An Interview with Director of Toonpur ka Superrhero - Mr. Kireet Khurana

CGTantra Team recently caught up with Mr.Kireet Khurana- Director of Toonpur Ka Superrhero in a candid conversation with us. He was generous enough to give us a sneak-peak into what’s cooking up behind the scenes as he takes out time from his ongoing busy schedule.
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An Interview with Aaron Sims - Production design, Character Design, Visual FX

Here is a man for whom any introduction would fall short! His creatures speak for him. He is the genius behind many of today's most memorable movie monsters. Currently working as "character designer on Green Lantern", "fantasy world designer on Sucker Punch" and "production designer on Castelvania", Aaron Sims is one of the most innovative and versatile concept artists working in films today. Read More...

CGTantrik Interview - Akash Abhishek Karmakar

Everything around us is inspiring but a single ray of hope and encouragement is enough to bring out the creative sense hidden within. CGTantrik Akash Abhishek Karmakar - CG supervisor, PRANA Studios is one of his kind.With passing time Akash matured as an artist and now has amazing work like Tinkerbell, Unstable Fables & Delhi 6 in his basket. We have him on board to share his experiences and unfold the secrets behind his success and achievements. Read More...

ASIFA India's "Commercials : Behind The Scenes" Cg MeetUp A Great Success !

In its continued effort of sharing knowledge by bringing forth some of the most interesting topics for the benefit of the animation and vfx community, ASIFA India's latest Cg MeetUp saw a packed house at the Whistling Woods auditorium. Read More

CGTantra Community Awards 2010 - Send your Entries Now!

An Interview with Animation Technical Director of Avatar - Rob Powers

CGTantra Team recently caught up with Rob Powers, who originated the Virtual Art Department (VAD) for James Cameron on AVATAR. Rob recently joined NewTek as Director of Entertainment and Media Development, Read More

CGTantra - Animation Community Partner for Toonpur Ka Superrhero Director's Blog

Latest Announcement from CGTantra Desk

CGTantra collaborates with Mr. Kireet Khurana and is the official Animation Community partner of Toonpur Ka Superrhero - Director’s Blog. You can keep yourself updated on the same by going to the homepage and clicking on the Toonpur Ka Superrhero - Director’s Diary. Read More

Making of Stop-Motion USHA Commercial by Mr E Suresh

Experimenting with new styles and techniques brings out the best from an idea pushing its creative limits. The new USHA Sewing Machine Commercial which looks vibrant and splendid at its best on tv, is a perfect example of creativity redefined. Read More

FICCI Frames 10 - BAF Awards

A glimpse of Best Animated Frames Awards 2010. Read more

FICCI Frames 10 - A Review

A Review on FICCI Frames 2010 - Global convention on business of entertainment. Read more

3d Illustration Challenge is a contest for Professionals as well as students. Create a 3D Illustration on the theme - LOVE. Get creative about the characters, scenario, era, culture, universe, race and anything you can think of. Zombies, Animals, Gods, Reptiles, Warriors, Vampires, Cartoons, Insects, Ogres - Or think of any kind of couple you can imagine and place them in their own kind of environment. Model/Sculpt the Characters, Texture & Light them, create a Environment or just paint a BG for them. Prizes from Pixologic ZBrush, EON Vue, Digital Tutors, NVIDIA, www.3d.sk, Topogun, CGTantra TShirts & Goodies etc. Deadline - 30th April Details :: 3D Illustration Contest

ARTTWar 4 - Students Team Contest

http://www.cgtantra.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=165

 

ARTTWar's fourth edition starts March 2nd. ARTTWar is a contest for Student Teams. Topic - GAME OVER. Form up a team of 2 to 3 students and prepare a Digital Illustration on the topic - Game Over. Prizes from Pixologic ZBrush, EON Vue, Evermotion, Digital Tutors, NVIDIA, www.3d.sk, Topogun, CGTantra TShirts & Goodies etc. Deadline - 30th April Details :: http://arttwar.cgtantra.com

Feb "The FLAWLESS FACE" Rigging Contest Guidelines

There is nothing in the world that is flawless. So is the case with Character Setups in Digital Animation. But the task here is to derive a Facial solution that stays flawless in most of the instances of Character Animation. Read More

Tasi Presents FUR in the JUNGLE!

