Author: Manu Ittina

WOW! I really mean WOW! Today has been a wierd day. So, Bill calls me up and says that there is been an article on a leading online animation news site. I thought maybe some sort of article about creating IP( intellectual property) or something cause that was the last topic of discussion with Bill.

He proceeds to read the article and my heart begins to sink. Then he continues and my heart begins to dig a hole in the ground and sink deeper. Then I thought he was joking. Then I am totally stunned.

Turns out there has been an article published online which totally out of the blue made up statements and attributed it to me. They had me claim that our studio produced 12 seconds of animation a day per artist!!!!! It had me say that in Dreamwork and pixar people did a measly 3 sec a day!! I worked at dreamworks and I know what it took to get a shot finalled. I have never spoken to any journalist from the site. Nor have I ever said to anybody words to that extent.

Where the journo got the words from remains a mystery. Why were we the chosen target, remains a mystery.

Our goal has always been to go good quality animation. The best we can. Bill and I are trying to bring that appreciation for quality in everything we do. We tell everyone who will listen that animation is hard. It takes patience. In our studio we constantly discuss milt kahl and go over the nine old men’s work frame by frame. We appreciate how much work it takes to do good work.

One of the reasons why we setup up a studio of our own was to do just that.

I hate that I was made to say things that are so contrary to what I believe. If it was a typo I would have understood. But this article made seem that that we “boasted” that we can produce 12 secs of animation per day per artist. It seemed that wee pited pixar and dreamworks who could do only 3-5 secs a day!!! Reading that article made me visualize of us as fat, cigar chomping sweatshop owners with whips, leaning back in plush room while gloating about our “efficent” meathods of production.

To create images – That is the power of media. I am trying to correct our image in anyway I can. Please link to this entry and help me.

Artists create images too. Ittina animation studios tries to do the best work it can. Our goal is to not compromise in quality in anyway. We have utmost respect for quality animation and dont denegrate it in any way. We love what we do and are proud of what we do. We stand behind our work for it is who we are ( “your shots are there for ever” – ollie johnson) And we have stories to tell and miles to go before we sleep.

seen on animated news

Is being relesed with much fan fare in India. I wont say i am bog fan of the ad’s. They are done very badly. There is no sense of unity with them. You are bombarded with random clips from the movie and its seems like the editors is hoping they will add up to something. All it does add up to nonsense.

Honestly very disspointing TV spots being played here. Reflects the Big studios lack of understanding of the indian audience.

When you decide to create a blog its like you create a concience. Its is always there, sitting in the corner of your mind reminding you to reflect and observe. Not matter how long you stay away, the fact that you have one reminds you to come back to it.

Its been such a long time since i last updated this but having a blog is a constant reminder that i have to come back to it. It doesnt matter if i write something productive or not. But just the act of having a place where I can sit down and think and write a few lines is surprisingly relaxing. And I know exactly what the frame of my mind was when i was writing even after many many months.

This is a most useless entry but i still love it. Who do i thank for blogging?

on the threedy forums download here —> chicken little

Death Fall | Open Season: “BULLY ”

got this from ethans blog. Looking like a lot of fun 🙂 I like the story line. Its what animation should be about – whimsy.

I dont think anyone was expecting this especially after seeing how MAX and MAYA salesmen bitch .. i mean pitch. It took me a little while to get access to this news. At first I was like hmm.. took me a sec to realise that MAX was Autodesk. THen I was like WHAT! Then Bill, Raj and I went WHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT! Then we were like ok.. this could be good.

I dont really think they gonna stop making maya or anything drastic like that. Nothing for end users to worry about. I think the lack of competition could become a problem. But these things have a way of correcting themselevs with new competition. I need to start looking at softimage and other animation packages. Jason says in his blog that its all about workflow. I cannot agree more. Working on a whole project and not just a little piece as I was used to doing in PDI I can see that a BIGGGG part of executing a project is having a good pipeline and a software or a team of engineers that can help you design your pipe line. So i really hope MAYA MAX version 1 will address that 🙂

While I am looking into my crystal orb let me make another prediction. PRICE! DOLLARS! DINARO AND RUPEES! Maya and max will become more expensive over time ( if there is no effort by the current competion to use this op to start cracking on things)

Thats it – the bottom line is the money.

It would not be a bad idea for a bunch of good programmers to start a site and begin to create a open source 3d program. It might take a while but if its anything as sucessful as linux then….

🙂

is so hard. Raj and I are in bangalore setting up our next venture. There is so many variables in the equation. A teacher once gave me a good metaphor for animation. Imagine a stick on which a plate is very delicatly balanced. Now imagine wine glasses on each end of the plate. It is the animators job to fill up all the glasses to the brim without the whole arrangement crashing down.

Now imagine doing this with a hundred different setups like this. Then you understand what i am going through now. running around, selecting, ignoring, remembering to remember. Making a million choices all day. This is why a directors job is so hard.

You try to have good taste. So you choose the right things and it all falls magically into place 🙂

Not really been updating this site. Been very busy. Holy crap I have a 4 inch stack of visiting cards from all the people i met in the last 2 weeks. I was in bombay then I went to delhi then back to bangalore and then back to bombay and then chennai and then back to bangalore. Phew.. I feel like air port is my home now. But that is over for now. So i am back to base. The film is progressing well ( touch wood) but i am still getting nervous. But exicted. Also nervous.

Hmm sounds like direction from a bad director.. make him exicted and nervous. and keep him sad with a some joy too..

But thats how i feel exicted, nervous happy ..sad..

Somebody must have been seeing madagascar

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