{"id":6581,"date":"2019-01-14T07:20:42","date_gmt":"2019-01-14T01:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.animationkolkata.com\/blog\/?p=6581"},"modified":"2019-01-14T09:48:42","modified_gmt":"2019-01-14T04:18:42","slug":"lift-off-film-festival-maac-chowringhee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/animationkolkata.com\/blog\/2019\/01\/14\/lift-off-film-festival-maac-chowringhee\/","title":{"rendered":"Lift Off Film Festival Our Moment Of Pride With MAAC Chowringhee"},"content":{"rendered":"

We take immense pride in stating that our 3d animated short film \u201cGulaal<\/a>\u201d by student of MAAC Chowringhee has been shortlisted and nominated at Lift-Off Film Festival, UK.<\/p>\n

\"MAAC<\/p>\n

Lift-Off Film festival<\/a>, London came into being in 2010 inviting entries from all over the globe.<\/p>\n

The initial response itself was overwhelming in quantity as well as quality.<\/p>\n

The creation of the London Lift-Off Film Festival was led by the need to showcase the exceptional talents hidden behind the global indie films.<\/p>\n

In it\u2019s first year itself it received around 750 films across globe, outstanding both in quality and ambition.<\/p>\n

From a small cinema in North West London, to the prestigious and beautiful screening rooms of Soho and West London — London Lift-Off has entertained and stunned audiences by continuously delivering on it\u2019s platform exceptional work coupled with amazing networking and brilliant press coverage.<\/p>\n

All of the awards are decided on audience choice and our winners get to potentially enjoy full official selections at every-single subsequent Lift-Off Film Festival<\/a> around the world.<\/p>\n

\"MAAC<\/p>\n

MAAC Chowringhee short film by students<\/strong> getting nominated for the same is a matter of great pride for us.<\/p>\n

For a sneak peek on the whole movie making process and experience, let us take you on a short trip to behind the scenes of the said short film<\/a> with MAAC Chowringhee<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The idea of the same sprung from the theme that was given for the 24 FPS international Awards, 2018.<\/a><\/p>\n

MAAC Chowringhee<\/strong> participated in the same with a team of 15 students, who were all selected through a process of tests.<\/p>\n

With the team complete towards the end of May, 2018; the story development kicked off as all the students went through several brain storming session to come up with story ideas conforming to the theme.<\/p>\n

Going back and forth with minor changes with the script we finally locked the story in place and thus, entered a new phase of character and environment design.<\/p>\n

\"MAAC<\/p>\n

\"MAAC<\/p>\n

The character design<\/a> was a tedious process that MAAC Chowringhee students went through <\/strong>starting with scrounging for reference and then chalk out a base design.<\/p>\n

Which then went through close scrutiny, feedback and multiple levels of improvisations to reach the stage of finalization.<\/p>\n

The same procedure was adopted for all the characters.<\/p>\n

Till the end of July,2018 we were done with the designing process and ready to jump into 3d<\/a> to build the whole movie.<\/p>\n

Running parallel to the whole designing process was the storyboarding<\/a> process.<\/p>\n

Here a small group of students were being busy bees figuring out how the story is going to look through a camera.<\/p>\n

MAAC Chowringhee students were busy in <\/strong>drawing and then redrawing all the shot angles, layouts and setting compositions.<\/p>\n

The shots were then tested in 3d and made out into a small animatics<\/a>, which was to serve as the basic animation<\/a> reference for the entire movie.<\/p>\n

\"MAAC<\/p>\n

With the basic animatics reference almost ready we took the plunge into 3d.<\/p>\n

The software choice for the process was Autodesk Maya<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The students who were responsible for modeling started with the blocking process working their way one detail level at a time to develop the overall look of the model as true to the design sheet as possible.<\/p>\n

Likewise, the environment was also being developed to suit the requirements of the design.<\/p>\n

The mentors at MAAC Chowringhee were constantly guiding the students through valuable feedback to come up with the final models<\/a>, which seemed to do justice to the initial design, although a few liberties were taken here and there to enhance the character\u2019s design.<\/p>\n

Closely after the finalization of the models, texturing<\/a> and rigging<\/a> processes started simultaneously.<\/p>\n

Substance painter was chosen as the go to software for the look and feel development of the textures.<\/p>\n

September had kicked in till we entered this stage.<\/p>\n

The students and the mentors had gotten a hang of the process till then and were able to work smoothly through it.<\/p>\n

\"MAAC<\/p>\n

With the textures coming along and changing the overall look of the scenes, it really was started to feel alive.<\/p>\n

As, for the rigging<\/a>, it was coming along fast enough and we had decided for a stylized expression of the main characters, using a 2d style.<\/p>\n

Somehow, the rigging process seemed to take longer than anticipated especially with skinning.<\/p>\n

On the hand scene compilation with the necessary assets according to shot division started.<\/p>\n

The necessary camera angles and the layout of the asset as per the storyboard was being done to maintain a seamless file management.<\/p>\n

The files were being readied for the upcoming animation phase.<\/p>\n

With everything set in place animation<\/a> was started as soon as the rigging finished one character at a time.<\/p>\n

MAAC Chowringhee student team prioritized the character rig requirement as per the number of scenes it was in.<\/p>\n

November was already round the corner, till then and we realized the urgency of the situation.<\/p>\n

The process picked up pace as soon as this realization dawned on us.<\/p>\n

The animated scenes thoroughly checked and corrected were immediately set for lighting<\/a> and rendering<\/a>, which easily was the most time consuming phase.<\/p>\n

Each scene was broken down into various required elements to facilitate the upcoming compositing process.<\/p>\n

It was like all three processes of skinning, animation and lighting<\/a> were going on simultaneously.<\/p>\n

But the process could go on almost smoothly with the already done file management.<\/p>\n

Well, that saved the hassle of working and reworking the wrong files, which is common in such scenarios.<\/p>\n

Animation<\/a> took some time as the rigging process finished and slowly lighting<\/a> took over.<\/p>\n

MAAC Chowringhee team tried to set up a basic light before the animation and then refine it once the animation was complete.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, rendering had already occupied quite a few machines leaving just enough to animation.<\/p>\n

\"MAAC<\/p>\n

With the deadline of the 24FPS Animation awards<\/a> looming in front of the student team, all MAAC Chowringhee student team could then was to wait for the machines to render the files before rushing to composition.<\/p>\n

Soon enough, the rendered files became available and so, were the machines as animation<\/a> reached it\u2019s final stages.<\/p>\n

Compositing seemed trivial in compared to the whole experience we lived these few months.<\/p>\n

But, it was not to be taken lightly as the overall look depended heavily on how well the various elements were composed together.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, MAAC Chowringhee student team lived through it and the output was good.<\/p>\n

Taking this as a good sign student zealously jumped into compositng as fast as they could and also as fast as the renders came out.<\/p>\n

\"MAAC<\/p>\n

The mentors at MAAC Chowringhee, continuously suggested methods to speed up the process.<\/p>\n

By end of November finally team managed to put it all together for the final submission.<\/p>\n

The students and mentors alike heaved a sigh of relief as the time flew by so fast to even barely take notice.<\/p>\n

\"MAAC<\/p>\n

MAAC Chowringhee student team were awarded with a Jury Special Mention Award at 24 FPS International Animation Awards, 2018<\/strong><\/a> in recognition of the hard work we put in.<\/p>\n