The making of a 3D video:

Over the last few days, some interesting facts have been learnt regarding making a 3D video.
Let me tell you that creating the 3D effect is an art in itself.


Its not just enough to make a 3D movie by using stereoscopic camera and render it. You need to make sure that the audience feel the effect of 3 dimensional characters and environment.


And thats what was worked upon during the making of the "Anilmation-3D" video. When you watch a video, there are two things that effects your perception of the depth/3D:


1. Far away objects/environment.


2. Close by objects.




Its not as easy as you may think to create a good 3D effect all through the video.


As many of us know, to create a 3D movie, we need 2 cameras capturing the action from slightly different angles/positions.


To make close-by objects have the 3D effect, you need to decrease the coaxial seperation[one of the many attributes of a stereoscopic camera, which simply means the distance between the right camera and the left camera]


so for the close-up shot in the anilmation video where the letter "A" is shown, this distance was kept very low[approx. 0.3 units]


And in the same shot where the camera rotates and focuses on the other letters, the seperation has been increased slowly to a higher value as the main focus would be on farther objects[or letters]


In the case of the following shot where the camera runs through the tunnel, the sepeartion was kept to a much higher value, so that we can feel that the letters are coming closer and going farther. This is a challenge as we need to make sure we dont make a fuzzy video without clarity!


Overall, it does seem to be an exiting feature of Maya 2009 using which we can explore a whole new world of possiblilities in 3D movie making!







With love.. Anil

తెలుగు తల్లి పదమాల వెటూరిగారికి అశ్రునివాళి, మంగుళూరు గగన విషాదానికి సానుభూతి

"వేణువై వచ్చాను భువనానికి.. గాలినై పోతాను గగనానికి"

సాక్షాత్తు ఆ తెలుగు తల్లి మెడలోని పదాల హారంలోని ముత్యాలలాగా వేటూరి గారు ఎన్నో అందమైన పాటలు వ్రాసారు.


అందుకేనేమో. తెలుగు తల్లి తన చేత దగ్గరుండి మరిన్ని పాటలు వ్రాయిచుకోవాలని తనను తీసుకెళ్ళిపోయింది.


వేటూరి గారంటే ఒక రచయితే కాదు. ఒక వ్యక్తిగా కూడా చాలా మంచి పేరు తెచ్చుకున్న మహా కవి.
ఆయన ఎన్ని పురస్కారాలు అందుకున్నారో అనేకన్నా ఆయనకు తెలుగు భాష మీద వున్న ప్రేమ, ఎంత మంది మనస్సులను ఆకట్టుకున్నారో అనేది తెలుసుకోవాల్సిన విషయం.


మన అచ్చ తెలుగు భాషలోని మాధుర్యాన్ని చాటిచెప్పుతూ ఆయన వ్రాసిన గేయాలెన్నో. ఈ కాలం వున్నంతకాలం అవి గుర్తుండిపోతాయి.


ఒక "రాలిపోయే పువ్వా నీకు రాగాలెందుకే" కానీ, "యమహా నగరి" కానీ, "ఉప్పొంగెలే గోదావరి" కానీ, అలా చెప్పుకుంటే ఆయన వ్రాసిన ఎన్నో పాటలు ఎప్పటికీ మాసిపోని సంపదగా నిలిచిపోతాయి.


తెలుగు భాష తియ్యదనాన్ని మనందరికీ చూపించిన మహా కవి వేటూరి గారికి ఇదే నా అశ్రునివాళి.


తనికెళ్ళ భరణి మాటల్లో: "సాదా సీదా పదాలు వేటూరిని చేరి పరవసించిపోతాయి పాటలైపోయి!"


అలాగే అదే శనివారాన మంగళూరు లో జరిగిన గగన విషాదాన్ని చూడలేక ఆకాశం కూడా కన్నీరు పెట్టుకుంటూ చినుకుల్లా కురుస్తుందేమో అనిపించింది. వారందరికీ ఇదే నా ప్రగాఢ సానుభూతి...

