Watch out for more. :-)

My 11 Second Club - August Entry

After being a member for about 4 years and commenting and learning now and then, I entered the 11 second  club August competition for the first time. It was difficult managing time to animate the shot with so much work I was already busy in but I must say, THAT is the most fun I had animating. This is it. My true love. Animation.
I learnt so much from the community. Wonderful constructive comments and suggestions on my shot, its crazy! I am nowhere right now but I am learning and 11secondclub.com is one of the best place to.

Below is the shot I animated. Couldn't make it at very top but its top 20 for now :-)

*If the above link (image) doesn't work, check out the below link to go directly to 11secondclub.com and see my entry.

http://www.11secondclub.com/competitions/august13/entry/mm8PCC

Honey! I'm Home!!

After a long time, I did some modeling and texturing. :-)
This is a Pitch we worked on. I designed the character, did the modeling (Environment), texturing (Environment) and a part of lighting for the art. Hoping to animate her as my colleague had rigged her already. Lets see!

FIRST RAIN - Videography

I am aware that this is quite a bit late to post this as it is summer already, but hey, better late than never. This videography captures the essence of the First Rain when it arrives and the urban lifestyle adapting to it. It is shot with Canon EOS 60D with 18-55 kit lens and edited and color corrected in Adobe Premiere. I Directed, Shot and Edited the film. Had a great experience shooting with my team under a single umbrella. Hope you guys feel the fresh smell of the first rain.

  

My First DSLR film - 'I AM AN ARTIST'

This is the first DSLR film we shot with Canon EOS 60D - 18-55 kit lens. I had just started exploring the camera and its shooting techniques. This film however is shot mostly on defaults. So expect to see moire, over saturation, grains and blown offs. The photography is what I had focused on though. I shot and Directed the film. Hope you enjoy it.

Horse Walk Cycle

Tried my hands on a quadruped walk cycle. Horse being the most difficult they say.... Need to refine it yet. WIP.

Journey So Far - Part 2

 Part one here.

So, if you have seen the work on our company's website, I'll tell you that its not all. Its just about 60% of what we did so far.  Why all is not showcased on the website? Well to be honest, as I have stated before that to survive and keep the studio running we had to do some generic and client oriented work not of our style and appropriate of showcasing on the website. So there you go, only the best of our work.
We started the studio without really planning about it actually. Originally we gathered to work on our dream project. After our education was complete, (formal one which didn't really matter, but it taught us how to learn BY ourselves) I wrote a story. A short story of a boy and a girl. It is about the deepest emotion of longing too hard for a small boy to understand. How he sees it and goes through it is a very different world than ours. The story was very closed to my heart and it did brought tears to my colleagues and friends who heard it. We shared the dream to make a short film on it, and so started the actual journey. We had a rented room in Pune City and without knowing much about how to go about it, we started. But we were really amateurs and didn't work out. And so we all parted and went on with our lives. A few of us got a job and we all spread out across the state.

After a few years, again the passion, the dream and the craziness possessed me and I left my great going job and came back home to team up with him. I informed my old team that I am giving it one more try and if anyone wish they can join in. It turned out that most of my team mates were just as crazy as I was, and we all came back together once again, leaving the jobs and homes behind to pursue 'The Kite'.

 It is the reason we gathered without holding back and everyone struggled at their own expenses to see it through. Our families and friends supported us and we started functioning like a studio. We rented a place in Kolhapur City and worked there. It was a beautiful palace wing. The structure was about 400 years old and was the perfect way to work in peace and pursue creativity. Slowly we had to take in some commercial projects to pay our bills and it grew from there. We made AD films, we shot documentaries and we provided VFX services to sustain. Without us really being aware of it, we were a studio. So one day, We decided, It is gonna be a different set of challenges and a much bigger dream from now on. We became, the Headquarter Studios. As the City was a small place and not really an Animation and Film market, we moved to Pune again and set up our studio much more formally and professionally. I will tell you that the way I say it makes it look like a big success and growth, and yes it is, but not quite (Don't find it weird that I am directly telling you the facts and the truth. It is what it is). We struggle more now to make out our expenses and pay up the salaries. We struggle to reach our monthly income targets. We struggle to hone our skills as artists as very little time is left to us. and most of all we struggle to work on what we came together for.

Sadly 'The Kite' is being delayed as we have to work on other projects simultaneously. But we still work on it as much as we can. You can see the work done so far here. (Can''t show you the Animatic and Storyboards as it will really reveal the entire story ;-). Don't wanna mess up the surprise. We started posting the WIPs online and got great feed backs from friends and very talented industry experts. Surprisingly, we were approached for an interview about our short film by Animation Xpress, India's leading online Animation Magazine. You can read the article here.
 
