“Return of Hanuman” finally released, throughout India

Triruvananthapuram-based firm has finally released, India’s first 2D animated feature film entitled "Return of Hanuman". The movie has been released throughout India in 370 theatres.

The release is a sequel to the surprise hit of 2005 animation movie 'Hanuman'.

The 90-minute animated movie is a co-production of Toonz Animation and Percept Picture Company. It has been written and directed by Bollywood director Anurag Kashyap.

The animated movie shows return of Hanuman in the current age to save the planet Earth from destruction.

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Big budget animation from Bollywood in '08

PUNE: There is a cyclone brewing in India’s animation film industry, after ‘Hanuman’ took the Indian film industry by storm. Many animations films are taking shape in studios, with big budgets riding on them and industry insiders claim that close to 10 such films will be ready for release in India in 2008. Here’s a peek at what viewers can expect.

Yashraj Films Ltd in alliance with The Walt Disney Studios has finished 60% work on its first animation film ‘Roadside Romeo’, slated for release in June 2008. Shemaroo has also finished work on ‘Ghatothkach’, its second animation film after ‘Bal Ganesh’. Govind Nihalani is working on ‘Kamlu’, his first animation film, and has lined up three other animation projects after that.

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'The Return of Hanuman' to begin new era of animated movies

New Delhi (PTI): As 'The Return of Hanuman', the first animation sequel, hits theatres on Friday director Anurag Kashyap promises to bring a new phase of animated movies.

'The Return of Hanuman' is set in modern day India and this time Hanuman has returned to the earth in a new avatar 'Maruti', who is a school boy with a mission to save the world from the evil doers.

Hanuman being the original super hero of India, the movie promises an all out fun for the kids who loved the previous 'Hanuman'.

It is full with the funny antics of a kid which involves action, comedy and drama.

Having a reputation for making dark and serious cinema, Kashyap's tryst with his first light hearted children animation movie was not easy, says the director.

"For me it was a great learning experience, I made so many mistakes while working on the movie but fortunately had the chance to correct them," Anurag Kashyap told PTI.

The movie has inspired the director and has opened a all new field of creativity, "Hanuman was a wonderful and enriching experience. I am planning to make another animation movie which will be entertaining for both children and adults," says Kashyap.

The director, who has also written the dialogues of the movie said "my inspiration behind writing and directing the movie was my daughter Aliya. The movie is dedicated to her."

Source : http://www.hindu.com/

Thomson unit ties up with DreamWorks Animation

Mumbai: The Technicolor Services division of French technology firm Thomson has partnered with DreamWorks Animation SKG to develop capabilities for production of animation films in India.

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“It is a strategic alliance in which we will be providing the infrastructure while Dreamworks will initially help us in recruiting and training talent in India. In the next 6-12 months, we expect to start production for Dreamwork’s movies,” Thierry Pasquet, Vice-President, Thomson – India, told Business Line. Both the parties intend to bring to India “as much production work as possible”, added Pasquet.

DreamWorks is an independent American animation studio, which roughly produces two feature animated films a year. Some of the well-known movies from the DreamWorks stable include Shrek, Shark Tale and Madagascar. The companies will also focus on partnering for TV programming, commercials and video games, with a strong focus on 3D content. The alliance leverages Thomson’s recent investment in Paprikaas Animation Studios, an animation and game content provider in Bangalore, said a company communication. The 200-people-strong Paprikaas offers creative, technical and production capabilities to design and produce computer-generated animation for feature films, television programming, commercials and video games.

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Inside Movie Animation: Simulating 128 Billion Elements

Ever wonder how animated films such as The Incredibles get hair, clothing, water, plants, and other details to look so realistic? Or how, like the lion in The Chronicles of Narnia, animated characters are worked into live-action films? If not, the animators would be pleased, since they don't want special effects to distract from the story. Behind the scenes, though, is a sophisticated combination of artistry, computation, and physics.

Traditionally, animation was hand drawn by artists who needed"some of the same magical eye that the Renaissance painters had, to give the impression that it's realistically illuminated," says Paul Debevec, a computer graphics researcher at the University of Southern California. Over the past decade or so, the hand-painted animation has faded as physically-based simulations have increasingly been used to achieve more realistic lighting and motion. Despite this movement toward reality in animated films, the physics of the real world remains a slave to expediency and art: Simplifications and shortcuts make the simulations faster and cheaper, and what the director wants trumps physical accuracy.

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Animation park next on state IT agenda

The IT department of West Bengal is in the process of negotiations with some animation companies to set up an animation park in Kolkata.

"We are in talks with some animation companies with the objective of setting up an animation park in the Kolkata", state IT minister Debesh Das told reporters on the sidelines of a roundtable discussion on India-EU trade and investment development programme (TIDP), organised by Ficci.

"Apart from the plan to set up the animation park, we are trying to rope in some hardware companies to set up manufacturing bases. Moreover, we are expecting some high-end industries to come up in the proposed IT park to be established near IIT-Kharagpur", he added.

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Animation, the big promise

Who watches animation? Children? Youth? Adults? What is animation’s potential? Who’s going to see Hanuman Returns, to be launched in a week’s time? What is India’s opportunity in animation? What can animation be used for? Can animation break geographical and cultural barriers?

The questions are endless and so are the answers. According to Orion Ross, VP creative and original content, Turner Entertainment Network Asia, Inc., we appear to have come full circle on animation, in one respect. “In the early days of cartoons (Tom & Jerry, Bugs Bunny), the creators couldn’t distinguish audiences, so cartoons had to be smart enough to straddle both children and adults. Bugs Bunny said some really smart truths. We could be seeing that coming back.”

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India to be main focus of animation film festival

NEW DELHI: The 'back office' tag on the Indian animation film industry is finally wearing off. In a rare honour, Annecy International Animated Film Festival, the world's biggest animation festival held every year in France, has announced that India would be the focus in 2008.

The recognition by Annecy festival could place the Indian animation industry, which has so far remained a technical hub for visual effects and post-production for Hollywood, on pedestals. Some of the biggest animation films like 'Shrek' have been partly done in Indian studios, but never acknowledged. That could change now with India's own animated films getting exposed to the beeline of buyers at Annecy.

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Animation competition for BETT 2008

Children invited to design animated characters in national competition

BETT 2008 will see the launch of the Animate IT competition, aiming to encourage children to design claymotion animations with a chance to win software for their trouble.

The competition is being curated by Bob The Builder designer, Curtis Jobling, Kudlian Soft and Film Street.

The competition is open to children aged 12 and under for both school and individual categories with two winners being chosen from each category. The two individual winners will receive an iMage webcam and a copy of either Kudlian Soft's I Can Animate or Stop Motion Pro. The two winners from the school category will win six iMage webcams and a school site licence for I Can Animate or Stop Motion Pro each.

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India needs 10k animation experts for global play

AHMEDABAD: India needs at least 10,000 professional animators of international standards if it wants to survive the competition from countries such as Philippines, Korea and Taiwan, said director of the animation movie Hanuman VG Samanth.

He was in Ahmedabad to inaugurate a training campus of Digital Asia School of Animation association with Lakhotia Institute of Art & Design, a division of Lakhotia Computer Centre (LCC). Set up at an investment of Rs 50 lakh, the institute claims to churn out around 125 trained animators every year.

Speaking to the media after the inauguration, Mr Samanth said, “Barring one or two films, I am not happy with the quality of animated movies being made in the country. People are entering into the business just to make quick money. They produce low cost, low quality animation movies.”

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"Anime: Drawing a Revolution" is Garbage

Not too long ago, lots of mainstream news outlets were running articles that had headlines like, "Biff! Bam! Pow! Comic Books Aren't Just for Kids Any More!" These articles were often poorly researched, superficial fluff pieces that expressed great surprise that modern comic books had four-letter words, graphic violence, and provocative themes. The idea that comics were a valid form of expression on their own and were a medium that had been shackled into a genre and an age group never seemed to occur to most of the writers of these articles.

The documentary film Anime: Drawing a Revolution might as well have been titled, Biff! Bam! Pow! Cartoons Aren't Just for Kids Any More! It may also be best if you walk into this hour-long documentary, which airs on Starz tonight at 9:00 PM (Eastern/Pacific), knowing that it's not really about anime at all, but rather about the co-opting of anime into mainstream American culture. It has little interest in the art and artistry of anime, focusing instead on how the American entertainment industry reacts to anime and borrows from it. It doesn't do a very good job explaining that, either, but knowing this ahead of time will reduce exasperation from otaku or general animation fans, and also temper any mistaken impressions from those who watch this in the hopes of gaining understanding more about anime.

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Antics Launches Free 3D Animation Software

Antics Technologies has released a free version of its realtime animation software that until now has been the reserve of film professionals such as Jim Rygiel, Oscar-winning vfx supervisor on THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy. Now all animation enthusiasts will be able to use Antics V3 to quickly and easily create content-rich, animated stories using this versatile, intuitive and highly flexible animation system.

Alastair Woolley, managing director of Antics, explained: "With this latest version, we're really opening up animation for everyone. Using simple techniques like 'drag and drop' and a simple user interface, anyone with a story to tell or an interest in filmmaking can now bring their ideas to life in real time. We've also taken the hard work and complicated calculations out of animation by using intelligent props that characters can easily interact with through a simple 'point and click' action that moves your character from A to B in a single command. While the software helps make animation more accessible, it is still powerful enough to build complex scenes and add cameras to view the action from whatever angle and positions you want."

