Tag: Norman Joseph

  • ‘The time for the Indian animation scene is now’

    Express News Service

    The first thing that strikes our mind when we mull over the differences between animation and live-action films is how entire worlds are created straight out of one’s mind in the former. To be technically accurate, an animated film springs to several minds and to understand that process, we talked to Chatrasal Singh (animator) and Norman Joseph (Technical Director) who worked on Disney’s upcoming film Strange World.

    When asked what defines good animation, Chatrasal Singh draws upon years of insights to confidently declare, “Story is king. With the kind of tools available in the industry today, almost every studio is able to create stunning visuals. The only thing that sets you apart is the story.” If the story is the foundation, then the building is built on technology, and that is when someone like technical director Norman Joseph comes in. “Technical directors are responsible for making sure that the artists are able to accomplish their tasks using technology. If they come up with a new request and want to achieve something new, we analyse that request and see if it is technically feasible.”

    This feasibility is a major aspect of translating the mind’s vision to the screen, and Chatrasal gives us a step-by-step insight into that process. “It begins with a story pitch, then the director works with an art department to sketch the entire film into storyboards. Then we model the characters, create layouts and animation before sending it to the lighting department after which the film moves to the rendering stage.”

    While there are many levels to the immensely collaborative effort, Chatrasal’s animation team works specifically on the performance of the characters. “Sometimes, we act it out ourselves,” he chuckles before continuing, “Some animators like to sketch emotions. Someone like me, who cannot sketch too well, would act in front of the camera and then animate our characters to emote the same way.” Apart from the depth provided by the voice cast, a part of the animator’s performance, as it seems, is also poured into the film. This revelation also means that from an animator’s point of view, there are a lot of similarities between making an animated film and a live-action film. “Both films are hard to make. But in an animation film, you need to build it all from the scratch. Everything from a blade of grass to an entire world has to be created and rendered,” shares Joseph.

    Drawing inspiration from live performances is not something new for Disney and this tradition has managed to stay alive till Strange World. “We have videos of the actors performing while delivering the dialogues and we pick up facial nuances and try to incorporate it in the film,“ says Chatrasal, adding, “When an actor is lending their voice to a character in an animation film, they are not exactly performing the actual scene but their body language still informs our animation process.”

    Directed by Don Hall, Strange World boasts an impressive cast that includes Jake Gyllenhaal, Lucy Liu, Dennis Quaid, Jaboukie Young-White, Gabrielle Union and Karan Soni. Talking about the uniqueness of Strange World, Joseph says, “The film has amazing environments in it. I loved watching the character Splat on screen, and the way it was made to emote even though it does not have conventional humanoid facial features.”

    On the other hand, Chatrasal shares that his favourite characters from the film are Ethan and Searcher. “I found it easier to relate to Searcher and his son Ethan since I am a new father myself, and the film is all about the relationship between a father and son. If I want to empathise with the character, I dig into something personal that has happened in my life to try and connect with the character at that moment in the film.”

    The conversation then moved toward the animation scene in India and Norman Joseph’s optimism for the potential for homegrown animation is apparent. “There are a wealth of stories in India and even now as we speak, there are so many Indian films that are getting mainstream attention from the international audience and it is a matter of time that success translates to our animation industry.”

    He then backed up his optimism with advice for Indians hoping to get into the animation industry, “The time for the Indian animation scene is now. There are plenty of competent animation studios in India. It’s all about making connections, getting the right resources, and learning from the resources and on top of that, you need to keep doing what you love to do. Animation is a vast industry and figuring out what you would like to do in that industry would be the first question to figure out,” he signs off.

    (This story originally appeared on Cinema Express)

    The first thing that strikes our mind when we mull over the differences between animation and live-action films is how entire worlds are created straight out of one’s mind in the former. To be technically accurate, an animated film springs to several minds and to understand that process, we talked to Chatrasal Singh (animator) and Norman Joseph (Technical Director) who worked on Disney’s upcoming film Strange World.

    When asked what defines good animation, Chatrasal Singh draws upon years of insights to confidently declare, “Story is king. With the kind of tools available in the industry today, almost every studio is able to create stunning visuals. The only thing that sets you apart is the story.” If the story is the foundation, then the building is built on technology, and that is when someone like technical director Norman Joseph comes in. “Technical directors are responsible for making sure that the artists are able to accomplish their tasks using technology. If they come up with a new request and want to achieve something new, we analyse that request and see if it is technically feasible.”

