"Blvd.Efil" Story Reel

..the timing needs to better...for things to register and all....i just had to get it done..didt it all 3 days man! it was hell....will work it all out at the kinks and more in the animation stage!
here it is anyways!

Same Central "Prop", Different Central "Plot"

So those who have been following my blog...proabably know how i had story crisis and had to trash my original film idea (of which i had posted some boards here too) cause it was too technically ambitious in the given time frame.
So I was REALLY pressed for time...so in a rush i came up with this another simple story ( Not the most amazing idea i have ever though of for sure) and put together the boards and a story reel with temp. audo in RECORD time, even for me! lol

So this guy here..is our new star..the story is totally differnet form the earlier story..though the main prop ( A Red Box) still survives in this one too...i dont have a name for this film yet ..its proabbly gonna be somehting like "Temptation On Boulevard Efil" or just "Blvd. Efil" i dunno...am open to suggetsions..after i have posted the rough story reel,i would be more than glad to have suggestions from u guys about the title too.
BTW..Efil is "Life" spelt backwards...ist not menat to be very obvious...u will see...
For now here are a few panels from it...and yes,still trying to use a stylus to draw on the comp!

In Theatres : The Wild (Review)

OK...if u told me that one day that i would i be writing a postive review of this film ... i would laugh a hearty laugh.
It was mixture of Finding Nemo, Madagascar and genrerous helpings of many Lion King moments...
But thats very usual for animated movies now days. I am not sayin "The Wild" is a great movie...but it surely does not deserve the negative goodwill most of us have for it.
It looks like real hard work and its paid off well. Yes, the style is not to my preference , being more towards photo realiasm than a stylised look.This is the only reason why i might prefer Madagascar over The Wild. In all other aspects Wild surely surpasses Madagascar or even the rescent animated movies like Ice Age 2.
And even though it's style is NEAR photo realism. it looks consistent and good and is still better than gag inducing designs from some Dreamworks films...Sharktale anyone?!
Am not sure which come first...Madgascar or The Wild...but i dunno why..i think i belive the fact that The Wild was in production b4 Madagascar but got delayed and Madagascar beat it to the theatres.
In either case, i think CORE in Toronto had surely proved themselves as an able feature producing studio...and i would surely look forward to their next endevaour...and Disney and Mr.Lasseter need not be TOO embaressed of The Wild, we have seen a lot worse off late.

Funny Stuff!

No, i have not made this video...just found it on you tube! thought it was funny..i mean i have THOUGHT of capturing somehting like this but never got around to it..but its cool to see someone actually did!
It shows how people drive in India...though its not Bombay where i usually drive( which is even worse) but still..its India!

Tony Sees The Light!

Whats Tony upto now??
Tony visits an Art Gallery and sees the light.
or
Tony Turn & Walk Assignment:-)
If nothing else, am really begining to enjoy the endless possibilities in term sof rendering and texturing and lighting....it was cool to have this comic book kinda look ...and it was all a simple lighting arrangement...its funny where everyone is trying to make it look more real and 3d, i am the nut trying ways to flatten everything! oh well...old habbits die hard! i LOOOVE 2d!

Crazy! Crazy! Crazy!

Yes...am going insane here! its the end of tehe semester , crazy workload and everything that could go wrong,IS!
i dont even wnat to begin talking about it all here...but one of the biggest set backs has been that the day b4 i just changed my story idea for my film project...and this is AFTER i did full colour storyboards and a rough story reel for it and one day b4 they were due!!
so i guess u can begin imagine my state of mind...
anywho...this past weekend was the first time i tried using a WACOM tablet to draw digitally on the comp. it was fun..so i decided to do my entire storyboards that way...though the drawings were quite bad..it was quick and let me keep it simple and move on to the next panel...
here are a couple of panles from the now "Abandoned Movie Concept"...:-(

"Left Out" Yet Another WIP Version (with Audio)

Okkkk...getting there....the 2d texture animation is yet to come for the facial expressions...some tweakings with the texture and i forgot to render the text saying "Don't Go Away"revealed on the wall as the Big Doll exits!
So all that in the next & final (hopefully) version! :-)

My "Tony" Jump!

Meet Tony...get used to him...u will be seeing a lot of him...he is the Rig we use for our human animation exercises...so...this is my first excercise with him...A jump...and this also the first time i really understood the technical process of texturing and lighting ...or atelast begining to!
His arms were such a pain to animate...i really missed my pencil/paper!

Cool New Music Video & ThisTime It's "In The Rain"! ;-)

Just saw this music video online..its a new video by Enya called "It's In The Rain"...though i dont think ist too complicated technically...looks like simple After Effects(I could surely be wrong, remember the idea of the doll being simple?)....but it looks fresh and nice...
and though this song would not be my first choice for a 2nd single from her new album(Amarantine), but i like it after seeing the video! The rain drops look cool..and the clouds remind me of Mulan titles!

