The 3 part Animation Masterclass by RamSinghKumaresh debuted in Mumbai on April 24th, 2010. AAA was to cover all the 3 modules but due to unavoidable circumstances, I missed the first one. So the report extensively covers Modules 2 & 3 while for Module 1, we have a photo slideshow (courtesy @RamSinghKumaresh) and feedback from some participants.

Although the coverage is in great detail, it in no way makes up for the masterclass itself. There is a lot more to be gained from actually attending such educational workshops and learning first-hand from these veterans and benefit from their experiences during their long, illustrious careers.

Therefore, my heartfelt advice to all those who are serious about making careers in the field of animation, please do not miss such masterclasses and workshops. If you have the opportunity to learn from someone who has been in the field for a while and made a name for himself/herself, please make the most of it. You will learn much more than any school or institute can teach you.

REPORT LINKS:

Module 1: click here

Module 2: click here

Module 3: click here

Sorry folks, I missed this one due to bad health, so there’s no detailed report to accompany the pictures but I promise to make up with the next 2 modules.

Also for a quick review from a participant’s perspective, head over to Kshiraj’s blog. Kshiraj is an upcoming artist and animator based in Delhi who travelled all the way to Mumbai just to attend the RSK Masterclass Module 1. What dedication! If more of our aspiring animators would have this kind of enthusiasm for learning, our animation industry would see far greater progress. He couldn’t stay for the other two and had to head back home, so the reports of Module 2 and 3 are specially dedicated to Kshiraj and many other rising stars of Indian animation.

Other Reports:

Module 2: click here

Module 3: click here

Luckily for me, Vaibhav (KUMARESH) was just doing a recap of the last module. The auditorium this time was much smaller and better suited to the size of the audience. It felt more intimate - like an actual classroom - and this was reflected in the way the participants were sitting in rapt attention.

“A walk is controlled falling.”

Vaibhav began Module 2 by explaining the basic dynamics of a frontal walk. “Babies have no control over their limbs and keep falling. Once they learn to control falling, they learn to walk.” Using drawings of skeletal structures, he illustrated the twists and turns the body goes through while walking, the changes in volume that the body experiences, the movement of the head and the torso and so on. The same up and down bounce that you notice when you observe a walk sideways is seen when you view it from the front. (continued…)

No matter what the medium, it becomes easy to animate once you understand the basic principles of movement. The most important thing is to observe, study and practice animation timing. Vaibhav screened specially created video clips of his assistant walking in different styles - casual, deliberate, aggressive, comical - and then played each clip frame by frame to show the breakdown of movement. He pointed out that the common mistake that most animators make is to miss the frame that shows the contact between foot and ground. The subsequent frame should have a squash, caused by the weight of the body bearing down upon the foot after impact.

He next showed a comparison between walk and run cycles. Again using a video clip, he tracked the movement of the head of a person walking and running. The waves formed by the bouncing action of the head while running have higher arcs than when walking. He then sketched key frames and in-betweens to further illustrate the movement.

“The Blink”

The key to convincing facial animation lies in the blink. Most of the time we tend to overlook the beauty of a blink. Like the blinking light on the CPU of a computer indicates activity inside the hard disk of a computer, the blink of an eye serves as an indicator of activity inside the character’s brain. Typically a blink occurs when the character’s attention shifts which may happen because the topic changes or there is some sort of distraction. Blinks occur also when one is concentrating or thinking hard. A blink may be used to convey suspicion. Rapid blinking occurs when a person is holding back tears. There are blinks and then there are half-blinks too.

An infant’s brain is still developing, therefore it doesn’t blink as much or in such a coordinated manner. Likewise, old people too do not seem to blink as much. To illustrate his theory, Vaibhav showed a video clip of his daughter at three months of age where despite all the activity and sounds around her, she barely blinks once during the duration of the video. He also showed a few recent photos of an ageing Indian superstar at film industry events, where he has a completely blank expression on his face. Perhaps brain activity at a very young or old age is far slower and therefore blinking is less frequent.

Vaibhav then showed a few clips from various animated films (Wallace and Grommit, Up and Wall-E) as examples of the use of blinks to convey emotions and to embellish dialogues. He even played some scenes with the volume on mute to highlight his point. Grommit the dog, for instance, has no mouth - but his eyes convey almost every emotion under the sun. In Wall-E, the eyes and the blinks are a constant indicator of the state of mind of the 2 main characters - Wall-E and Eve, who are mere robots. The blinks breathe life into the two of them.

Even in blinks, you can have brilliant stretches and squashes - Vaibhav screened a couple of cleverly executed TV channel promos to illustrate this.

{I have to say here that I really appreciated how Vaibhav had taken a lot of effort to go through several films and hunt for the exact clips to substantiate his points.}

“Lip Sync”

The most common mistake made by animators is to over-analyse and overdo lip movements to match dialogue. To demonstrate this, Vaibhav showed 2 video recordings of a person saying the same dialogue - one at normal speed and another of him saying the same lines very slowly and in a deliberate manner. When the second clip was played faster, you could clearly see that lip movements were exaggerated and looked incorrect. During normal speech, the lips move in a minimal manner - sometimes with the mouth just opening and shutting.

A very good example to study for lip-syncing would be Aardman Studio’s Creature Comfort series where an assorted bunch of animals speak to the camera. The dialogue is lengthy and one gets a fair idea of how best to animate lip movements. Vaibhav made it easier to understand by first showing a plain text version of the dialogue on the screen, then followed it up by playing only the audio of the dialogue and finally showed the actual animated clip.

“Timing for Audio”

To enable the audience to better grasp the tempo of a walk, Vaibhav played a video clip of people walking at various speeds and asked the audience to make a clicking sound with their tongues to match the footsteps. As different people walked across the screen at different speeds, some even changing their speed half-way, the audience clicked along, grasping exactly what Vaibhav was trying to convey.

“Wave”

When animating, the human body acts like a pendulum. Using animated matchsticks, Vaibhav demonstrated the movement of a wave - how the human body moves like a pendulum and creates arcs. The wave here is a series of joints which move in a coordinated manner. If you plot points along the line of the wave, you will see that the points closest to the controlling point (fulcrum) swing the least and the ones furthest swing the most. Similarly, as the motion stops, the point closest to the fulcrum stops.

The principle was demonstrated further through a scene from the Disney movie - Mulan.

Vaibhav’s Tip: “When you watch a movie for the first time, do so just to enjoy it. The second time, observe and learn from it. Watch a few more times if need be. Then recreate it yourself. Don’t stop at that - better it!”

Vaibhav teaches you to really SEE, not just look. And see with different eyes - an animator’s eyes.

Answering a question from one one of the participants, Ranjit (SINGH) explained different walk styles - the American walk is purposeful, the European walk is not purposeful but yet it is confident. The Indian walk is aimless, almost languid. Singh walked across the front of the class to demonstrate the different walking styles.

Mannerisms and Timing are crucial to make any animation convincing. People across the world walk differently, their mannerisms are varied. Men and women walk differently. Even a person being thin or fat makes a difference to how he or she walks. It is the same with running. Japanese animated characters mostly run in way such that their feet fall in line with each other. Western characters run along parallel lines. This makes a difference to the way the body sways during motion.

