India’s biggest visual effects, animation and gaming conference Bengaluru GAFX Conference 2017, which saw the participation of more than 3,500 animation enthusiasts, concluded in the city on Sunday with Priyank Kharge, Minister for IT & BT, announcing a State government grant of ₹2.5 crore for intellectual property (IP) rights in animation.
Each original idea will be eligible for a grant of up to ₹50 lakh, Mr. Kharge said. “This grant is aimed at developing world-class content for a global audience in Karnataka. Such IPs will position us as creators of world-class content and not just as a services industry,” he said. The State also plans to set up a Centre for Excellence in Animation in Bengaluru, he announced. The grant to IPs in animation will be part of a start-up initiative, Idea2PoC, launched by the Karnataka Startup Cell.
Many animation companies have set up base in Bengaluru in the past decade. A major part of the stunning lifelike graphics of the Hollywood film The Jungle Book, was done in the city. Markus Ristich and Phani Madhav, on behalf of the Moving Picture Company (MPC), were at the fest to talk about the nitty-gritties behind the mammoth production.
“Creating a hyper realistic jungle from scratch was a huge task. Everything you see in the film – right from the trees to the animals – was graphically created by an incredibly talented team. Mowgli was the only entity in the movie spared from this treatment,” said Mr. Ristich, Head of Training, MPC Vancouver. The line between imitation and real life has greatly blurred owing to VFX these days. Speaking about the next big thing in the industry, Mr. Madhav said, “The industry has clearly come a long way by making the impossible, possible. We have all the technological capabilities to achieve what we need. It is now entirely upon directors to envision films that re-innovate the realms of animation and VFX.”
Mr. Ristich said, “The talent here in India is on a par with the talent in any other part of the world. The only thing lacking in India is the encouragement to pursue a career in the field. Perhaps, a push from the government would do the trick.” There seems to be a bright future ahead for the VFX industry in India. All the country needs is more people who are willing to push the envelope in order to keep achieving more milestones, he added.