    This feasibility is a major aspect of translating the mind’s vision to the screen, and Chatrasal gives us a step-by-step insight into that process. “It begins with a story pitch, then the director works with an art department to sketch the entire film into storyboards. Then we model the characters, create layouts and animation before sending it to the lighting department after which the film moves to the rendering stage.”

    While there are many levels to the immensely collaborative effort, Chatrasal’s animation team works specifically on the performance of the characters. “Sometimes, we act it out ourselves,” he chuckles before continuing, “Some animators like to sketch emotions. Someone like me, who cannot sketch too well, would act in front of the camera and then animate our characters to emote the same way.” Apart from the depth provided by the voice cast, a part of the animator’s performance, as it seems, is also poured into the film. This revelation also means that from an animator’s point of view, there are a lot of similarities between making an animated film and a live-action film. “Both films are hard to make. But in an animation film, you need to build it all from the scratch. Everything from a blade of grass to an entire world has to be created and rendered,” shares Joseph.

    Drawing inspiration from live performances is not something new for Disney and this tradition has managed to stay alive till Strange World. “We have videos of the actors performing while delivering the dialogues and we pick up facial nuances and try to incorporate it in the film,“ says Chatrasal, adding, “When an actor is lending their voice to a character in an animation film, they are not exactly performing the actual scene but their body language still informs our animation process.”

    Directed by Don Hall, Strange World boasts an impressive cast that includes Jake Gyllenhaal, Lucy Liu, Dennis Quaid, Jaboukie Young-White, Gabrielle Union and Karan Soni. Talking about the uniqueness of Strange World, Joseph says, “The film has amazing environments in it. I loved watching the character Splat on screen, and the way it was made to emote even though it does not have conventional humanoid facial features.”

    On the other hand, Chatrasal shares that his favourite characters from the film are Ethan and Searcher. “I found it easier to relate to Searcher and his son Ethan since I am a new father myself, and the film is all about the relationship between a father and son. If I want to empathise with the character, I dig into something personal that has happened in my life to try and connect with the character at that moment in the film.”

    The conversation then moved toward the animation scene in India and Norman Joseph’s optimism for the potential for homegrown animation is apparent. “There are a wealth of stories in India and even now as we speak, there are so many Indian films that are getting mainstream attention from the international audience and it is a matter of time that success translates to our animation industry.”

    He then backed up his optimism with advice for Indians hoping to get into the animation industry, “The time for the Indian animation scene is now. There are plenty of competent animation studios in India. It’s all about making connections, getting the right resources, and learning from the resources and on top of that, you need to keep doing what you love to do. Animation is a vast industry and figuring out what you would like to do in that industry would be the first question to figure out,” he signs off.

    (This story originally appeared on Cinema Express)

  • ‘The time for the Indian animation scene is now’: Norman Joseph

    Express News Service

    The first thing that strikes our mind when we mull over the differences between animation and live-action films is how entire worlds are created straight out of one’s mind in the former. To be technically accurate, an animated film springs to several minds and to understand that process, we talked to Chatrasal Singh (animator) and Norman Joseph (Technical Director) who worked on Disney’s upcoming film Strange World.

    When asked what defines good animation, Chatrasal Singh draws upon years of insights to confidently declare, “Story is king. With the kind of tools available in the industry today, almost every studio is able to create stunning visuals. The only thing that sets you apart is the story.” If the story is the foundation, then the building is built on technology, and that is when someone like technical director Norman Joseph comes in. “Technical directors are responsible for making sure that the artists are able to accomplish their tasks using technology. If they come up with a new request and want to achieve something new, we analyse that request and see if it is technically feasible.”

    This feasibility is a major aspect of translating the mind’s vision to the screen, and Chatrasal gives us a step-by-step insight into that process. “It begins with a story pitch, then the director works with an art department to sketch the entire film into storyboards. Then we model the characters, create layouts and animation before sending it to the lighting department after which the film moves to the rendering stage.”

    While there are many levels to the immensely collaborative effort, Chatrasal’s animation team works specifically on the performance of the characters. “Sometimes, we act it out ourselves,” he chuckles before continuing, “Some animators like to sketch emotions. Someone like me, who cannot sketch too well, would act in front of the camera and then animate our characters to emote the same way.” Apart from the depth provided by the voice cast, a part of the animator’s performance, as it seems, is also poured into the film. This revelation also means that from an animator’s point of view, there are a lot of similarities between making an animated film and a live-action film. “Both films are hard to make. But in an animation film, you need to build it all from the scratch. Everything from a blade of grass to an entire world has to be created and rendered,” shares Joseph.