Vivek (RAM) added that whenever we stand, our body is constantly correcting the center of gravity. The center of gravity shifts between the two extreme positions of the hips. In women, the hips are wider, therefore the center of gravity has to travel a greater distance and that is what causes the sway. The wider the hips, the more the sway. The same applies for legs - the longer the legs, the more shift in center of gravity, which is why models with long legs are so in demand!

{Lunch Break!!!}

Vivek Ram began his session by screening a brilliant short film by Blur Studio and using the film to recap all that he had taught in the first module. The film, “A Gentlemen’s Duel”, is a brilliant showcase of character design and detailing, with a very simple story-line. Two gentlemen, one British and the other French are vying for the attention of the same woman and decide to duel, while the young lady and her butler watch. The anatomy of each character has been created in a certain way for a reason - to visually give us an insight into the background, nature and personality of the character. Be it the proud Frenchman or the Genteel Englishman, there is a reason for the way they have each been designed.

“Anatomy”

It is tough to explain using only words what Vivek was teaching - you ought to have been there in the class and watched him explain the structure of arms, hands, feet, legs in a very scientific manner by drawing on the white board using three different coloured markers. He explained the reasons for why certain parts were shaped in a particular way, how any kind of movement influenced the shapes and how gravity affects the muscles.

“Hands and feet give rhythm to the body”

Because muscles are attached to the bones only at the edges and not the center so the larger muscles dangle. They are influenced by gravity. Vivek then went into detailed structure of anatomy, bones, muscles, joints. The outer shape of limbs and their movement is determined by the internal bones, muscles and joints. He also explained how the structure of hands and feet have very little to do with muscles. The finger, even in the simplest form must not have its edges drawn parallel to each other, as fingers always taper a bit. The nails go under the skin at the base.

Vivek asked Vaibhav to draw a random character - so Vaibhav drew a funny looking one. Vivek then explained the anatomical structure in a scientific manner. Sometimes, a character can be very stylised too e.g. the Powerpuff Girls who have no fingers and no elbows.

“Anatomy is not a still frame. You have to consider it in movement. Everything needs to follow the motion principles. Especially when you simplify the drawing, anatomy becomes even more important.”

Giving the example of dance, he said it is very important to position your fingers. In dance, the hand creates the final rhythm, so a fist won’t do, the finger position is critical.

The homework assignment given was to draw/study 20-30 sketches of hands/feet in various positions.

Vivek ended his session with yet another brilliant film by Blur Studios - ‘In The Rough’.

Ranjit (SINGH) began his session with a quick recap of the last Module - an overview of the 4 basic components - Plot, Characters, Setting & Performance.

PLOT
The Plot is the relationship between the cause and effect of events within a story. Someone/something/somewhere CAUSES an event that has an EFFECT on someone/something/somewhere as a result. If you miss the thread, you lose your way. If you stick to it, you will be able to keep it compact. You will remain focussed.

“Film Genres”

Singh showed a quick slideshow of the various genres and sub-genres of films and examples of each from Hollywood/Bollywood. When you write a story it helps to know which genre you are writing for (unlike typical Bollywood Khichdi). You can mix and match if you like but you must know what you want to do. Clarity is of essence. What is the core idea? What is the principal plot? What is the embellishment? Examples of genres are Action, Adventure, Gangster/Mob, Comedy, Horror, Epics, Musicals, Drama, War/Antiwar, Sci-Fi, Western, and Indian (Bollywood and regional Indian films are mostly a hybrid -of various genres).

“Advantages of Animation”

- there are infinite possibilities
- no one dies in the course of making the film and/or its sequels
- the size of digital camera
- you can do what you can’t shoot
- it is relatively inexpensive
- it is safe and nondestructive
- it is also repeatable, mouldable
- you can have bizarre twists and turns
- it pre-sells the unreal
- you have freedom from constraints of time and place

“The Plot is the action that happens in a story”

–> Every story has to have an event/conflict which will lead to a result
–> For the event/conflict to happen there has to be a cause that generates it
–> For the event/conflict to be resolved, there has to be action
–> For the action to happen, there have to be actors
–> For the actors to perform, they have to play the characters i.e. performance
–> The action should rise gradually for the audience to relate to it
–> Culmination is in a climax - a crescendo of emotions/events/action
–> Post-climax, there has to be be a settling down/conclusion to the plot

eg. What was the plot for Jab We Met?
- A chance encounter between two strangers that changes their lives.

EXERCISE:- Take a movie, break it down into its basic components - define basic event/conflict. Define characters - who are they and what are they doing? Understand and analyze the story.

“Building a 3 act structure”

- know the end, know where are you are headed for
- work backwards towards the conflict
- introduce the idea, the people and the setting
- write a ‘log line’ (a short description of the gist of what you want to say)

Another important aspect - your character has to transform across the film’s storyline - it makes the character endearing, it makes you empathise with the character

EXERCISE:- Build log line of a movie that you have seen and let the others identify the movie:-
–> Does the log line define the story completely?
–> What is missing?
–> Can you define what is not required?

Singh then showed a sample screenplay for the benefit of those who have never seen one.

Important Points to Remember:

1. One minute of screen time per page - 90 to 120 pages length
2. Two main components - Action (what is happening in the scene) and Dialogue (what are the characters saying)
3. Action is described as it is to happen - eg. Priya wipes a tear NOT Priya is wiping a tear i.e avoid ‘ing’ for actions
4. Act out the writing to check for performance as described (most people have inhibitions to act but must get over it - it will hamper your writing)
5. Focus on action that moves the story forward
6. Engage the readers through writing
7. Write only what can be HEARD & SEEN
8. It’s all about PICTURE & SOUND. Narrative description shouldn’t contain anything that can’t be seen or heard (like emotions and feelings)
9. Get objective opinions from performers, read others’ screenplays

“The Essence of a Story”

The Narrative is a structured set of sentences that relates a sequence of events. It is intended to amuse/interest audience - a tale. People usually go to the movies to see things that normally do not happen / seem to happen.

“The Importance of a Story

First get your story, then worry about how you are going to tell it. Singh ponderd aloud, “How can you think of a 3D movie?”

1. Don’t fall in love with what you have created
2. Look inside, there are stories, there are conflicts (experiences, situations, events, skeletons, guilt, pride)
3. Observe keenly - people, places, events, situations
4. Explore viewpoints, talk to others - get objective advice. Listen to it.
5. Collaborate with like minded people, multiple heads are better than one.

“3 BASIC RULES OF A STORY:  1. Story,  2. Story and 3. Story”

A story requires the following basic elements:

• problem / basic issue
• threat causing the problem
• conflict/complications - obstacles to resolution
• change of fortunes - caused by threat which caused the problem
• climax, highest point - extreme escalation before resolution
• resolution - solution and consequences

Then using the second Munnabhai movie as an example, Singh elaborated on the above points.

“Character - The Who”

1. The Protagonist - the main character whom the audience likes & roots for
2. The Antagonist - the protagonist’s nemesis whom the audience dislikes and doesn’t want to succeed
3. Support Groups - the love interest, the family, group/associates, friends and story props (those who help move the story along - perhaps someone who has just one line in the film but a very important line - it changes the story)

There are many aspects to a well-defined character. Its appearance (the look/design), mannerisms (body language), mindset (intellect & sensibilities), voice (voice character & modulation) and behaviour (act/react). A back story provides valuable insight into the construction of a character - what created the villain, what made the killer, what made the vigilante? It provides an understanding of the basic motivation of the character and sets up the character’s path over the duration of the story.