Can u belive she is 55 years old!!?? I mean look at her! Special Effects?

You can see the entire video here.

~<< In Memoriam: Dwarka Bai >>~

I woke up this sad morning to a message from Bombay saying that Dwarki is no more. Dwarki was someone who brought me & my brother up but no one ever treated her or looked at her like a "Nanny". She was family & a second Grand Mother to me & she lived with us in our old house.She was not living with us from the last 10 yrs or so but she would drop by now & then, she loved my brother & I to bits.

She had been sick the last few years, more age related problems. I met her only 4-5 times in the last so many years mainly cause I was also not in India too much in the rescent years.Last I met her was just a few months before I came to Canada in January'06, & for some reason, I had this bad feeling I wont see her again so got this picture of us taken.

She was the last person still alive who I knew who's very sight could take me back in time to places and to the company of some very important people that are no longer there in my life. She was the last living link to many of my childood memories & loved ones.The last few times I met her, I would just be so overcome with emotion and pulled back into those memories that I could hardly even talk to her, would just sit there & look at her as she talked.

It pains me to think that though I so wanted to & was going to go visit her to say goodbye before I left for Canada, I was so absorbed in my own world ,with finishing my film ,getting my VISA ,preparing to leave the country & other such selfish things that I got caught up & could not make the "TIME" to go say a simple goodbye!...and now its a bit too late.Its a regret that I will carry for the rest of my life.
I hope she would forgive me for not letting her know what she meant to me & know that I will always carry her in my heart as a part of who I am,no matter where I go.

Rest In Peace Dwarki...You Will Be Missed Dearly.

"Left Out"- Work In Progress Animation

NEARLY DONNNNNNNNNNE! As u can see the textures are swimming all over the place...so have to figure that out and then i have to figure out how to ANIMATE the textures( facial expressions)so things read better...and then just tweak the animation a bit more and texture the Backgroundand light it and render it and put Sound etc etc ..phew!
Like i said "NEARLY" Done!:-)
It turned out a bit longer than the story reel , but i will proabably able to get it down to 10 sec once its all done!
I always put up rough 2d animation..so why not 3d too? yeah...i know its not the same..but still!:-)


(Those who dont know what this is all about, u can see the Story Reel here!)

"MOMENTS" Temp Composite of Sc. 14

Its missing effects layers,colour correction and some size relationship issues...but here it is anyws, an updated verision of Sc 14 who's line test i posted last week!

Oh This Is Gonna Be EASY....Yeah RRRight!

How simple does that look to texture, rig etc in MAYA? Yeah, well i fell for that too when i picked that balsted doll for my FIRST CG Project.
Its killing me...forget me ,even my teacher was surprised by the challenges this DECEPTIVELY SIMPLE doll is presenting & made a tutorial out of it for everyone else!lol

Oh well..i just kinda finished working on its Texture...(for those who r not MAYA freindly, this pic below is the art i made which has to wrap around the "Model" of the doll in virtual space giving it the "Look" that i'd want).So here is the texture for this...and am working on the animation now...hope to have it done by the weekend!

Some More "Tarzan On Broadway "Stuff

Am awfully busy with school these few days...shoudl have a couple of new projects to post up next week (if they dont end up looking TOO embarrassing that is!)

So until then...take a look at these...

The Introduction Art On A Screen B4 The Show Starts


Jane Caught In A Giant Spider's Giant Web (This replaces the baboon chase)


Take A Bow
(NO, Tarzan & Jane arn't phosphorescent in the show, its just a bad pic!)

In Theatres (Review)-Ice Age:The Meltdown

STORY! STORY! STORY! Why ,Why OH Why cant these people get that straight? Especially in Animation when the film is in production for 3-4 yrs if not more so there shoudl be nothing that isnt thougt through...also when even teh smallest element is under the control of the director/artists!!Then why this crap?Are people sleeping through the production?

Ice Age 2 is GORGEOUS to look at .I might even go to say its one of the most visually simple/beautifully designed CG movie yet...but then whats the point if there is no such thing as a "STORY" or a good reason to make this movie other than to cash in on excisting hit! The jokes are so juvenille and done and cliche!! Though Scrat does provide welcome releif and sometimes Sid too...but,geez!

Whats the excuse this time? Will the filmmakers blame Michael Eisner and "Executive Interferance" for this mess too? Cuase it wont work...wrong studio!..or wait, maybe its Rupert Murdock to blame here. For too long have animation filmmakers /directors tried to get away by blaming things on exectives..i am sure they did mess up many things...but i dont think its JUST that anymore.
I just feel bad for the aniamtors and other artists who work on such productions. They put so many years of their lives into such products...only to see the storytellers drop the ball at their end! Its a sad sad sad situation.What a waste of beautiful art and time and money!