ron Clements and John Musker (Directors)

One Min With Andreas Deja (Animator)

One Min With Bruce Smith (Animator)

I have always been a fan of these behind-the-scene interviews and stuff related to a movie as they help in knowing what all goes behind the making of a film and how the magic happens! :-)

@|b

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 9th May 2009 - 15th May 2009

2009-05-09T18:15:00.003+05:30

Sexy Beast (2000)

Genre - Crime/Drama

Directed By - Jonathan Glazer

Cast - Ray Winstone, Ben Kingsley, Ian McShane

Whats It About - Brutal gangster Don Logan recruits "retired" safecracker Gal for one last job, but it goes badly for both of them.

2D Animation : Onwards (sponsored by NIKE)

2009-05-08T08:05:00.001+05:30

Onwards from AKQA on Vimeo.

Thanks to Josh for finding this.

Princess and The Frog : New Clip

2009-05-07T19:12:00.002+05:30

Stop Procrastinating - 7 Tips

2009-04-29T22:34:00.004+05:30

Its been sometime since I posted something(apart from my Weekly Movie Recommendations) as I have been(and still will be for sometime to come) really busy with my own independent 3D Animated Short Film, which hopefully will be completed in a couple of months. You can get more info on that here.

But "procrastination" is one area which I struggle almost every day and I am sure each of one us do face it more often than we would realise or care to admit. Many would also use other terms instead of "procrastinate" like "putting things for later", "prioritizing", "being lazy" and so on. So I thought it would be a good topic to dwell upon.

One of my good friends Josh Corken has a recent blog post on how to stop procrastination. Its short and concise, simple and well written and I felt it was perfect to get some light thrown on this topic.

I wont say its the definitive guide but its a fantastic starting point to get the idea across.

Hope it helps you as it surely helped me to brush over things which I need to be constantly reminded about.

@|b

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 25th April 2009 - 1st May 2009m

2009-04-24T23:58:00.000+05:30

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind(2004)

Genre - Drama/Romance

Directed By - Michel Gondry

Cast - Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood

Whats It About - A couple undergo a procedure to erase each other from their memories when their relationship turns sour, but it is only through the process of loss that they discover what they had to begin with.

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 18th April 2009 - 24th April 2009

2009-04-19T11:57:00.000+05:30

Quantum Of Solace (2008)

Genre - Action/Adventure/Thriller

Directed By - Marc Forster

Cast - Daniel Crag, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric, Judi Dench

Whats It About - Seeking revenge for the death of his love, secret agent James Bond sets out to stop an environmentalist from taking control of a country's valuable resource.

Animation Mentor Tips & Tricks Volume 2 and Free Webinar

2009-04-17T19:19:00.004+05:30

P.S. - A bit late on posting this, but better late than never !

Almost a year back Animation Mentor had released its very popular Tips & Tricks(which comes in its monthly newsletter) in an E-book.

Now its back with Volume 2 !!!

This second volume of Tips & Tricks is full of insider knowledge from professional animators who have contributed to the Animation Tips & Tricks blog, Carlos Baena's site carlosbaena.com and the Animation Mentor newsletter. The eBook features articles written by Animation Mentor co founders Shawn Kelly and Carlos Baena, Animation Mentor mentors Keith Sintay and Aaron Gilman, and special guest Wayne Gilbert. It includes tips and tricks on the working life of an animator, making a scene, acting, bringing characters to life and workflow.

You can download your free copy of the ebook here.

Animation Mentor is also offering a free webinar called ‘Planning and Workflow Tips,’ which will be hosted by two of the authors of the ebook. Wayne Gilbert, animation director and writer, and Keith Sintay, senior animator at Digital Domain and mentor at Animation Mentor, will share their knowledge and advice on how to create amazing shots.

The free webinar will be held Saturday, April 18, 2009, from 1 -2:30 p.m. (PST). You can register here.

In case the registration slots are already full or If you can’t attend the webinar, you can catch the replay on April 22.

@|b

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 4th April 2009 - 10th April 2009

2009-04-04T11:55:00.001+05:30

Raising Arizona (1987)

Genre - Comedy/Adventure

Directed By - Joel Coen

Cast - Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter

Whats It About - When a childless couple of an ex-con and an ex-cop decide to help themselves to one of another family's quintupelets, their lives get more complicated than they anticipated.

Animation Tests - Full Body Jump

2009-03-30T11:43:00.005+05:30

Continuing on similar lines as my previous Animation Tests, I thought of doing some more body physicality anim tests.

Feedback is always appreciated !