Singh explained these points further with regards to A Gentlemen’s Duel, which was screened earlier. He also gave the example of Sholay where, with such a stellar cast of actors, the characters have not been overpowered. Each character is so well-written that you remember Jai, Veeru, Gabbar, Samba, Dhanno etc. rather than the actors who played those parts.

“Building Character”

The ground rule of building a believable character is to live your character. If Singh is making a movie about Ram, he has to become Ram, else it is not convincing. You need to know your characters inside out. Only then, when you sit down to define their performance, you won’t go ‘out of character’.

Basic guides to help you build believable characters:
1. Define Desires - What does he crave for?
2. Define Aversions - What is the character fearful of?
3. Define the Past - What is the history/backstory?
4. Define Behaviour - How does character normally behave?
5. Increase the Challenges - Push the limits of tolerance/severity of consequences
6. Don’t influence them with what you would be - this is a living person, let him/her react to its own being
7. Let your characters interact - define the interaction too

Exercise: - Take a character from any film and define what works/doesn’t work.

PERFORMANCE is critical to the success of a character. Dialogues many a times immortalise characters. To further reinforce this point, the memorable Gabbar Singh scene from Sholay was screened. It also served as the grand finale for the day.

Vaibhav regretted that due to lack of time, participants were unable to practice live sketching and hoped to make up for it at the next session. The participants were asked to send in their homework and exercises for assessment and also for their feedback on what they thought of the class and how it could be improved.

I thought it was well worth the time and money spent for anyone who wants to learn. I look forward to the third module to be held next Saturday.

Other Reports:

Module 1: click here

Module 3: click here

“Scribble - Scribble - Throw Away!”

Sketching is a very important exercise. It trains the brain to really SEE and the hands to DRAW what the brain sees. Your observation skills improve. As you keep sketching, the brain begins to store the data, so that when you draw from memory, the brain retrieves this data. Vaibhav reiterated that what was being done here was just a warm up, and that too a brief one. When sketching, one must take it seriously - focus, not fool around, joke or get distracted. 10 minutes isn’t enough to sketch. One must practise for at least one hour daily. Another point he made was to not get too attached to the drawings. Use them for practise. He called it “Scribble - Scribble - Throw away!” (Continued…)

Vivek Ram pointed out that most people begin by drawing the head first, which may not be such a good idea. He sketched on the whiteboard to show how while sketching, one must first capture the form and the pose, and finish the drawing with the head. He also suggested that initially it helps to use soft drawing tools like charcoal sticks or soft lead pencils as they allow the hands to move more smoothly over the paper.

Both Vivek and Vaibhav recommended a minimum one hour a day of sketching.

Next, the assignments from the previous two modules were discussed. The “homework” threw up some real gems. The story-telling module had a few participants turning out very interesting plots for films. And to Ranjit Singh, I recommend some serious thought at a career change - while instructing the participants, he spontaneously came up with a brilliant plot idea. Bollywood/Hollywood calling, eh?

Vivek Ram’s anatomy assignments also revealed a talented artist - Rajiv (a teacher by profession). The task was to take characters from animated films and draw their skulls. It was reverse-engineering of sorts where you have the ready character design and you try to figure out the structure of the skull that creates the outer shape. Vivek pointed out what was right/wrong about Rajiv’s sketches, explaining in great detail. He also gave a tip - since he was drawing digitally, he should try to draw the skull ON the image of the character for a better understanding of shape, size and structure. Another important point to remember is that human and animal skulls have one major difference, animal skulls, especially feline ones are pointed on top unlike smooth, rounded human ones. “The next time you are playing with your pet cat, just stroke the top of its head and you will see exactly what I mean”, said Vivek.

“The Human Torso”

Vivek Ram did a quick recap of the previous module and then began the final part of the anatomy lesson of Module 3 - The Human Torso. It was interesting to learn how the human body is shaped the way it is for a reason - each muscle and bone has a function and it is ‘designed’ accordingly. The rib cage protects many of the vital organs in the body and its unique shape has a definite purpose. Like I said before, the anatomy lessons can’t really be described in text so if you really want to learn, make sure you attend the next class that Vivek Ram takes. I assure you, it’s worth it.

Just to give you an idea, he explained the bone and musculature of the human torso, the shape and structure and their purpose, and what gives the physique a V-shape. Using different coloured markers, Vivek drew rough sketches on the white board, outlining bones, muscles and skin. For anyone serious about creating well-designed characters and/or animating them, be it in 2D or 3D, the study of human anatomy is absolutely critical.

I have noticed that most students take the easy route - “Oh, I’m gonna be an animator/lighting artist/texturer. I don’t need to study anatomy!” This attitude is detrimental to their progress and at some point or the other will reflect in their work. Animation is a science too - and you ought to have a clear grasp over the basics. Before you can become a master chef, you need to know your ingredients, utensils and the various cooking processes. If you skip the basics and decide you will just start cooking, you are bound to end up with awful tasting, under or over cooked food. Whether you actually master drawing or not, you really need to understand why a muscle bulges in a certain way, how the bones and joints move during various kinds of movements, how the skeletal structure of creatures varies from each other, why a man walks the way he does and a woman’s walk is so different from that of a man. This is the ABC of animation, students. Please don’t shrug it off. Observe, practice, learn.

{Post Lunch}

“Story-time!”

Ranjit Singh dived right into the story-telling session by showing a slideshow of scenes from assorted films (animated as well as live-action) and asked participants to make note of the first emotion that came to their minds - one word for each picture. After the slideshow ended, all these words were listed on the whiteboard and it became apparent that Singh was trying to demonstrate the importance of the ‘Setting’ in creating the mood for any scene.

“The Setting”

It involves the physical composition of the scene as well as the camera framing. It helps establish the environment and mood for the scene. It puts the audience in the right frame of mind and prepares them for what is to come in the scene. It guides the audience, establishes the mood and the character, and sometimes even defines the history and background information of the character in question. Everything in the scene - right from the lighting to the sound, to the camera angle to the colours - conveys a subliminal message instantly, before the scene even plays out.

To make his point, Singh screened the famous scene from ‘Sholay’ where Gabbar Singh paces back and forth on jagged rocks and utters the famous lines - “Kitne aadmi they?” Everything in the scene including the location, the eerie background sound, the tapping of Gabbar’s heels, the camera angle have been carefully planned to convey a sense of doom and malevolence.

Contrast that with images from ‘Finding Nemo’ where the scenes are mostly cheerful, many-hued and brightly lit. There is a reason for it. The story requires that a certain mood be set. But these scenes are not constant - in other scenes, the water is dark and murky, light is high-contrast and there is an overall sinister feel - you know something is wrong as soon as the scene begins.

Setting = Lighting + Colour + Framing + Composition + Placement + Sound

All these factors are equally important because the setting is leading you to something.

Singh compared it with a Magic Show. The fantastic sets, the high-contrast lighting, the smoke and the show; all add to the aura, to the feeling of mystery, the anticipation of the unknown.

If the setting doesn’t match the mood of the scene, it will most certainly clash with the dialogues. Production design is not limited to the background plate and must never be. Singh urged the participants to go back and look at the films that have made a lasting impression on them and study the settings in each of them.

