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Ramanna spells magic

Ramanna spells magic at DASA workshop in Pune
04 June 2008 10:45 AM
By MRIGANK DHANIWALA

Digital Asia School of Animation‘s (DASA) Pune centre conducted a day-long workshop for animators and animation students on May 31, 2008. The highlight of the workshop was an interactive session with Animation/VFX pioneer, Crest Animation Studios and RichCrest Animation Founder Shyam Ramanna. Digital Asia School of Animation began its India operations in the year 2006 with its India HQ–Pune. Sahil Shah, the Founder & Managing Director of the company is responsible for bringing DASA to India. In the event Shyam Ramanna handled a barrage of questions from the 300-strong crowd with panache, evoking a very good response from the audience who lined up after the session to meet him personally.

Rahul Mistry, a fine arts student told AnimationXpress.com, ‘I am glad I came for the workshop. Shyam Ramanna‘s expert and frank advice has inspired me to join an animation course soon, something that I was confused about.‘

Later in the day Dhiraj Shrivastava from DASA conducted a live demonstration of Matte Painting which was well received by the audience. The electronic band Tatva Kundalini ended the day some rousing music.

After its inception in 2003 with an intention to provide talented artists to Digital Asia Concepts Limited (DACL), Thailand founded by Ramanna, DASA now has established its Indian head office at Pune and a company branch at Ahmedabad.

DASA, Co-founder Nikhil Bhagat said, "We are proud to have the maestro himself with his vast production knowledge which forms the backbone of DASA. Shyam Ramanna’s constant support and vital inputs are crucial in providing a strong leverage to the company. DASA was established to provide quality animators to the production house DACL in Thailand. Ramanna has trained animators at DASA Thailand himself and his students are either working all over the world or have started their own production houses."

Following are excerpts from Shyam Ramanna‘s responses to students‘ queries during the Q&A session:

Animation as a career:

Animation can do a great many things. DASA Thailand students have worked on the recently completed Dubai Land cinematic walkthrough Project at DACL. They couldn‘t build a city without animation, as all the blueprints for the city were made using animation, right down to the minutest detail - the cars, furniture and people. There is a lot of activity in the television, advertising and film industries and special effects, computer graphics and animation are now an integral part of these mediums.

Animation in India:

We started animation with antique computers but we loved our work. Animation is perhaps the only career where you can sit in front of a PC and create wonderful designs and characters without any raw materials, using only your imagination. There is nothing like doing animation in India, most of the time you animate, you do it for the world.

On Gaming:

Gaming is very big and difficult too! There is a lot of competition right now. The career course provided at DASA on animation also prepares a student to apply for game design and game animation jobs.

Animation Education:

I am now moving to the education side of animation. I want India to be the hub for 3D animation. We have only about 600 real animators, though we need many more. India is being looked upon as a major source for digital content service provider because of its abundance of talent at cheaper costs as compared to the world. An Indian animator costs one-tenth of that in the US. Though we do have major competition from the Chinese who are famous for their very cheap labour, but we have an edge over them as they have to translate all the software into Chinese before they can even start. According to the recent reports they seem to be learning the language very fast. Hence we need to plan our strategies very vigilantly

Tools and software:

Don‘t get stuck to a software. All major 3D software work more or less the same way. Software like Autodesk 3DS Max and Maya do good work. Maya is most widely used in India because of its robust nature. There are many free tools too. Go to the internet and look for simpler, new software if you need to get started.

Every software has its own pros and cons. Some software give the best results for a specific task in a production pipeline; so I may prefer Softimage XSI over Maya as I can work with it more comfortably. For animation, I might also use Motion Builder which is real-time software. I don‘t have to render to playback the animation.

On clay animation:

3D animation can now have up to 95 per cent of feel of clay animation but there is a market for clay animation, especially in the advertising industry.

DASA‘s initiatives:

In DASA, just to create realistic models or character motion, we send people to the zoos to observe the animals and their behaviour.

DASA will take initiative and have a degree course in Animation in a year or two.

DASA will soon have training in motion capture in India. It is already setup in its Thai office.

Animation films in India:

There are certain difficulties in cost recovery when it comes to the Indian market as the viewing market is still small. 3D films are easy but expensive to make as compared to 2D.

