Demonstration of a sketch using two point perspective.
Click on the link below to view the demo:
Category Archives: Film and Animation
VKDC Promo
Me and my friend Deepak together created this promo video for VKDC Dance Academy in Pune, as a part of the VKDC Dance show that happened on 17th Jan’16. Music by AJ’s Academy of Music.
Pen and Ink Drawing Workshop
Sketching and painting is my passion, and so is teaching. So what better way to combine both than to indulge in a rocking workshop of Pen and Ink drawing?
Here’s a glimpse of the workshop, where we bring out the creative within you, regardless of whether you think yourself as good in arts or not.
Some of the testimonials received after the last workshop in November ’15:
- Never knew I could use so many variations in a drawing. Thanks for the session!
- I learned the essential tips and an awesome way to draw and sketch with a single pen.
- I learned .. Sketching is not just art, it’s a science also. Anyone can learn this.
- I learned … Breaking the rules is important 🙂
- I learned … How to look at a picture
- I learned … I can now draw anything with the info I got
- I learned … Focus of the beauty of the picture, no limits, no rules.
- And of course, the best feedback was this:
Dubai Mall Aquarium Shark Dive Video
Whew!!
Finally completed the video of my dive in Dubai mall aquarium today.
Dubai is one of the main attractions of the middle east, and Dubai mall is one of the prime tourist spots. Dubai mall aquarium has a fish tank three floors high, contains 10 million liters of water and hundreds of sharks and various kinds of Ray fish.
On 28th Feb 2015, I grabbed the opportunity of diving in this tank, and it proved to be a lifetime memory :-). This short video is the story of my Rendezvous with Sharks!
The video was shot by my instructor in the tank with Hero GoPro 4. This is edited in Windows 8 Movie maker and the soundtrack is edited in Acid Express 7.0.
Watch it on YouTube by clicking the image below.
Checkmate – My First Serious Motion Book, on its way …
A few months ago, I came across a new medium called “Motion Books”. In essence, motion books bridge the space between traditional “static” comics and animations.
The beauty of traditional comics lies in letting the reader think, absorb the text and graphics at his/her own pace, read between the panels, fill in the gaps themselves. The animation shows and tells everything, at its own pace.
Motion books take the best of both worlds and create something unique. They let the user observe, read and imagine, at the same time showing motion, and inducing feelings via music and sound.
This is a new category where new high quality content is rapidly being developed, and I decided to contribute with a truly Indian story. This is a story of a king, a queen and their invaded kingdom. The Queen’s loyalty, courage and even her survival and honor are on line for the most difficult test of her life.
“Checkmate” will be published as a 4 part Motion books mini series on various channels. The first part is coming soon. This is a glimpse into part 1.
My First “Motion Comic” – The Victim
Since last few months, a relatively new genre called “Motion Comics” had my attention. I was highly fascinated by this new art form, and think it has a very high entertainment potential as a niche apart from normal comics and animation. I also saw some working proofs that this thing works from DeviantArt.
So I got a copy of MotionArtist for myself and got to work since last 2 days. As an experiment, I decided to convert my existing comic “The Victim” into motion comic form, and this is the result.
Watch the video on YouTube here:
To Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone Before
Before you watch the following video, please note the following facts:
1. This video content was created for use as an entry into a contest within my employer company, IBM.
2. All rights to this video are owned by IBM, and I am publishing this with the express written permission of IBM.
3. This video cannot be published elsewhere / copied / reproduced without express written permission of IBM.
I work with IBM India Pvt Ltd. As IBM is celebrating this year as its centenary year, many things are happening within the organization. As a part of this celebration, a video making contest was organized by IBM for its employees. As soon as I came to know about this, I had to jump into it.
So I came up with this interesting 60 seconds video – ‘To Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone Before’.
The philosophy I used in this video was that of the synergy between man and the machine. In the science fiction and popular culture, these two entities are always shown fighting for the domination of our dear planet. But IBM has been constantly striving to make better and smarter machines to make our lives easier.
This 1 minute video took 10 hours to make, all of it after work late in the night. I finished the script, background narrative recording and thumb nailing on night 1, followed by all other work (drawing the final images – 30 of them, editing, sound effects and final touches) on night 2. I spent the next day being a zombie (a very happy and contented zombie indeed).
Video of My PADI Certification Dive @ Lakshadweep
It’s been more than three months since I completed the PADI Open Water Certification course in scube diving in Lakshadweep.
A couple of days ago, I completed making a film on my underwater experience. I had carried an adventure cam with me (Oregon Scientific model # ATK2000). The cam captures bit low res video, but this is one tough guy!
The official specs for the camera said that the camera is ‘water resistant up to 5 meters depth’. But I took a chance with it, and it actually worked perfect for a depth more more than 16 meters! I love this gadget.
So here’s the footage of my underwater dive in the pristine Lakshadweep lagoon. The actual footage was more than 3 hours, which I have edited down to less than 12 minutes of (interesting) video.
Click on the picture below to watch the video and enter a new aquatic dimension.
Winds of Change – With a Twist!
Click on the picture below to see ‘Winds of Change’ in its full glory (on YouTube)
Nearly one and a quarter year had passed since I had made my last film, What If … A Love Story Gone Wrong. Making What If … was an experience which made me much richer in my film making skills. It also gave me enough confidence to try things out on my own.
So when the software company I work for decided to hold an intra-company contest in film making, I was one of the first to jump and take notice. As the themes were announced, one theme – ‘Winds of Change’ attracted me. As I heard the theme, the whole short film literally visualized in front of my eyes. Now it was just a matter of some time (and much effort) to bring it into reality.
Previously, I had made short films using 2 approaches:
1. Filming using camcorder, with live actors (Secret Desire)
2. Stop motion animation using clay models (What If…) – Taking pictures of clay models in various positions, animation style, and then ‘stitching’ the photos together to form a continuous motion.
This time I decided to combine the two approaches above. Making a stop motion animation using live actors!
Approach 1 above has advantages in terms of smoother motion, but has way too much dependency of live actors and there’s little scope for special effects (I am not an expert user of complex special effects software such as Adobe After Effects – YET).
Approach 2 has a lot of scope for special effects (Each frame can be easily edited using a photo editing software), but it’s a lot of hard work, and I mean REAL hard work!
The time given was very short, just 10 days (Actually it’s sufficient time if one is not doing anything else, which is not the case with yours truly).
I created the entire script in one hour. The ‘script’ was a series of rough drawings, storyboard style. It was my long time dream to shoot a fight sequence parodying ‘The Matrix’ , and I took my opportunity here!
We finished the shoot in 6 hours flat on a very hot afternoon, most of the shoot taking place on a very hot terrace. The ‘green screen’ used as background to the fight scenes was in fact a pinkish clothe held together by whoever was not participating in the fight scene.
The following pictures compare the 3 versions of photos. The original one, the ‘green screened’ one and the final result with a hand drawn background.
After the shoot was over, it took me more that 6 nights (and one entire weekend) to complete the editing (There were 250+ photos to edit!). By the end of editing run, I resembled a Racoon!
We submitted the film one day before deadline. The results of the contest are awaited, but I don’t really care. For me, the rush of creative energy is worth more than all the awards!