@|b

#1 - In Conversation With AM Student Prashanth Cavale On His Short Film, Animation and Life In General

2009-03-29T11:49:00.019+05:30

As mentioned in one of my previous post, I have been thinking of adding some new and interesting sections on my BLOG.

Well this is one the section which I was thinking since quiet sometime, but didn't really get to make it happen for some reason or another. Well all that is past and its finally happened !

Just to give a brief about it, here I will be showcasing Short Films from my schoolmates at Animation Mentor(AM) and then follow it up with a very interesting conversation on their Short Films, Animation or just life in general !

It feels so good to start this section with a very dear friend of mine Prashanth Cavale, whom I met at AM. He was one batch senior to me but that was hardly a deterrent for starting a long lasting friendship as the only thing that matters is the passion we share about Animation.

So without much further ado, lets get this thing started.

Wrong Answer!! from Prashanth Cavale on Vimeo.

Anirudh Bhalotia (@b) - Hello Prashanth, thanks for your time and getting this conversation started. Tell us a bit of yourself, like how do get into animation, how did you hear about Animation Mentor and what you been doing/working on currently?

Prashanth Cavale (PC) - Hey Anirudh!..My pleasure man!

I come from an Engineering background and I found my way rather late. The final year project while pursuing Mechanical Engineering got me interested onto Computer Graphics and my mind was drawn more towards animation. The interest got stronger on watching animated movies like Lion King, Ice Age, Shrek, Toy Story and it compelled me to take up animation seriously.

During 2007, I was on the lookout of joining a school/Uni to study animation when I came across the show reel of AnimationMentor.com and my search ended there. The very next batch/term I enrolled for the program and the 18 months I spent during the program were the most memorable and satisfying learning experience I’ve had so far!

Having graduated out of AM last December, I got to animate on the Ice Age 3 game which will be released along with the movie later this year. I’m now in the process of supervising the animation of a CG short film at my current workplace and it’s a lot of fun!

@b - Congrats for your short film – Wrong Answer. It has come out very nicely. How much time did it take for you to get this done right from getting the story and to the stage shown above?

PC - Thanks! I had loads of fun working on it! The film was done as a part of the curriculum at AM so it took me around 3 months to conceptualize, plan and come up with an animatic.and a little more than 3 months to animate and reach the stage I have at the moment.

@b - As someone who is into the process of making his own short, I had quite a tough time brainstorming ideas and then finally get onto some idea which can be used for story telling in an interesting way. What was your process for getting the basic story outline nailed down? Or rather from where did you get this idea from, was it your own experience or remembering someone else’s or something like that? What advice in this context would you like to give to aspiring animators who would like to get started with their own short films at some point of time?

PC - I had a tough time too as it was my first attempt at making a short film. The original idea was inspired by a real life incident that happened (not to me!!: P) while I was in high school. But when I pitched it to my mentor (Mike Gasaway), he felt that a lot about it could be simplified into a more generally consumable form. It was about taking that special moment from the original idea, trying to centralize things around it and adding value to it through animation.

Once I got a hang of his insights, I went ahead and changed/modified bits of my short film and tried to make the plot more entertaining which I couldn't have if I had blindly followed my original idea. These were some of the things I took care of while finalizing the story. And I guess these insights would be of some help to animators who want to create their own short film.

@b - What was the biggest challenge you came across during making this short film and how did you overcome it? Were there some problems which kept cropping up time and again during the pursuit of getting your short done?

PC - The biggest challenge to me was timing the storyline and adding a rhythm to it. I learnt that it’s important to get a texture in your story structure so that there are a few "not so funny" moments that actually contribute to magnifying the funny moments in your short. These were hard to plan and I watched out for these ingredients in movies and cartoons and even in comics on how the story is paced and how to have different beats and have it flow. I’m not sure how successful I was at implementing them, but they helped me to a great extent.

Apart from this, there were lots of hurdles during the animation process. My short had around 24 shots and initially it looked like an impossible task...so obviously getting things done without delays was a big challenge but I’m a kind of guy who believes that unless your mind is in a challenged state there is no motivation. So it ended up being one fun filled ride for me and my mentor loved it equally.

@b - How important was the pre-production process on getting your short done and looking back what is that one thing which you wished you had done more of ?

PC - To me, preproduction is very crucial stage as you would be defining the path your short would be taking. It’s the phase where you ensure the workability factor before getting into 3D. In putting my ideas on paper I parallel had to think about the camera framing, character placements and hook-ups. In my case I had 3 characters of which 2 students were facing the teacher so I had to be that much more careful about the camera angles and establishing the placements of characters. I found that working out these things on paper was a lot helpful which otherwise would have been time consuming had I tried it out in 3D.

