ASIFA India

This year being special, as we will be celebrating 10 Years of ASIFA India and 50 Years of ASIFA International.

Preparations for IAD 2010 are in full swing.

It is going to be yet another week of fun packed activities, sessions, workshops and more!!!

The website for IAD 2010 is currently under construction. Soon we are going to be coming up with all the new details that circle around IAD 2010!
We are proud to announce the annual ASIFA India Awards of Excellence as a part of International Animation Day celebration in October 2010.

REGULATIONS FOR SUBMISSIONS ARE:

1.Objectives
ASIFA India Awards of Excellence have been setup to recognize and celebrate the best in the art of Animation. Awards of Excellence is organized by ASIFA India.

2. Entry Requirements
Films must have been completed between the time span of October ‘09 to September ‘10. The competition is open for all animated and vfx films. Submitting films is free of charge.

3. Deadline and Submission
The submission deadline is September 12th, 2010.
The following material has to be sent together with each submitted film:
1) a PAL/NTSC playable DVD (1 film per dvd). PAL DVD preferred.
2) a FULLY completed entry form Click Here For Entry Form
3) a complete list of dialogue, commentary and/or text inserts in original language AND in English
4) at least 1 still photo from the film
ASIFA India will not return the submitted materials.

4. Selection
The sender will be notified of the selection results by a specific date.(Date to be announced soon).

5.Shipping Procedures
The expenses of sending the Film will be paid by the sender. Preview/ Screening copies will not be returned. The DVDs must be sent by 12th September 2010 to the following address:
ASIFA India,
C/o Rhythm & Hues Studios India Pvt Ltd,
Prism Towers, ‘A’ Wing, 3rd Floor,
Mind Space, Goregaon (West),
Mumbai - 400 062 .
Tel: + 91-22-40388888.
www.asifa.in

COMPETITION CATEGORIES:
With ASIFA India celebrating 10 years this year, we have introduced several new categories for film submissions into the competition.
Here are the categories:

1. Student Films
(Films made by animation students in further and higher education.)
a)Best 2d Animation Film.
b)Best 3d Animation Film.
c)Best Stop Motion Film.
d)Best Vfx Film.
e)Best Public Service Announcement.

2. Professional Films / Independent Films
(Films made by professional animators and studios.)
a)Best Animated Short Film.
b)Best Animated Feature Film.
c)Best Animated Commercial.
d)Best Vfx Commercial.
e)Best Vfx Feature Film.

Beverly Hills, CA-July 8, 2010-ASIFA, The International Animated Film Association, has recently kicked off its year long celebration, which will continue until March 2011, to commemorate their 50-year anniversary since being chartered under UNESCO in 1960. Highlights of the year include an International Animation Day in October to be celebrated in 30 countries and the publication of a special hardbound 50 year anniversary book.

Among ASIFA’s target goals are giving opportunities for professionals to network globally, sustaining and preserving the rights of animators and the art of animation, and promoting progress toward peace and mutual understanding. Through its many publications, promotions, workshops, gatherings, and worldwide projects the organization has an extensive variety of international activities that make its presence felt to both its members and on the world stage.

Nelson Shin, the current president of ASIFA reflects on the organization’s 50th: “I am so proud to be a part of ASIFA during this major milestone. It is a pleasure for me to be able to serve this organization that has contributed so much to the animation industry worldwide. I look forward to watching it continue to grow and give back even more to its members and the public in its next 50 years.” In addition to President Nelson Shin of Korea, the current leadership includes: Secretary General Vesna Dovnikovic of Croatia, Vice Presidents: Antran Manoogian of Hollywood, Sayoko Kinoshita of Japan, Heikki Jokinen of Finland, Ed Desroches of Colorado; Executive Director Bill Dennis of USA/India, and Treasurer Anastasia Dimitra of Greece.

ASIFA runs many effective, self-sustaining programs such as the Animation Workshop Group (AWG), and International Animation Day (IAD). The current AWG project, which allows children in over 30 different workshops around the globe to collaborate on an animated film with the leadership of a professional ASIFA animator, will center on themes celebrating ASIFA’s 50th anniversary. International Animation Day will also focus on the anniversary during the week of October 28th as well as commemorate the first public performance of Emile Reynaud’s Theater Optique in Paris, 1892.

