Maya Digital Studios’ in studio training facility MIST started off with great expectations at their Mumbai studio facility.Maya has been associated with several pioneering initiatives for the Indian animation, visual effects & 3D stereoscopy industry.
The first ever batch of MIST had started off in the 3D animation department. And the MIST interns straight away got to work on none other than the animated version of the legendary comic brand, Motu Patlu, animated version of Maya’s Captain Vyom, 2D to 3D conversion of Amar Chitra Katha’s Sons of Ram, international animated series The Centsables & 2D to stereoscopic 3D conversion of Sholay.
MIST is a first of its kind initiative by an Indian studio to provide an advanced training module for the young professionals, with an opportunity to work on live projects. Under this initiative, there will be a dedicated training programme integrated within the studio facility, which focuses on a Studio Ready Training Modules.The faculty at MIST includes 11 Mentors, across animation, visual effects and 3D stereoscopy.
MIST follows a rigourous in studio internship based on studio ready training modules for the interns. Under this , each module is structured over a period of 6 months, where the first three months is the training period and the next three months is where the interns get a paid internship on live studio projects.
The interns have to pay INR 60000 to be a part of the training programme. The first three months will be the training period and from the fourth month onwards, they pursue a paid internship on live projects. The pay during the internship period is INR 5000 per month per candidate. Also, since they work on live projects, they get the opportunity to get their names incorporated within the credits of the project that they have been a part of.
Aruna Kumar – Head of MIST & the Studio Operations in Goa has a repute of being one of the sharpest minds in the industry, an experience of over 15 years in the education training industry and is a total team player.
Speaking to Animationxpress’ Ishpreet Chandock about the vision and mission of MIST, Aruna Kumar, head of MIST & the Studio Operations in Goa for Maya stated,” The animation and visual effects industry is a booming industry in India with a projected CAGR of 21% as predicted by the industry experts. 2D to stereoscopic 3D conversion has further triggered the growth of the industry by providing an additional broad-based, sustainable revenue stream to the industry.”
“MIST provides a stepping stone into the studio careers of those who are passionate about this magical industry but don’t know how to approach and conquer the milestones of success. MIST strives to provide the best in industry training and live project work to the students at the very beginning of their careers, effectively positioning them, leaps ahead of their peers both in terms of training as well as experience.”
Elaborating more on the structure of MIST she said,”There are entrance tests to test the basic software knowledge of the candidates, followed by a detailed assessment by the respective MIST Mentor and a thorough analysis of the candidates skill-sets. Basis the clearance of all these, the candidates would be eligible to be a part of MIST.
As part of the preliminary scrutiny, the basic knowledge of softwares and willingness to be production ready are gauged. The carefully chosen Interns are then shortlisted. Once shortlisted, their studio stint begins. After the initial three months they take up the paid internship. At present the focus is to retain all the MIST Interns at Maya itself after the end of their training modules.”
The first batch of MIST Interns begin their studio stint with Maya’s prestigious projects, sharing her thoughts about the same she said,”The production work for Sholay is complete, Motu Patlu is going on air later this month, so a substantial amount of work on the show is
complete, Sons of Ram releases on 2nd November and hence is also in an advanced stage of completion. The Centsables is currently on air in the US and work has just begun on Captain Vyom.”
MIST Interns will also get to work on a couple of highly anticipated visual effects driven live action television series, Indian and international which would get them a lot of experience and exposure.”
MIST was started with a lot of fanfare on the 11th of August 2012, talking about the response so far she shared, “MIST has already crossed the first milestone of the 100 MIST Interns. We aim to have 1600 MIST Interns during the first one year of operations and eventually have 3 more MIST facilities within Maya facilities over the next two years.
At the end of our conversation, she concluded her thoughts saying, “The intention is to create the human resource ecosystem that will drive the future of this industry. Our ocus at Maya has always been on artists and with MIST we want to generate a pool of studio trained, advance skilled professionals who will write the future growth of this industry.”