Upcoming projects:
CG Production Hub – CG Production Hub is a new initiative of Digital Asia School of Animation. The idea behind setting up CGP is not only giving internships or providing hands on production experience to students but with CG Production Hub students and individuals work on world class projects. After finishing the program the selected students can join CGP and explore the various possibilities to touch their productivity to an optimum level. Students get the mix-and-match techniques and produce CG assets interactively.

Post-session, Shashikant Singh, Technical Director, Pipeline of CGP told AnimationXpress.com, “We want to be the pioneers of whatever we do and the revolution is right here. The projects under CGP are quite revolutionary. DASA is involved in the kind of projects that have never been seen or heard of before – starting off from the world’s first of its kind 3D CGI comic book series. We have a tie-up with Arkin Comics which is into producing custom comics and for the first time 3D comics. Accomplishing a 3D comic book is more like creating a 3D movie as we have to model characters, rig and texture them, do the lighting, pose the characters, CC management and even animate the characters for the promo videos.”

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a day-long workshop

Digital Asia School of Animation‘s (DASA) Pune centre conducted a day-long workshop for animators and animation students on May 31, 2008.
Jun 9, 2008

Digital Asia School of Animation began its India operations in the year 2006 with its India HQ–Pune. Mr Sahil Shah ,the Fonder & Managing Director of the company is responsible in bringing DASA to India In the event Mr Shyam Ramanna handled a barrage of questions from the 300-strong crowd with panache evoking a very good response from the audience who lined up after the session to meet him personally.

Rahul Mistry, a fine arts student said, ‘I am glad I came for the workshop. Shyam Ramanna‘s wonderful advice has inspired me to join an animation course soon, something that I was confused about.

Later in the day Dhiraj Shrivastava from DASA conducted a live demonstration of Matte Painting which was well received by the DASA,Co-founder Nikhil Bhagat said, "We are proud to have the maestro himself with his vast production knowledge which forms the backbone of DASA. Shyam Ramanna‘s constant support and vital inputs are crucial in providing a strong leverage to the company. DASA was established to provide quality animators to the production house DACL in Thailand. Ramanna has trained animators at DASA Thailand himself and his students are either working all over the world or have started their own production houses."

DASA‘s initiatives:
In DASA, just to create realistic models or character motion, we send people to the zoos to observe the animals and their behaviour.
DASA will take initiative and have a degree course in Animation in a year or two.
DASA will soon have training in motion capture in India. It is already setup in its Thai office.

Upcoming projects:
CG Production Hub – CG Production Hub is an initiative of Digital Asia School of Animation . The idea behind setting up CGP is not only giving internships or providing hands on Production experience to the students . But with CG Production Hub students and individuals not only work with world class projects but they get the sense of the various forms of production and meet real problems with real solutions and this is the same kind of situation they face while hitting production. After finishing the programme the selected students can join CGP and explore the various possibilities to touch their productivity to an optimum level. Every studio nowdays works on Mix – Software pipelines and the same thing we do at CGP. So students get the mix-and-match techniques and produce CG assets interactively.With CGP we work in a manner so that the whole pipeline can meet the production deadline efficiently and effectively. CGP is here to rule with its real life animation genere of the CGI.

Mr Shashikant Singh – the Technical Director – Pipeline of CGP said – “ we want to be the pioneers of whatever we do & the revolution is right here . The projects under CGP are Quite revolutionary. DASA is involved in the kind of projects that is never seen or heard before – starting off from India’s 1st and World’s 1st of its own kind 3D CGI Comic book series is coming through DASA . We had a tie-up with Arkin Comics which is into producing Custom Comics and the first time … 3D comics.The 3D Comic series with Mind Blowing 3D CGI Involved . Now you can imagine how hard we work . Accomplishing a 3D comic book is more like creating a 3D movie as we have to Model characters ,Rig and texture them , Do the lighting , Posing the characters , CC Management and even animating the characters for Promo Videos . We have a hard time creating and finishing them but we always look for accepting challenges and win , So , there are no excuses . And we are happy with it ! “

Crest is working on five Hollywood feature films including a co-production with Lionsgate.