Looking back, I wish I had spent more time detailing out the character traits that would have helped me to push the performance even more.

@b - Different animators have their own ways of reference and planning. Some prefer doing a lot of thumbnailing, some just can’t get by without doing video reference or some do a bit of both. What’s your way of reference, something to keep you in check and avoid taking a detour from the main essence of the shot/scene you working on?

PC - I do a bit of both but it ideally depends on the shot you are working on. Filming a reference of yourself enacting the shot out is a starting point usually; I would do a few different takes of the shot just to explore the acting choices. Then it’s about deciding what to take and what to leave. I explore these during the thumbnailing where I try to exaggerate the interesting bits and poses in my video reference and and finalize on a sequence of poses that serve the shot best. I keep putting these thumbnails on the timeline to ensure that the shot I’m working on plays well with respect to the whole short

@b - For any beginner in animation, there is always the temptation of making an epic right from your first independent short. What’s the ideal duration a first time should strive for so that he doesn’t eat more than he can chew and also enjoy the entire process of actually seeing the short from story to screen?

PC - Yeah I can totally relate to that temptation but I feel that as a beginner one needs to try out simpler and shorter ideas to get a hold of the process and analyze the area one needs to improve. Its preferred that we work on our weak points before attempting things on a bigger scale...So, for a beginner, I would recommend keeping the short film anywhere under a minute.

@b - What keeps you inspired as an artist as I am sure there would be times when no matter what you do or how work you hard, things just don’t go your way. What keeps you inspired and motivated and are there any other creative endeavors you pursue to keep your creative juices flowing and keep things in perspective? As I understand it’s very important to take a break often rather than struggling with something for extended period of time and not getting anywhere. Your thoughts on this?

PC - True. I have faced such situations. I remember while animating on Wrong Answer, there was a particular shot that had a very simple hand gesture that I struggled with. It was a very simple move to animate, but I worked for over 3 hours and was still not happy with the way it was...I took a break from it and made a conscious attempt not to think of the shot and that helped me fix it when I sat on it next. But there are times when I zipped through challenging portions in my short and I kept wondering how it happened. It’s funny sometimes!!

I think it’s very necessary to take frequent breaks while animating and unwind so that you have a fresh pair of eyes every time you get back. I also feel that it is important to have a parallel creative activity which you can fall back upon when stressed up. I usually play the keyboard while I’m on a break.

@b - What’s the best advice you ever got and something which you want to pass on to your fellow animators?

PC - Most of our mentors say: "Don’t get too obsessed with your shot or a portion of your shot as you sometimes might have to fore go that bit to facilitate the other bits falling into place to solve the jigsaw puzzle." That I think is a golden piece of advice to any animator.

@b - On a concluding note, any words to students who are waiting to get their first job in the industry?

PC - I think we need to focus on making strong original reels that display proper weight, timing and acting choices.

Working in the industry may or may not be as rosy as we might have thought but one needs to be open and ready to adapt to the situation. Keep working hard and most importantly.. have fun! :)

@b - Thanks once again Prashanth, it was wonderful talking to you !

You can reach Prashanth thru his BLOG or email.

AM Class 5 : Short Film 3D Layout

2009-03-28T11:16:00.007+05:30

Here is the final Layout for my Short Film. The composition/framing is more or less finalised. The titles and the credits are rough as of now. Seeing my idea from story on paper to the stage below was so very satisfying !

As Anthony Robbins says -

"Its not about what you get that makes us happy; Its what you become in the process"

Any feedback of any kind is more than welcome.

Short Film 3D Layout from Anirudh Bhalotia on Vimeo.

AM Class 5 - Short Film 2D Animatic

2009-03-27T14:59:00.011+05:30

As mentioned in my last "Catch Up Time" post, here is the fruit of my Class 5 work at Animation Mentor.

I was totally petrified by this Class 5, as we had to make an entire animatic on paper on our own ! The very thought thought of drawing kind of gives me the scares and to draw a full animatic and to convey my story and to make sense from it was a huge uphill task for me. But as I started and progressed I was getting quite comfortable. The main thing of this assignment was to have a sense of clarity and vision of your entire story and actions(to an extent) before we even opened our 3D application, which is a very prudent thing to do. Also storyboard is a very fast and efficient to test your ideas by not wasting too much as would happen if we directly go to our 3D application without any idea at all.