An Interview with Ernest Adams - Game Designer, Writer & Educator

Q:A lot of students want to know whether it is important for a game designer to be a programmer too? Can a pure artist/story teller become a good game designer?
A: It is not necessary for a game designer to be a programmer -- after all, the most successful game designer in the world, Shigeru Miyamoto, began as an artist and is still an artist. However, a game designer must understand what computers do, and what their limitations are. Otherwise he will design games that cannot be built. Read Article

"Zokkomon" Walt Disney India's First Hindi Film

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, India, has unveiled the poster and trailer of its first live action Hindi feature film – “Zokkomon”.

Darsheel Safary, Zokkomon's lead actor, and Satyajit Bhatkal, director of “Zokkomon” and the National Bravery Award winners, unveiled the first poster and trailer of the movie at a press event in New Delhi. Read More

Adobe Photoshop, the software product that redefined creativity in the digital age, turns 20 on Feb. 19, 2010. Around the world, Photoshop fans are celebrating the impact their favorite software has had across photography, art, design, publishing and commerce. Read More

PrimeFocus Ltd Chennai, delivered about 1800 VFX Shots for AAYIRATHIL ORUVAN

For the recently released block buster Ayirathil Oruvan, we at PrimeFocus Ltd Chennai, delivered about 1800 VFX Shots. Which are all Creative & challenging in nature. SelvaRaghavan the Director of the Movie was very particular about the outcome of CG & realism. As his story featuring 80% of VFX in the movie depends on it. Read Article

ARTTWar 3 Nominations announced. Vote Now -

 

Top 5 Entries from ARTT War 3 :: Final winners will be announced by adding the points given by the Judges and these votes. Voting is open till 20th Feb 2010. Final winners will be announced on 25th Feb Online. VOTE NOW

Making of Zubaan Pe Lagaam & Jingle Bells by Nupur Bhargava

 Case study of Zubaan pe Lagaam & Jingle Bell by Nupur Bhargava.
Nupur Bhargava has been working with MTV, India as a supervising producer and director.She did her graduation from the National Institute of Design, India in Animation film design. She has a string of popular and award winning animated works to her credit. For her, each idea and story is treated as a new opportunity to experiment with new styles and media. READ THE ARTICLE

Detailed & Exclusive VFX Case Study of 3 Idiots by Fablefarm

Here is an VFX Case study of the movie which is all over the news and every one seems to be talking about it. Check what all went behind its making and discover the unknown. CGTantra got fortunate enough to have a candid conversation with Mitul Patel - Vice President, Fable Farm to tell the audience about the VFX work that went into the making of 3 Idiots. READ THE ARTICLE

CGTantra Artworks Calendar 2010

We are proud to present you the best of the artworks of the year 2009 in form of a monthly Calendar of 2010 for your desktops. We are thankful to the artists who contributed their artworks to CGTantra this year. Hope to see many more in the coming year. DOWNLOAD LINK

Video interview with Shrek The Third Co Director - Raman Hui

Raman Hui started his career in Hong Kong as a Cell Animator and thereafter moved to Canada to study at Sheridan College. In the year 1989, Raman started working at Pacific Data Images which was later acquired by DreamWorks Animation. Ever since then, he has worked on blockbuster movies like Antz, the Shrek movies, Madagascar. Raman co-directed 'Shrek The Third' and Directed Kung Fu Panda 'Secrets of the Furious Five' and wears various other hats that of being Animation Director, Supervising Animator, Storyboard Artist.

Recently, Forum Leaders Anand Baid (andy_maxman) and Amrit Derhgawen (Mr.keyframe) along with Forum member Prashant Cavale caught up with Raman Hui for a video interview.

Continue reading....

Nasscom Animation and Gaming Summit 2009 was held on the 6th and the 7th of November 2009 at HICC, Hotel Novitel, Hyderabad. The event this year had a different feel to it. Fruitful sessions that cater to the gaming and the animation industry also had an artist's perspective to it.
Shelly Page, Head, International Outreach, Dreamworks and Nitin Chawla, Executive Producer, Walt Disney Interactive Media Group started with the key notes before we moved on to the sessions.