“Voice Casting”

Singh played audio clips from Star Wars, The Simpsons, Shrek and The Lion King without revealing their source and questioned participants what each of the sound clips conveyed about the characters that said those dialogues. To my surprise, a majority of the audience did not know Darth Vader or Bart and Homer Simpson, neither did they recognise which films any of the audio clips came from. But it served the purpose because despite that, they were able to gauge the exact personality and attitude of the characters.

[A bit of trivia - did you know that the voice of Bart Simpson is actually that of a woman? Google it and while you are at it, also Google for James Earl Jones, the voice of Darth Vader from Star Wars)]

The voice imparts attitude to a character, therefore character development and voice casting are intrinsically built together. They both play off each other. The language in which a character has been originally conceived also has an impact on its personality. Which is why, although Shah Rukh Khan is such a major star, his voicing of Mr. Incredibles in the Hindi version falls flat. Story-telling relies heavily on both audio and visual keys. Getting either of them wrong can ruin the pace and the impact of the story.

Singh then went on to define the 5 Acts of a Play, which are applicable in films as well. In the 1st Act, the audience is introduced to the characters and the situation, the conflict begins and leads to engagement of the characters. In Acts 2 & 3, fortunes change, the action see-saws, good becomes bad becomes good again. Act 4 sees dramatic development. The protagonist is down in the dumps. This is where the climax occurs. The 5th and final Act witnesses the resolution of the conflict and ends with the aftermath. Though a film need not strictly follow the 1st to 5th Act route, the ingredients are more or less constant with the main goal being to get the audience to connect with the characters, empathise with them and get completely involved in the story. The audience has to forget that they are watching a film and instead start living the moment in the movie. Singh described a scene from the movie ABBA which he had watched in the theater where the audience connected so intimately with one of the characters that they during a critical scene, they were all shouting instructions to him as if he was a real person who could have heard them.

[TIP: to learn more about the 5 Acts, look up Eugene Scribe, a French playwright, on the internet]

Singh then outlined some of the story-telling must haves - the motivation of the protagonist, what does he/she want, obstacles, conflict, the presence of supporters to help as well as people/circumstances that obstruct, failure before success etc. The turning point is a critical part of the story and occurs twice - once to escalate the conflict and once more to resolve it. Also, the character must show a change in his situation/personality by the end of the movie as the conflict is resolved - he/she must go through a change.

Singh then compared the structure of a story with the every Indian’s favourite analogy - Cricket. (Makes it easier for most to understand, I guess!!)

[TIP: A website that Singh recommended very highly - www.creativescreenwriting.com]

Exercise:

1. Treatment: Write a treatment note for a movie that you have recently seen
2. Synopsis: Convert the treatment into a synopsis
3. Outlines: Convert the Screenplay into an Outline
4. Interactive: Choose a popular movie and discuss with others to create the Synopsis

So, what is the difference between Treatment and Synopsis and Outline? I’ll tell you in brief:
The Treatment is the blue-print for the screenplay and is never published. The Outline is a step by step description of the scene in point form. The Synopsis is a brief, abridged version of the entire plot.

Want more details? Tch. Tch. Not so easy. If you really want to know, next time, make sure you don’t miss such a vital class. Or do some homework - look up the words on the internet.

Parting words of advice from Singh:

“Write. Refine. Write. Refine. Write. Refine.”

Vaibhav’s session was about the Quadruped walk, Anticipation and Follow-throughs. In his trademark style, he explained all of these using visual aids - drawings, video clips and scenes from films.

“The Quadruped Walk”

When a biped walks, the head bounces up and down because when one leg is at maximum distance from the other, his height reduces. When a quadruped walks, it is more like 2 bipeds walking - rather than the heads bouncing, it is the body that forms the wave pattern, rising and falling with each step. Then again, it depends on the size and shape of the animal. In a camel, there is almost no bounce.

Vaibhav then showed images of various animals (camel, dog, horse, elephant, lion, gorilla, hippo etc.) and their skeletons to give a clearer idea of the bone structure and how it impacts the walk. He also showed a clip that he had created of a human sketch morphing into that of a dog. It highlighted the difference in the bones/joints and the stance of both.

As examples, he showed 2 clips from ‘The Jungle Book’ - one of Sher Khan and another of a Mother and a Baby Elephant.

[TIP: If you want to study the walk cycle of various animals, you will find them all in one place in 'The Jungle Book'. Study each of them in motion, then play the scenes frame by frame to understand how the Disney animators have captured each individual animal's physical characteristics as well as attitude and personality in its walk.]

“Anticipation & Follow-throughs”

Vaibhav showed video clips that he had recorded to demonstrate anticipation and follow-throughs:-

1. Badal (Vaibhav’s assistant) throwing a ball in different ways - when there was less anticipation, the force of letting go was less and the follow through was also minimal. When the anticipation was greater, he threw with greater force and that carried forward into the follow through as well.

2. Badal again, sitting down in the garden and then getting up. It is almost impossible to get up without anticipation. Even if you manage to do so, it will look robotic and artificial.

3. A crow picking up another dead bird and then flying off - just before take off, the crow lowers its wings and pushes the ground with its feet in anticipation.

4. A crow taking off from a ledge - it first stretches its legs and pushes its body backwards and downwards to propel itself into the air. It then lands by outstretching its feet in front of its body. Once it lands, you see the body go downwards as follow through.

5. A hen walks around, its head and neck bobbing forward and backwards to balance its weight and also to propel its body forward. The head and neck are used almost in an effort to compensate the lack of fore limbs that help other creatures walk and move about. A pigeon does the same thing when it walks.

6. Animated examples: The big fat toad from UP, scenes from Mulan and Wallace & Grommit, all exquisite examples of anticipation, movement and follow throughs.

7. A few more examples from live scenes captured on video - people seated in a bus that stops and starts in traffic, and a boy carrying a packet full of stuff while walking (the bag moves independently of his walk - a phenomenon known as Overlapping).

Answering an audience question, Vaibhav explained that a ‘Follow-through’ is the finishing of an action while ‘Overlap’ is a simultaneous but distinct (and differently timed) movement.

He concluded the session by screening 2 animated films.

1. The first ever Mickey Mouse film - ‘Steamboat Willie’, which also happens to be the first animated film with sound. The animation style used throughout the film is an excellent example of what is known as ‘Hosepipe Animation’ deriving its name from the cylindrical, flexible design of the limbs of the characters and also of many objects that are moving. The film was created by one of the animation greats - Ub Iwerks.

2. The last part of Fantasia 2000 - a visual masterpiece set to beautiful western classical music - a story of life, death and renewal - the circle of life itself, which is a recurring theme in Disney films.

Time was up, it was getting late but none of the participants seemed to be in a hurry to leave. They surrounded the RSK trio, asking questions, getting their doubts resolved and trying to make the most of the opportunity. It was heartening to see that the thirst for knowledge is still there and that gives me hope for the future of Indian animation.

Other Reports:

Module 1: click here

Module 2: click here

image courtesy: Dhimant Vyas & Aardman Studios

Dhimant Vyas aka Kaka is a much-loved veteran of animation and his sessions always guarantee a full house. So on Sunday, the 2nd of May, when the Pelicula Auditorium at Whistling Woods International, Mumbai was temporarily transformed into Kaka’s Clayground for an afternoon of fun, films and learning, the 300 strong audience got much more than they bargained for.

