Chhite Phota

To keep the ball rolling...

2012-01-25T16:13:00.004+05:30

It has been quite a while in ACK. Unfortunately, I still do not have the permission to share anything from the film* that I have been working on. Meanwhile, here are some of the pages that our team has been working on (in free time) for the Tinkle** issues. Fortunately, I was involved in the process and hence these found their way here.

Here, I must acknowledge Rajesh Sakpal for his beautiful inkings, Vasant Pawar and Shailesh Ambre for their mouth watering coloring.

And yes, the rights do belong to Amar Chitra Katha Pvt. Ltd.

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*An upcoming film by director Kushal Ruia. Should hit the theaters in India by August '12. The characters here are from the film, however the stories have nothing to do with the film's original story.
**A popular kid's magazine by Amar Chitra Katha Pvt. Ltd. It has been around for over thirty years now.

My Red Sofa...

2011-11-23T13:13:00.004+05:30

... and a lazy me... zzZZZ!

Wassup Candy Kid?

2011-08-27T15:42:00.001+05:30

Many of you who do not know that I have been working on my student film even after my graduation, might be interested in the new look of the old film. It was hard working between jobs, and though the film's post production is over, I am still struggling to get the music in place. I do not know, how much time that would take. But it'll surely be the day when I finally look ahead :)

You might be familiar with two of the clips. The older version is available here. Hope you like what has been done with it :)

That Madam Q!

2011-08-23T18:02:00.004+05:30

A addtional note: This is a fictional character. It has nothing do with this, this, this and her. Nor does it have any political reference. I got two Anonymous comments which I was unsure of publishing. I haven't yet deciphered what they meant. They had no links and did not seem malicious in any way. However, I refrained from publishing them due to their cryptic nature. I allow (to be read as welcome) all sorts of comments/suggestions/critiques etc, but do avoid posting seemingly harmful links in the comment section. This is however, that rare occasion when I made an exception.

I am pasting the comments here though. If any enthusiast wants to decode the message, he is most welcome to.

Comment 1: "Bush and the nurses are into SEC, and that came straight from COLES."
Comment 2: "Cheney talks REDPATH.
NICE - FRENCH FEES.
With HEINTZ."

Rejected Designs

2011-08-21T22:17:00.002+05:30

A few exploration designs done for my last commission. They were looking for something less toony- so these landed here :) And by less toony I simply mean they had a certain style in mind- inclined more towards realistic art.

Back..

2011-07-08T01:40:00.000+05:30

Centrefruit Ravana

2011-06-15T15:35:00.005+05:30

One of my designs is finally on youtube (courtesy my previous employer)- just a ten seconder though... nothing much to brag about! This was the first time I got exposed to the issues 3d modellers face with a design. What came out was pretty different from the final design on paper but nevertheless I am happy it has found a space on youtube. Copyrights belong to Cornershop Animation Pvt. Ltd.

A little insider: The story we had done had a lot of stuff- each head was a different personality- one was sort of 'the perpetual angry', the other a whiner, one lazy, one snob, one whimsy cynical, a goofy, etc etc! The hand was planned to be digging the third head's (left from centre) nose. Two would be banging each other's heads due to a conflict... the whiner would howl, and the centre head would just yawn in boredom. We had to chop it all off when we got the ten second deadline. Huh! Deadlines... grrrr! Must acknowledge Atul, Aadesh, Ajay, Rupesh and Paresh (apologies, in case I am missing anyone out!) who worked on the production :)

The Rowdy Boxer

2011-03-17T02:00:00.000+05:30

Having fun after a long time :)

The other forgotten film

2011-01-14T23:49:00.002+05:30

It dawned on me today that I never put in stills from my last student film, "Vishwarakshak". The whole 5 month project was a nightmare, and I really struggled to get the visuals right, as it spanned from the old hand painted style of movie billboards to the 8 bit nintendo game designs. Here are some of them :)

Christmas gift

2010-12-25T18:26:00.002+05:30

Hope everybody got their gifts :)

Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Six Strands

2010-12-19T21:23:00.007+05:30

Chunky's (Chaitanya Tamhane) film, 'Six Strands' made its way into Clermont Ferrand Film Festival (The International Competition section),International Film Festival Rotterdam, Slamdance and High Desert Shorts 2011.

I was fortunate enough to be a part of the film doing tit-bits from poster to story board to special effects...

Wishing him all the success:)

Son... If you want to be a Mafia, be the Italian way!

2010-11-07T02:25:00.001+05:30

Chowkidaar

2010-09-19T10:30:00.004+05:30

The lonely kid

2010-09-12T22:25:00.000+05:30

And got busy

2010-08-15T16:12:00.000+05:30

I cannot recollect the last couple of months. Things were too fast for me to keep track of. Right now I am working with a studio doing character designs for an upcoming episodic series- thankfully we nailed most of the characters. Got involved in a couple of other projects too. The sad part is, I cannot share them. All in all it has been a busy life post IDC.

Trying to give my blog another start. Will keep posting doodles :)

Award

2010-06-01T20:30:00.002+05:30

'The Candy Tree' was lucky enough to win the Best Animation Short at CG Tantra community Awards 2010

http://www.cgtantra.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23249
(The film's name got misprinted as 'Candy')

Young man, old woman!