Click on the image to view the article

Prime Focus recreates 26/7 Mumbai floods in Tum Mile with over 300 VFX shots and DI

Prime focus, a global visual entertainment services group delivers yet another visual treat for Mukesh Bhatt's upcoming movie titled 'Tum Mile' with the VFX team led under the creative guidance of Merzin Tavaria, Chief Creative Director and the Digital Intermediate team led by Rohan Desai, DI head and Chief Colorist , Prime Focus.

Click on the link to view the article

Future Works Delivered challenging VFX Shots for Tum Mile - an unusual love story Directed by Kunal Deshmukh set in backdrops of Mumbai's rampageous 26thJuly'05.

Tum mile takes a calamity that hit Mumbai in 2005 monsoons and tries to recreate the horror that the deluge brought with it. The protagonists of the film, played by Emraan Hashmi and Soha Ali Khan, are stuck in the deluge, as has the whole of the city.

Through their eyes the film tries to convey what people might have gone through in those dark damp days when time ceased to move. It takes a satirical view on the administration and its preparation before monsoon.
Future Works took the opportunity to take the directors vision to another level and make each shot believable and visually appealing so that the audience indulge in the story. We caught up with the Future Works team, which talks about their challenges and experiences on working for the Tum Mile.

click on the image to view the article

Interview with Charles Darby – Sr. VFX Supervisor, Aladin.

Eyecube Creative Director Charles Darby gives us an insight of the most awaited and one of the biggest VFX Bollywood film - Aladin. CGTantra speaks to Charles about his experiences about pulling off a mammoth amount of 1600 VFX shots, the Characters and VFX Industry. We are thankful to Charles for taking time out for this interview and to Vamsi M. Ayyagari, Sr. Executive Producer for providing all the artworks for this article.

Charles Darby is one of the International visual effects wiz and has been associated with more than 45 films in the last 14 years. Darby’s work includes Academy and BAFTA award-winning work on films such as 'Titanic,' 'The Matrix', 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon', 'The Fifth Element' and 'Minority Report'.

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Chitrakatha 09 @ NID, Ahmedabad - CGTantra Editor Rishabh reports....

Chitrakatha 09 starts tomorrow in NID, Ahmedabad.. Rishabh Shrivastav, Editor, CGTANTRA will be giving you a daily dose of the activities around there on CGTantra Blogs, so stay connected ,

Chitrakatha 09 Blog

Cheers Chitrakatha 09!

n a fancy Parisian Cafe, an uptight businessman is about to pay the cheque when he finds out that he has lost his wallet. To save time he decides to order more coffee.
French Roast is a character driven short film about appearances. Without any dialouge, the story is told through character animation, music and sound.

click on the image to view the video and the article

Blue is a fast paced action film, which has over 1200 shots that have passed through the vfx pipeline.
Commenting on the project, Merzin Tavaria, Chief Creative Director, Prime Focus and VFX Supervisor on Blue, mentioned, "The visual splendour of the sea has never been captured before in any Indian film like it is in Blue. This is underpinned by a huge pipeline of VFX shots which were delivered by our team here at Prime Focus. We are proud to be associated with such an ambitious project and hope that the movie turns out to be a visual effects treat for the viewers."
Reupal Rawal, VFX supervisor on the project added, "It is a pleasure to have worked on a big budget visual effects wonder called Blue. Considering that the theme necessitated plenty of visual effects work, the director allowed us a great deal of latitude to showcase our creativity and skills to create some fabulous VFX shots. We are proud to be associated with projects such as Blue which we believe will raise the bar of visual effects in Bollywood."

Click on the image to view the article

Moritz Mayerhofer talks about 'Urs'

Many years Urs looked after his aging mother. But now he sets out for a dangerous journey: He carries her up a mountain to find a better place for both of them. But his mother doesn't want to leave her home. . With appealing layouts, symbolic cinematic approach and beautiful matte paintings the film takes you with it. Let's go behind the scenes of the film.

click on the image to view the video and read the article

TASI Views Choice Awards 2009 (TVCA)

Yet another and a much awaited Anifest visits us. 3 days of jam packed sessions from speakers from all across India. With it also comes something that gives us the previlige to be a jury and select our favourate films, the TASI Viewer’s Choice Awards.

