Wednesday, July 08, 2009


This whirlpool television commercial is one of the most challenging projects that we have worked on in recent times. The brief that Prime Focus received from the advertising agency was that Whirlpool water purifier makes water so pure that it brings smile to the face of even an unborn baby.
The biggest challenge for us was to create the womb holding a baby, as the task was to make it as realistic as possible using computer graphics. The agency wanted a good-looking baby that smiles. So like every other project we started off by doing extensive research on the texture, look and feel. But the time provided was very less and so we to save time we created a dummy model and started playing around with various camera moves to fit into an edit on the basis of the storyboard received.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Interview with Samar Vijay - CGTantra Feature Artist

Samar Vijay, a Freelance Character Artist lets his work do the talking for him. He specializes in game models. Some one who just one fine day decided venture into the 3D industry and never looked back, with an eye for detail he worked 18 hours a day to polish his skill as a modeler and now amazes us with his work.

He believes that you cannot survive without knowledge of Anatomy and form. CGTantra caught up with Samar to tell us more about his works and what gives so much substance to his characters

Saturday, June 13, 2009

CGTEXPO 09 Mumbai - A Review


CGTEXPO 09 Mumbai, the largest Expo on Animation, Visual Effects and Gaming started with a bang with the registration desk bombarded with attendees at 09:30am on the first day of the event. Once you are in there was loads in store. With a line up of interesting sessions at the Main Stage, there was the Artist zone, Meet the artist, Master Classes, Education fair, Technology fair, the Art gallery, Job fair etc.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

The Golden Cursor Animation Awards


Golden Cursor awards saw a turnout of over 300 students and professionals. The day saw many big names of the Animation Industry under one roof. The special guests for the evening were Ian Livingstone, Co-founder of Games Workshop and Anthony Christov, Art Director. Golden Cursor Awards 2009 was presented by Cell18 and Arena Animation in association with Aptech and CNBC-TV 18 and powered by AnimationXpress.com


SRIJAN 2009, the country’s only multi-city animation fair, kicked off its Mumbai edition with an inspiring display of 3D Animation and Visual Effects by animation students and major studios. The two-day event, being held at Nehru Center, Worli, was inaugurated by veteran film maker Ketan Mehta. SRIJAN was attended by reputed professionals and prominent personalities from the world of animation, media and Bollywood.

Sunday, May 10, 2009


Treassureboxx’09 got an overwhelming response with a huge audience, majority of them being VFX aspirants. The event started with Mr. Prabhanjan Chappar from Frameboxx giving an insight into the animation industry & how frameboxx forms a part of it. He also spoke about the Incubation Centre started by Frameboxx to give their students an industry experience before they enter the mainstream.

Monday, May 04, 2009

CGTantrik Interview - Harshvardhan Kadam


A Master of Design in Visual Communication,from IDC, IIT Mumbai Harshvardhan Kadam is a free lance concept artist and illustrator. A true artist Harsh has has many acredited works winning at many Art and illustration competitions, With many of his works being displayed at Kala Ghoda Film festival he is also the CGTantra showcase award winner. An Artist with an attitude, he believes esthetics hold him strong. We caught up with him for an Interview.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Sagar Cement Commercial - Vaibhav Studios

Sagar Cement! Solid cement ante solid veelu! (Solid cement means solid home) sang Vaibhav Kumaresh from Vaibhav studios when CGTantra caught up with him to tell us more about his work in the 3D animated commercial done for Sagar Cement. A telgu song was provided which was sculpted into an item number with workers dancing on telgu tunes.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

8x10 Tasveer - VFX by Future Works


8 X 10 Tasveer is a Bollywood film thriller released April 3, 2009, and starring Akshay Kumar and Ayesha Takia. It is directed by Nagesh Kukunour, and produced by Percept Picture Company. The story of the film 8 by 10 Tasvir revolves around a man who has super natural mental power and he can predict the past and future of any person just by gazing at his photograph played by Akshay Kumar.
Part VFX of the film was carried out by Future Works. Heart beat stopping climax of the film is shot under water with Akshay all tied up with chains, though the scene was shot in an artificial facility it had to look like it is the sea. This involved a lot of colour correction and integration of 3D objects like sea weed and other aquatic plants.


