We have a few questions from the audience
Sourabh is asking...
The only software that is best for
Animation is here.....this is the software
that is best for animation.
How you're going to develop this software
and how you're going to develop
this toolset, that's going to determine
how your animation turns out
Everything apart from that is secondary
It's like, let me give you an example
Somebody comes up to an artist and says
You've painted a beautiful picture
what brush do you use?
The writer turns around and says
that's like
you've written a beautiful letter,
which typewriter do you use? It's not
the tool that's going to make a difference
in terms of your animation whether
Blender, Max or Maya
Please get this thing out of your head
The only tool that is going to really
help you is up here
USE THIS!
Sir, we have a next question from Sneha
Well the first basic thing like I said
which I covered
OBSERVATION!, very important...
Understand that
Animation is NOT about movement.
This is a common mistake that
a lot of students make.
Animation is PERFORMANCE
And if you can understand the difference
between movement and performance
you will understand
what is the basic
change you need to bring about in your
approach to creating animation
For performance what is important
Go and WATCH MOVIES.
See how actors perform,
how they get into character
Watch
good characters,
watch bad characters as well.
Watch good films which you enjoy
don't shut down a bad film just because
you don't enjoy it. Watch it, because
you'll probably learn what not to do
What's not working
Why don't you like the film
and that should be a learning experience
for you, that okay, I didn't like the way
the pace of the movie worked
It was too slow for me
I didn't like the way the camera was setup
because it was not
defining the action clearly
I did not like the
performances of the actors
because they were not convincing
so it means that
the actors were not in character
You could see the actor
and you could not see the character
You're going to relate to the character
Basic things in animation are
nothing to do with the tool,
again....it's about
Are you watching a lot of drama & theatre?
If not! Go and do it
Are you watching musical performances?
if not, go and do it
Observe people.....see how people behave
how they act, how they perform.
Watch good actors, see bad actors
see good theatre artists, see good dancers
see good musicians.
Even when a musician is playing
Take a look at when
Ustad Zakir Hussain plays the Tabla.
He is so expressive
He is lost in the music
He is completely in sync
with what he is playing
and he's not an individual
at that point of time, he's is one
with his music. And you can see
his face changing.
You can see expressions coming, you can
see his head falling back coming forward.
He's making all these kind of
head movements, shoulder movements.
This is a performance that he's giving you
And he's so in tune with that performance
Now I tell you that you create animation
a character animation
and you animate a tabla player.
The difference will be
In your animation will be
those who observe live players
will know the subtle nuances
that they have to put
into their performance.
Shoulder movements!
Head movements!
How much will it move, when it will move!
Movements of the hands!
The facial expressions!
These are the subtleties that you will
observe from a live performance.
And then you can use animation
to push it a little more, ........to......
play with things like staging,
things like exaggeration
things like styling, action, the
follow through action,
the anticipation action. You can....
push the limit there because of the medium
to create a more interesting experience
But, it still is going to be a performance
So do NOT look at animation as motion
It's not taking one thing from point A and
moving it to point B and then to point C
on a timeline.
That's the technical way of looking at it.
The human way of looking at it is that
you are creating a performance.
And your performance has to be BELIEVABLE.
Your character has to
LIVE that performance, which means...
you as an animator
have to live that performance only then
will you be able to translate it
into animation.
Sure Sir,
Sir, we have one more question from Vinit
I mean this is again a repeat of what
we said earlier that
the idea is to get to a point where you
start asking questions.
Now about the tool itself.
You start asking questions about, Ok
What next?
Lets say we're talking about
a very simple tool like a
a boolean operator. Alright in 3d!
Now you've mastered the boolean tool
and you know exactly how you need to do
to use that tool
various different ways to create
different kinds of modeling
solutions for yourself. What next...?
Can you push it to a level where you come
to a dead-end and say well now maybe this
is something that can't be done here.
So what is the solution? You RESEARCH
You go and read about it,
you find out on the internet,
you talk to people who've been around
specialising in those areas,
which is why,
NETWORKING becomes very important
for you when you're in the community.
This is another thing, that I feel
students need to pay attention to, you've
a lot of attention on technicalities,
courses, institutes,
subjects and so on so forth.
I think a very good
teaching experience, a very good resource
for teaching and for learning
is the community itself.
It's a very very helpful community.
I have yet to come across any artist
who if you ask them, look I'm stuck here,
I don't know how to do this
and they turnaround and say,
Oh well! I'm not gonna tell you.
