Hello Sir!
Good evening everyone
A late afternoon I guess
Thank you for
having me on for this webinar
First of all I must thank FRAMEBOXX for
giving me this opportunity to address
the audience, large number
of people that I see are coming on board
& hopefully we'll have a fun session today
more in terms of a freewheeling chat
Please feel free as Vishal said,
to ask questions that you may have
We're trying to try and cover
as many queries
that you may have
whether it is related to any kind of
specific trouble shooting
or related to your careers
related to questions you may have
regarding
what to do
during down time
or even how to further your education
even if you may be
already working somewhere
I think this is an exciting subject
that we've managed to hone in on
and the reason we didn't want
to keep it technical in nature
or specific to a particular vertical
is that the first in the series,
we're hoping that
this will become a series
is more trying to get to know
what is the general sentiment
so once we get clarity on
the type of topics
that people want to address
then I guess we can you know come up with
dedicated sessions regarding those topics.
Today, it is going to be
pretty much an informal session, so
I can give you a little bit of a backdrop
in terms of that, I've been involved
with the animation industry
for well over 30 years now
along with the animation industry
I also been fortunate to be associated
with the manufacturing sector
I've been associated with the NGO,
Non-profit sector which again has been
in the education vertical
I'm now also, as Vishal said
in the introduction
been associated with
several acclaimed institutes
I feel that there's a lot of stuff
that professionals can contribute
from their experiences
in these various streams that they
have spent their lives in
and what better way than to get involved
with institutes, educational schools
and colleges and to give back
to the students and the new generation
any sort of knowledge
that can be of help to them.
At the outset I'd like to start off
by saying that this is
This is an industry and a craft
that is a lot of fun
and the best part is that
you have people paying you
to have fun!
So long as you are sincere
you are disciplined and you are focussed
without losing sight of the fact that
you're having a good time and
you should be having a good time
doing whatever area of work that you
are doing
I don't think that there is
any other parallel that you can find
in any other industry where
you can have so much of fun and
make a livelihood out of it
and make a serious career out of it
One of the things, that I think
Vishal mentioned to me during
our discussions is that
where exactly is the industry headed
and we'd like to talk about what all
is happening in the industry
so that those of you who are planning
to get in, or who have enrolled
in courses, or are about to complete
their courses
what lies in the future for them
So as I was saying that in terms of
the current state
this is an amazing time
for animation per se
because
as I see
what is happening on the
broadcast front, or what is happening
on the streaming front, what's happening
on the publication front,
what's happening on gaming
there's a whole lota stuff that's going on
A lot of development work is going on
lot of creative stuff is happening
People very often come up to me
students ask me,
should we take up 2d animation,
because 2d animation
seems to be dead
I don't know where this impression
comes in from, I think 2d animation
is alive and kicking,
In fact if you look at the majority
of shows that you find on air
the maximum percentage is towards 2d
animated shows.
One of the things
that we do joke about in the industry is
that if you want to find a 2d animator
it's very difficult, it's very easy to get
a 3d animator today.
It's an interesting development to see
that 2d is finding favor again.
There's a lot of interesting stuff
happening even internationally in fact
in stop motion areas. In 3d movies area
you're seeing a lot of films that are
being launched
purely on the 3d animation platform
and now most of them are headed towards
hyper-realism or you know super realistic
movies.
Along with that look at
the game development area, I don't
know how many of you are aware but
recently Unreal5 was launched,
and you know there was a demo
that we could all see,
and that's like really mind-blowing work
that's happening you know in the
gaming sector
Which I think is also
changing a lot of the rules of the game
because
we've been always talking about 3d
animation and as being slightly different
from gaming. Also from the standpoint
of asset build, from the standpoint of
actual execution, from the standpoint of
how exactly we handle you know textures
and images we create
the backgrounds that we create,
all the associated art that goes with it
I mean this new development has
just blown the socks out of everyone,
I mean if you look at the demo,
it talks about heavy assets,
it talks about assets which that have no
concern to optimisation and special care
in modeling, rigging, texturing and
lighting and so on so forth
In fact you've got like billion count
scenes and interactive lighting
in real time!
How how would anybody even in
their wildest of dreams would imagine that
something like this would happen
I believe that this is an interesting time
a lot of fun stuff is happening
Open source tools are really kicking in
in a very big way. Those of you who are
familiar with open source will know what
I'm talking about, those of who are not
Open Source is basically FREE
software that you get, no license required
You download it, install it and
you're up and running
and it's FREE for life!