In a span of 5 hours, Dhimant took everyone on a tour of Aardman Studios, Bristol, Bath and Stone Henge, with Shaun the Sheep, Purple, Brown, Wallace and Gromit for company. The audience not only got a peek behind the scenes of many Aardman films but also into the rich culture of Bristol, with its assorted festivals - of kites, balloons, boats and much more! And of course, they learned about ‘clay animation’, ’stop motion’ and ‘go motion’.

TASI’s Joint Secretary Vaibhav Kumaresh, an accomplished animator himself, began the session by introducing Dhimant to the audience for the benefit of those who don’t know him (Although I doubt that there was any such person in the crowd). He promised the audience a ‘hot’ session, hinting at the popularity of the event and simultaneously lamenting the fact that the venue had a scheduled power cut. Luckily for the audience, eventually it was only the the session that was hot.

image courtesy: The Animation Society of India (TASI)

Having previously worked with the Aardman Studio team on ‘Creature Comforts’, Dhimant had been specially invited to work on the new episodes of Shaun the Sheep (currently being aired on Nickelodeon in India), which is how he found himself spending close to a year in Bristol, UK, at the Aardman Studio, working right from pre-production stage to animation.

Dhimant began by screening a few short clips, requesting the audience to refrain from taking any photos or videos as it was all copyrighted material. The agenda was to share his experience of working on two clay-animation TV series at Aardman Studios - ‘Shaun the Sheep’ and ‘Purple and Brown’.

image courtesy: Dhimant Vyas & Aardman Studios

After screening an episode of Shaun the Sheep, rather than just talk about how the films were made, Kaka chose to elucidate through photographs. This part was highly interactive with Kaka explaining in great detail the process of animating for Shaun the Sheep, the audience throwing a constant barrage of questions his way and Dhimant answering each one patiently.

He explained a new technique that he learned and used for the first time - Go Motion. It is similar to Stop-motion, where the objects are moved and captured frame by frame, but in the case of Go-motion, while the frame is being exposed, the background or certain elements on the set are moved, thus creating an illusion of rapid movement. E.g. The road and the bushes in certain scenes were animated using the Go-motion technique while the characters in the foreground were simultaneously being animated in Stop-motion. While the go-motion was being done on ‘ones’, the stop-motion was being done on ‘twos’.

The set for Shaun the Sheep was divided into 16 parts, besides which some sets were created and dismantled as and when required. Dhimant remembered one particular set where the glass window in one of the model-buildings was reflecting his face in many frames. They had to modify the problem part and Dhimant had to crouch each time they exposed a frame. The sets were large and sturdy, with metal reinforcement underneath facilitating the animators to actually walk over the models, some of which were expansive.

image courtesy: Dhimant Vyas & Aardman Studios

‘Shaun the Sheep’ had 3 directors, and multiple animators, each one assigned with assistants to help him or her. There are production coordinators, art directors, model-makers, set-designers, riggers, cinematographers, runners and a whole big team handling various responsibilities.

Dhimant showed visuals to explain the construction of the various character models, the mechanical rigs to show flying/jumping movements, props which were only partially constructed (on the camera-facing side only) to enable the animator to move parts freely from the other side. Few scenes were shot against blue or green screens or on glass surfaces. Most character models were created partly with clay and partly with stiffer silicone. The miniature props (everything from furniture to vegetables to houses and trees) were constructed from clay, wax, fiber glass, wood etc. The mouths of most characters were created using replacement parts to facilitate lip-syncing to dialogue. For this particular shoot, more silicone rubber was used than plasticine because it is more durable. The props are all made in-house at Aardman’s moulding facility and not outsourced because of copyright issues. The backdrops were either stretched canvas or cut-outs and matt paintings.

image courtesy: Dhimant Vyas & Aardman Studios

While watching the final film, we tend to forget the effort that goes into making stop-motion films. The maximum animation that can be achieved in a single day is 6-8 seconds but because of the complex nature of the shots, on many days only 2-3 seconds could be completed. All the hard work resulted in back problems for Dhimant and in some photos, one could see him animating while wearing a back support belt around his waist. Reshooting was a luxury they couldn’t afford because there was no time for it, so the animators had to constantly keep checking each shot.

Sometimes there are unexpected problems - like when the prop-makers created the wheels for the car without taking into consideration the fact that the wheels had to move in the scene and the result was that the motion wasn’t smooth and the wheels had to be remade.

The session was peppered with constant questions from the audience.

Q. “How do you control the light so as to avoid flicker?”
A. - “The lighting in the room you shoot in must be completely under your control. Block all natural light by covering the windows with black paper/cloth. Use a stabiliser/UPS to prevent lights from flickering. Ideally shoot at night when there are lesser chances of people switching lights on and off repeatedly.”

Q. ” Does Aardman Studios use proprietary software to capture the frames?”
A. - ” The software - Stopmotion Pro is used at Aardman, as it has a lot of useful features including onion-skinning, rig-remover, live-action syncing etc. They do interact closely with the folks who create the software.”

Next came “Purple and Brown”, and the film clips that Dhimant screened left the audience wondering how the animators had achieved such impressive squash and stretch in a medium like clay-animation. Dhimant revealed some of the tricks using photographs of the models and the animation process. Although replacement models were used most of the time, the animators still had to keep moulding and reshaping the models. There was no armature inside the models - they were completely made of plasticine. In one scene the characters wore little glass helmets and again they were faced with the problem of reflections. The glass and the plasticine kept collecting dust and finger prints so they had to constantly keep cleaning the surfaces. The mouth and lips of the characters were made on the fly so lots of spare parts were required. The model-makers are always at hand to fix any broken or deformed models.

Kaka then showed complete storyboards that were created for 2 episodes of Shaun the Sheep. The painstaking detail in each of them was astounding and bears testimony to the amount of effort goes into the making of each episode. Time flew as the audience got to see several episodes of Shaun the Sheep.

image courtesy: Dhimant Vyas & Aardman Studios

The audience was begging for more and Dhimant happily obliged by screening the Oscar-nominated “A Matter of Loaf and Death”. He also showed a few segments from the American edition of “Creature Comforts” - which he too had worked on during his first stint at Aardman Studio.

Dhimant showed photos of the armatures of the characters from “Creature Comforts” to give everyone an idea of the construction and the materials used. He also shared the slug-sheets used to mark the breakdown of dialogue and lip movements.

Some more Q&A followed.

Q. “How do you show liquids?”
A. “A variety of materials is used to show liquids - for instance the coffee in “A Matter of Loaf and Death” was made using clay mixed with jelly. Other materials include - KY Jelly, Petroleum Jelly (vaseline), White transparent plastic and Glue-gun drops.”

Q. “How does one learn timing for animation?”
A. ” Observation. And practice. Lots of it. Watch any good actor or actress from a live-action film by pausing and viewing them frame-by-frame. You will notice subtle movements and actions that you would otherwise miss. Make a mental note and use it when you animate.”

Responding to another audience question about the importance of the story in Aardman’s productions - Dhimant shared that at Aardman Studios, everyone is invited to contribute stories. Everyone from Nick Park to the peon can submit a story. A team then brainstorms on the selected story and further tweaks are made during the story-boarding process. The final word, though, belongs to the client - the company that has commissioned the film/series.