Running a business without knowing a single thing about it is madness. And keeping alive the passion of the art along with it is a challenge. More on it later.

To be continued......

Thief

Before I go further with my 'Journey so far' series, here is a little animation I did in my free time. Trying to keep it in shape :-) Hope you all like it.

Journey so far

Don't know where to begin. It has been almost a year since I last wrote. Not that I was busy, I was...just ... involved. In so many things. Since last year I am the Co - founder and Creative Director at Headquarter Studios. Yes, we started an Animation studio. I want to share the whole story, to tell you all about the adventure of starting and running a Studio, a business, and it will take me ages to write so much. I don't even know if it will be useful to anyone, but I guess it will be to me. So expect the coming articles to be about this journey so far, of an artist handling the bitter side of earning bread and butter and struggling to keep the passion of an Animator. Don't worry I'm not gonna write a kind of self help book there are many about running a business or about being a better artist or person or being successful. Hell I'm not successful yet. Just the journey... and not the destination.

We have done a lot of work these past year as a studio. Some what we liked and some to keep the studio running. Some I'd like to show you all and some I feel embarrassed to share. But anyways, you can check our website (under construction, so expect some bugs) www.hqstudios.in and our facebook page here.

I will post some work here too which are worth writing about and telling a story. Ah! Again I don't know why I am and will be writing about this. But if you wanna know how some artists who don' t know nothing about running a business, do so, then stay tuned, you are gonna find some real funny and stupid incidents to laugh upon and maybe get something out of every story. ( unless my colleagues kill me for sharing a bit too much) See ya soon!

Danny's Dream

Here is a project I was a part of when I was in Fatballoon Animations, Chennai. I love the concept and the look of it. It was immense fun animating. Below is the list of shots I animated and the rest was animated by Anand Kumar.

Thoughts

 

Ever imagine a life that they show in sitcoms. happy, and if sad, it doesn't feel so much and you get over it. Those perfect moments, those perfect dates, those perfect beautiful gardens and cozy coffee houses. Those stupid, little but worthy things to live for. is it real?

It's so weird. Everything. I am learning that everyone's perspective are REALLY different, even more than they say. By they, I mean' I don't know who exactly, but somebody'. It's so hard to function with another person with a different view and a different persona.

How two minds function with each other. How they don't. How to manage people and teams, how not to. There are books, there are sessions for life but doesn't it just goes as it have to? It's too random, the universe is. Too elusive to hold and tweak it the way we want. We can only be prepared for it. Not control it. I don't think there is really a way to learn to do all these things when you want to. Trying to organize this uncertainty is impossible. Should we stop trying and instead, just live it.

You must be wondering why I am being so philosophical and staid on a blog called Art Life. I figured,  'it's art AND its life, so let's think over on life a little'. Bear with me.

I think of all this because I am too malleable sometimes emotionally. A song I hear, a picture I see, a film I watch or a place I visit. Suddenly I get lost in something which is not real. I get lost in that song, that picture, that film or that place. What it say and what it makes me feel. Those feelings don't become a cliché for me. They affect me in a new way again and again and I just sink down and down. At that moment, I become a creator. An artist. At that point is when I start working automatically. At that point I have a personality.

There is a story in everything and that is my job as a filmmaker. To tell a story. And the moment I create it I start working on telling it. We all do this in everything we do. We imply our ideas or share them. We portray everything we like and that's what we become as a person. A personality. This brings us to the start. The question is how two different persons, because they like and live different lives physically and mentally, can agree with each other, work together or live together. Some traits can be similar co incidentally but completely, it's impossible.

 I know I know I am saying 'impossible' too much but I don't want to be positive if the things I am talking are not. It's too random, can't figure it out but I have a feeling that I don't have to.

One more crazy step

Yeah I know. The same old thing. ‘I am sorry. I didn’t write for a long time’ and blah blah bla! I think I should kick myself for that but I’ll spare me this once ;-) Hopefully I am feeding my blog just in time, before it dies of starvation.

A lot of things happened.  I don’t know where to start. I left my job as a Character Animator at Fatballoon Animations, Chennai. I am back home. And there were few reasons to leave a good job like that. The major one is, well, even my friends from that studio may not know this ;-), ‘making my own short film’. Yeah you guessed right. I am THAT guy with THOSE dreams. Crazy I know. A risky or a stupid step I know. You better call me and my team here MAD, because that’s what we are.