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Animation tools free to users

Amateur animators will now be able to use software that the production teams from the sets of The Lord of the Rings trilogies and the Chronicles of Narnia have used for free.

Antics Technologies has released a downloadable version of its realtime animation software Antics V3 that will allow users to create characters and sets in an easy to use, point-and-click format.

Alastair Woolley, managing director of Antics, said that with "simple techniques like drag-and-drop and a simple user interface, anyone with a story to tell or an interest in filmmaking can now bring their ideas to life in real time."

Users will still have access to the more complicated actions involving special scenes and camera angles that will allow "cameras to view the action from whatever angle and positions you want", he added.

The free version of the software has a library of scenes and characters including everything from a Wild West scene to a modern city landscape and for an additional fee, enthusiasts can purchase more scenes, import third party animations and share content with other users in an open forum.

Source : http://www.bcs.org/

New PowerPoint rival uses 3D animation to slash preparation time

World Class Solutions has just launched a new class of presentation software that combines the advantages of 3D graphics and animation with significantly reduced preparation time. The low-cost package is available from the firm's web site.

"It's called 'Executive Impact' because it's possible to create a complete presentation from scratch in less than 7 minutes", explained CEO Pat Hough. "Most business people don't have enough time to create effective presentations because they're just too busy. This package will help them focus on their message - the most important part of any presentation. The graphics and structure are already built-in."

Executive Impact actively blends 3D graphics with text. "Our aim was to develop something new to give our customers a professional edge. I think they also enjoy the irony that the best-looking presentations now take the least time to create", said Pat Hough. Audiences agree that the results are exceptional - a departure from PowerPoint templates that use graphics only as a backdrop.

World Class Solutions also develops high-end custom presentations. All of the key points in those presentations are illustrated using 3D animated graphics. "First we profile the audience", Pat Hough explained. "Then we fine-tune the graphics to appeal specifically to the decision-makers in the audience. The sequence, the timing and the keywords all have to be carefully chosen for maximum impact. Custom presentations can take between four and six weeks to prepare but the same underlying technology is used in the new product."

Executive Impact is a stand-alone presentation package for Windows XP or Vista. It does not require Microsoft PowerPoint or other presentation software. Each package is based on a single theme and costs Ђ25 + VAT (about US$37). More information is available on the website.

Source: http://www.pr-usa.net/

Frame by Frame, Animation Moves to India

If you have a date to go to the movies with a child this week, chances are good that part of the movie you'll see was made in India. Both The Golden Compass and Alvin and the Chipmunks used digital animation that was created in Mumbai.

India is rapidly becoming a player in the global cultural marketplace, and animation is no exception. Los Angeles-based animation company Rhythm & Hues worked on the films from their Hollywood offices — and from the offices that they have opened in India. Employees stay in contact through daily video conferencing, bridging 12 time zones and 13,000 miles.

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Should Oscar honor animation effects?

For many, the idea of honoring visual effects in animated films elicits a simple reaction: "Huh?"

Which is short for: How can you separate out "visual effects" in movies entirely created by artists?

Some in the visual effects industry insist there's an argument to be made for honoring effects in animated films. This Oscar season, Sony Imageworks is making that argument especially loudly, and it's not alone.

"If I had to draw the line," says Zareh Nalbandian, CEO and co-founder of Animal Logic, "anything that is part of the character performance is really on the animation side of the fence, where anything that is outside the character performance, the things we'd see in a live-action visual effects movie, should be eligible for visual effects consideration."

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Frame by Frame, Animation Moves to India

If you have a date to go to the movies with a child this week, chances are good that part of the movie you'll see was made in India. Both The Golden Compass and Alvin and the Chipmunks used digital animation that was created in Mumbai.

India is rapidly becoming a player in the global cultural marketplace, and animation is no exception. Los Angeles-based animation company Rhythm & Hues worked on the films from their Hollywood offices — and from the offices that they have opened in India. Employees stay in contact through daily video conferencing, bridging 12 time zones and 13,000 miles.

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Chandigarh firm plans animation, gaming studio

Chandigarh-based Compact Disc India Ltd (CDIL), an integrated media and entertainment company, plans to set up an animation-cum-gaming studio in the northern region with an investment of Rs 50 crore spread over 1 acre.

However, the location is yet to be finalised but it may be either in Chandigarh, Panchkula (near Chandigarh) or Mohali (Punjab).

Speaking to Business Standard, CDIL Managing Director Gautam Seengal said: “We have plans to set up an animation-cum-gaming studio with major thrust on gaming. We have applied for 1 acre of land in Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali. Out of these three location, the proposed studio would come up wherever the government allots us land. We have earmarked Rs 50 crore, funded through internal accruals and term loans, for the project. The proposed studio is likely to employ 350-400 people.”