Nobody does that, OK
They're happy to help.
The point is are you asking?
Do you have the network?
Have you made an effort to step out and be
visible in the community?
Are you joining community organisations &
being part of community organisations
which give you the opportunity to network
amongst the fraternity? Because there is a
whole lot of solutions that you can get to
when you talk to people, and people
are generally helpful. Artists I've found
are generally very helpful to each other,
so long as they find that there is
a genuineness to learn.
So you need to also be prepared
with the questions that you want to ask
Don't ask questions the answers to which
you can do a little research and you can
find those answers. That's then ...
showing that you're not serious enough
to spend time formulating what is it that
you want to ask.
You've got a simple question,
10 answers are available,
instead of looking at those answers,
what you're doing is asking somebody
because it's easier to ask.
Ya! People will give you the answer,
but, do your research.
Instead of just being on social media
to socialise,
I think social media also has given us the
advantage of a lot of resource pool and a
lot of knowledge pool. There is tons
of information out there.
When we started out learning
in our careers 30 Years ago,
There was no internet.
I'm going to let that sink in
for a little while. Ok?!
There was no internet.
Internet was designed in front of us
it came into being, infact born in front
of us. So how do you think we
learnt before the internet?
BOOKS!!... Talking to people,
attending seminars, going to workshops,
that's what we did.
We got a chance to have a word with
anybody on an international call,
we would grab it.
Just that 5 seconds in a seminar.
I remember talking to a very senior artist
way down in Australia.
There was a film called
'Ferngully, The Last Rainforest'
which came out many years ago, even before
a lot of people in the audience maybe
had been born.
And they did some technical stuff in that
film which, I was working for a company at
that point of time which was
at the forefront of technical development.
And we had a suspicion that a lot of what
they've done is exactly what we've
been doing over here. So I was lucky
to be sitting in that seminar.
There was this opportunity that this
artist was on the line from Australia.
And I jumped at it, I just went up to the
phone, talked to him, asked him that how
exactly are you doing it because this is
what we are doing here, and he agreed,
that Yes this is exactly what we are doing
So... unless and until you talk to people
who are doing path breaking stuff,
who are doing interesting stuff,
you'll be limited by whatever knowledge
you're getting in a particular place,
and we all know how limiting that can be.
Sir, we have a next question from Pooja
Well! One major difference in fact not the
only difference, one major difference is
that I think digital makes you a little
LAZY! Because digital has the ability
for a CTRL Z. Ok.... UNDO!
Whereas physical there is no CTRL Z,
there is no UNDO!!!
If a stroke is drawn incorrectly
It's there. Unless you paint over it
There's no way that you're going to
get rid of it easily.
Physical is very very important
Handwork.. Practical handwork is
very important. In fact I......
suggest to a lot of my students that
even when they are talking about things
like digital modeling, they must approach
digital modeling like
I'll give you an example....
Some of our students were building
furniture, 3d furniture....
and one tip that I gave them
it's a very simple tip
Look at the piece of furniture that
you're trying to design, and get into the
mindset of the carpenter who actually
built it.
Look at where all the joints are.
See how these joints have been put
together. And you'll start slowly
getting into a mindset of how exactly
things have been put together,
which you can then translate into
your digital model.
I do a lot of DIY stuff, I do a lot of
practical work myself, from carpentry to
electricals to plumbing, I like to do all
that stuff myself, what that gives me is a
tactile feel.
So...
I know what a GI Pipe
which is a galvanised iron pipe,
I know what it looks like
because I've handled it myself.
I'm not relying on theoretical knowledge,
I'm not relying on digital things
that I've seen.
These are things I've held in my hand.
I know what woodgrain is,
I know when I sandpaper something what is
the kind of finish, that comes in. So,
I'm not saying everybody should be
doing that. But.........
Physical craft brings a very important
aspect to play which is TACTILE feel.
You get to feel a lot of stuff.
It's like... ask your mother
when she goes to buy vegetables,
why does she pick up the tomato
and feel it?
Why doesn't she just take it and put it
into the basket, like maybe a lot of you
guys are doing now that you're going.
And then you get a little talking to when
you come back home, that you've
brought these rotten tomatoes.
It's tactile, you feel it,
You hold it in your hand, you get to see
this is it's firm here, it's soft here,
it turns this way, there are dents here
there are crevices here, so
physical interaction
I feel is very very important
and if you have the ability for physical
interaction never let go of that.