2010-05-01T01:18:00.000+05:30

My doodles and sketches are more like stress relievers these days! Geeeeeeeeee!

Doodles doodles 2

2010-04-30T01:30:00.001+05:30

Doodles doodles

2010-04-24T01:15:00.001+05:30

Draw over by Rad

2010-03-19T09:41:00.000+05:30

I sent my drawing to Rad, and he was kind enough to show improvement on my values and contours. All thanks to him.

Profiles

2010-03-15T20:07:00.001+05:30

Alas! I am still searching for a name for my superhero.

Clips from my short film

2010-03-14T18:05:00.003+05:30

Here are two clips from my short film 'The Candy Tree'.

Sire... remember Cheshire?

2010-02-16T23:10:00.003+05:30

Got bored of my story board... took a short break!

sketchalogue

2010-02-12T12:21:00.002+05:30

Some explorations for my next student short film.

Silver Salt Animation Festival

2010-02-04T16:07:00.000+05:30

Hello.

"The Candy Tree" made its way to the nominated list of 50 films to be screened in the Silver Salt Animation Festival.

http://www.silversaltanifest.com

Thanks.

Me and my pet dragon....

2010-01-11T14:01:00.000+05:30

A palette cleaning exercise of sorts.

More updates on the film

2010-01-06T01:23:00.001+05:30

Done with the presentation and stuff. Have been awfully busy to have dropped in an update. I am still left with a few tweaks here and there, some editing, some improvement on the sound design, a bit of patch work with the visuals and layouts... in short loads of work still at hand. Meanwhile, work on my second project (another film) has already commenced. Maybe, I'll give my first project some more time after I am done with the second one (it seems a bit unlikely, but I lack an alternative)

So, I wouldn't be uploading my film as of now...would try and work on it sometime later this year! However, some of my friends have been very keenly interested in the film, so I thought, I would mail it to people who want to see it.

In case you might want to have a look at the film, kindly drop in your email id in the comment box. You may even send me a mail at somnath[dot]ee[at]gmail[dot]com. I'll surely mail you a copy.It might take me some time, but I'll surely do...

Thanks for all the support :)

Short Film update

2009-11-05T14:20:00.001+05:30

To finish a 3-5 minuter in a span of 3 months is the worst nightmare a student can ever have. Unfortunately, for me everyday I wake up, I am a part of it! The situation is a tad more unmanageable if you choose to ignore limited animation/ vector animation and other more intelligent ways!

Ha! A few tricky line tests left... a few more cleanups, and an awfully large number of ink and paint, and final compositing yet to be done!

Date of delivering the film: Sometime around the 28th of November, 2009!

Where is my candy tree?

2009-09-15T15:45:00.006+05:30

A quick concept sketch for my short film. People like Mr. Chaitanya Tamhane should note that it is NOT the way how the final film shall look.

Landscape

2009-08-13T16:16:00.003+05:30

I took a week's painting tutorial from Milind Mulick. Found it very very helpful. Will join him whenever I have time to learn more.

Why not to be a dreamer's cat

2009-07-20T15:45:00.006+05:30

A quick rough watercolor painting.

It so happened that I met a timid little cat on the stairway to my floor. I patted her, gently rubbed her head and went away. Her eyes I realized followed me till I had disappeared behind the door. Strangely so, I had a dream that night where I am a kid in a dingy old house with my paintings all over the walls and the little cat I met the same night, sleeping next to me. Don't remember much of the other details but then both of us started floating in the air. When I woke up in the morning, I just couldn't get over the idea of painting this.

So what you see, though is not one of the neatest attempts, but I cherish it nevertheless!

Long time...

2009-07-17T16:41:00.006+05:30

Yeah... seems like a pretty long time since my last post. Shifted to my new hostel. Arranged myself a bit, and yes... back to colors.

The first post is the view through my window- a lot of construction going on.

The second is another of the random attempts to learn water colors.

Pages of my Intern Work

2009-07-02T03:18:00.013+05:30

My internship under Abhishek Singh was enlightening. It was here that I decided to remove all the shoddy work I had done... was cathartic for me to an extent. Anyway, I feel good with the new posts.

These are the final six pages of my short story. People may find it linguistically deficient and obtrusively loose- because it is deliberate. And if you don't... THEN I really need to get back to my thinking desk. I try to chalk a character out that I don't expect to be grammatically honed. It is bound to have spices of Hindi all over her conversation. Otherwise she sounds pretentious and verbose. Anyway, lot of talking already!

Abhishek was happy with my work- gave me suggestions on where I could possibly improve. I am his humble fan! Keeps motivating me for better work.

Workshop by Milind Mulick

2009-07-02T03:06:00.005+05:30

Milind Mulick took a two day workshop in watercolor painting. I don't know what more to add to defend the inadequacy I experience in the company of good mentors... but yeah... I did try, right... I did try to learn something.

It is a shame that I hadn't been into water colours all these years. Anyway, ditch the cribbing here.

Powai Lake

2009-07-02T02:57:00.005+05:30

Some brush explorations again...

Brushworks

2009-07-02T01:56:00.007+05:30

Some stuff I did in the initial stages of my internship. Ink and brush work.

Dedicated to Abhishek Singh.