Saturday, April 18, 2009

E Suresh talks about the Commercial for Sulekha.com


E Suresh (Suresh Kumar Eriyat) has a portfolio that covers genres ranging from TV commercials, short films, music videos. and most recently long format films. E Suresh , a trained Carnatic musician, adventurer founded India's premier Animation Studio, Famous House of Animation - a division of Famous Studios. His award winning works include The Freedon Song (short film), MTV Poga (MTV Channel Promo), Sulekha.com commercial, Aala re Aala and many more.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Stings and Smiles - First Hat-Trick workshop for 2009 by TASK



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

“A gnawing fear of mathematics haunted me throughout my shy and mostly silent childhood. I found relief in the blank walls and floors in our small suburban house --- a chalk or charcoal in hand – doodling and drawing weird rodents and human beings on them.”

Monday, April 13, 2009

Animation Production Management by Ranjit Singh (Tony)


Tony Singh (Hon. Secretary-TASI) started the session on Production Management with a background on himself, giving a gist of the kind of projects that he has worked on before, he refused to be addressed as the King of Production Management, rather someone who been through various systems over many projects to know what might work and what might not.

Making of 'The Alien Civilization' - by Eric J. Dima-ala (Winner of DMP Challenge)


Hi guys! First up, thanks for taking time to read this short tutorial on how I created my image: Children of Fire. The process I create may not be perfect but somehow, since I approach the art form systematically I can create my images faster and with less trial and error. I do hope that when you’re done reading this, you will have a basic idea on how I do things. Okay let’s begin then!

Saturday, April 04, 2009

The 1st Annual Frameflixx Awards

History was in the making at Bhaidas hall, Vile Parle, on the 3rd April as the first Frameflixx awards kick started with an audience of more than 900 students coming from all over the country. Mohan Kapoor was the host of the show, filled with enthusiasm for being a part of this day. Frameflixx promised to get out the Gen next of techno artists.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Rajshekha Bhatt talks about AMD ATI


Rajshekhar Bhatt is the sales manager for AMD’s ATI product line.

Based in Mumbai, Rajshekhar, 37, heads the sales team and is responsible for maintaining ATI’s leadership position in the PC graphics segment by nurturing strong relationships with ATI’s board partners and their channel partners.


We caught up with Rajshekhar to give us insights about AMD ATI and the role that it plays in the industry.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

India has a Gaming mindset which is waiting to explode. With the fact that 54% of the Indian population is below the age group of 25yrs and having the world’s largest youth population - India’s only getting younger. Entertainment features as one of the predominant spending area amongst the Indian consumers

Monday, March 23, 2009

The Art of Claymation - Workshop by TASI


TASI was having a hard time restricting the Clay modeling workshop to a 100 attendees only owing to the overwhelming response. But that had to be expected when every ones favorite Simpu Singh or Vaibhav Kumaresh is taking a session.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

VFX by Red Chillies - A story in Pictures



Billu is a story of a simple ordinary barber from a village whose childhood friend becomes a superstar. A simple story of friendship told in a rather interesting manner and trimmed to perfection through VFX by Red Chilies. From Choma shots to crowd multipication, a variety of work was required for the movie. Most of the film has been shot in the village and hence to show massive crowds crowd multiplication was used. Sharukh Khan is a superstar hence he is supposed to have acted in various Sci-Fi films for which Red Chillies had to create BGs, 3d objects to make it believeable. We spoke to Arjun Mitra, Creative Head, redchillies.VFX, here is was he had to share with CGTantra about the work in Billu.