Even if you're working the digital space
make time to constantly up the ante for
your physical work. So..
Even if you paint textures
as a professional
in an environment you're working as a
texture artist you're painting textures
Make sure you get home take a canvas,
take a piece of paper, draw, paint,
whatever medium. But you must do that.
Sir, we have one more question from Mihir
Again, there's tons of resources available
online, If you just take the effort to
hunt online for books on animation.
We can spend 6 months talking about this.
Alright!
there is so much of information out there
Me telling you can I give you 1 book?
There is no ONE bible.... Okay!
Sorry to bust your bubble.
Even though books may be called the bible
for animators, it's not a bible.
So you can look at The Illusion of Life
& think that this is the end-all be-all of
all existence for 2d animation, it's NOT!
Richard Williams has come out
with another book. Okay!
The Animator's Survival Kit.
There is so much of stuff out there,
it's a waste of time to even discuss
this topic over here, that which books
should I suggest for animation, gaming vfx
There's enough resources available just
please spend time going through it,
reading it.
Knowledge is never wasted
that's another thing, people think
maybe I'll pickup this book,
I won't learn anything
Well like I said, If you're interested
in learning, you will learn.
So don't hunt for a book that'll give you
the.......... Holy grail.
There is no holy grail, there is no Granth
Which you can pickup and say
I've read this so now I've reached.
We're still learning!
At our age we're still learning everyday.
Sir, there's 1 more question from Vikrant
saying....I could take this question like
Can you put a little bit highlights over
2d animation industry?, because since now
as we're all speaking about 3d,
there are very less people who are talking
about 2d, so any career approach as to how
anyone could move into that industry?
Well Vikrant, to you too, I mean I see
your little icon over here.
2d is always been..
a major area of interest for me.
I have as far as possible whenever I talk
about animation, I always talk about 2D
because I think,
Somewhere, this is a personal preference
people may agree with it, people may not
agree with it, but I've always believed
that 2D has some thing in it
which 3D can't match! No matter how
hyper-real you start making things, infact
when you start going towards hyper realism
that's the point I start shutting down
from 3D animation as well, so
But that's just me.
I'm probably one of the few people
who has not watched The Jungle Book
in it's new avataar,
because I absolutely do not subscribe to
this whole hyper realistic
stuff on the screen, because, I mean..
That's just me, I enjoy, I can still watch
the original Jungle Book
hands-down anytime.
The amount of artistry, the amount of
fluidity, the kind of beauty that
2D brings to the screen,
I still have to find that
in a lot of the 3d work.
And to answer your question why no
one is talking about 2D, I think again
it's an ill-informed question.
Look at the majority of shows that you
have on air today, you'd be hardpressed
to find an equivalent number of 3d shows.
It's the 2D shows that are ruling the
roost. So don't for an instant think about
Ya! nobody's talking about 2D in terms of
Why are we not talking about 2D training?
Why are we not talking about 2D courses?
Why are not putting insistence on 2D as a
medium to teach?
That's a valid question,
Even I would like to know why
we're not doing it because
I think we've had some brilliant
2D animators in this country
and I would love to see them come to the
forefront and start teaching the craft
that they've so beautifully taken forward
over their careers.
Here's your first student.
I would enrol happily in any course that
starts teaching 2D animation, because,
It's at a different level of enjoyment, so
I hear you, 2D is up there, very much
up there, in fact if you look at
the latest release of Blender,
Grease Pencil is a toolset that they have
for 2D animation, and it's open source,
It's a game changer, but again....
unless you know how to create 2d animation
Grease Pencil, ToonBoom, Harmony,
Call it whatever you want to,
it's not going to help you.
Because they're not going to draw for you,
You have to draw!!
Sir, next question is from my side....
From all this career perspective
of all the students like we have
so many students doing their courses,
and learning, so when is that right time
when they should start
planning for their careers?
Usually we see students creating their
demo-reels after the courses get over
then they'll hunt for the industry
then they'll make specific demoreels, so
when is that time they should
actually start thinking about it?
Let me split this into 2 parts.
One is, it depends on the duration of the
course that you're doing,
alright because not every student takes a
course which is a 3 yrs course.
I know a lot of students who take up
like short 6-month courses
or 3-month course, or a 9-months course
or 1-year course.
