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DAY 2 OF THE ‘BENGALURU GAFX CONFERENCE 2017’ WITNESSES THE MAKING OF BAHUBALI VR AND FAST & FURIOUS 8: VFX BEHIND THE SCENES

...India sees that 2 in 5 Gamers are Women..
•         Panel discussion held on the Evolution of the Kannada Film Industry : Use of Technology
 
•         Karnataka GAFX Success Stories Ft. Appu Series, Videogyan, Thought Cloud Studios, MRT Studios, Aum Animation, amongst others, shared
 
Bengaluru, 13th May 2017:  The second day of the 3-day, ’Bengaluru GAFX Conference 2017’ organized by The Department of IT, BT, Government of Karnataka in association with the industry body ABAI witnessed a range of exciting sessions, workshops and competitions. From the making of Bahubali VR to the Fast & Furious 8: VFX behind the scenes, to competitions on character animation, traditional painting, 3D gaming art, digital painting and various hackathons to workshops on scripting in animation and visual effects were all organized as part of the conference.

Speaking about the making of Baahubali, Pete Draper, Co- founder, VFX Supervisor - Makuta VFX said, "It took us sometime to realise how big the feature film actually was. It was only during the post production phase that we realised that the movie was going to be really huge! For a film like Baahubali it was difficult to convert assets on VFX as they build very large scale buildings, thus it required a massive work. The Sword Of "Baahubali " was a VR experience . It was generated by Amazon Lumbyard and optimised for the "HTC VIVE". They even used minicams for the VR purpose. It became a very good marketing tool and showcased Baahubali from a unique and immersive angle. Our VR capture camera the BB-360 powered many Baahubali experiences."
"It was difficult to bring imagination into reality and it took us 6 months of research. We used 24 cameras with different camera angles and worked on high resolution, fixed travel locations with limited output resolution. There were certain effects in the movie which were simple but were actually tricky to pull off." he added.

Speaking about the animation industry over the last 34 years, Shuzo John Shiota, CEO of Polygon Pictures said, “Being the oldest company in the industry, the diverse range of products that Polygon has will significantly help shape the animation industry in India. Our mission statement ‘Do what no other has done in unparalleled quality for all the world to see and enjoy’ is the reason we have been able to survive as long as we have and we aim to being this expertise to the Indian market."
Prasad Sutra, Co-founder VFX Supervisor, NY VFXWAALA said, “Looking at current trends we see how much visuals have chnaged and are still changing. Trying to find different ways to tell the story, by filming different shots is what makes this industry so much fun! Until now, people do not give pre-production as much importance as it should be given, but this will soon change. VFX has become one of the biggest components of a film and will remain so. If you’re making a film with proper planning and creativity, then it will be a success. For Dangal and Shivay, at the pre production level, we had to travel to Australia, Moscow, Bulgaria and Canada to take various shots, we came back to India to complete the film."

“We started shooting for Shivay in the middle of Bajirao Mastani, and Dangal was going to be shot at the same time. As an artist it’s a tough thing to do three films at once and that’s why you need a team. As a team we could manage it. VFX is always a team effort. Stories will always remain the same, it’s the visuals that help make it look different,he further added."

Speaking about the popular film Moana, Avneet Kaur, Character technical director at Walt Disney Animation Studios said, "We strongly believe in collaboration and leadership and that’s the reason for successful characters that we make.Right from the script to the animation we always use the concept of  synchronization. Disney is all about research, Moana is a true story based on events that took place a 1000 years ago. People using stone age technology, the colonization of Pacific Islands is the greatest human adventure story of all time. We faced a lot of complexity in creating this movie, right from character transformation and simulation. Furthermore, there was a lot of anatomy exposure, so to deal with movements and motions it was way difficult."

Highlighting the challenges and the opportunities of VFX ,a panel of five individuals who are at the forefront of the VFX industry in state, shared their success stories, inspiring the youth. Ganesh Papanna,Director - Business, Sales & Marketing, Thought Cloud Studio said, "There are three key things to success: the right investment, the right people and the right subject. Chasing ones dream and having patience is the key."

Naveen Kumar, Founder, MRT Studios, who has played a major role in the Kannada industry’s visual effects, and having worked in over 25 Kannada movies said, "Convincing the producers to use VFX technologies is a challenge, since the Kannada Film industry works on a limited budget, but the trend is slowly changing as producers and filmmakers have seen the potential. Generally, the total budget of the film is completely spent on the production,however 10 percent should be kept for post production."

The conference saw a number of sessions related to the gaming, visual effects and animation industry including the ’Significance of Technology (VFX) in Storytelling Ft. Dangal & Shivay by Prasad Sutar’,’ Making it Small – Physics of Scale in DreamWorks Animation’s Trolls by Alejandro Garcia’, Unity for Film by Mathieu Muller, Evangelist, Unity’, ’Moana: Demystifying Characters by Avneet Kaur, Character Technical Director, Walt Disney Animation Studios’, State of the Art: How to hit a moving target by Hugh Riley, Art Manager, Ubisoft’, ’Drawing Story in VR by Wesley Allsbrook, Artist, Art Director, Writer’, ’Making of Asterix: Mansion of the Gods by Nicolas Trout, Executive Producer Co-Head Of Animation Studio, Mikros Image’, Mehod to Madness: How Shotgun Powers ‘88 Pictures’ Success Story by Rakesh Patil, Head of Production & Saswat Kumar Sahoo, Head of Pipeline Department’,Making of Baahubali VR by Pete Draper, CEO, Co-founder, Makuta VFX’, Success Stories of Karnataka GAFX Industry by Various Speakers’, You Are What You Pretend To Make, a Look At Production Design of 5 Films by David James, Production Designer’,  Building Apps for Samsung GearVR,’ Moana: Creating Oceans, Shorelines and Reefs by Dale Mayeda, Head of Effects, Walt Disney Animation Studios’, Fate of The Furious: VFX Behind The Scenes by Michael Grobe, VFX Supervisior, Double Negative’.

There was also a panel discussion on ’Past, Present and Future of VFX in Kannada Film Industry’ by Various Speakers, along with screenings of the ’Best of Annnecy Film Festival’, ’SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival’, ’Kubo and the Two Strings’, ’Ma Vie De Courgette (My life as a Zucchini).

 Day 3 on 14 May 2017
 
Talks & Presentations:
 
A Wildly Unscientific & Incomplete Introduction to Visual Design by David James, Production Designer Visual Design of The Good Dinosaur by Sharon Calahan, Director of Photography, Pixar Animation Studios Designing & Executing Doctor Strange by Faraz Hameed, Previs: Postvis Supervisor, The Third Floor Evolution of an Animation Film Maker by Vaibhav Kumaresh, Director, Vaibhav Studios Making of Baahubali 2 - The Conclusion by Pete Draper, CEO, Co-Founder, Makuta VFX Oscar Quality VFX: Technology behind 

The Jungle Book by Markus Ristich, SW Training Guru MPC, Vancouver & Phani Madhav, Head of Software, MPC, India
Polygon Pictures: 34 Years of Digital Animation by Shuzo John Shiota, CEO Polygon Pictures
‘Finding Hank’ in Finding Dory by John Halstead, Supervising Technical Director, Pixar Animation Studios
Fight with Tigers – ‘Pulimurugan’ by Murali Manohar, VFX Supervisor and Chief Technical Director, Firefly Creative Studio, Hyderabad
Moana: Design and Collaboration of Effects by Dale Mayeda, Head of Effects, Walt Disney Animation Studios
Tech Talk - Mathematics for TDs by Mark Elendt, Senior Mathematician, SideFX & SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival Committee
Art of Fluidity by Joseph Gilland, Veteran Disney Visual Effects Supervisor and Author of Elemental Magic
 
Screenings:
The Red Turtle
Shelley’s Eye Candy Show
SIGGRAPH - The Arcade
SIGGRAPH - Demoscene