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Indian Animation is truly on the ascendant these days! Fresh, hot & crisp, the latest good news regarding Indian animation is that Bangalore based Ittina Animation Studios has announced its teaming up with UK based Uli Meyer Animation to create MonsterMania! a fully CG animated feature film comedy featuring all the classic movie monsters. Switzerland based Cinecarat is also part of the collaboration. Scripted by award-winning British horror writers Michael Marshall Smith and Stephen Jones and based on an idea by Uli Meyer, Stephen Jones and Michael Marshall Smith, MonsterMania! has been in active development for the past three years and the $30 million CGI movie is currently in production. Ittina Animation Studios has been in the project since February and will be working with Uli Meyer as a team and will be involved in all creative as well as production aspects. To read more

The Ittina Group, a leading name in property development, announced the launch of an animation studio and academy — Ittina Studios and Takshaa, respectively — in Bangalore. Both will be housed in a six-story building in Whitefield. Ittina plans to invest about $5 million in the new venture over the next year. Ittina Studios is headed by Manu Ittina, a former character animator at PDI/DreamWorks, who has worked on Hollywood blockbusters such as X MEN and SHREK 2. Others who have joined the company include Bill Miller, who has worked with Disney Feature Animation, PDI/DreamWorks and is now animating on Peter Jackson’s KING KONG; Ruthuraj Arolkar, senior modeler at Rhythm & Hues, in Mumbai; and Anuj Anand, visual effects technician, who has worked on major Hollywood flicks such as CONSTANTINE and SILENT HILL. To read more

Animation specialist Bill Miller who's working here now was hired by the King of Kong, Peter Jackson, for the monster hit, writes Mini Anthikad-Chhibber.

Watching the Academy Awards was a "surreal experience" for Bill Miller. "When I watched Joe Letteri and Christian Rivers collect the trophy for best visual effects for King Kong, it was weird. These are the guys I worked with!"

The animation director of Ittina Studios, who has worked on films like Shrek 2 and Madgascar, jumped at the chance to work with Peter Jackson on Kong. "I am a huge fan of Peter Jackson's work, especially the The Lord of the Rings movies. I had finished my assignment with PDI/Dreamworks and some of my friends suggested New Zealand and Kong. I figured why not and got on board."

'Wonderful experience'

Miller worked on King Kong from April to November. Working with the Academy award-winning Jackson was "a wonderful experience. He is a man with a strong vision and knows how to use special effects. Kong was something he had wanted to make for a long time and it was his baby. He is very particular how a scene should turn out and everything had to be done to perfection. There were so many times when he would ask that a particular scene be redone like the brontosaurus stampede. And the results are there for everyone to see! We would have dailies (where the director reviews the work) with him twice a week and we would all troop into the conference room and hope hard that our work would be cleared!"

About the Academy Award, he "wasn't surprised. While working on Kong, I knew it was special. I had a gut feeling and I felt vindicated."

Shrek, Madagascar, Kong. Three huge projects where many an Indian animator would have given their all to be on the production team. You've worked on all three of them. Please tell us about your experience and your role

I was a character animator on all three films.

Shrek 2 was a great experience. It was my first time working on an animated 3D feature film. What was great about this project is that since it was a sequel you basically had Shrek 1 to watch as reference when animating. So when you started to animate your shot you knew exactly how the character should think and move. I also worked on Shrek 4D ( a ride film for Universal Studios ) prior to working on Shrek 2. This definitely helped me get into the style of animation. My personal feeling is that the we surpassed the quality of Shrek 1 in both look and animation.

Madagascar was a film that everyone was dying to get on. We were all crunching on Shrek 2 when the animation started on Mad. Everyone was really blown away by the style. It looked so fun. So after we got off of Shrek, which is a more realistic style of animation, we had to jump into this crazy cartoony style which looked like all the characters have been eating too much sugar. It was so fun. This was the kind of animation every animator dreams of doing while they are in school! I really love all of the characters. My favorite to animate was probably Melman the Giraffe. I like the design and David Schwimmer's voice was great to animate.

Kong was my second gorilla movie. I worked on Mighty Joe Young back in 1997. When I got offered the job to go work for Weta I jumped at the chance. I was a really big fan of Peter Jackson and a Lord of the Rings geek. When each of the movies came out I saw them on opening day. It was great to sit in a room with Peter Jackson. Not only is he a great director he really understands animation and gives great direction. He is very picky but that's good because you want to work with a director with a strong vision. Kong was a hard production. Towards the end of the movie everyone was working very late seven days a week. But after it was all over we were all very proud. Especially when it won the oscar for best visual effects.