    Drawing inspiration from live performances is not something new for Disney and this tradition has managed to stay alive till Strange World. “We have videos of the actors performing while delivering the dialogues and we pick up facial nuances and try to incorporate it in the film,“ says Chatrasal, adding, “When an actor is lending their voice to a character in an animation film, they are not exactly performing the actual scene but their body language still informs our animation process.”

    Directed by Don Hall, Strange World boasts an impressive cast that includes Jake Gyllenhaal, Lucy Liu, Dennis Quaid, Jaboukie Young-White, Gabrielle Union and Karan Soni. Talking about the uniqueness of Strange World, Joseph says, “The film has amazing environments in it. I loved watching the character Splat on screen, and the way it was made to emote even though it does not have conventional humanoid facial features.”

    On the other hand, Chatrasal shares that his favourite characters from the film are Ethan and Searcher. “I found it easier to relate to Searcher and his son Ethan since I am a new father myself, and the film is all about the relationship between a father and son. If I want to empathise with the character, I dig into something personal that has happened in my life to try and connect with the character at that moment in the film.”

    The conversation then moved toward the animation scene in India and Norman Joseph’s optimism for the potential for homegrown animation is apparent. “There are a wealth of stories in India and even now as we speak, there are so many Indian films that are getting mainstream attention from the international audience and it is a matter of time that success translates to our animation industry.”

    He then backed up his optimism with advice for Indians hoping to get into the animation industry, “The time for the Indian animation scene is now. There are plenty of competent animation studios in India. It’s all about making connections, getting the right resources, and learning from the resources and on top of that, you need to keep doing what you love to do. Animation is a vast industry and figuring out what you would like to do in that industry would be the first question to figure out,” he signs off.

    (This story originally appeared on Cinema Express)

    The first thing that strikes our mind when we mull over the differences between animation and live-action films is how entire worlds are created straight out of one’s mind in the former. To be technically accurate, an animated film springs to several minds and to understand that process, we talked to Chatrasal Singh (animator) and Norman Joseph (Technical Director) who worked on Disney’s upcoming film Strange World.

    When asked what defines good animation, Chatrasal Singh draws upon years of insights to confidently declare, “Story is king. With the kind of tools available in the industry today, almost every studio is able to create stunning visuals. The only thing that sets you apart is the story.” If the story is the foundation, then the building is built on technology, and that is when someone like technical director Norman Joseph comes in. “Technical directors are responsible for making sure that the artists are able to accomplish their tasks using technology. If they come up with a new request and want to achieve something new, we analyse that request and see if it is technically feasible.”

    This feasibility is a major aspect of translating the mind’s vision to the screen, and Chatrasal gives us a step-by-step insight into that process. “It begins with a story pitch, then the director works with an art department to sketch the entire film into storyboards. Then we model the characters, create layouts and animation before sending it to the lighting department after which the film moves to the rendering stage.”

    While there are many levels to the immensely collaborative effort, Chatrasal’s animation team works specifically on the performance of the characters. “Sometimes, we act it out ourselves,” he chuckles before continuing, “Some animators like to sketch emotions. Someone like me, who cannot sketch too well, would act in front of the camera and then animate our characters to emote the same way.” Apart from the depth provided by the voice cast, a part of the animator’s performance, as it seems, is also poured into the film. This revelation also means that from an animator’s point of view, there are a lot of similarities between making an animated film and a live-action film. “Both films are hard to make. But in an animation film, you need to build it all from the scratch. Everything from a blade of grass to an entire world has to be created and rendered,” shares Joseph.

    Drawing inspiration from live performances is not something new for Disney and this tradition has managed to stay alive till Strange World. “We have videos of the actors performing while delivering the dialogues and we pick up facial nuances and try to incorporate it in the film,“ says Chatrasal, adding, “When an actor is lending their voice to a character in an animation film, they are not exactly performing the actual scene but their body language still informs our animation process.”

    Directed by Don Hall, Strange World boasts an impressive cast that includes Jake Gyllenhaal, Lucy Liu, Dennis Quaid, Jaboukie Young-White, Gabrielle Union and Karan Soni. Talking about the uniqueness of Strange World, Joseph says, “The film has amazing environments in it. I loved watching the character Splat on screen, and the way it was made to emote even though it does not have conventional humanoid facial features.”

    On the other hand, Chatrasal shares that his favourite characters from the film are Ethan and Searcher. “I found it easier to relate to Searcher and his son Ethan since I am a new father myself, and the film is all about the relationship between a father and son. If I want to empathise with the character, I dig into something personal that has happened in my life to try and connect with the character at that moment in the film.”