So there's a lot of stuff
that is happening in the 3d arena as well
as in the 2d arena as far as
Open Source software is concerned.
A few years ago,
I wouldn't be saying this
because Software was not
or the tools were not yet as
well evolved in the Open Source arena
But all that is changing
so the last couple of years has seen
huge shift in terms of how people are
even approaching development,
how people are approaching this craft,
how people are approaching
you know the art behind it.
So thus, I think this is
this is a fantastic time to be involved
in this craft and industry
Sir, out of all of these topics like you
see a lot of people coming on social media
and talking about you know why to start
working with Blender, start working with
Maya, start working with Photoshop
Why is that you chose this specific topic?
What is that 'beyond the techniques'?
What do you really mean by that?
Firstly I think that everybody is
focussing on the technical aspect
I think there is no point in also being
a 'Me too' there you know where
Some are talking about
tips and tricks in Vfx, some are talking
about Blender, some are talking about
Maya, some are doing session on Nuke
a Gaming session, the technicalities
left, right and center
I myself am a software agnostic person
Which basically means that I do not have
any affiliations with any software
because I don't think
software is important
I, in fact don't believe
that Software is important
what is important is your understanding
of the craft and what is
your understanding of the basics
or the fundamentals of the craft
Software is just a tool
So
Yes! It will be that what you can do
in maybe Photoshop in one way
probably you know Substance Painter will
allow you to do that in another way,
Krita will allow you to do it another
third way, it's not that you will not
be able to do things.
The only time when you come to a dead end
when you say that I can't do this in this
software is probably when either
the software itself is not that evolved or
you really don't know your basics
that well.
Because there is always a workaround
there is no one right way to approach
a problem and to solve it.
This is a fact.
Similarly even with 3D, whether you are
working with Max, or you're working with
Maya or you're working with Softimage, or
you're working with Modo or you want to
work with Blender
If your fundamentals are not clear
if your basics on what is it that you're
trying to do are not clear
You're not going to be any better off than
the next guy. I think this insistence
on software should stop. Given a choice
I would like to see a lot more focus
coming in on holistic learning
which means that there are things which
we are not talking about but
are extremely important.
Yes! training is important,
you need to know the tools,
you need to know how to use the tools
which is where courses come into play
and specific courses come in to teach
you specific things about various tools,
But there are also things
like the management side of art
there are things like the business side
of art, there are things which are about
how do you develop yourself as an artist
beyond the software,
And I didn't find anybody addressing
those topics. It was like a very similar
thing that happened when the lockdown
started happening in our country and
world over in fact.
I saw a lot of articles being written on
work from home, and a lot of people
talking about what work from home means
but frankly I didn't find even one article
which was addressing specific areas or
specific points, in terms of Ok
Work from home..so here
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10... these are
things that you should be looking at
in order to kind of adjust your working
style, in order to adjust the way that
you're approaching your work.
These could be starting points for you to
be looking at so that they can help you
transit this difficult phase.
So that prompted me to write an article
myself, and I kind of took what all was
missing from what people should have been
saying and should have been addressing.
And trying to put those down
in front of people
Now, I'm not saying that is a solution
I'm not saying that is the only solution
but atleast it gives you some points
to start examining yourself
seeing whether you are actually
doing these things, if you're
not doing these things
can you do these things
If you go to my website there is a
link on my website which is to
the article, I posted the article on
LinkedIn as well
It's just a collection of thoughts that
If you're working from home,
this is a changed environment,
it's a changed situation,
lot of things are not in your control,
a lot of things are in your control
so let's start worrying about what
we have in control and let's start
addressing issues from that standpoint
So, instead of saying
Oh well! we have a problem
My approach is always trying to
look at it, OK, what is the solution?
Let's try to become a part of the
solution, as opposed to
reinforcing what the problem is
Everybody knows what the problem is
Right?!
So this session again in the same vein
was more about
We all know there are software tools
we all know that there is ample
material available
Even
when it comes to
technical aspects, there is a lot of stuff
apart from
these interactive sessions.
There is enough stuff available
online which you can look at and
you can follow along, and do your demos
and learn a new craft.
To give you an example
3 years ago I started working on
Open Source Blender
And people say, Oh well you know now
we've become old, we've spent too much
time in the industry and
how will we learn. It's again
just a matter of what is your interest
what is your inclination.
How important is that
learning for you.
And....
it's not really difficult if
if you have your fundamentals clear
It's just a matter of
applying those fundamentals using a
different set of tools.
