The much-awaited IndiaJoy event finally kicked off with an inaugural address by dignitaries who extolled the significance of empowering the youth in the AVGC industry. Dignitaries comprised of government representatives, ministers and event organisers who also discussed their vision for the city of Hyderabad.
It was followed by a dedicated VFX event that saw a host of speakers from leading VFX studios across the country. Ushering a platform for international and national delegates to discuss various aspects of technology and VFX industry with regards to how some of the most awe-inspiring imagery was created on celluloid, VFX event became the highlight of the festival on the first day.
With a keynote address on State of the art 2019 and roadmap 2020, Technicolor Country Head in India Biren Ghose laid down the theme of the event. Discussing the possibilities enabled by rapid technological advancements like creating photorealistic CG animals to de-aging actors, Ghose wowed the audience by showcasing MPC’s best imagery right from Seven Worlds of Ridley Scott to Jaguar Advertisements.
Proceedings of the day were carried forward by DNEG senior supervisor and Oscar-winner Tim McGovern who gave an in-depth presentation of forty years of digital and VFX and how the VFX scenario grew from where it was to where it stands. He delved into his past project right from how his team deployed the software to create the imagery of sexy robot to water effects, shape-shifting in the movie Terminator, practical effects and CG Dinosaurs in Jurassic Park to the usage of LED screens in Oscar-Winning movie First Man.
Contrasting the present-day VFX to the times in the past when VFX artists didn’t have a single software to work with and imagery was difficult to create, he said that we are in the ‘golden age’ and lucky to have advanced software and the ease of creating complex imagery on celluloid.
Green Gold Animators Binayak Das and Kaiser Mandal presented the breakdown of the super-hit animated movie Kung Fu Dhamaka with a detailed explanation of how they deployed the software to create the imagery of the stereoscopic 3D animated blockbuster. Slides displayed illustrations from the initial stages to the time taken for creating the final scenes of the movies right from mountain-tops, waterfalls, Chota Bheem fight sequences etc.
Centroid Director Parth Shah enlightened the audience with possibilities that can be enabled by motion capture technology and performance capture. The storytelling, images and scale right from crowd simulation to CGI animals and creature-simulation that can be achieved with the use of mo-cap technology were demonstrated through an elaborate series of slides and clips of actors in the studio facility in green suits, with markers and trackers all over.
redchillies.vfx VFX supervisor Ronak Sanghadia spoke about the growth of VFX over the years, topping off his presentation with the breakdown of the popular movie Zero. He explained how they achieved the challenging task of shrinking the superstar Shah Rukh Khan into a dwarf on silver screen with a combination of CGI, forced perspective camera techniques and physical ground tweakings.
philmCGI chief Arpan Gaglani elaborated on his experience of working with Netflix special Sacred Games and the Bollywood superhero movie Bhavesh Joshi. Speaking about Sacred Games, he explained, “Our approach was clear, 80% real on set effects and 20% enhancement through VFX for almost every challenge that was presented. It was very important to get real interaction on actors and the location. Be it gunshots, brain splatter splatter, fire, explosions, etc.”
With a stunningly insightful presentation on the breakdown of the movie 2.0, VFX veteran Srinivas Mohan highlighted the significance of storyboarding and previsualisation in a VFX-heavy movie. Mohan expounded on the intricacies of VFX and also revealed that he is currently working on another Rajamouli movie. Representative Autodesk spoke about the nuances and developments they had made to help the artists make optimum use of their tools.
The event was concluded with a presentation on Jon Favreau’s most recent photorealistic retelling of the classic Disney movie Lion King. MPC VFX artists Payal Dani and Kranti Sarma demonstrated on screen how the imagery was created, fusing the latest technologies with the artistry.
Bringing lynchpins of the industry under one roof right from VFX sector and OTT platforms, the first day of the festival set the tone and lived up to the famed epithet of being the country’s largest and the most joyful event in the AVGC space.