DQ School of Visual Arts (DQSVA) recently organized a seminar for aspiring animation students at its Mumbai centre. Sessions on diverse skills including gesture drawing, acting in animation and lip synchronization were held. The objective of the seminar was to make students understand the basics and enhance creative skills and around 40 students attended the seminar.
The day started with an introductory showreel of DQ Entertainment (DQE) and a speech by centre head Radhakrishnan Iyer. He talked about the history and achievements of DQE, highlighting the 2007 Emmy won by television series Tutenstein.
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| Bidhu Bhushan |
Later he compared gesture drawing to action drawing and added that gesture drawing was better as it also depicted the features of the basic shape.
He further demonstrated gesture drawing and also gave tips on the same. Students where provided with the requirements and asked to do gesture drawing, to which Bhushan gave his feedback. He referred Green Vilppeen, Andrew Ceomis and Walt Standfied’s work on this special art form.
- Believable acting
- Feel
- React
- Think
- Consistency
- Personality
- Mood
He elaborated on all these and explained how acting in animation is even more important than acting in live action. Bhushan mentioned how the audience relates with the animated character only through its acting and expression. If that is realistic enough, then the half battle is won!
Bhushan said, “The concept should be clear to the students as it helps in understanding the art better. My job as an instructor is to bridge the gab of knowledge between the 2D and 3D art, and to make students understand the relation between the both forms of animation better.”
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| Amit Kare |
Amit Kare, lip synchronization specialist and faculty at DQSVA explained how lip synchronization differs in 2D and 3D technically. He defined it as “the art of matching lip movements of animated characters (including computer facial animation)”, and briefly explained the history of sound in animation.
Kare further covered topics related to voice in animation like:
- Dialogue
- Voice characterization
- Track reading
- Exposure sheet
- Lip sync chart
- Body language
- Analyzing the dialogues
After the session he gave a live demonstration of Lip synchronization by using a 3D character and exposure sheet.
“The seminar was very informative and I learned a lot from both of the sessions,” said Nihal Mullani, an animation student and rated the seminar as an excellent one. At the end of the seminar, a quiz on animation was conducted for the students. Momentums where given to the students with correct answers.
Commenting on the occasion Radhakrishnan Iyer said, “Now-a-days students are running after the software knowledge and don’t concentrate on the basic creative art. We at DQ constantly try to organize such events, where aspiring animators can learn about the art”.
DQ School of Visual Arts offers one year programe in Animation. Currently there is a batch of 40 aspiring animators. The institute is soon going to introduce short term specialization programs also.