With each year the excitement and the reach of TVCA keeps growing. This year the response overwhelmed every one with more than 370 entries this year the pre selection jury had a hard time selecting the films for screening and the voting at Anifest India 2009. We are all excited to watch quality films from all across the globe and be the judge of the best, I cant wait.

We wanted to know more so we spoke to Vaibhav Kumaresh and Ranjit Singh who surprisingly could spare some time days before the fest and gives us thier comments.

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Rajat Ojha has around 14 years of experience in IT industry. Rajat started his career with a Top Down perspective game which he did in Pascal and released on BBS in early 1995 but because of lack of opportunity, he continued to work on software applications During this period, Rajat closely worked with various companies like Verisgn, Toshiba, Cosmi Corp etc and developed various system level application and games.

Rajat would be taking the session on Simulation at Anifest India 2009. We caught up with Rajat to tell us about Simulations in gaming, about the Gaming Industry and his session at Anifest India 2009.

Click on the image to view the complete Interview

As the trend goes, stop motion has caught on in a big way with today’s young animators who are experimenting in movie making using the stop motion techniques. So The Animation Society of Kolkata organized a workshop on Stop Motion Animation - from concept to creation by Delwyn Jude Remedios at Gyan Manch on Monday the 7th of September 2009.

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Kaminey is a story about a pair of twins - Charlie and Guddu who can't stand the sight of each other. It's a dark comic ride as the brothers are sucked in a world of drugs, guns and money. In the Middle of the crazy adventure running and protecting themselves they realise that all they have is each other.
Kaminey is a treat with a unique style of story telling with brilliant visual treatment; it sets a new trend in Cinema.

We caught up with Govardhan Vigraham who was the VFX Designer/Supervisor for the film, highly reputed with over 17 years of Industry experience. He tells us what makes 'Kaminey' a trend setter and why one shouldnt miss it.

Click on the image to view the article and to discuss 'Kaminey'

Feature Artist : Santhosh Pai aka Sanpaiya

Santhosh Pai who is famously know as Sanpaiya on CG forums for whom a degree in Business Management was not enough to take him away from his love for art. He believes that when art inspires you, you never look at things around you the same way. Having studied art under eminent artist Ramesh Rao at Drishya school of Arts he weaved his way to being a well known and mature artist. His works today are appreciated at many platforms. Calling himself a perpetual student of art Santhosh can inspire anyone with the essence of his works and how the vivid colors speak a different perception of emotions expressed through mere simplicity of art. CGTantra caught up with Santhosh to know more and make him share his magic with us. READ MORE...

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Anifest India 2009 - A reason to Smile !

The countdown has begun. The Anifest India 2009 is back, You can breathe now may be not sneeze though. After reluctantly having to posponed the event the entire TASI team gives us a reason to smile again. Anifest 2009 shall be held from the 18th to the 20th September 2009. We just wanted to tell you more about the exciting sessions throughout the 3 days and talk to the team about the festival.

The Entire TASI team is on their toes to get you the best at Anifest 2009. With great effort and my great detective skills I caught hold of few members of the TASI core team to talk to us. Here is what they had to say.

Click on the image to view the article

‘Do Paise Ki Dhoop Chaar Aane Ki Barish’ (‘Two pennies for sunshine and four cents for rain’), the directorial debut of the famous Indian actress-turned-filmmaker Deepti Naval, premiered at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival this year to a very warm reception. The film, which was also written and produced by Naval on a very tight budget, is, on the surface, the story of a struggling gay lyricist, an ageing prostitute and her physically challenged 12 year old son. But “it isn’t simply a film about gays and prostitutes. It is more essentially about the ebbs and tides of human relationships,” said Naval in an interview. “The idea was to present a modern, sensitive and realistic portrait of people struggling to find happiness.”

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Nate Wragg from Pixar visits India

Anifest India 2009 is just few blocks away. With an interesting line up of sessions we also have a session on Art Direction & Pre-production by Nathan Wragg from Pixar. A master illustrator who can see the funny side of eventually any story is all packed up and excited to be sharing his bit with India. CGTantra caught up with him to know more about him and his works.

