Aspiring cartoonists must evolve their own language and find their niche on their own, Oscar-award winning animator Bruce Petty said at a day-long workshop organised by IT@School Project at Kanakakkunnu Palace on Saturday.
At the second of his series of demonstrations that Mr. Petty is conducting during his brief visit in the city, he found a captive audience among students who were part of the ‘Animation Training for Students,’ a programme organised by IT@School in 2011. Then, the students were put through an intensive four-day training in animation movie making skills and software applications, such as Ktoon, Open Shot video editor, and Audacity. This was followed by sub-district, district and State-wide competitions that assessed the budding animators’ talent. Snatches of some the films were screened prior to Mr. Petty’s presentation and he was all praise for the talent showcased.
He encouraged his audience to read extensively and to put no bar on putting their imagination to paper.
“The point about caricature is that you make it anyway you like,” said Mr. Petty, adding that fantasy formed a key part of animation. Artists needed to find what journalists could not do. “It is tricky, but you can do it,” he said.
Puzzle-solver
The ability comics hold of simplifying and “helping to solve huge puzzles” was discussed during the interactive session that followed. “Technology is changing and now we have access to so many ideas, some crude and wrong, some brilliant. We need to get smart about editing and know how to sift through all this massive material,” he said.
Shashi Tharoor, MP, who was present at the function, lauded Mr. Petty for his skill in conveying “visual humour without any dialogue.” Mr. Tharoor said students at the workshop must make use of his expertise.
He distributed awards to students whose animation films topped the competition held last year.
Cartoonists E.P. Unny and P.V. Krishnan participated in the workshop.