And that is what
allowed me to pick up Blender
very very quickly, in a matter of like
I would say 6 weeks! I was doing
some fairly interesting stuff on it.
Although following tutorials and
following teachers online. But still
it's a question of just getting in there
and giving it a go.
We felt like things like,
what is DESIGN MANAGEMENT?
Why is design management important?
What are the things that are needed
beyond the skills that you are learning in
your schools and your courses?
Are there things that are there that can
be learnt, you know which are beyond
these kind of skill sets?
So that's the reason why
we said let's talk about
something that is beyond the technique.
Ok!. So Sir....
We'll start with the next question
Sir, nowadays we have so many students
who are learning so many different
tools, like Maya is there, Max is there
Blender is there, there are so many
different softwares which are
being released. And all the institutions
are teaching technical tools, like how to
use a move tool, or how to use a extrude
tool. So what is that one thing that you
can say is lacking in students today.
I wouldn't say there is anything lacking
in students today because that's like
saying that you know what all these
institutes are doing is of no use.
I wouldn't be presumptuous to say that
I think there a lot....
You have to understand one thing...
What does a course do for you?
I mean, when you go to school
tell me that you studied from Kintergarten
all the way to Class 12,
have you learnt everything that there is
to learn? NO!!
It's practically impossible for any school
any course to teach you everything there
is to learn about a subject.
And trust me that's not the intent either.
There are fixed curricula that schools
follow. These curricula are designed
based on general tendencies of
what the market is looking for.
it's practically a lot of it is dependent
on what the professional market wants.
So, one of the reasons why in our country,
3d animation developed the way that it
developed, was because there was a huge
need for specialist you know artists
at a given point in time
when this industry was just about
picking up.
It's incorrect to blame courses
it's incorrect to blame institutes
that, oh well!
they're not teaching animation!
The fact of the matter is that there
is a curriculum that is being taught, the
curriculum is being taught by hopefully
people who know what they're talking about
I think what students need to
understand is that learning does not
finish in the institute.
In fact, what the institute
or any institute is giving you
is a sense of direction.
It's giving you a sense of
the path that you want to walk on
Here are some basic
things we will equip you with
We'll teach you these
in the hope that you will excel in them
and the curiosity will be awakened enough
for you to
learn a lot more beyond what
we are teaching you here
because it's practically impossible
Even if you take a 3-Year course,
it's practically impossible for animation
visual effects, gaming whatever
whatever industry you want to talk about
forget even animation
any industry you want to talk about
you know a 4-year course in engineering
teaches you everything there is
to learn about engineering,
or 4-Year course in architecture
It doesn't
So there are a lot of things you have to
learn yourself. I'll mention a few
things which I find very interesting that
You learn well
when you're interested to learn,
you've to always remember this.
Only when you're interested
in learning something
are you really going to learn it well.
Because, if there is...
if learning is not enjoyable,
it's a wasted effort.
It's like just going though the motions.
Alright?
So if you're not
enjoying the process of learning,
It's like if a teacher is not
enjoying the process of teaching, he will
never be a good teacher, he will never be
able to reach a status of a Mentor or
a Guru. He will always be (just) a teacher
Right?!
How is it that you remember
only a few choicest teachers from your
school days.
It's how they impacted you
How they taught you.
You always remember how. So whether it's
a Maths teacher, it's an English teacher,
a Hindi teacher or any,
even Sanskrit teacher for that matter
How they teach the subject
comes through from the passion
that they bring to it.
Now the same thing applies to a learner
as well.
If you're going to be interested in what
you are learning or attempting to learn,
if there is a genuine interest,
you will learn that a lot better.
You will imbibe that a lot better,
you will assimilate it a lot better.
Secondly, learning is always
a process of dialogue I mean
I fail to understand why
people think that learning is
a one way street..that
Teacher will talk student will learn
and everybody will be happy.
It doesn't work like that.
And dialogue means...
I talk
I seed your imagination,
I seed a thought in your mind,
and you as a student then push me
As a teacher you push me
to say, OK, I understood
what you're saying, but here is what
I feel about it...
and we have a dialogue.
The minute we get into a dialogue
that's when actually the learning starts
That's when the understanding starts
It is said that you have learnt well
when you actually learn to formulate
your own questions
Just by saying that Oh! I know
everything there is to know about a
particular piece of software
is not learning!
You've become a technician.
Nothing wrong with being a technician
absolutely, we need technicians,
but
are you a thinker?
Are you a troubleshooter?
Are you a problem solver?