How come after doing top projects like these, you decided to come and set shop in India?
One of the great things about working in animation is that it is going on all over the world. So you have opportunities to see different countries. Part of the lure of going to work for Weta was that it is in New Zealand. I had also worked at Polygon in Tokyo for about three years. I enjoy living in different countries and experiencing different cultures.

I did work on big projects like Kong and Shrek, but I feel that projects like these can be done here in India in the future. The industry needs time to grow here, eventually we will get there. Animation is not something you learn overnight.

What is the most exciting thing about Indian animation?
A lot of demo reels that I have seen here have very cliched acting in it. One of the things that animators here ought to study more is acting. That's one of the major weaknesses. On a positive note, I see a lot of raw talent here that needs to be nurtured. The abundance of raw talent augurs well. Animation is a people driven business and India has a lot of talented people who are eager to learn.

What are your plans at Ittina Studios?
We are planning to do some service work but our goal is to produce our own original content. I am the animation director here, but I eventually want to be director and do TV Series, shorts, features and my own projects out here at Ittina. I have lot's of ideas and I would love to see them on the big screen.

In terms of learning curve required for Indian artists to go through? Which department seems the steepest?
I am biased but I would have to say animation. Animation is something that you can do for 50 years and still think you are inadequate. You learn something new everyday no matter how long you have been doing it.

What's your personal style?
More on the cartoony side, somewhere like Madagascar but a little smoother, Madagascar was too poppy and extreme although I loved the style, for my personal taste I'd make it a little smoother.

I like the Old Disney stuff like Jungle Book, somewhere in between that and Madagascar is what I personally like. Incredibles would be the ultimate style for me, great style, cartoony timing but at the same time very smooth.

A word of advice to young animators amongst Animation 'xpress readers?

Always put your all into every scene, there's no unimportant scene, every scene is important. People are always clamouring to get the best scene, but if you do your best on a small scene , the director's going to appreciate and you will move forward.

For self learning I would suggest getting Richard Williams' Animator's Survival Kit. Also read the Illusion of Life by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston.

Watch as much animation as possible, watch stuff every night. Build a better animation vocabulary. Also you can download a personal learning edition of Maya for free. There are also free characters that are already rigged on the net. The most important thing is to keep on animating. That's the only way you get better.

Manu Ittina dreams big for a 25-year-old. The animator, who has made his mark in Hollywood, is now dreaming of turning India into a destination for original animation

ENTHUSIASM UNLIMITED Manu Ittina: `Every Indian has an artistic streak in him. We have an artistic outlook to our life'

You seen Marty the zebra making an announcement on the shell-microphone? Or Alex the lion making faces as he chokes and spits out grass he ate, in the animation film Madagascar? Then think Bangalore boy. It may be a jungle out there in Hollywood's animation land, but Manu Ittina, at 25, is the Mowgli of this domain.

Young, ambitious, learning and experimenting, this animator is back in his hometown with big plans of setting up an animation school, a studio, and a film production company.

Manu grew up just like all of us, watching Tom and Jerry on TV and worshipping Jungle Book and its characters. But he never really understood what it would take to make such a film. So when the runaway hit Toy Story came along, Manu, who was 17, was totally blown away by the mind-boggling animation. Slogging away at his computer science P.U. course, he decided he won't ever be able to forgive himself if he didn't study animation. He must be feeling good now, having worked on superhits such as Madagascar and Shrek-2. MetroPlus catches up with this young Turk over a cuppa at Royal Orchid Central at Manipal Centre.

Microscopic numbers

"As Indians we don't have much of an animation vocabulary," says Manu. Even today, though there is a perception that a lot of Indians are tucked away in Hollywood's studios, he says most of them are in the technical sections. "The community of character animators is still microscopic."

And it is this thought that brings Manu back from the lucre and lure of Hollywood. "I really love animation and want India to be a destination of original and indigenous animated work, not just outsourcing. Outsourcing is a sign of short-sightedness."

He claims he couldn't really draw or paint much through his childhood. But he learnt. "Every Indian has an artistic streak in him. We have an artistic outlook to our life — it's in our culture. But it has been put on the backburner. I want people to look at a different point of view — it's not all about code writing," he says, taking a jab at the city's overflow of techies.

Manu wanted to do drawn animation — the traditional 2-D character animation that is now considered the "classic" form. It made it easier for him to later take to computer graphic or CG animation. "The computer is Satan. It seduces you and lies to you a lot. It says, `C'mon use me'," laughs Manu. Making a character entertaining in 2-D animation is very difficult, he says. But animation has to thank computers. It's turned it around totally, admits Manu. "The story is the prime essential. The computer adds the freshness to the look and amplifies the effects by a few factors."

