The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : A hi-tech, swanky workplace that reflects their onscreen magic

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Friday, Apr 11, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

A hi-tech, swanky workplace that reflects their onscreen magic

Ramya Kannan

A lot of thought has gone into designing the office: Krishnakant Mishra

— Photo: Shaju John

Tim Sarnoff, president, Sony Pictures Imageworks, (right), with Krishnakant Mishra, creative director, Imageworks India, outside the new studio in Chennai, on Thursday.

CHENNAI: You think the guys that cook up all that magic that animates a film must have a snazzy office. You couldn’t be closer to the truth.

The moment you step into the brand new office of Imageworks India, you have the feeling you are interrupting the shooting of a sci-fi movie. Imageworks India — a subsidiary of Sony Pictures Imageworks, Culver City, California — is a digital production studio dedicated to the art of visual effects and character animation. The teams in India and California have worked together on the final part of the popular Spider Man triology and the Will Smith-starrer I am Legend.

“A lot of thought has gone into designing the office,” says Imageworks India’s creative director Krishnakant Mishra. That high ceiling, cubicled, selectively-lit 22,500 square feet hall is not just about style, it is also about how all aspects of design combine to maximise productivity. The low lighting, for instance, Mr. Mishra says, is so that the animators can see the colours better. As for the “server room,” it cannot get more sci-fi than that or, more utilitarian.

The new office is like a first anniversary gift Imageworks India is buying for itself. Having completed one year as part of the home company and picked up a couple of awards on the way (FICCI’s best animated frames 2008 awards), the team was ready to pop the cork and get ready to grow.

Tim Sarnoff, president of Sony Pictures Imageworks, was excited at the prospect of being in India and watching the fledgling spread its wings. “The new office in the International Tech Park [Ascendas Phase 2], Chennai, will accommodate technology advancements and the growth of our talent base,” he said.

Imageworks took over the Indian animation studio FrameFlow about one year ago and since then, it has worked to seamlessly integrate the work with its own studio in Culver City.

“We accomplished this by training lead artists from India and mirroring the Culver City production pipeline in Chennai,” Mr.Sarnoff said. In addition to VFX work, the team in India now contributes to overall production pipelines – including computer graphics animation, performance capture and 3D stereoscopic production.

As for Mr. Mishra, he is sure the association with Imageworks was the best thing that could have happened to FrameFlow. The kind of skill advancement and training, availability of specific software could not have taken place without the support of the award-winning US-based studio.

Imageworks India is currently working on a couple of projects, yet another Will Smith starrer Hancock and the sequel Sony Pictures’ 2006 animation film Open Season. Well, at least they are the two projects Mr. Mishra can talk of without violating customer trust.

And then the inevitable question? Will Imageworks India be true to its roots and lend some authentic VFX jazz to flicks from Kollywood and Bollywood? The inevitable answer: But, of course.

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