All Entries Tagged With: "International"
Must Read! Innovation Lessons from Pixar’s Brad Bird
A very interesting and insightful article - if you are in anyway connected with the world of animation, this is a must read. In fact, this interview with Brad Bird from the McKinsey Quarterly has become so popular that it is being written about in other blogs and the pdf version (created by some faithful reader) is being circulated around as well.
Since one needs to be a registered user of The McKinsey Quarterly to be able to read the complete article, here is the link to a very nice review and concise version of it from Gigaom.com by Carleen Hawn. It begins like this:
This week The McKinsey Quaterly asks: what does stimulating the creativity of animators have in common with developing new product ideas or technology breakthroughs? Apparently, a lot.
In Innovation lessons from Pixar, McKinsey writes:
Brad Bird makes his living fostering creativity. Academy Award-winning director (The Incredibles and Ratatouille) talks about the importance, in his work, of pushing teams beyond their comfort zones, encouraging dissent, and building morale. He also explained the value of “black sheep”—restless contributors with unconventional ideas.
Read the complete aticle from Gigaom.com here.
If you would like to read the original article that came out in The McKinsey Quarterly, go here.
A quick look at what the original article says:
- Pixar’s Brad Bird makes his living fostering creativity. In an interview, this director of two Academy Award–winning animated films (The Incredibles and Ratatouille) describes how he pushes teams of animators beyond their comfort zones, encourages dissent, and builds morale.
- Bird’s experiences and anecdotes hold powerful lessons for executives in any organization seeking to nurture innovation.
The article also contains an interactive feature including audio clips from the interview, stills from several of Bird’s projects, and a brief biography.
Animated Shorts For Animal Planet by Aardman
Must see : Brilliant clay animation series by Aardman for Animal Planet.
Watch: AnimationMentor.com’s Shawn Kelly’s Webinar
Available only till 29th April, this is a must watch video- learn the tips and tricks of animation from Shawn Kelly of AnimationMentor.com If you liked the free downloadable e-book I had written about in one of my earlier posts, this is something you shouldn’t miss!
Bringing Robots To Life… the ILM way!
I just received an email from Lucasfilm Animation Singapore, which has a center in Hyderabad in India, about a session with ILM Artist - Nigel Sumner, that they are organizing. Though the only details they have provided are the date (11th May), time (2 pm to 5:30 pm) and speaker (Nigel Sumner), once we have more info, it will be uploaded here on the website.
You can register online by going to: lasjedi.com/events Though entry is free, there is limited seating so if you want to attend, you better hurry up!
Nigel Sumner has worked on numerous Hollywood films as Sequence Supervisor and from the poster, I am assuming that he will be talking about his work on the Hollywood VFX-rich film, - Transformers.
To know more about Nigel Sumner, you can read this interview from ILMfan.com (It’s an old interview but it should help you get some idea about the speaker and his past work): Read the interview.
FICCI FRAMES 2008: Something Old, Something New!
The 3-day long FRAMES 2008 ended today with Rishi Kapoor and Sridevi being awarded the FICCI Living Legend in Entertainment Awards 2008. The last 3 days were hectic as delegates rushed from one auditorium to the other for the sessions that closely followed each other. With speakers getting excited and passionate about the subjects and audience throwing a lot of questions at them, most sessions extended well beyond the extended time, but no one seemed to be complaining!
Free popcorn, coffee and coke overflowing (quite literally!) and newbies as well as the veterans exchanged pleasantries and business cards with each other in the lounge area. Each night there was a special programme - a Fashion Show on the 1st night, FICCI BAF Awards 2008 on the 2nd night and the Living Legends Awards 2008 on the concluding night.
My primary interest being in Animation, I skipped the other irrelevant (to me at least!) sessions on Radio, Sports, Television and Outdoor Media, and focussed on the sessions that covered animation and VXF.
Personally, the highlight of the event for me was a delightful chat I had with Jean Thoren, the Founder and CEO of the international monthly magazine on animation called, simply, Animation Magazine . I will share with our readers some of the gems I gleaned from her. Watch this space!
Discovery of the week: AnimationMentor.com’s Free e-book - “Animation Tips & Tricks”
From this week onwards, I will be blogging about one new “Discovery of the Week” that I want to share with all AAA readers.
This week’s special-
The Online Animation School - AnimationMentor.com is giving away a free e-book called “Animation Tips & Tricks” by Shawn Kelly. All you need to do is sign up. The book is the first collection of all the tips and tricks that appear in the Animation Mentor monthly newsletter. Judging by their high standard of teaching and the calibre of the ‘mentors’, the book should be informative and extremely useful for all animation students.
Written in a witty, tongue-in-cheek manner, the book covers a wide range of topics including ’spotlighting expressions’, ‘contrast in pose and timing’ and ‘transitioning your style’. Learn what ‘randomblinkitis’ is. ‘Rise above the snobbery’, ‘impress the recruiters’ and ‘recharge your animation batteries’. If all this has piqued your curiosity, head over to their download page and sign up.
Shawn Kelly is one of the co-founders of AnimationMentor.com. He is also the winner of the 2008 VES award for The Best Single Visual Effect of the Year for his work on Tranformers and he continues to work full-time at Industrial Light & Magic as an animator.
Annecy ‘08 : Focus on India
ASIFA India in association with TASI, CG Tantra, Animation Xpress, All About Animation and NID is proud to collaborate with Annecy to bring forth the Annecy 08 India Focus.
Annecy is an International Animated Film Festival held every year since 1960. It has been showcasing the very best in animation for over 45 years, making it the industry’s leading international competitive festival.
Annecy is a festival where people meet other people and together they share projects, screenings, markets, etc. By putting the focus on one country , the aim is to making the world of animation discover or emphasize on a country where animation is strong, growing, interesting, different or even unknown. Indian animation is surging and it is very crfitical to see what is being produced in India. This years Focus country is India and it will be a great platform to showcase Indian talent in the world space.
A selection of choices films from the Focus country are put together in form of 80 min programs. If possible conferences, exhibitions, meetings and presentations (and even sometimes publishing) are also included.
Submission Categories:
The following are the five main categories available for submission to the competition this year:
1. Student Films
Films made by animation students in further and higher education.
2. Professional Films / Independent Short Films
Films made by professional animators and studios
3. Professional Commercials and Promos
Films made by professional animators and studios, can be Short films, public service messages, Documentaries, etc.
4. Professional Films / Independent Films
Films made by professional animators and studios TV serials, episodic animation, etc.
5. Feature Film Clipping / Sequences
Films made by professional animators and studios
FAQs
Q. What is the Annecy?
A. Annecy is an International Animated Film Festival held every year since 1960. It has been showcasing the very best in animation for over 45 years, making it the industry’s leading international competitive festival.
Q. What is the aim of the Country focus ? India 08
A. Annecy is a festival where people meet other people, and together, they share projects, screenings, markets..etc. In the stream of world animation, the focus aims at making the world of animation discover or emphasize a country where animation is strong, growing, interesting, different, unknown, etc. Indian animation is surging,and it is very crucial and important to see what is being produced in India. This years focus country is India and it will be a great platform to showcase Indian talent in the world space.
Q. How is the country focus program different from the Annecy film competition?
A. The Annecy Film Competition is a contest between films from all over the world which are preselected by independent committees, and awarded by a specific jury.
A focus on a particular country is completely different from this. A selection of choices films from the Focus country are put together in form of 80 min programs. If possible conferences, exhibitions, meetings and presentations (and even sometimes publishing) are also included.
Q. What are the categories of the 80 mins country focus program?
A. The following are the five main categories available for submission:
- Student Short Films
- Professional Short Films
- Professional Commercials and Promos
- Professional TV Series
- Feature film clipping / sequences
Q. How to Submit a Film?
1. Download the Entry Form
2. Add in the information and required data in the form
3. Please Send the completed form along with the DVD and DigiBeta tape of the film to the address mentioned below.
Asifa India,
c/o Rhythm & Hues Studios India Ltd.
Prism Towers, ‘A’ Wing, 3rd Floor,
Mindspace,
Goregaon- Malad Link Road,
Goregaon (W),
Mumbai
India 400062
Ph: +91 22 40034567
Please note it is very important that you complete all the required information to represent your film in the best possible way
Q. When is the last date for sending in entries?
A. 10th March 2008.
If you have any further questions please feel free write to info@asifa.in or feedback@allaboutanimation.com
Mahabharata goes Manga!
After the Ramayana, now it is the turn of the other Indian epic - the Mahabharata to be reborn as Japanese Manga. Hyderabad based Panel Studios is coming out with a 90 minute long feature film called Little Pandavas and they seem to have effectively used the Manga illustrative style for the characters. The film has been directed by Rudra Matsa, the Founder of Panel Studios, who has also written the story for the film. The Animation director is Charan Reddy Desai. Character designs have been created by Rudra Matsa and Charan Reddy Desai and the backgrounds by N. Pawan Chandra. The film is being produced by Nitin Sidamsetty and Rudra Matsa.
You can see the character designs, download wallpapers and view a lot of the pre-production material on the Little Pandavas website.
Panel Studios also launched Panel Comix recently and will be publishing comics based on the Little Pandavas series. Check out the pictures and click them to view a bigger image. Read the complete article here.
