Disney’s Princesses Take Over Day 2 of Bengaluru GAFX-2019

The second day of Bengaluru GAFX 2019 kickstarted with stimulating sessions on filmmaking and gaming at the Lalit Ashok. 

Avneet Kaur, Simulation Supervisor at Walt Disney Studios, took Disney fans into the world of asset creation of characters in her segment 'Bringing the Princesses to Life in Disney's Ralph Breaks The Internet'.

Avneet explained that for their 57th animated feature, ‘Ralph breaks the Internet,’ Disney brought a world never-thought of—the Internet. With the creation of a new world, Disney also revamped their 14 princesses.

She said, “The most exciting thing for us at Walt Disney Animation Studios was to recreate our older princesses, created in 2D to read the detail of the newer princesses— Moana and Elsa. We had 80+ animators, with hand-drawn mentor sketches and recreated pencil tests to ensure utmost precision with the characters.”

She also touched upon the details to script. “The script for the 14 princess frames was custom-made and the screenplay were inspired from their one-liners in their original films. Apart from basic research for the movie, the 14 princesses were given special attention to. We worked on extensive case studies and 2D animation references to get the modelling, look, rigging and simulation right.”

The audience got the opportunity to witness the magic behind the scenes as Avneet presented a number of video footage on layout tests, dress and hair tests, pencil sketch tests that were worked into the movie. 

The session drew-in the largest crowd that actively took part in the interaction that followed the session. 

Various other sessions

Developing Indian IP: Route Map

Speakers: Catherine Branscome of Branscome International and Angela Salt, CEO of Salt Content Limited

At the session, ‘Developing Indian IP: Route Map,’ Catherine Branscome, Executive Producer of Branscome International and Angela Salt, CEO of Salt Content Limited, with their experience on developing content for children and adults and films, set on to create a route map for Indian intellectual properties.

The duo discussed the process of creating content that could be helpful for the interested audience. The process, according to Salt and Branscome, involves developing the idea to researching about the idea, understanding the audience, specific age and demographic as well as the ‘sweet spot.’ It is also important to create a mood board and decide the format of the show and genre, they said. They introduced the audience to the business aspect of the process, that involves finance, market, formats and selling point among others. The duo also spoke at length about the conventional details that cannot be overlooked. They highlighted the importance of having pitch materials such as one sheet and pitch bible. The session was followed by Q&A with the audience.

Are you Game for Fame - Tips and Tricks on How to Avoid Shame & Blame in the World of Games
Speaker: Cindy Armstrong of Activision

Changes, opportunities and challenges in the gaming sector were addressed by Cindy Armstrong of Activision in ‘Are you Game for Fame.’

“Millennials are favouring independent creators over big companies. With this, we see a lot of innovation and small groups creating interesting things,” said Cindy. Based on her understanding of the segment she stated that tech, art, and animations have replaced engineering as the toughest positions to fill today.

Providing gaming enthusiasts and IP creators access into the industry, Armstrong said that it is imperative to think outside the box, to explore beyond derivative ideas, and think outside one’s comfort zone.

On what lies ahead for the gaming sector, Cindy said, “the future is filled with both opportunities and challenges. Opportunities such as geolocating combined with AR, Disturbed development and combining AR/VR with gaming applications to help build learning and education apps help expand our field. However technophiles with short attention spans pose as a challenge to the industry.”

What Inspires Us

Speaker: Suresh Eriyat of Eeksaurus

Suresh Eriyat, Indian animator, director and founder of animation studio Eeksaurus, addressed the students and professionals from animation industry on what inspires his studio as well as the animators at the session ‘What Inspires Us.’ Inspiration are taken from films and from the reality,

Our inspirations come from reality, he said. Narrating a number of situations and incidents including his own personal experiences, Eriyat explained it is important for the animators to be observing everything around us. This is also the inspiration behind the films made by his studios, Eriyat said.

World Leading Animation & Games Content - Showcase

Speaker: Owen Hurley, VP - Creative at Technicolor Animation and Games, LA

In his showcase on ‘World leading animation and games content’, Owen Hurley, the VP- Creative at Technicolor, introduced to the crowd the projects that are completed and in-the-making at Technicolor Animation and Games.

During his talk, he spoke about his close connect with India, especially Bangalore. Hurley, who has been working with Indian animators and technicians on various projects, felt that there is a need to reiterate that India is going to be a key player in Technicolour story and the industry. “We started with a workforce of 400 here in India, today we are close to one an a half thousand people working together. It sort of makes me feel like I live in a virtual world because of this rapid growth,” he said.

He also brought to the forefront, initiatives that Technicolor is heading in India. Campus connect with student and faculty visits, lectures and workshops, training, inputs on curriculum along with a 3-month finishing school for select students.

The evening sessions took off with ‘The Making of KGF- Chapter 1: Presentation and Panel; along with Q&A’. Udayaravi Hegde, Managing Director and Praveen Damodaran, VFX Supervisor of Unifi Media (that worked on the movie) spoke to VFX, film-making and art-design enthusiasts. They interested the crowd with different set designs and elements created as part of KGF Chapter 1.

The day also witnessed sessions on ‘Film Making Changed Forever - Genesis - Virtual Production’ by Matthew Plec of Technicolor's MPC Film. ‘Putting the 'Action' in Live-Action’ by Prasad Sutar of NY VFXWaala, ‘The Making of Sir Ridley Scott's Seven Worlds’ by Santosh Gunasheelan, 3D Supervisor at MPC Advertising, New York. ‘Showcasing India - The Journey,’ which was moderated by Anil Wanvari and Munjal Shroff of Graphiti Multimedia and had renowned stalwarts of the industry Indranarayanan from Toonz Animation, Ronak Sanghadia of redchillies.vfx, Milind Shinde from 88 Pictures and Manoj Mishra from DQ, ‘Ubisoft - Global Games IP, India’ by Sashi Menon, Production Director of Ubisoft and ‘Siggraph 2018 Showcase,’ which was presented by Siva Kumar Kasetty.

The day ended with the screening of Krish Trish and Baltiboy, made by A Film by Graphiti Multimedia.

Bengaluru GAFX will conclude on Sunday, 23 June 2019.