Unveiling of the "Anilmation" logo animation video!

After considerable amount of delays and lots of scripting, the Anilmation logo videos are now live on Youtube!
This gives an unique identity to all the videos created by me, including the ones already created [like the lamp animation and dragon flight].
The art of animation as a whole has such a large scope that there are virtually no limits to what we can create! The making of 3D animation is also such an exciting one and its only fitting that the "Anilmation" logo is shown zooming around in 3D!
There are so many ways of creating the 3D effect, and one of the easiest ways is by taking 2 images of the same object(s) from slightly different angles.
And once we can cross our eyes and adjust to the image, it can create that effect of objects coming out of the screen!

And coming to the learning aspect of this video, its been completely done using scripting, which is based upon maya embedded language.
Everything including the glow of the characters in the end is done using expressions/code which is really interesting and one of the most powerfull features of the maya software!




With love.. Anil

UV Unwrapping-- A kind of puzzle!

Yesterday, working on the project, unwrapping was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

Its more like solving a puzzle full of lines and putting them together to create a good layout for applying colors using photoshop later.

Unwrapping of the forest landscape and 2 of the floating mountains is complete and probably the more challenging part comes in the character modelling and giving the right textures to them!

For those who doesnt know about UV unwrapping in animation, it is the process by which all objects in a 3D environment are converted into a normal 2D plane so that applying colours to them using external files could be easy.

Once the objects are all unwrapped, they could be editied in any image editing software and reapplied to the object with all the colours.

With love.. Anil 

The business of movies on tv!!

There is an exciting line-up of latest movies coming soon on Telugu channels! Leading the pack is Maa tv which acquired the satellite rights of 6 new movies, followed by gemini!
Simha- Maa tv
Namo Venkatesha- Maa tv
Adurs- Maa tv
Leader- Maa tv
Josh- Maa tv
Kedi- Maa tv
Aarya2- Gemini tv

With no doubt the most exciting of the lot like including "Leader" will be on Maa tv, except for Aarya2.
Probably Ramcharan's upcoming "Orange" is going to Gemini's kitty, though there is no confirmation about that.
It would be really interesting to see what Zee Telugu will be upto as it had the rights of as many as 24 latest movies in 2009!
With HD services coming up in India in a big way, one thing that would really spice up things would be a genuine HD version of Telugu channel like maa tv.
It would enable in experiencing movies like Magadheera in the best quality possible and give a theatre like feel!
Talking about Magadheera's premiere on Maa tv, it was surprising to see how quick the movie returned after a break[ranging from 4 minutes to 9 minutes] as well as the countdown that started 1 minute before the movie resumed! [most channels take atleast 10-15 minutes of break!]
Of course the experience of watching it in theatre is the best, and cannot be compared to watching on the small screen!


With love.. Anil

A team of creative talent: "Creative Cruisers"!!

 new team of animators has been created with the title "Creative Cruisers" on monday[10th may 2010].
The aim of this 9 member team[including me] will be to produce a small film/video complete with live action and special effects using software like Maya, Adobe After Effects, Photoshop[for texturing] and probably some software to edit audio.
And the team's logo has already been designed, with the script in the development stage.
So a small beginning has been made to understand the process of film making and learn the art!
All the best to our team!!