Friday, February 27, 2009

TASK hosts Kol.Katha ’09 - a Grand Success


The First Ever Animation Film Competition in Eastern India

Kolkata 26th February 09: The Animation Society of Kolkata (TASK) showcased the first ever animation short film festival in Kolkata, aptly named “Kol.Katha” which could be interpreted as a competition about story telling or about the tales from grandma’s lap, as the audience wishes to perceive it. This gift from TASK to the City of Joy, Art, Culture and Creativity was long overdue and was warmly received in the true Kolkata spirit by the audience. The early morning fog delayed our guests from Mumbai but that did not lessen the excitement and the enthusiasm in the 800 strong crowd that gathered at Kala Mandir to witness history being created.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Asifa - CG Meetup 03


ASIFA celebrated the 3rd anniversary of the ASIFA meet up with interesting sessions promising the audience a entertaining and informative day. A packed Auditorium at National College Bandra on the 14th Of February, the meet started with selected 2008 IAD films that had been brilliantly done with trailers of movies like Bolt, Madagaskar Escape to Africa, World of War Craft - Wrath of the Lich Link, Bio Shock 2- Sea of dreams.

To view complete article click on the image

Monday, February 23, 2009

Renderman training by Lee Danskin in association with Maximus and Escape studios

In association with Escape Studios Lee Danskin conducted Renderman training at Maximus which was founded on the philosophy that full-time dedicated animation and visual effects training produces, Maximus has the Asia’s first Pixar certified tutor and it holds the largest number of Autodesk certified instructors in India with maximum technical guidance & library facility. Hence an obvious choice for the training.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Call of Duty: World at War


Throughout the history of mankind, amidst the evolution weapons and diplomacies, the rudiments of ‘War’ has never changed – it always been about anarchy, apprehension and supremacy and also the devastating adrenaline which gushes through every vein in one’s body. The Call of Duty series, by far, has come the closest to capture this scenario on the virtual platform, all thanks to its regular redefinition in terms of passion for first-person shooters. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare brought a remarkable and speckled single-player experience that was compared with a superior multiplayer pack. But, World at War has brought back to the series' World War II roots.

Monday, February 09, 2009

The Horror of Raaz The Mystery continues by Prime Focus

Always taking things to another level is what Prime Focus strives to do. Visualizing and furnishing all genres' of films Prime Focus has done it again venturing in to the dark and horror with their heavy duty and splendid work in Raaz - The Mystery Continues. Merzin Tavaria tells us more about it.

Making of The Lost World matte painting – Pavel Cucka – CGTantra Challenge Winner

Pavel Cucka, Winner of the CGTantra Matte Painting Challenge tells his how the splendid Matte painting was created.

Making of The Lost World Matte painting – Alex Soroka – CGTantra Challenge Winner


Alex Soroka talks about his prize winning work which he calls 'Hope'.

Monday, February 02, 2009

Grand Theft Auto IV by Rock Star Games

Grand Theft Auto IV by Rock Star Games
The GTA franchise has been running and captivating gaming audiences since its first ever release in 1997. With grand success of their titles – Vice City, San Andreas – Rockstar has come up an all new version of the game, a step forward for this series. Liberty City is a vibrant fiction of Niko Bellic, an immigrant with convictions prevailing enough to propel him through the scattered and crumbling substructures of Liberty City's world of organized crime. The focus is on realism, a more established receptivity, and blending GTA into the present day.
Click on the image for the complete article

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Prime Focus talks about Chandani Chowk to China (CC2C)

EXCLUSIVE
Chandani Chowk to China saw immense visual effects, a challenging task taken up by Prime Focus. We caught up with Merzin Tavaria, the Creative head- VFX Prime Focus and VFX Supervisor on CC2C in an exclusive behind the scenes of the film.

Interview with Harsh Borah - Digital Artist

Interview with Harsh Borah - Digital Artist
Harsh Borah reveals what makes him take his work a step ahead

Ghajini The Game - Interview with Sashi Reddi

Eros International, the leading studio in the Indian media and entertainment sector, joined forces with FXLabs Studios, the leading end-to-end game development company in India, to launch India's first 3D PC Action Game based on a Bollywood movie. 'Ghajini' is a Third Person Action game, which will provide a fantastic opportunity to all 'Ghajini' fans to experience the movie through this exciting game. The game features recreated movie locations and scenes in the 3D world so as to provide the gamers with the actual movie sets to make the game playing experience as authentic and adventures as the movie. We caught up with Mr. Sashi Reddi, Founder & CEO - FXLabs Studios to tell us more on Ghajini - The Game

Ramesh Ruia talks about TASK (The Animation Society of Kolkata)

Graduating in B.Sc. from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata Ramesh Kumar Ruia went to complete his M.S. in computer science from Temple University, Philadelphia, USA and graduated in 1987.
Has been working in various capacities in industries and diverse as Engineering to Consumer durables till 1998 when he found himself in the Animation sector where he has been working for the past ten years.
A keen golfer and equally passionate about animation, he currently heads the Arena Animation Chapter at Park Street, Kolkata and has been one of the few from the training industry for whom quality is a passion.
Under him, Arena Park Street became the first ISO 9001:2000 certified chapter of Arena in India and has won numerous awards including the Best Centre Award (All India), Academic Excellence awards to name a few.
His current passion is to act as a catalyst to sync the requirements of the animation industry with the constraints and possibilities in the training industry so that the two can work in tandem to make India the most happening space in the animation vertical.

Friday, January 23, 2009

ARTTWar - Biggest Battle of the schools begins..


Participate in the 2 month long challenge the focuses on learning and exploring your hidden talent under supervision of some senior mentors. Fight for your school and bring honor and some exciting prizes too.
http://www.cgtantra.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=165

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Monday, January 12, 2009

Interview with Ron Crabb - Matt Painter

Interview with Ron Crabb - Matt Painter
Ron Crabb has been in the entertainment industry since 1984 he began working as an illustrator and designer of on-air graphics at KABC-TV in Los Angeles. It was there that he was introduced to the Quantel Paintbox and the rapidly expanding world of computer generated imagery. Motion graphics design and animation were the obvious next steps and from the late eighties through the nineties he was priviledged to work with some of the most prestigious television design and effects firms in Hollywood such as: Pittard Sullivan, 3 Ring Circus, Ring of Fire, Milne Effects, and Ignite Creative to name only a few. Crabb have been received a number of awards from the Broadcast Design Association, Telly Awards, and the Houston Film Festival, as well as a couple of Emmy nominations for main title design."
To view the complete interview along with his works click on the image

The Making of “Keep a Sharp Eye” by Ron Crabb

The Making of “Keep a Sharp Eye” by Ron Crabb
The digital painting “Keep a Sharp Eye” had its genesis in my desire to return to my roots as an illustrator. Most of my recent commercial work has consisted of matte painting work for film and television and that has occupied most of my time for a number of years now, but recently I’ve found myself longing to get back to some figurative work and do some storytelling with my illustration abilities. (It’s the variety of things I get to do that makes me love being an artist!)

Click on the image to view the complete article

Ghajini - VFX by Prime Focus

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Thursday, December 25, 2008

CGTantra Calendar 2009 - Download Now



DOWNLOAD NOW

CGTantra 4th Anniversary Blast


The day was finally here that completed 4 years of CGTantra's existence. 4 years that gave us so much to learn, so many opportunities to grow and so many friends. 20th December, the day so close to our hearts at Aklesh Dinesh Modi auditorium at the Mumbai University, Kalina, Mumbai started with the CGTantra logo animation. The event consisted of Informative sessions, Honours and loads of entertainment.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

CGTANTRA CELEBREATES ITS 4TH ANNIVERSARY

The day was finally here that completed 4 years of CGTantra's existence. 4 years that gave us so much to learn, so many opportunities to grow and so many friends. 20th December, the day so close to our hearts at Aklesh Dinesh Modi auditorium at the Mumbai University, Kalina, Mumbai.



CGTantra 2008: Memories & Showcase

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Autodesk Maya Software – Performance Comparison

Autodesk Maya Software – Performance Comparison


Benchmark Hardware Configuration

  • Dual Intel® Xeon® X5355 (2.66GHz, 8 core) proccessor
    4 GB RAM
    Nvidia® Quadro® FX4500 graphics card
    Windows® XP 64 SP1 operating system
    Maya Unlimited 32-bit

Each graph has been constructed to show the relative performance compared to that of Autodes ® Maya® 7.0.1 software.
Higher bars in a graph reflect higher performance. For example, a bar whose height is 2 shows performance twice as fast as in Maya 7.0.1. Some of the underlying tests measure frame rate (frames per second); those results have been divided by the frame rate obtained in Maya 7.0.1. Some of the underlying tests measure the overall time taken to complete a task (elapsed seconds);those results have been divided into the time taken by Maya 7.0.1.

Click on the image to view the complete article

Friday, December 05, 2008

Interview with Todd Mehser from Imageworks




We caught up with Todd Mesher, Senior Visual Effects artist from Sony Pictures Imageworks (SPI) who spoke to us talking about Autodesk flame and how it helped breathe life into effects for recent smash hits Hancock and I am Legend.

Ram Mohan - The master himself


A master class with the master himself, an event held at Whistling woods on the 5th Dec with a crowd of approximately 300 saw Ram Mohan give out his years of expertise all thanks to TASI. Ram Mohan started off with character establishment with respect to the duration of the film. If it is a very short film there is very little time to establish the character hence the characteristics should be very precise and give out details in a short time. Based on Attitude and body language he sketched out 3 types of character poses which help define a particular attitude. A character with the chest out establishing confidence, strong will etc, then a character with his belly out hence showing laziness and lethargic characteristics. The next was a character with his nose out which shows him to be a Nose poker and a cunning character. Since these are stereotypes he also showed how any of these characters could be used with each other like a character that might have his belly out still can be a confident character. He drew an example, a character inspired by Charlie Chaplin, a small guy, yet displaying confidence and ready to take on the world. A character of Alfred Hitchcock drawn was a round character but shows ample confidence and pride. When voice overs are done for animation movies the people are also shot acting for what they are saying. Robin Williams and Eddy Murphy are good examples of the same who are very good actors and provide for a good reference for the animators.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

CGTANTRA's 4TH ANNIVERSARY EVENT POSTPONED

CGTANTRA would like to inform all, that the CGTANTRA's 4th Anniversary celebration scheduled for 29th november in Mumbai, had to be postponed to a later date because of unprecedented circumstances and unavoidable situations in Mumbai. Therefore, taking the present scenario into consideration in the city, lets show solidarity and respect the losses of the lives and property affected in the city and send a positive signal as a community instead of celebrating in such times.

We will keep you well informed about the next best date for the same and look forward for your presence and cooperation at the forthcoming event.

Sorry for the inconvenience caused and lets come togther and PRAY FOR THE SAFETY AND LOSSES OF THE FELLOW MATES...

Thanks & Regards,

CGTantra Team

READ MORE

CGTantra 4th Anniversary - PreEvent Article


4 years, a 100 more, so much to do, so many people to thank. CGTantra owes it to all who have in some way contributed to this journey. It's the love and support of all that keeps us going strong. Nearing the day that completes 4 years of cgTantra's existence we take the opportunity to get you the insides of the culprits, from the ones that sat in a kitchen and cultivated a dream that stands today taller than their eyes could reach then to the ones that have nurtured it in the years so it keeps rooted and habituates to perpetual growth. We caught up with our own team mates who disbelieve in existing at the same place at the same time, but have spoken of what cgTantra means to them, more than a dream, more than a name. READ CGTANTRA Team Comments

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Featured Artist - Siju Thomas, CGTantra Forum Leader



Click on the image to read the interview. Talk with the Pro - Siju Thomas coming soon..

Interview with Craig Halperin - Crowd Effects Lead, Image Movers Digital



Click on the image to read the Interview..

Friday, November 14, 2008

CGTantra 4th Anniversary Celebrations..



Celebrate your CGTantra's 4 years of success and glory with The Making of ROADSIDE ROMEO by TATA Elxsi - VCL, CGTantra community Honors, Rock Band and more..

29th November, Mumbai

Latest Information

Talk with the Pro with Apurva Shah, VFX Supervisor - PIXAR



Hey Friends,

Its a wonderful opportunity to put our questions to Apurva Shah, VFX Supervisor - PIXAR and talk to him in the Talk with the Pro forum section.

CLICK HERE to start talking with him -

CGTantra Interview with Apurva Shah



Cheers !