    The conversation then moved toward the animation scene in India and Norman Joseph’s optimism for the potential for homegrown animation is apparent. “There are a wealth of stories in India and even now as we speak, there are so many Indian films that are getting mainstream attention from the international audience and it is a matter of time that success translates to our animation industry.”

    He then backed up his optimism with advice for Indians hoping to get into the animation industry, “The time for the Indian animation scene is now. There are plenty of competent animation studios in India. It’s all about making connections, getting the right resources, and learning from the resources and on top of that, you need to keep doing what you love to do. Animation is a vast industry and figuring out what you would like to do in that industry would be the first question to figure out,” he signs off.

    (This story originally appeared on Cinema Express)

  • INTERVIEW | ‘Raya and the Last Dragon’ was made mostly from home due to pandemic

    Express News Service
    Much happens in the creation of an animated film. Apart from the usual filmmaking processes like scripting, storyboarding, lighting, and editing, here, there is also concept art, pre-visualisation, texturing, animation, rigging, rendering and compositing. Such intensive work naturally demands much manpower—which is why animated films are made through the collaboration between many, many divisions. With Disney’s latest film, Raya and the Norman Joseph and Archana Senthilkumar from Disney, who let us into the making of this film and talk to us about what it took to complete this film during the pandemic:Last Dragon that has come out to great reviews, this entire process had to be improvised. Here’s

    Excerpts. Could you expand upon your responsibilitiles?Norman Joseph: As a General Technical Director, I support production and develop the tools used by artists in production. Among those we partner with, include artists, production and technology leadership, technical directors, and software engineers. The tools we develop help facilitate the computer graphics animation process.

    Archana Senthilkumar: I work as the bridge between the software development teams and the artist production teams. At the beginning of a project, we spend time developing software that the artists will use after the production goes into full swing. At the end, we switch fully into support mode to help them with all the little tweaks. 

    NJ: I also develop the workflow that gets used by artists from multiple departments to contribute towards making the film. I also help with the workflow to create all the vegetation you see in the film; I also create a workflow for the crowd department artists to be able to share their character data with animation and technical animation department artists, so that each department is able to access character performance with tools they are familiar with. What does a regular day at work entail for you? AS: We use scripting languages like Python and C++ as well as 3D software packages like Maya, Houdini, and Nuke. A regular day at work involves development tasks and handling a queue of support tickets from artists who are currently working in production. Sometimes, it’s a small issue that can be fixed in five minutes. Some others take us down a rabbit hole that take weeks and need the help of a dozen other people.

    We begin an animation film as a regular film: we ideate, get feedback from the crew, research consultants and experts. If a particular scene may resonate well with the audience, we can start working on it even if the scenes surrounding it are not in the final stage yet. We can come up with different versions of the same scene and make changes at various stages, so there’s a lot of flexibility when it comes to animation. And then, there’s also a production management department that makes sure that we are not continuously making changes till the deadline.  At which stage of production do you join the team? NJ: Technical directors work with all the departments through the production. We start working from the start of production and as more departments come in line, more technical directors join the production. I joined the production when the ‘crowd and effects’ departments were starting to get busy on production shots. 

    AS: People with supervisory roles roll on at a much earlier stage so that we can talk to the director and ideate with the script along with what is technically achievable. Once that is fleshed out, I team up with the rest of artist production.  How different is Raya and the Last Dragon, say, from a Frozen 2, in terms of technical challenges?NJ: The biggest difference between the two films is that Raya and the Last Dragon was made mostly from home, due to the pandemic. We are lucky to have so many amazing people working with us and it’s amazing how we all came together to create this film from home. We built multiple new tools and workflows to support our amazing artists, so we all could have what we needed to make this film. Much like the theme of this film, we trusted each other and came together to bring our best to our work even when we all had to do it from home. All we had was video conferencing to connect with each other. 

    AS: From a technical standpoint, this film has a lot of action. A lot of action choreography went into the character’s animation. For example, in a sword fight, you want the character’s actions, motions and expressions to be smooth even though they are moving fast. There are also a lot of different environments in this film. Kumandra (the fictional world in which the film is based) is made up of different type of lands—right from desserts to port cities and icy mountains. Dealing with different kind of terrains for the same film was technically challenging.  Tell us a little about your next project.NJ: I am currently working with the workflow group at the studio to build the next generation of tools to be used for our future projects. The work involves experimenting with new software and tools, and trying things that we have not tried before, so we can learn to see what’s possible in the future.AS: The next film we are working on is Encanto. I have just started working on that film and it is a totally different setting that speaks of a different culture. I’m very excited to work on it.