With love.. Anil

Over reaction and immature media

As expected, the media is heavily agog with criticism of Indian cricket team. But how much of it is fair?
The other day, star news aired a program titled something like "Sharm ho.." Some of the comments like the above are highly objectionable.
No doubt, the team has havily under-performed, decisions on the field backfired, and lots of mistakes happened. But its too foolish of these so called pillars of democracy to show them as some kind of villains or careless people. They need the support when things go wrong.
As supporters of Indian team, its our duty to be with the team during crisis or bad times rather than spew venom like hyper-aggressive beasts.
The players have complete freedom to give importance to whatever they want.
If they think IPL is more important to them, then they have complete right to do so.
All that they need to do is take a firm decision like Sachin, who has decided not to play international T20s more than a couple of years back.
There has been many blunders beginning from the selection of WC team before the IPL even began.
Some of the best Indian players in the IPL have been resting at home whereas underperformers went to the windies with the comfort of past performances.
No doubt media is meant to collect, analyse and present news to the public.
But at the same time, its important to give a constructive feedback and not to always create "bouquets or brickbats" situation.
We are with you Team India. We have a world winning team and all it needs is the maximum utilisation of our resources!


With love.. Anil

How to save yourself the horrors of Indian WCT20!

For those who is breaking their heads watching the batting of Indian side in WCT20 2010, some simple tips to save yourself those horrors
1. Temporarily shift your team to the opposition. Since almost the whole life you are going to support India, it does no harm to support the opposition for a match or two. Bet on the other team..If opposition wins, you win quick bucks. Else, India wins! :). So its a win-win situation for you!

2. If you get goosebumps to see the batsmen coming and going like a procession, switch to another channel and avoid any Indian news channel, as they will be concentrating on the scores all the time! Atleast for the next 1-2 days, alienate anything related to cricket!

3. Turn off the tv, take a deep breath and practise yoga even if it is 11pm!

4. Watch the horror movies like "Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna", and other dumb KJohar movies which are much horrific than India losing in cricket. You will get fed up of those movies soon and will surely feel better once you come back to the match!



With love.. Anil

Big movies coming soon!!

Many big movies are coming up this summer like Iron Man-2, Prince of Persia, Rakta Charitra-1 and 2, etc..
Having a look at Rakta Charitra's trailer on Maa tv yesterday evening, it seems to have lots of politics apart from the expected gory scenes, but all of that create lots of curiosity about the movie which is a great package for promotion. One thing is unique about this movie--Never did we see a movie trailer coming with part 1 and 2 names at the same time! Of course the movies will be released with gap of few months, but their trailers with strong narration create a powerfull feel and make us guess what to expect from them!
And yes..today is the release of the Iron Man-2 and its fans can hardly wait for it!


With love.. Anil

Magadheera..The Blockbuster..on May 15[Maa tv]!!

Finally the suspense over Magadheera's Satellite Premiere is over and its coming to your Maa tv on May 15th!

Its been more than a month since promos have begun on Maa tv. Similar to the movie's mega success, this premiere too will surely be the most exciting one for a lot of people. Ironically, Telugu movie is coming on Maa tv while the tamil version[dubbed and re-shooting a few scenes] hasnt released yet!

The movie has that look, feel and awe that makes you go to the theaters and watch it rather than take a DVD.

Remembering the time when I watched it in a theatre nearby, I was blown away with the experience after deciding to watch it on the big screen based on a small preview! You may say "wow!..it looked so good on DVD. Why not see it in theater?" and thats exactly what worked in the movie's favour- Bringing people to the theatres in this age of cheap DVDs.

Its story may not be too fresh, nor is there much of comedy, but the cinematography, action, and entertainment factor rocked big time and the passion of the director Rajamouli is clearly visible. 

Coming to the visual effects, its hard to find out which part of the frame is VFX and which one is real, and that is something we may not have seen in any Indian movie yet.

Hats off to all the team of Magadheera for their spectacular work. 

Eagerly awaiting for the satellite premiere on May15th!

With love.. Anil

It was on September 15th that I watched Magadheera on the big screen streamed in high digital quality thanks to UFO[United Film Organizers] Digital Cinema which ensures only the best quality in every screening of the movie. Movies are beamed to theatre directly from satellite..somewhat like DTH. So it is after a gap of exactly 8 months that it is again coming from satellite directly to tv in digital quality!

Talking of Digital Cinema in general, it works something like below: