Cheering, Whistling, Overawed. The 400 strong crowd of CG / VFX professionals was at its jolly good best at the recently held 1st anniversary celebrations of Asifa India‘s CG Meetups (K C College Mumbai) where four Indian VFX studios including R&H India, EFX, Prime Focus and VCL, (a division of Tata Elxsi Ltd) came together in true community spirit and showcased case studies and technical break downs of the high quality work that they have produced in the past one year.
The quality of VFX work created in India has increased by leaps and bounds and this was evident in the showcase.
Welcoming the audience, Asifa India president Saraswathi Balgam spoke about the community initiatives and shared about International Animation Day as well as other ASIFA events including the CG Meetups. Asifa‘s A R Seshaprasad next gave a lowdown on all the meetups held till date.
EFX
Taking first strike EFX‘ Rajiv Ragunathan shared that, “VFX is all about implementing the director‘s vision” He showcased close to 20 outstanding sequences from Krrish including the CG Bike Shot, the CG Body Double, the Circus Fire scene, the trailer jumping scene and many more.
That EFX has done a great job of Krrish is visible, Ragunathan also showcased a few subtle effects that one would have never guessed were CG. He highlighted that ‘The Whole‘ was more important than the parts and that the good VFX created by EFX were further enhanced by the excellent editing and DI which made things look really seamless and one could not say where live action ended and CG began. Ragunathan also was all praise for Hrithik Roshan whose agility and grace added to the finesse of the shots.
In an interesting revelation, Rajiv mentioned, though this was a huge project in volume and value and stalwarts of the Indian and International film industry were involved in, every suggestion from the team, was considered and given an unbiased hearing. There was no discrimination made and the entire team, including trainee students had an opportunity to contribute to the creative/execution details. This ensured the best output without leaving any stone unturned.
Talking about the Circus Fire sequencein Krrish, Raghunath shared that close to 15,000 sq feet of fire (live action) was exposed and shot from various perspectives and seamlessly composited later on.
R&H India
The Rhythm & Hues showcase by Prashant Buyyala was mind blowing.
“We had over 75 main digital characters for NATM” shared Prashant adding that R&H India was involved in a meaningful way on the movie.
Sharing passes and shots that highlighted processes such as modeling, texturing, tech anim, fur dynamics and look dev, Prash pointed out the thoroughness and attention to detail that R&H gives to each and every shot and pass.
“Each shot normally requires multiple levels of approvals” shared Prash, “Starting from the studio head, followed by Movie director, VFX Supervisor (Client side), VFX Supervisor (R&H), Animation Director, artist leads, and then the contributions of the actual artists that did the shot”
“We make sure that shots and passes are structured and stored in a flexible pipeline that makes modifications and iterations seamlessly integrate into the production at any stage in the shot process” added Prashant.
The R&H India Managing Director shared that the general practice at the studio is to light the CG characters in a neutral environment to begin with (independent of the shot) and ensure that the fur and texture details are clearly defined before they are placed in various real environments.
This results in efficiency gains and consistency in quality when various artists work on integrating the same characters into different shots. The artists already start with a default first pass of lighting that is very good and only have to tweak a few scene specific settings to get the correct lighting and integration” he said.
The presentation also included details on HDRI and the special HDRI Camera System that R&H has developed to capture the real lighting conditions on set/ location.
Also very interesting and in keeping with the spirit of the CG Meetup was the special clip that the artists at R&H had developed which featured various CG Characters in a hilarious sequence.
Prime Focus
Speaking for the entire Indian VFX community Prime Focus Merzin Tavaria shared, “I think India can really make a difference in VFX today”
“We constantly make efforts to educate our clients and make them realize that a lot more is possible today in VFX, then it was two years ago. Every studio does wire removals but today studios are moving up the value chain and we are seeing increasing amount of photo realistic CG shots where the VFX are subtle and part of the narrative and that‘s where Indian VFX as a whole is moving”
Merzin showcased Jaan e man where Prime Focus had done a lot of VFX work including creating a CG space ship as well as outer space. Also Anupam Kher plays a midget in the movie and there was extensive amount of rotoscopy involved. The film also boasts of a lot of other FX such as Salman Khan in a Film Fare Awards function held 3 decades ago (in duotone)
Tavaria also spoke about how just a couple of months prior to the release, the director decided to have a teaser created with New York as the location and it was all created in CG. “50 Artists worked on this teased which was created with digital matte paintings. We also used the motion control camera extensively for the entire movie” he added.
The young and enthusiastic Vinod Vijay connected instantly with the crowd as he showcased a 3 minute making of Sonic TVC. The TVC included stop motion, miniature, 2D, 3D as well as live action and as such was a rich mix of all media done in a very inspired manner.
Giving his take to the audience, Vinod shared “Please remember that our field is all about team work and we need to inculcate that team spirit. Always help your colleagues” he said.
VCL (A division of Tata Elxsi Ltd)
With two of the most popular Bollywood movies of 2006 including Dhoom 2, Rang De Basanti and International projects like One Night with the King, VCL had some amazing work to share and showcase.
Amongst the most impressive were the shots and sequences from One Night with the King (one of the recent Hollywood projects on which VCL worked) which had some really aesthetic lighting FX. Also quite a few shots were done completely in CG featuring complete sets, cg waterfall elements, Massive agents animation with pre built walk cycles for characters done in different passes and attitudes.
“The focus is always on the narrative and VFX is for serving that purpose” shared Vishal.
Showcasing Dhoom2 Vishal shared that close to 50 artists worked for around three months to execute the FX. “Pre visualization work done for Dhoom2 helped in every aspect of film making including saving time, costs and resources as well as in adding to the finesse of the work”
On being asked by the audience about the extensive wire removal work that action thrillers had, Vishal pointed out that wire removals were not tough but they became tricky when the wires were placed in front of the actor‘s faces or clothes
Vishal also showcased shots which featured particle instancing and CG sets that were used in the feature.
Besides the presentations, the open mike sessions included community messages such as the call for active participation in Women in Animation (India) by Neha, as well as the screening of the sequel of super hit animated short film Crime Time by Futurethought‘s Santosh K and Carl Caste.
The show ended with a raffle which featured a bounty of prizes by Nvidia (Quadro Graphics cards) ASIFA India and Excel Home Video.
To phrase it locally “Mazza Aagaya” (It was great fun)
Looking forward to the next CG Meetup!