I can’t reveal too much about the short like who and where and how we are working on it. But I promise you guys, at mid august, we will be launching the website of our short film with some of the Pre production work and the team members. All I can tell you is that we are having so much fun working together on our dream. I don’t care then if it doesn’t fill our tummies for now honestly. This is the time we can do it. This is the time we are doing it.

An old initial rough concept.

Keep up with the calendar as we will be launching the website and the work we are doing. I hope that you’ll enjoy the journey through the entire production of this film with us. Adios!         

Going Home :-)

Inspired from J.B. Monge, this is something I tried. Painting Fantasy Life is what I enjoy most. Hobbits, Goblins, All kinds of Fairies, Elves, Dragons, Wizards...oh! I know I haven't painted as much as I am saying but its coming. That is the world for me :-)
I used a BIG wacom Cintiq fo this one. We got a new one in our office and I thought of trying my hands on it. Its AWESOMEE!
Going home. ... Going...home ^_^

Itcha

 This is a Title Animation we did at our studio for a TV Series. I am responsible for the animation. There is a lot we could do more but the director was in a hurry it seems :-)
I am posting this just for fun here. . .


Itccha from Nilabh on Vimeo.

I also designed this character, here is the Final paint :-)

My First shot in the studio

Heya guys. Here is the first complete shot I animated in the studio.


Alex Enters from Efbi Balloon on Vimeo.

I know. The animation is not that good. I was struggling in this shot and learning the methodology. Did many corrections, iterations and finally it was approved. I got the learning that I needed. I did better in the shots that I animated after this one and am improving for sure.
Also check this out which my supervisor Anand Kumar animated.


Introducing Alex from Efbi Balloon on Vimeo.

Will post the latest work as and when its out of the studio.

On the Job

Hello folks!

I AM ON THE JOB. yeah thats right. I got hired :-)
Its a Studio in Chennai, India, named Fatballoon Animations. We are currently making animated serial called ‘Big Top‘ which is 26 x 5mins episode, based on a universal content and also we are into producing Ads. I joined Fatballoon Animations 2 months back as a Character Animator. Its great learning here and I am improving a lot as an animator. You can visit the website and also read about the studio in the news. HERE

 

Well, living in Chennai is very hard for a North Indian like me. I am still struggling to adjust to the Food, the Weather, the language, the culture....everything .I miss home a lot already :-(
Sorry that I didn't get the time to post anything this last 3 months. Working in a studio really takes everything out of you. But I have plans to schedule everything properly and I am thinking of another competition on the conclave soon.

Really looking forward to the get together with my old team too. See you soon guys!

Digital Painting competition 2, My entry - THE DOCKHOUSE

Once again we had a Digital Painting competition at Animation Conclave . It was Fun. We had only 2 hours to complete the painting but of course, nobody could. It was very late night so we dicided to give it more time and complete it the next day. Had great discussions on the WIPs and fun painting it. Please check out all the entries on the Conclave
This is mine.

Batman

My favorite Superhero has always been Batman. I used to read, and I still do, the comics since I was very young and then I was fascinated by the 1992 cartoon series that used to air on cartoon network. The intensity of the show was not exactly for the kids and so many didn't like it. But it was my favorite. And of course you cannot ever forget the Music by Danny Elfman....ahh! those days!

My New Guitar - Cort Evl Z4

I know I know. My blog description says 'All about Animation and Music' but I have seldom posted anything about MUSIC, or rather nothing at all I think. Well I played an Acoustic guitar for 3 or so years, not so often like practicing everyday and all but just because I like it. Then I started loving it and now I am crazy for it. And so I started saving for an Electric guitar as I was always interested in Rock. And I am proud to present you ..my Beast!!

Cort Evl Z4 
Mahagony Body, Maple Neck, Rosewood Fingerboard, EMG HZ Pickups, Licensed TonePro Bridge, EVL inlays, Metal EVL Truss rod cover.

Isn't it sexy? I will hopefully post some music soon. See ya. ;-)

Sheriff Boulding

Its been long since I posted anything. I have been too busy with stuff and many exciting things are happening. I will surely tell you guys as and when they happen :-). But for now, I wanted to post this character design I did for my friend Tanmay as he wanted a Casual character to Model. I don't know if he has finished it yet but if he did, then I'll post the 3D version too.
This is just a basic wash in PS. Ain't he too cute to be a Sheriff? .. hehe ....That was the general idea anyway ;-)