You can try framing/composition/angles/poses which wont take more than 60 seconds for one panel (say idea, beat, action) and incase you not satisfied you can chuck it off in the trash and move on. In 3D it will take a lot of time and since we have would have already spent so much time, making corrections or discarding it altogether can be that much more difficult(its a mind thing actually).

Ok enough of my rant. Lets get to the animatic right away.

Short Film 2D Animatic from Anirudh Bhalotia on Vimeo.

P.S. - Due to some reason I am unable to upload my 3D Layout. I will try posting it in my next post. May be it was just my connection playing spoilsport or may be it was the size of the video. I don't know the exact reason as yet.

New Trailer - Ice Age 3

2009-03-27T11:18:00.002+05:30

This one is looking better with each trailer.

And considering that many of my friends(some just graduated!) and mentors from Animation Mentor have worked on this I am all the more excited !

Trailer - Where The Wild Things Are

2009-03-27T11:14:00.002+05:30

This one looks so cool, the music is so very uplifting and I love the thought of "Inside all of us is HOPE" !

New Trailer - Astro Boy

2009-03-26T14:56:00.000+05:30

Catch Up Time

2009-03-23T18:24:00.001+05:30

Its been quite a while since I posted what I have been upto in life in general. My last post was when I was wrapping up my Class 4 - Advanced Acting here at Animation Mentor(AM) and getting ready to begin Class 5 - Short Film Pre Production.

Well now I am wrapping up my Class 5 and getting ready to start my last lap here at AM and finishing (hopefully!) my own independent 3D Animated short film by June 2009. Its amazing how fast these last 3 months have passed. This class was definitely a huge learning for me and I enjoyed every bit of it. Being an Animator doesn't mean restricting ourselves to a mechanical way of working, where we just get our scenes, storyboards, direction from Animation Supervisors/Directors and just get on with it in order to meet our deadlines ! Its an extremely lame of working as an Animator and to be frank I am myself guilty of indulging in it for a long time not so long time ago.

As an Animator its extremely imperative to see the scene as one of the pieces/building block of the entire movie and not see it in isolation. Yes we have to meet deadlines and do justice to the scene given to us, but having knowledge of the entire process till the time it comes to us for Animation can be so much more helpful and venture us into new unexplored but extremely enjoyable territories.

Class 5 - Short Film Pre Production was exactly one such territory for me, where we had to brainstorm ideas, make it into a interesting and entertaining story which doesn't exceed 30 seconds, then do a video pitch, make storyboards, then 2D Animatic from the story boards and finally 3D Layouts translating all our visions from storyboard into 3D and in my case in MAYA. Whew! On thinking back I still wonder how I managed all this (and I would like to believe not too bad at that.)!

On looking back my biggest fear was making the storyboards and the 2D Animatic since my drawing skills are worst than probably a new born baby ! But thanks to my wonderful mentor Cal Brunker, my wonderful classmates and the awesome community at AM, I was able to sail thru and to get the idea that its not the draftmanship that matters, its how easily the main essense of the story is getting communicated. By no necessarily means I would say its the best 2D Animatic, but I am quite satisfied considering I was so apprehensive when drawing for the first time. Thank you Cal !

All these times during Class 5, my entire approach to Animation has seen a new and positive change where now I am not only concerned by the scene I am working on but the story on a broader level because thats what the audience is concerned about. Learning how to develop a story, what all aspects to keep in mind, whats the main essence we are trying to convey, what are the elements absolutely necessary to move the story forward, keeping the audience glued to what you are trying to show them, directing them to specific points on the screen, camera angles, framing, composition, so as to present the story in the most interesting way...I can just go on and on ! In short it was just awesome !

So in coming days I am quite keen to post my Class 5 work and to give you an idea in stages as to what all goes from story to storyboards and to the final 3D Layout before entering the Animation aspect which I will be doing in Class 6 - Short Film Production in around 2 weeks from now.

I am also in the process of starting some new sections on my BLOG, a quick list of what I have in mind -

Book recommendations, to start with Animation related and in particular the bigger picture : film-making, composition and story development.

Showcasing AM Student Short Films and also having a conversation with that Student and getting some insights on their process of making their Short Film, Animation or life in general.

So loads of interesting stuff coming out here, so make sure you feed my blog to your RSS/follow my blog/subscribe to updates thru email.

Ciao!

@|b

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 21st March 2009 - 27th March 2009

2009-03-20T23:26:00.002+05:30

Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (1969)

Genre - Adventure/Crime/Drama/Western

Directed By - George Roy Hill

Cast - Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katherine Ross

Whats It About - Two Western bank/train robbers flee to Bolivia when the law gets too close.