Animation films in India:
There are certain difficulties in cost recovery when it comes to the Indian market as the viewing market is still small. 3D films are easy but expensive to make as compared to 2D.
For more pictures or info about the event log into http://dasaworldwide.com/press.html

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a computer animation superpower

April 27, 2001 VOL.27 NO.16
Toy Story Too?
Bit by byte, Shyam Ramanna is building India's rep as a computer animation superpower
By ALEXANDRA A. SENO and ROGER MITTON

ALSO
Paint-by-Numbers: Making movies with machines
Artistic Vision: Malaysia wants some animation action

Under the circumstances, no one could confuse Shyam Raja Ramanna with Walt Disney. A multimillionaire digital animator and filmmaker with a taste for jazz, Ramanna is on a break. Earlier, he finished brainstorming a new project with clients from Dubai. With him in the bar is a film director who has just flown in from Bombay. Soon, they will return to Ramanna's suburban Bangkok headquarters to continue work until nearly dawn. "We often continue through the night, for several days," says Ramanna. "That's why we have bedrooms upstairs." As an alternative, Ramanna often invites the crew back to his home, where the more audacious skinny-dip in his pool.

No, this is not Hollywood, and Ramanna is not Walt Disney. But the whippet-thin Indian with the wicked mustache has more in common with the wholesome head Mouseketeer than it might appear. Both are animators, and like Disney half a century ago, Ramanna, 42, is a tireless force in a promising new corner of the entertainment industry. During his lifetime, Disney worked with pencil and brush. Ramanna's medium is the computer workstation. He wants nothing less than to make a blockbuster digitally animated movie that will play to the world. By acquiring overseas animation shops and snatching business that might otherwise go to industry leaders such as U.S.-based Pixar and Industrial Light & Magic, Ramanna hopes to lift his company, Bombay-based Crest Communication, and his native India's standing as a mecca for the computer-generated special effects business. Says Ramanna's wife Seema, Crest's executive director: "In two or three years, India will be seen as a major supplier of animation for all media — broadband, gaming, films, television, the Internet. India is undoubtedly sitting on the edge of a revolution in animation."

You don't have to endure 15 screenings of Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace to understand the changes computers are bringing to the entertainment industry. From the digital oceanliner in Titanic to the Roman Colosseum in Gladiator, computerized special effects are being used extensively to gin up scenes and characters that in the past required elaborate sets, models, makeup and hands-on manipulation. The average live-action film nowadays has anywhere from 10 to 100 special-effects shots — explosions, car crashes, and other scenes created through computer-generated imaging (CGI). Computers are not only being used to mimic reality that would be too dangerous or expensive to stage; they are also being used to conjure up entire on-screen worlds. 3D animation, successor technology to Disney's hand- drawn cartoons of the last century, has become a practical moviemaking tool capable of producing the digital dinosaurs of Jurassic Park or the colorful universe in Toy Story (see story page 41).

The market for digital animation and special effects has already reached $25 billion a year, according to industry estimates; it is set to expand to $70 billion by 2005. While still relatively unknown outside of India, Crest is bidding for a share. Founded by Ramanna in 1990, the company has more than 500 employees and studios in Mumbai, Madras, Bangkok, Singapore and the U.S. The digital production house has four major divisions — advertising, animation, TV software and post-production film editing. Crest did the special effects for the hit Indian flick Border last year. Movies still make up just 7.5% of revenue, projected to exceed $4 million in the company's 2001 fiscal year.

Until now, most of Ramanna's work in films, commercials and special effects has been focused on the Indian market, with about 20% coming from Southeast Asia and Arab countries. But Crest is looking to capture a share of the global marketplace through contracts with shops in the U.S. and Europe and by acquiring production houses overseas. Last year, Ramanna spent $5 million to acquire Rich Animation Studios, a Los Angeles animation factory that produced a cartoon version of The King and I for Warner Brothers. Crest's global maneuvering is not an original strategy. Other Indian digital animators and software companies are trying to expand internationally (see box page 43).