"Animators, though, are lazy people. They always want to simplify. But that itself is a hard process," he says. The perception that computers make an animator's work easier is definitely wrong, insists Manu. That's the dichotomy of technology for you.

Of course, animation itself is no cakewalk. Only if there is an input of hours of drawing and its accompanied tasks does one get to see all the "fun" on-screen. "It takes 50 guys a year and more just to do animation," explains Manu. It all begins with deciding the camera angles, placing stick figures, modelling the background, adding texture and paint, doing the surfaces so they look real, making character's eyes dart in the right way, putting emotions into the characters and finally someone has to light it up. Phew! Despite the build-up Manu gives, you're left laughing when he says that at leading studios such as PDI/DreamWorks, if an animator produces three to five seconds of animation a week, it's considered good work. It takes a good four years to make an animation feature film.

Manu earlier went through the rigours of training at the School of Visual Arts, New York, Sheridan College (Canada) and the Academy of Art in San Francisco to obtain his BFA in animation. During his student days he got an opportunity to work on videogames inspired by The Lord of the Rings series, and on the films X-Men, Louis and Clark and The Majestic. He landed work as a character animator with PDI/DreamWorks Studios where he got to work on the two blockbuster films.

His challenges in the making of the two movies sound quite interesting. He had the arduous task of doing a complicated break-dance sequence for a bunch of pigs in Shrek-2. And in Madagascar keeping up with the energy levels of the characters, starting everything anew (Shrek-2 had a prequel) and creating unbelievable exaggerations wasn't easy.

Bringing down biggies

The animation school he plans to set up will have instructors from the U.S. — fellow animators who worked with him in the studio and are willing to come here because they believe India has potential. "In existing animation schools, you tend to learn the software rather than the art," says the young man seriously. Ask him — he went to one in Bangalore and says he had to "unlearn" what was taught here. So his school will be based on a portfolio evaluation system — a student will get to learn the next phase only if the instructor feels he's "ready" for it. Manu is currently working on a multi-lingual, non-animated feature film he doesn't yet want to talk about.

Manu can be contacted at mittina@hotmail.com.

Manu Ittina, who represents India’s talent in Hollywood, took time off during his recent visit to the City to chat about the opportunities in the field of animation.

If the name Ittina brings to you the image of a business magnate, you are probably wrong. Manu Ittina is not doing any business nor is he interested in any. Despite being the eldest son of Ittina Mahabaleswarappa, the real estate king of Bangalore, Manu is happy in his own animated world.

Highly influenced by Toy Story from Pixar, Manu decided to pursue visual arts as a career at a very young age. Graduating from the prestigious School of Visual Arts in New York and spending his summer term studying at the Sheridian College in Canada and Academy of Arts College in San Fransisco, he got associated with movies like X-Men, Majestic, Louis and Clark etc.

Adding a lot more tinsel to the town, he joined Dream Works Studios in Hollywood subsequently. Manu admits there was no looking back since then. Completing five years in Hollywood he got a chance to associate with blockbusters like Shrek 2 and Madagaskar.

Success at a very young age has not left Manu floating in the air. Probably the rough path he trod to reach there has kept his feet firmly on the ground.

“The world of animation is very vast. You have immense job opportunities there. But not many people know about it. Indians still cannot think beyond engineering or medicine when it comes to a career. Not that it is bad, but it’s not fair to force someone into it with absolutely no aptitude for the discipline,” says Manu.

Manu also admits reaching Hollywood is no picnic. “It requires a lot of hard work. I used to work and study all the time and burned gallons of midnight oil to reach this position,’’ he says.

Another misconception about animaton he casts aside is that you need to be an artist to be in the profession. “I never used to draw or paint. All I had was the passion and it got me where I am,’’ he says and adds, “For any profession all you need is the passion for it. As Indians, we have an innate aptitude for arts. What is required is that spark to realise your destiny.’’

Manu is highly influenced by eminent film-makers like Akira Kurosawa, Frank Thomas and John Lasseter and says that apart from a few awards and scholarships he got, he considers being part of the Hollywood itself as the biggest recognition. Like any other Indian, he also wants to come back to India. “I am thinking of taking up some projects to help students know more about animations and the opportunities in this field once I come back,” he says.

Regarding the animators aspiring to be in Hollywood, he says, “All you need to do is to send a few good works to one of the studios. If they are impressed, they would definitely call you.’’