Are you a person whose approaching
a problem from a standpoint of
not which tool is going to help me do this
but, what is the core of the problem?
How do I address the core of the problem
and OK once I understand
that here is where this problem lies,
then I'll go and figure out which tool,
which set of tools whether I have to catch
my (ear) like that, or I've to catch it
like that, or catch it like that,
I don't know I mean I'll figure it out
No course in the world can teach you that
No teacher in the world can teach you that
they can only guide you to it
Why are we talking about these topics
beyond
specific tools?
This is the reason
We want to encourage,
I personally want to encourage this
kind of thinking coming into students.
where your learning
starts after the institute.
Look at your mind not as
it's not like a vessel or a glass that
has to be filled up with something
Your mind has to be like wood
it has to be ignited.
So, you have to ignite your own desire to
to learn.
You've to ignite your own passion to learn
more than what is being taught
and you have to push the system
only then will you reach
towards excellence
Sir, there is one more small thought like
what can you tell or guide us
from the students from 3d, 2d, design,
Vfx and gaming industry
to focus more onto?
What should they focus on?
I have always believed that
your personal development
in this field specifically
begins with observation
It's going to be your biggest teacher
and you have to open your mind up to
observation as a past time
I have a personal habit which is that
as far as possible whenever I am
walking, to the market
or I'm coming back from the market,
I walk back to my house
using a different route everyday, if I can
There is so much to see
there's so much to observe.
How many of you know
the name of the street on which you live?
Do you know
which are the connecting roads
in your locality? What are their names?
Every road has got a name here right?
In the place where you're living
How observant have you been in terms of
what is the kind of architecture
of the houses that are there,
even if they are buildings,
do they all look the same?
Do they look different?
how are they looking different?
What kind of color combinations are
being used in the various buildings?
What are the types of trees
that I have around in the locality?
It's again like I said, it's a question of
what is your interest in?
If you're walking on the road & you don't
even pay attention to your surroundings
what is around you
then you're not observing.
You're basically just going through
the motion of walking
from point A to point B
and coming back to point A
I think you should make that into an
opportunity to learn something
which is observe things around you,
because the next time you are trying
to build a city
somewhere down the line
those observations
will be sitting in your head.
And they will help you to start
designing stuff which will not look weird
it will look believable
because you have seen it
you observed it,
you know that a structure
looks in a certain way
somewhere it's getting imprinted
in your memory
OBSERVATION
ABSORBPTION
SATURATION
These are the 3 things
that you must focus on
You have to saturate your mind,
from all walks of life.
Whether it is looking at
things that are from your industry
So if you're in 3d animation or in Vfx
natural tendency of a lot of artists
is that if they are VFx artists they like
to look at a lot of Vfx art.
3d animators will try to look at
lot of 3d animation performances
Yes!, that is good.
I'm trying to suggest to you
look beyond that.
Just because you are a vfx artist
and have an interest in vfx,
doesn't mean that you should not have
an interest in painting.
Doesn't mean that you should not
develop an interest in music, interest
in dance, interest in theatre, interest
in physical activity
because
all these things are
growing on you they are
increasing your knowledge base
increasing the database that you have
of all information.
Where you are going to use
that information how you are going
to apply what you have learnt
you don't know, nobody knows.
It's a subconscious thing that happens
Why do you find that a lot of artists
will make something that looks
very realistic believable
while some artists will make stuff
and you'll say well this looks fake,
doesn't look real, I think
it looks like somethings wrong with it.
The difference is observation.
The difference is how keenly has
one artist observed the finer nuances
and those observations then have come back
to play a role in the work that he or she
is doing.
And this is the key thing that
you have to understand
For an animator...
Go watch a dance recital
or a dance performance
99.9% chances if you are really paying
attention to the performance you've
really enjoyed the performance,
it will make a difference to the way that
you setup your animation performance
Because these are subtle things you will
ABSORB without even realising them
But
Give a dance performance to an animator
who has never created a dance sequence
has never seen a dance sequence
and you will see the results.
And say well, doesn't look convincing!
I think a lot of stuff which is ancillary
Music, Design, Architecture,
Science & technology
maybe Handicraft
I see a lot of technical stuff, there are
fantastic programs like heavy engineering
programs & 'How It's Made' a nice program
that comes
'How does it Work'
Woodworking exercises
not that these
are going to help me in animation or they
are going to help me in digital effects
It's just that you saturate your mind
You saturate and absorb lot of
the information that you see in terms of
Shape, Form, Color, Style, Design, Pattern
and they get imprinted in your memory
