At a time when filmmakers and producers are talking about the huge budgets for animation work in movies, a group of techies have proved that quality is achievable using low-cost open source software and local talent.
A three-minute-and-52-second-long video trailer, titled ‘Ranadheeran’, made by Coimbatore-based Realworks Studios was released on YouTube on Monday and has caught the fancy of many on social networks.
It has already garnered over 44,000 views and many positive comments.
The intention of the group of 20 animation professionals behind making the video seems to be to show that quality can be achieved with open source software while working out of Coimbatore, and not necessarily a plush international studio.
Sivaprasad Velayudhan, director of operations, Realworks Studios, who uploaded the 3D animated trailer, said the team worked for a total of 800 hours to create the video.
“We wanted to showcase the possibility of achieving great visual effects right here in Tamil Nadu. One needn’t go abroad.”
The video is a tribute to ‘Kochadaiiyaan’, Rajinikanth’s latest film. The decision to use characters from the film, said Sivaprasad, wasn’t to prove a point to the makers that they could do better.
“We didn’t want people to compare it with ‘Kochadaiiyaan’. The whole idea was to create something that people would connect with,” he said.
The company’s website further states that ‘no foreign talent was used’ and that the visual clarity of the images was rendered not with motion-capture technology, but by using references from the internet.
“Though the result is still not on a par with Hollywood, it is a first step,” said Sivaprasad. The company has already been receiving calls from filmmakers curious to know more about their achievement.
Published - July 24, 2014 02:16 am IST