On Vaibhav’s request, Dhimant then showed a hand-drawn animation film “Raag Malhar”, which he had made few years ago - it was a brilliant example of timing in animation. He also stressed that as an animator, you never stop learning - he was learning something every day on the sets at Aardman.

The session ended on an inspiring note. Dhimant shared beautiful photographs from his stay in UK - Bristol, Bath, Scotland and even the glorious Stone Henge. Bristol is a city known for its festivals and the audience was given a glimpse into the Kite festival, Balloon festival, Harbour festival as well as an air show. Dhimant also showed pictures of the city of Bristol as seen from a helicopter, the Bristol Zoo and the brilliant wall graffiti across Bristol.

By doing so, Kaka revealed a little secret - the secret of his creativity. A keen interest in everything around, in arts, in people, in places. Travelling, observing and capturing in photographs and in his memory, every visual that he sees and storing it in his sponge-like mind, to be used sometime in the future, expressed through his art and in his animation. I do hope that these little pearls of wisdom were collected by those who were lucky enough to have the opportunity to play on Kaka’s Clayground. I sure did.

The TASI Team and volunteers - image courtesy: The Animation Society of India (TASI)

2008 was a year of a lot of frenetic activity on the industry front.

AnimationXpress.com held a series of AITF (Animation Industry Technology Forum) and IAI (Industry Academia Interface) sessions, announced a print magazine, a quiz competition and new awards of excellence and also ventured into something never done before - Animation tourism. Its my sincere hope that it does not lose its original vision in this juggernaut of diversification.

CGTantra.com took its LIG (Learn, Inspire, Grow) seminars to several cities across the country. It held the first ever (and I must say, mighty successful) CGT Expo in Mumbai, launched many new features on their website and finally ended the year with a bang by celebrating its 4th anniversary by confering “CGT Community Honours” on people from various sections of the Indian animation industry and community.

TASI - The Animation Society of India - organised valuable seminars and workshops all year around - ranging from Animation for those who cannot Draw, Music for Animation, The Making of taare Zameen Par, Preproduction, Acting for Animation and the gem of the year - A Masterclass with the Master - Ram Mohan Sir himself! And how can I not mention TASI’s Anifest India 2008 - the 3 day festival at IIT, Mumbai, that saw a phenomenal turnout of close to 3000 people who attended over 15 workshops and sessions. The icing on TASI’s cake was a neat write-up that appeared in Times Of India in August about the sincere efforts of TASI members to give something back to the Indian animation community. (Don’t take my word for it, I am a committee member of TASI this year too after all. Just ask any one who has attended the TASI sessions and I am sure they will vouch for us)

ASIFA India celebrated the International Animation Day with great gusto across 13 cities in India this year. I attended the one in Mumbai and for me the 2 highlights of the day were the opportunity to interact with Gitanjali Rao and watch clips from her latest film ‘Girgit’ and the screening of the Pixar Documentary which I had been dying to see. (It is now available for everyone to watch - on the Wall-E DVD - and I recommend all aspiring animators to watch it)

The proof of the potential of India’s animation industry lies in the fact that the Annecy Festival chose India as the country of focus. The ever-popular animation festival held every year in the beautiful town of Annecy in France put India, its animators and their animation in the spotlight. This was the year when one could not afford to miss out on the festival if one had anything to do with Indian animation. Unfortunately, I was unable to go.

Of course a lot else happened in the ‘industry’ - mergers, acquisitions, partnerships, splits, break-aways, law-suits, launches and shutdowns, but I will not discuss those here.

Then there was the formation of NAGFO and BAGS. What’s that you ask? NAGFO aka NASSCOM Animation and Gaming Forum is NASSCOM’s endeavour to brign together India’s animation as well as gaming institutes and studios under one umbrella to further their cause, improve standards and benefit everyone within the industry. BAGS is the Board of Animation and Gaming Standards that is emerging from NAGFO that will set guidelines amongst other things for the betterment of the industry.

Industry events that happened this year included FICCI Frames 2008 which was held in Mumbai (which I attended) and NASSCOM Animation and Gaming India 2008, Hyderabad (which I was unable to attend thanks under unfortunate circumstances).

And then there were the films. The Good, the Bad and the downright UGLY!! Enough has been said already about the UGLY aka Icy n Spicy (refer this blog) and I won’t waste anymore webspace writing about it. Gladly noone seems to remember the movie anyway!! Dashavatar and Cheenti Cheenti Bang Bang did not do very well at the box office for different reasons. The effort was sincere but did not show through and both did nothing for the Indian animation industry. Everybody waited with bated breath for Roadside Romeo the first Big Banner Bollywood film - helmed by Jugal Hansraj and produced by Yash Raj Films. The creators did push the envelope quite a bit and I have to credit the animators for doing a good job. The tragedy was that this film too failed to excite Indian audiences enough. Partly the fault of the producers who hardly promoted the film and partly the inexperience of the director who is not an animator to begin with. The hype was limited to within the industry and ultimately, neither the voices of Saif and Kareena nor the sincere efforts of the animation team got their due. The film found its audience neither in kids nor in adults. It was wrong to expect Disney/Pixar quality - we pinned our hopes too high. A toddler must first learn to crawl, then walk, then run. Yet, I reaffirm that Roadside Romeo was a giant leap for Indian animation in more ways than one. (I won’t bring up Jumbo because it is not an Indian animated film to begin with and the  only Indian connection, the voice-overs, sounded so awful in the trailers itself that I shall give it a miss!)

Whew! That wraps up this lengthy post. I know I might have missed out a couple of things, if so, you are most welcome to add them in the comments below. I will sign off by wishing all of you a very happy, peaceful, successful, fun-filled and ANIMATED 2009!!!

You can visit the Classic Animation website here.

The trio comprising of Rohit, Avinash and Akhila review a different movie every few weeks and their podcasts can be downloaded from their blog twoandahalfiyers.blogspot.com. This is their very first review of an animated film and though their podcasts can get quite lengthy, I highly recommend them.

Their reviews are witty, tongue-in-cheek and well-rounded, covering every aspect- right from the story, the cast (for live-action films) to the direction and the film-making itself.

A preview…

“This week, the Two and a Half Iyers investigate the curious incident of the dogs in the night-time. Jugal Hansraj’s directorial debut is India’s first big-budget-anthrophmorphic-talking-animal-bollywood-extravaganza, Roadside Romeo.”

Download the podcast here.

It is encouraging to see our young artists observe, analyze, express and discuss their views and use the internet to share them with the world. I wish them all the best!

Thanks Akhila, Avinash and Rohit for sharing the podcast with AAA and for mentioning AAA on your blog.

The planning was perfect, arrangements flawless and the least possible glitches ensured that everyone had a lot of fun and went back having gained something. Newbies, students, job-seekers, curious spectators, anxious parents of would-be animation students, were all milling around together in the two main halls and two smaller ones.

The event began on the right note by starting on time, which is a rarity these days. (God forbid you reach an event before time, you will be left cooling your heels for 2 hours before there is any sign of life! Thankfully, here it was not the case.)

RK Chand from CGTantra and Jigar Parekh from Nine - Making it Possible performed a small ‘pooja’ to begin with.