Attracting new computer-imaging and animation contracts is just part of the plan. Ramanna wants to make a big splash — with a full-length, 3D animated feature distributed worldwide, not just in India. There are two in the early stages of gestation. One is a $50 million production provisionally entitled Automation, a Toy Story-esque tale about robots in a car factory that come alive after the humans go home. American film giant Columbia Tristar is an investor in the project; Ramanna will be the assistant director. "Tristar is now re-writing the script with us, using the same scriptwriter who wrote Men in Black," Ramanna says. A lot is riding on the outcome. Warner Brothers and Disney have outsourced to Crest, but Ramanna wants more. "For years, Asia has not been considered a world-class center for animation," he says. "All you need is one good 3D animation film and it changes the perception of people around the world." Who outside of Silicon Valley had heard of Emeryville, California-based Pixar until Toy Story came along?

That Crest is playing this high-stakes game at all is testament to Ramanna's reputation as an award-winning 3D animator. It says little about his administrative abilities, however. Two years ago, Crest was struggling under a heavy debt load and was in danger of defaulting on loans. A group of investors was brought in to rescue the company from bankruptcy. His wife, a chain- smoking accountant with an economics degree, was installed to oversee the financial, administrative and commercial functions as the company's executive director based in Mumbai. Ramanna remained in charge of creative operations. He opened a sister company, Digital Asia Concepts, in Bangkok, where he handles production, searches for talented animators and markets Crest to Southeast Asia. Since the management change, Crest, which is publicly traded on the Mumbai stock exchange, turned a $1 million profit last year.

This is, after all, a man who made his mark a decade ago when he made India's first condom ad for TV. He created a sensuous shower scene in which an Indian actress caressed a phallic- shaped shower head. "There were lots of letters and complaints," he laughs. "But it was a milestone — and that condom is now India's best-selling brand." He won three awards for the commercial: best direction, best film and best camera work. He has won 42 awards since. Safeed Al Nabouda, marketing coordinator for the free-spending annual Dubai Shopping Festival, says his organization hires Ramanna to handle their TV spots for a simple reason: "Because he's the best."

Ramanna has always been deceptively unorthodox. His dad Raja is a veteran politician, a former Indian defense minister and a renowned scientist known as the father of India's nuclear program. Like others in his family, as a teenager Ramanna was directed into the sciences; he graduated in geophysics from the University of Mumbai, later getting a master's degree in technology. After a brief stint with a government oil company, he started helping a friend with production work for a music company. Music videos were just then coming into India, so Ramanna began dabbling in editing. That led him to computer graphics. "I was getting $25 a month," he recalls. But he liked the work, found he had a talent for it, and started directing and producing commercials before eventually setting up his own company. Nowadays, advertisements are a Crest staple, accounting for 24% of revenue last year. A 15-second slot will take Ramanna 10 to 15 days to complete and costs the client about $40,000.

That's a bargain price. Watching Ramanna create a figure on the computer screen from scratch is akin to following a wizard's wand. "The computer is just a tool," he shrugs, "like a brush for a painter. It's electronic, but you still have to know how to give life and character to the animated figure you create." Anatomy books and other reference works dasatle for space on his desk in his Bangkok office. "Even something as simple as a bird flying, you have to study the skeletal movements. You go to the zoo and see how it behaves. You have to give it weight and dynamic properties so that if it moves quickly its feathers flutter in a certain way that makes a layman say: 'Hey, that looks real.' " He once shot a commercial in Paris featuring a Thai model. The same commercial was needed for India, but since it would have been too expensive to reshoot in Paris with a geographically correct model, Ramanna and his team replaced the Thai woman's face with a computer-generated Indian face. Although he won a technical award for it, he says
the procedure is too expensive for commercial use. Besides, "I can't get all the emotions of the human face and I don't think I ever will get 100%."

Ramanna says his perfectionism and work habits so exasperated colleagues in his native Mumbai that he was obliged to become an entrepreneur. "No studio could cope with my hours," he says. "I would come in at 9 p.m. and want to work the whole night. It was easier for me to buy equipment and start up on my own." Part of his job today is passing along that passion and technical skill to Crest's young animators (average age: 25). Ramanna's management style is hands-on, detail-oriented, and driven. He doesn't shout; he seethes. There are plenty of frustrations. Trained animators are in short supply in Asia, a situation so bad that Crest is setting up its own computer animation school in Bangkok to feed its growing needs. "There are far too few people who can work on the computer directly and animate characters so they can emote," says Ramanna. "We need about a tenfold increase."