Click on the image to view the interview

Prime Focus brings Hollywood VFX veteran to India

Mumbai, August 5th, 2009 - Michael Fink, Hollywood Visual Effects veteran and Academy Award winner has directed his first Indian TV commercial for Lotte Coffy Bite. Fink is President, VFX Worldwide at Prime Focus, India's leading Visual Entertainment Services Company. The Mumbai based company was appointed by Rediffusion Y&R and MAD Entertainment for the toffee brand's latest TV commercial.

Click on the image to view the article and the commercial

A much awaited CG Meetup by ASIFA began with Amit Aidasani from ASIFA giving an introduction and talking about various successful CG Meetups and introducing Bill Kroyer to the audience. With an extensive experience Bill has worked from being a story board artist, writer, director to animation supervisor with movies like Garfield, Scooby-Doo, Cats & Dogs, The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, TRON and many more.

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Making of 'Qiane - Goddess of Illusions' by Shreya Shetty

Click on the image to view the tutorial

Qiane is a character from a story I am developing so I had a pretty strong idea of how I wanted her to be presented. The story is based in an alternate dimension, a world that shifts in and out of the universe as we know it. Qiane is the Goddess of Illusions, the queen of Eithanas (as the world is called) and the personification of the false realm itself. Shifting between the living world and the afterlife, those who get into Eithanas may not get out, unless the Goddess wills them so. READ MORE

Making of 'The Cow Girl' - Samar Vijay

Click on the image to view the tutorial

I started the cowgirl with a simple base mesh (provided by Marshu Mishu AKA FX81) did some minor mesh changes on it to reduce pinches is some areas.

When I was done with that I took the base mesh to zbrush and started sculpting the female body. Once I was done with a decent sculpt which I thought was ready to pose, using zbrush transpose tools I posed the body and gave some final touches to the sculpt acc. to the pose. I mainly focused on the curves of her body to make her look hot and sexy.
These are the shots of the workflow. READ MORE

The cursed pirate was a project that required a lot of back and forth in ideas and modeling. It started of with a doodle / Thumbnail sketch (lots of them) on paper to the final render in Maya. Sometimes I got lost in the look of the character but my friends and teachers were very helpful in giving me feedback, that really kept me focused and on track as to how the final look would be. A lot of time and effort was spent mainly in the idea and concept creation. The cursed Pirate is a part of a scene (Death of a Spell) where two characters are present, but for the purpose of this “Making of”

Click on the image to view the tutorial

Los Angeles, CA, June 30, 2009 - StudioGPU announced today the immediate availability of MachStudio Pro™, a professional 3D workflow and rendering package created by artists for artists. MachStudio Pro offers a seamless way to create and interact with cinematic quality 3D objects and environments in a non-linear workspace by leveraging the horsepower of off-the-shelf professional graphics processing units (GPUs) to deliver real-time and near real-time workflow performance on a desktop workstation.

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Interview with CGTantrik - Shreya Shetty

Shreya Shetty, A BFA from J.J School of Fine Arts brushed up her creativity while wanting to be a Veterinary Surgeon. After a years break which she calls the most constructive she knew she wanted to be an artist. Later trying her hand on digital painting she matured as an artist and now creates master pieces. CGTantra is proud to have her as a Forum leader. We caught up with her to know more about her techniques and work procedures

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Mumbai based VFX house FutureWorks, has produced seamless VFX work for a Malayalam movie titled 'Bhramaram'. The studio has worked on the entire post production of this suspense story written and directed by renowned filmmaker Blessy which mainly includes DI and VFX.

Click on the image to view the article and watch the making

‘Mi Shivaji Raje Bhosale Boltoy!’ is surely one of the most powerful films to have come out of Marathi cinema.
The visual effects of the film required a lot of Rotoscopy, from horses to armoured men, it was a very challenging job since while the scenes were being shot the light conditions kept changing hence the shadows kept changing. The lighting had to be worked on and the shadows were added later. A lot of crowd multiplication was done to show the hugeness of the army of Afzal Khan who stand out to challenge Shivaji Maharaj.

Click on image to watch the making and the Video Interview

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.

Click on the image to view the commercial and the making