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Animation at par with Hollywood production for India’s first fully animated 3D film
Mumbai, October 31, 2008: Visual Computing Labs (VCL), a division of Tata Elxsi Ltd, has lived up to the expectations of making India’s first fully 3D animated mainstream film with Roadside Romeo. The film, a joint venture between India’s largest production house Yash Raj Films and the leader’s in animation worldwide Walt Disney was released on October 24, 2008 and has since received rave reviews on the quality of animation.
The film is the first in the series of original and exclusive 3D animated feature films to be tailor made for Indian audiences as part of the alliance between YRF and Walt Disney where VCL is the animation partner.
“We promised to deliver a world class product that would make us proud of Indian animation talent. Based on the reviews we have got, it is a really good product. The animation is in line with what Disney would make and going forward, the Indian film fraternity and movie buffs can expect more such world class animation from the VCL stable”, said Pankaj Khandpur, Creative Director, VCL.
The 90 minute film has around 1500 shots and 37 scenes. The entire project has been executed at VCL, from visual conceptualization to final delivery. Each frame was executed with painstaking attention to detail in less than 2 years involving 120 odd artists at peak.
The film underwent a complex process, with all the characters, props, backgrounds being built on the computer, animated, lit, rendered and composited. This had to be done for each of the 150000 frames that made up the film
Each character in the film, every expression and emotion was first drawn with possible body movements / postures. The characters were then modeled and rigged. This was followed by shading, addition of texture and fur.
An interesting aspect is that all the characters in the film have “fur”, especially Laila who has shoulder length hair. This notches up the level of animation to a greater degree. This is particularly very cumbersome to achieve, also requires a lot of processing power. VCL had to control the highlights or event the nature of the texture of Laila's hair and body so as to maintain the proper look to her character
VCL was fortunate to have access to our sister organization, Computation Research Lab (CRL) at pune, which has the world’s 4th fastest super computer.
Jugal Hansraj, Director of Roadside Romeo said, VCL has not only helped me realize my dream of creating India’s first fully animated 3D film but also ensured that Roadside Romeo has created a high benchmark and a tough act to follow for all animation films that would be made in India in future.”
VCL to its credit, has created special effects for a number of movies films in like Drona, Kidnap, Bachna Ae Haseeno, Jodhaa Akbar, Taare Zameen Par (India’s official Entry to the Oscars), Rang De Basanti, Dhoom 2 and many more.
About Visual Computing Labs
Visual Computing Labs, a division of Tata Elxsi Ltd, is a creative facility offering animation, digital visual effects and game asset building for the global entertainment and broadcast industry. With its global delivery center in Mumbai, India, VCL is a unique mix of engineering and creative skills, which provides solutions from scripting, pre/post production, character modelling & animation, VFX and development services among others.
About Tata Elxsi
Tata Elxsi Limited, the Product Design arm of the multi-billion Tata Group, is a company focused on delivering outsourced Product Design and R&D services and solutions to customers worldwide. Core technology strengths, domain skills, system engineering capabilities, custom processes for design and proficient designers form the nucleus of the company. Tata Elxsi is a SEI CMMi Level 5 company.
Headquartered in Bangalore, India, the company is supported by a strong network of offices all over the world. Tata Elxsi’s design services are supported by state-of-the-art design and development centers in Bangalore and Thiruvananthapuram in India. Tata Elxsi’s local presence in the USA, UK, Germany, Canada and Japan assures easy access to the company’s global customers as well. Tata Elxsi is a public stock company traded in the Indian stock exchanges.
For more information, please contact:
Devnath
Visual Computing Labs, A division of Tata Elxsi Ltd.
Tel:+91 22 26822142
Email:devnath@tataelxsi.co.in
Website:www.tataelxsi.com
Harsha Ramachandra/ Shradha Bhat
Vaishnavi Corporate Communications
hramachandra@vccpl.com / sbhat@vccpl.com |