India's growing army of fearless young computer jockeys is the country's strongest ally in its bid to become a global center for digital film production. Despite the star quality of the Hollywood digital animation studios, "in Los Angeles, no one is really making any money in this industry," says Prashant Buyyala, strategic planning executive with Rhythm & Hues, a Hollywood visual effects outfit that won a 1995 Oscar for Babe. Buyyala says 80% of his firm's operational costs are attributable to the labor-intensive nature of the work. Labor costs "are killing us," he says.

In the U.S., accomplished animators earn $100,000 a year. In South Korea, they earn $50,000. In India, they make $12,000. India leveraged its pool of English-speaking, computer-literate workers into an $8 billion computer software outsourcing industry. Now, smart entrepreneurs are looking to do the same in digital special effects and animation. Like most of the major California special effects houses, Rhythm & Hues is meeting with Indian companies with an eye towards strategic partnerships and outsourcing deals, says Buyyala. There are plenty of partners to choose from. More than 250 animation and new media production companies have sprouted in India in anticipation of grabbing market share. Because of declining prices for powerful graphic workstations needed for computer-generated imaging, hardware is no longer in short supply. P.R. Suresh of Shaf Broadcast, an Indian company that markets Silicon Graphics workstations favored by computer animators, says he has sold more than 250 of the $12,000 machines over the past 12 months alone. "Hardware is not an issue anymore," Suresh says. "I expect to see exponential growth in 3D applications in films, television and ads."

Nevertheless, the craft of digital animation is in its infancy in India. Only two companies — Crest and Pentamedia — are credited world-class skills. "Advanced computer technology is nice," says Los Angeles animation consultant Harvey Deneroff, "but all the software and infrastructure in the world really does not matter unless there's some sort of passion behind a movie's creation." India has yet to demonstrate it can play at the highest level by producing a digitally- animated movie that is marketable overseas.

There's no domestic appetite for them. "Indians think cartoons are for kids," says Bollywood actor and director Abishek Kapoor. Getting your movie in front of the U.S. audience — which generates 60% of global film receipts — is crucial as a demonstration of mastery. Pentamedia grabbed for the brass ring last year with a U.S. release of Sinbad: Beyond the Veil of Mists, India's first all-digital animation foray into America. The movie bombed. Reviewers said the animation was jerky and unconvincing.

In part, the difficulties lay with cultural sensibilities. Unlike Chinese cinema, which has a cult following beyond its home, the formulaic plots and the jarring tendency for actors to suddenly break into song and dance limits the overseas appeal of Bollywood flicks. "We aren't ready for world markets because we don't do enough research on characterization, storyboarding, all the pre-production aspects," says A.K. Madhavan, Crest's senior vice president for international business. "We also remain weak in post-production, sound effects, dubbing — you still can't see a movie like The Matrix happening in India."

Ramanna, having witnessed the failure of Sinbad, is determined to get it right with Automation, Crest's full-length feature now in the works. Hollywood veteran Rich will handle direction. Tristar is on board, and Crest officials say a U.S. distributor is lined up (although they won't say who). "It's an interesting story," says Ramanna. "The robots have their own nighttime world where they have bars, but instead of drinking beer, they drink oil." Now comes the hard part — two years of painstakingly complex production. The movie is set for release in 2003.

And if Automation belly flops? Crest officials see other opportunities in video gaming, broadband entertainment, and interactive television. Besides, Ramanna has an even more ambitious project in his pocket: Ramayana, a digital-animation epic based on a classic Indian fable. Ramanna conceived the movie and will direct. To be made in Bangkok for a projected $10 million, the ancient tale will be rendered in animated figures that have a distinctly futuristic, Star Wars cachet. "We are looking at this story in a completely new way. It's going to be totally 3D animation, definitely my most complicated job and my most exciting work right now. It's going to be my world for the next two years."

He'll be in his element. "What I do is not moviemaking, it's more like playing God," he says. "You sit here behind a computer and you are creating characters from nothing, characters that someone is going to talk about, that people will take home with them." He believes those characters in the future increasingly will be Asian. "We want Automation or Ramayana to do that for Asia," he says. If there's an Oscar in it for Ramanna's trophy case, all the better.