I'm not commenting on what course is good
what is bad, because like I said,
if you are interested in learning,
even a 6-wks course is good enough for you
The second aspect of when should they
start planning their career? I think you
should be planning your career even before
you take the course.
Because the course should be or the....
the learning process should be because
you want to get into a particular area.
What will happen & happens to a lot of us,
is that our interests change.
It happened to me personally
When I started working, my interest was
in the area of modeling.
So, I did for many years I used to
just model.
I would not be interested in anything else
I just wanted to model stuff.
And it was a nightmare because
we didn't have the kind of tools
that you guys have today.
And we didn't have the hardware also
to support those tools.
Over a period of time, what started
happening is my interest in modeling
started waning away, Ok,
Been doing it for enough number of years
What next?
So the next thing that I started looking
at was LIGHTING. I said ok, now I want to
understand lighting and I want to get
into lighting in a full fledged way.
So Interest change happened.
What does that mean? That means that
there is no full-stop to when you can stop
and start on a particular thing.
You have to find what interests you
You have to find what excites you
It is something that you must want to
get up in the morning everyday and do.
Don't be alarmed if you lose interest in
certain things over a period of time
and a new interest develops.
It's perfectly natural for that to happen.
You just have to PERSEVERE,
you have to be FOCUSSED,
you have to be CLEAR that this is
something that is there for the
long haul.
This is not a field or a craft
that you should be getting in
for timepass.
So when you talk about when to start
your career? It should have started before
you decide that I want to take a course.
That's when your direction has to start
I want to make a career.
I personally was very clear that I don't
want to get into any of the regular fields
My background is in commerce.
But, I was very clear,
that I don't want to get into that field.
I wanted to get into a field which
was something different, what it was?
Again see, 'something different !'.
Very scary, because
Imagine 30 years ago when nobody's
even heard about animation and
digital animation & classical animation.
And the industry is just taking off
at that point of time
I'm saying I want to hedge my bets
and I want to make a career in this area,
which nobody knows what's going on in!
But it forced me to research,
if forced me to look, it forced me to
travel all the way from another city,
come into this city,
find ways and means to get a foothold,
literally, work for 6 months without pay
with a very clear mindset
' THIS IS MY CAREER '
If you have that kind of commitment
towards building a career.
Then I don't think that's going to come
in your way. I've done 3yrs of my course
now I should start building my showreel.
Whatever work you are doing
as part of your exercises
during the duration of your course,
you must also start looking
at those exercises that do I want to
put this in my demo reel?
People who are evaluating your portfolios
are looking for POTENTIAL.
They're looking for your OBSERVATION power
They're looking for ATTENTION TO DETAIL.
They're looking for have you painstakingly
paid attention to and spent time
on AREAS THAT ARE FUNDAMENTAL.
Give you a very simple example.
I've seen showreels of animators
wanting to apply for jobs as animators &
the character is skating on the ground
when he's walking!!
Now this is something very fundamental
Pay attention to the basics,
Get comfortable with the idea that
whatever work you're doing
you have to give it your ' ALL '.
& this is not just for animation trust me,
this is a mantra you should be making for
for life.
During this time of lockdown, I would love
to meet a lot of the parents
not the students.
And I want to ask the parents...
If they're helping you in the kitchen,
are they cleaning up after they finish
their work?
Are they cutting
the vegetables in a manner that you like
or are they doing it just as an exercise?
Are they cleaning the house
as if they really want to clean the house?
or are they cleaning it
just because the maid hasn't come in?
Point is
are you invested in that activity?
If you're invested in an activity it will
show. It will show in your work.
So if you are making your portfolio
want to make a modeling portfolio,
or want to make an animation portfolio,
or a lighting portfolio, whatever it is...
Your commitment will show in your work.
Those who are professionals sitting out
there evaluating your reels,
they have something behind them,
they know what to look for.
I think it's important
that you pay attention to DETAIL
and invest yourself fully in your career
You will find many artists will change
They start out in the art department
then after the art department
it's now we want to try our hand out at
something else, they get into some other
department but, that again,
you have to be aware,
you can't say
I spent 10 years in the art department
I've become very senior guy, now I should
get a lot of respect and I should now be
given a chance to do animation.........NO!
You are now a fresher
for the animation department.
And if you have the interest,
If you have the wherewith all,
If you have the passion,
and if you're willing to invest yourself
as a fresher, work your way up
in the animation department.
The point is don't fall off the bed and
want to become a director.
It doesn't happen.
It takes a lifetime to reach there.