ASIFA (Association Internationale du Film D’Animation) was originally founded in 1960 in France, as a membership organization devoted to promoting animation art globally, and to attaining international friendship and understanding through animation. ASIFA is the only international nonprofit organization for animation art in the world. In its 50 year existence, it has grown to over 6000 members in 58 countries on all continents. Though most members are associated with 32 national chapters, there are also individual members. ASIFA provides the linkage between all the chapters as well as a direct connection to International events such as animation festivals and seminars.

The ASIFA organization is responsible for an array of publications including the twice yearly journal ASIFA Magazine, and the website www.ASIFA.net. These outlets have become important sources for member networking and communication as well as the source of the field’s most interesting articles and interviews.

Now entering its fifth decade, ASIFA has cooperated with Animation Festivals around the world to create and manage the Festival Information System. The goal of this system is to protect the interests of filmmakers and help foster quality, international animation festivals. ASIFA ensures that if any films sent to an event have been lost or damaged, they are either located or that the affected artist receives compensation. The organization publishes guidelines on how festivals can meet these quality standards.

Finally, an ASIFA membership is open to all individuals interested in animation. Along with benefits like the ASIFA archive in Berlin as well as informal exchanges of animators and animation between chapters, members can show their support for a world-wide organization that continues to lobby for only the best in animation.

For more information about ASIFA and membership opportunities, please visit: www.asifa.net.

We are pleased to announce the upcoming CgMeetup in Hyderabad.
The topic this time is “Applying principles of Animation in production.”

This meetup will be conducted by Rebecca Ruether, Lead Animator from Rhythm and Hues Studios. Rebecca has been with Rhythm and Hues Studios for the past 8 years and has been a part of some really amazing movies like Scooby Doo, Happy Feet, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, etc. She was also the Animation Supervisor for the 2008 Academy Award winning movie, “The Golden Compass”. With so much experience to share, this meetup is a must watch to gain some interesting Animation tips.

The event would be held on Sunday, 13th June  from 11.00am to 01.00pm at the Ascendas V - Park Auditorium, V-IT Park, Madhapur, Hitech City, Hyderabad.

Entry is free of cost but one must pre-register for the event.
To pre-register visit http://asifa.in/cgmeetup/cgmeetregis.php
Hope to see you all there !

In its continued effort of sharing knowledge by bringing forth some of the most interesting topics for the benefit of the animation and vfx community, ASIFA India’s latest Cg MeetUp saw a packed house at the Whistling Woods auditorium.

With behind the scenes action being presented by the speakers on some of the most recent and popular television commercials, the meet up proved to be a lot of fun and gave a never seen before insight into the making of these commercials. The session was kick started by Prakash Verma from Nirvana Films, who has directed the immensely popular Vodafone Zoo Zoo commercials. His presentation included the whole pre-production process of designing the look of the characters to planning the shoot and then getting all elements together including sound to produce a completely new world which was all built as a set. Prakash Verma further spoke about how he got inspiration from certain old animation films and how they came up with a unique style which so closely resembled animation but in fact was all live action. A round of questions and answers followed and Prakash Verma’s presentation ended after he shared some funny videos and photographs from the set which had the audience in splits.

 The next to follow was the Visual Computing Labs team consisting of Mandar Pingulkar , Deepak Ganguly and Sanoj Menon. They presented the making of the Spice Mobile commercial which required them to create a photo real brooder fish, its babies and an eel. They explained the audience the thought behind achieving a documentary type look for the commercial. The team went through the kind of references that they looked at from the animation point of view and also shared the lighting and compositing process to achieve a realistic underwater look. After the Spice Mobile commercial, they showcased their work on the Kellogs Honeyloops commercial which had a cartoony honey bee in a live action environment interacting with live actors. They shared some of the character designs for the honey bee, the rigging and animation tests and explained in detail a shot where the bee went from a live action environment to a full cg one. 

  Vaibhav, Hitesh & Prabhav from the Rhythm & Hues team were the next to present the Alpenliebe Creamfills commercial. Their presentation started with explaining the audience the challenge that the team faced in getting the Cg lions to look completely real in the first part of the commercial and then make them stand up on their two legs to dance in the later part without losing the real attributes of the characters. They took the audience through the live action shooting process and the role of a vfx team on the set, they also shared some of the reference videos that were looked at to get the right kind of energy and rhythm for choreographing the lions. Further, they shared a few animation iterations that some of the select shots went through. The lighting and compositing process to seamlessly integrate the cg characters into a live action environment formed the concluding part of the Rhythm & Hues presentation. A question and answer session followed to end the round of presentations.

The event ended with the Nvidia sponsored lucky draw where one member of the audience was the lucky winner of a nvidia graphics card.