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New PowerPoint rival uses 3D animation to slash preparation time

2007-12-06 14:23:50 - Presentations that blend text with 3-D animation can now be created in minutes with Executive Impact - a new low-cost software package from www.wclass.com.

World Class Solutions has just launched a new class of presentation software that combines the advantages of 3D graphics and animation with significantly reduced preparation time. The low-cost package is available from the firm's web site at www.wclass.com.

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'Yantra' — first local Tamil film to have 3D animation

PETALING JAYA: A local Tamil movie with 3D animation was launched yesterday.
Yantra, directed by K. Annan, revolves around a group of people seeking a treasure believed to have stemmed from a myth.

It will be screened nationwide on Dec 20. A gala premiere will be held on Dec 13.

“This movie is a wholesome movie that can be watched by audiences from all walks of life.

“This is also a first for a local Tamil movie featuring 3D animation,” said Annan.
Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Deputy Minister Datuk S. Veerasingam, who launched the movie, said it had the makings to be a hit with the audience.

The movie is produced by Avana Entertainment and ATV Pictures Sdn Bhd while Guinness Anchor Berhad is the main sponsor.

GAB and the producers have started a series of charity drives to collect funds for three Tamil schools — SRJK (T) Tapah Perak, SRJK (T) Ladang Tuan Mee and SRJK (T) Ladang Coalfields.

The money raised through the charity drive will be used to buy essential items for the students.

During the launch a total of RM6,000 was collected.

Also present at the launch were Pyramid Saimira Theatre Chain (M) chairman S. Vell Paari and Youth and Sports Ministry parliamentary secretary S.A. Vigneswaran.

Source : http://www.nst.com.my/

Animation film festival offers nearly 300 films

Around 300 productions from around the world are being screened at the ongoing International Animation Film Festival in İstanbul, running through Dec. 9 at İstanbul Museum of Modern Art's movie theater.

The festival will screen award-winning animation films from a variety of countries including the US, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Canada and France, among others. "One Rat Short" by Alex Weil, "No Room For Gerold" by Daniel Nocke, "Tyger" by Guilherme Marcondes, "Leviathan" by Simon Bogojevic Narath, as well as "The Runt," "Lapsus" and "Ark," are among the hotly anticipated titles featured in the festival lineup. Japanese filmmaker Makoto Shinkai's latest film "5 Centimeters per Second," American director Eric Leiser's debut film "Imagination" and Christiane Cegavske's "Blood Tea and Red String" are competing at the festival's "most experimental feature animations" section.

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Pune set to become next animation hub

Maharashtra's cultural capital, Pune, is seen competing with Hyderabad and Mumbai to be the country's animation hub. With the sector facing severe human resources shortage, more and more studios are increasingly venturing into animation training.

And enough space and a ready-made pool of engineers around, Pune is seen jostling for bigger pie of India's animation hub. A conducive ecosystem for animation is already evolving in Pune with the best animation studios announcing plans to launch centres in Pune.

The Reliance ADAG-acquired Anirights Infomedia, with a capacity of 600, is one of the biggest animation studio in Pune. The studio was relocated to Pune from Bangalore in August this year. Jumpgames.com, another Reliance-owned company in gaming also opened up a development centre in Pune early this year. Nvidia Graphics has set up its operations and is rapidly expanding.

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Boom in animation - Courses become popular with jobs on offer

The animation training industry in the city has witnessed tremendous growth, with a spurt in the number of students enrolling for courses over the past few years.

Training institutes attest to the trend. At Arena Multimedia, the number of students has grown by 50 per cent since last year. Webel Animation Academy, the only state government-sponsored animation institute in the country, has also done well since opening doors in 2004.

“We started with 50 students in 2004. Now, we train 300 students every year. The growth in number is testimony to the tremendous interest in the animation industry,” says Srimati Mukherjee, the project head of Webel Animation Academy.

The students have become more focused about what they want to learn. It is no longer a case of trying out new avenues. “Those who come to us know exactly what skills they want to pick up and why. They are taking up the subject because they have keen interest in it,” says R. Krishnan, global head, Arena Multimedia.

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Innovation: Key for animation industry

In the animation industry, the key ingredient is innovation. Cartoons and graphics can be two-dimensional, as long as the ideas behind them aren't, that's the message at China's first international annimation trade fair in Anhui province.

Over 300 animation companies from home and abroad have turned out for the fair. Animation giants Disney, Paramount, and China's top producers, China Central Television and Shanghai Media Group are just a few of the big names. From animation makers and producers to distributors and traders, the fair is an opportunity for all key players in the industry to exchange ideas and make new deals.

The animation industry is booming with a product value of over 200 billion US dollars a year. And the price of its relative products is above 500 billion. China represents one of the big markets for the animation industry. Chinese animators say they are confident about reviving the animation scene here in China and are on a mission to become one of the main creators of animation. ZS CCTV

Source : http://www.cctv.com/