The show was inaugurated by volunteers, two girls who had come all the way from Jharkhand to be part of the expo. It was a genuinely nice gesture on the part of the organizers to show their appreciation towards the community that has actually contributed towards the success CGTantra.

The crowd began arriving early on Saturday morning. In the foreground is Laura Dohrmann from NVIDIA. Also seen in the middle of the crowd is Nigel Sumner, scene supervisor for ILM who has worked on films like Transformers, Terminator 3, Space Cowboys, Jurassic Park III, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, Van Helsing, The Hulk, The Perfect Storm, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, War of the Worlds, Poseidon and Eragon.

The 2 day event organised by CGTantra with the help of Nine, went off smoothly right from the word GO. Apart from volunteers from Mumbai, there were students from all over India who had come just for the event, not only to participate but to help and to volunteer.

The opening speeches!

Student competitions in progress throughout the 2 days of the event.

Bang in the center of the hall was the Frameboxx pavilion which was also probably the liveliest and noisiest stall in the entire expo! Their yellow and black branding was everywhere as the team gave demos to curious visitors and prospective Frameboxx students alike. Large banners announced forthcoming projects including a Character Design contest that begins on the 28th of May.

Also present were Hardware vendors like NVIDIA, Apple distributors and resellers like Unicorn and Ample, Institutes from across India, Studios like Paprikaas, BIG Animation and Lucas Film Singapore who had come looking to hire new talent, Animation-related media companies like Animation Xpress, Animation Reporter, Animation Today and of course yours truly representing AAA, Zapak Games play-zone for gaming enthusiasts, Master Classes, student competitions, everything under one roof. TASI - The Animation Society of India also made its presence felt at the expo, announcing this year’s edition of the 3 day animation fest - Anifest India 2008! It was a place to learn, earn, network, have fun, share, make noise and lose your voice with all the talking!

Some more fun stuff!

Education Pavilion

Studios looking to hire fresh as well as experienced talent.

A huge Gaming Plaza by Zapak - every gamers dream…

Keep playing!

Kreeda Games’ Dance Mela and M M Mukhi & Sons’ Book and CD/DVD stall.

…and that’s Yours Truly at the AllAboutAnimation stall. A BIG THANK YOU to all the visitors and the readers who came specially and told me how much they like the website/blog. Feels great to know that one’s hard work is appreciated.

I sincerely hope that CGTantra keeps organizing more such fests in other cities as well. Kudos to their team!

At the ceremony on Thursday night, when AnimationXpress co-founder Anand Gurnani was asked,”How important is it to write about animation?” he said that a few years ago, many creative people would have loved to pursue a career in animation but due to parental pressure settled for more secure ‘jobs’ in companies and banks. Luckily, today times have changed. The Indian animation industry has seen an astounding growth and there are several lucrative career options in the field of animation, VFX and gaming. If we talk about it and spread the word, parents will be more open to allowing their kids to follow their dreams and become the future of Indian animation.

So here we are, writing about animation and sharing with our readers the events of the first ever Golden Cursor Awards for Excellence in Animation.  Get all the details right here on the All About Animation Blog.

The Golden Cursor Awards for Animation were presented by Tech2 and Arena Animation in association with Aptech and CNBC-TV 18 and powered by AnimationXpress.com. Mr. Tim Mostert, the creator of the Speedy comic strip in South Africa and Mr. Sunil Thankamushy, Animation Director and Co-Founder of Spark Unlimited.

Although there are many big and small animation awards that honour Indian animators - ASIFA India’s Awards of Excellence, FICCI BAF and 24FPS to name a few, the GCA stands out because it is backed by a big media house. Hopefully, that should put Indian Animation in the spotlight for the public at large as well, besides of course encouraging Indian animation talent.

Audience settling down

The venue was the grand ballroom of the ITC Grand Sheraton in Parel. Scheduled to begin at 6:30, the show finally began at 7:45, kicking off with a ‘rocking’ performance by Kolkata based rock group, Hip Pocket. It immediately put the by now restless audience right back into the mood. Perhaps the organisers wanted to send a signal out to the world - Indian Animation is on its way to rock the globe!

Hip Pocket from Kolkata

The music was followed by some Sponsors’ videos and an introduction of the jury panel and selection process.

Mr. R Krishnan, Global Head, Arena Animation spoke briefly about the industry trends and his company’s contribution to it. He cited low cost as reason for the competitive edge that we have over the rest of the world. In his words, creating animation in India costs just one-fifth of what it would if one were to attempt it in USA or any place else. Personally, I think it is very sad that cheap labour is what is propelling Indian animation ahead rather than good quality creative work. He also mentioned that close to 25 feature length Indian animation films are scheduled for release this year. It remains to be seen how many actually make it to the box office and of those, how many actually are creatively and commercially successful.

Chief Guest Tim Mostert introduced his creation - the character Speedy and then spoke of how India is known for its Food, Cricket and now, Animation. He likened India to a sleeping giant that needs only to be woken up from its complacent slumber. We seem to be waiting for a magic feather, he said, to convince us that we can fly. With our original characters, brilliant palette of colours and personalities, we can create our own unique identity. “Don’t emulate, show the world how powerful you are.” He described the Indian character that he has created - Muli. Tim also spoke about the animation greats like Tex Avery who originally inspired all other artists saying if they were alive today, they would look to India for inspiration. High praise indeed!

Without much ado, hosts Gautam Srinivasan and Urvashi Yadav, both known to us as anchors on CNBC, then got on with the awards. Host Suresh mingled with the audience, talking to some of the eminent personalities, asking them relevant questions. He first got Govind Nihalani to speak a few words about his first animated film which will tentatively release next year.

Mr. C, the animated mascot for the Golden Cursor Awards, introduced the nominees before each award. Tim Mostert handed out the awards, accompanied by various eminent personalities from the Indian Animation Industry. My only grouse was that not a single nominated animation was screened for the audience making it difficult to visualise the creative genius that was being honoured. They could have shown at least a few seconds of each film. Perhaps they skipped it because of lack of time.

The first two awards, given by Tim and Virgin Comics Ceo, Mr. Suresh Setharaman, were Best New Animation Style which went to Levis Slim Fit by Famous Studios and Best Animated Public Service Announcement and won by Vaibhav Studios for Buladi.

The Animagic Team - Sumant Rao, Gayatri Rao & Chetan Sharma

The next two awards were - Best 2D Animation won by Animagic India for Maa-Aa and Best 3D Animation won by Big Animation for Hey Krishna. These were given by Anand Gurnani and Tim.

Host Suresh then caught up with his namesake Suresh Seetharaman, CEO of Virgin Comics, asking him if comics were dead! But Mr. Seetharaman said it couldn’t be farther from the truth. In fact he said Indians don’t speak, they tell stories! A very interesting insight.

The award for Best Animated TVC was shared by Famous Studios for Levis Slim Fit and Vaibhav Studios for the Amaron Batteries advertisement. Vaibhav thanked his entire team - the animators at Rhythm and Hues, Music Director Tapas Relia and Chetan Sashital for the voice over. The Best Live Action and Animation Combo Award went to Prime Focus for Fevicol. Crest Animation’s Mr A K Madhavan gave away these awards along with Tim.

Taare Zameen Par’s 2D animated sequence

Best Animated Sequence in a film went to Vaibhav Studios again for the 3 x 9 scene in Taare Zameen Par. Vaibhav sais that this was the first time they had animated for a feature film. Best Animated Title Sequence in a film/tv series was won by Dhimant Vyas for Taare Zameen Par again. He dedicated the award to his late father who he lost just few days ago.

Dhimant poses with his team and family

Dhimant’s Winning Animation

Mr Pramod Khera of Aptech was then asked by Suresh about the current scenario in the country. We Indians seem to be taking over cars, banks and the like but the talent crunch can ruin this streak. When they set up Aptech 12 years ago, they had a tough time convincing people about multimedia careers but now things have changed.

Surprisingly, a young lady from the audience when asked by Suresh to name her all-time favourite animated character, said she doesn’t watch much television. If Indian animation can convert her to an animation fan, then that would be something!

A Jubilant Tapas Relia with his wife

Next came the awards for the Best Lyrics and Best Background Score for an Animation Film. Swanand Kirkire won for the lyrics he wrote for Animagic India’s Maa-Aa and he dedicated the award to Chetan Sharma of Animagic. Tapas Relia won for composing music for Percept’s Return of Hanuman, and cheekily said that after hearing that the Indian Animation Industry is poised to touch the One Billion Dollars mark, he has decided that he wants to stick to making music for animation rather than Bollywood films! Both received their awards from Ashish Kulkarni of BIG Animation who was also on the jury.

Suresh then introduced the grand old man of Indian animation, Bhimsain Khurana, to the audience. Almost everyone in the audience has grown up watching the ‘Ek Titli, Anek Titliyan’ short film on Doordarshan. Evoking nostalgia, Bhimsain declined credit for this film’s popularity. When he created it, he had no such intention and it was a complete surprise that it touched a chord with so many people. He is very impressed with today’s animation. He finds it fascinating. His legacy is being carried forward by his son, Kireet Khurana(Creative Director and CEO of 2nZ Animation Co.) and daughter, Tehzeeb Khurana (Creative Director and Producer at 2nZ Animation Co.), who runs a Toons Club for kids which, she says, is inspired by her 10 year old son.

Up next was Best Animation Music won by Illayaraja for the first ever Tamil animated film - V4. Director of the film Sridevi Rao accepted it on his behalf.

The Voice of Indian Animation - Chetan Sashital

The man behind the voice of Genie in the Hindi version of Disney’s Alladin, Chetan Sashital, walked away with the Best Animation Voice award. Labelled as the most expensive voice in India, he thanked everybody in the voice of Goofy and Mickey Mouse! He also sang Ek Titli, Anek Titliyan - the song that inspired him to enter this field. He also reminded everyone of the other animated film - Tree of Life which had no dialogues, only sounds but conveyed the message beautifully, all the same. In his own voice, he boomed, “And God said, Let there be light! But first, God has to ‘SAY’ it, which proves that the voice always comes first in Animation too.” He profusely thanked all the directors and producers who gave him the opportunity to become the ‘most expensive voice’ but also voiced his worry that voice-casting isn’t done in the proper manner in India. Producers and Directors, hope you are taking note of this!

NASSCOM’s Rajiv Vaishnav was questioned by Suresh - After BPO, KPO and even DPO (Data Process Outsourcing), is there a likelihood of an APO (Animation Process Outsourcing) in the near future? Rajiv acknowledged that the opportunity is there.

The Best Animation Sound Effects and Best Visual Effects in Animation, both went to Big Animation for the film Hey Krishna.

We caught a glimpse of the emerging trend right there in the audience when Suresh asked little Kayva, who happens to be animator Dhimant Vyas’ daughter, what her favourite Animated character was, said Shrek.”Isn’t it a bit violent”, commented Suresh to which Kavya nodded. “Do you like violent films?” She nodded again! Hmmm… Kids are tough these days!

We also got to hear an anecdote from the Father of Indian Animation - Mr. Ram Mohan. When he decided to join an animation job, his mother had asked him, “Is it a government job?” Luckily for him and for the rest of us, it wasn’t and despite all the ups and downs, Ram Mohan, in his own words, ’survived’. He was certainly being modest.

The Best Animated Channel ID / Promo was awarded to Symphonic, again by Vaibhav Studio. Vaibhav credited Rajiv Eipe for brilliant film. Rajiv had designed as well as directed the film. Vaibhav also thanked Roto for the great sound effects.

Online Story-telling Contest Winner - Christopher Paul Mendonca

There was also an online storytelling contest held where one had to tell his/her story within 4 frames.This award went to Christopher Paul Mendonca who was overjoyed.

The Best Animated Character was the Channel V Bai.

IDC Student Ajay Singh Supahiya flanked by his friends and Sumant Rao

Best Animated Short Film by a student went to IDC, IIT student Ajay Singh Supahiya for his Arjun Mahabharat. It was a proud moment for all the students of IDC as otherwise, most of these awards are picked up by NID students. Being from the first batch of Animation students, he felt proud and thanked his professors - Shilpa Ranade and Sumant Rao.

Best Animated Short Film by a professional was Gitanjali Rao’s Printed Rainbow. This film has already garnered a lot of international awards. Unfortunately, Gitanjali couldn’t be there for the ceremony.

Before the Best Animated Feature Film award could be announced, Suresh asked many in the audience to guess who might have won it. Ashish Kulkarni diplomatically said, “Animation is the true winner!” On a more honest note, he said that the judging was done in such a manner that the jurors only gave points and had no ideas as to what they added up to. Percept Picture Company’s Return of Hanuman bagged the honour. Collecting the award from Govind Nihalani, Shailendra Singh, CEO, Percept, said they got lucky! Though many had been striving to take Indian Animation places, they had reaped the fruits. “Animation is a team effort. We Indian animators must work together and show the world what we are made of. Jai Bajrang Bali!” Do we hear the Gods say “Tathastu”?

V G Samant making an emotional speech

The last and most prestigious honour of the night was the induction of Mr. V. G. Samant into the Hall of Fame. The man behind the 2 Hanuman films who began his career in animation in 1978 had a lump in his throat as he accepted his award from Ram Mohan. The audience gave him a long, standing ovation.

Sunil Thankamushy made an impromptu but short and inspirational speech

The celebration ended on a promising note with Spark Unlimited’s Sunil Thankamushy narrating a small story from his NID days and making a wish that the 3rd Golden Age of Animation would occur in India. Amen to that!

All the award winners and jury members then got on stage for photographs. The first Golden Cursor Awards ended with a bang, quite literally as a balloon was burst overhead, showering everyone with festoons and confetti.

Everybody on stage!!

Dinner and Cocktails were served as everybody mingled, winners celebrated, reporters scrambled to interview and take photographs.

Before I could grab a picture of the Star Winner of the evening, Vaibhav Kumaresh with 4 awards, he had disappeared somewhere, perhaps to celebrate the well-deserved victory. But later, over the phone, he did promise an interview. For that and more… stay tuned!

Dhimant poses with his team and family

A few words of advice to the organizers - Next time, please screen snippets from the nominated films or else how is the audience to know why a particular film is winning the award? Secondly, please begin on time (though not many seemed to mind as the cocktails flowed freely before and after the show). And last but not the least, when you have such a big event, be prepared for an overwhelming response and for a 200% turnout of people and plan accordingly.