COVER STORYJagdish Limbachiya 32 02/2009 INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP SMS us! Story code: HCS to 57007 Meet the people who bring animation and gaming to life—and find out how you can become one of them. BY DUSHYANT KHILNANI, MONALI GAIKWAD & BRIAN PEREIRA I t’s an amazing experience to sit back in a theatre and watch inanimate objects like automobiles come to life, and behave like human beings. Of course, it takes loads of imagination to come up with a complete script for a film like Cars. But can cars really talk, sing and dance? Of course not! Yet, as we sit in that theatre, the “power of disbelief” takes over as our minds open up to accept the impossible—thanks to the sheer expertise that goes into making quality animation films. And it’s the same with games. Good story plots, realistic graphics and great sound can make for a very immersive experience. So what exactly goes on in the development of an animation film or game? What type of professionals are needed and what skills must they have? To find out, CHIP visited studios and training schools and talked to highly experienced executives there. We met students of animation, inspected facilities and asked about career prospects. What does it take to get to DreamWorks or Pixar? What’s the potential for the Indian Animation and Gaming industries? According to the Nasscom Animation and Gaming Report 2008, the gaming industry in India is expected to reach USD 1060 million by 2012 at a CAGR of 50 percent. The market for animation entertainment is now valued at USD 120 million. Clearly, this presents a lot of opportunity. As one industry pundit puts it, “Indian audiences are open to new innovative content that is marketed well.” What we now need are original ideas, quality production, some serious investment and good content. Neha Mithbawkar INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP 02/2009 33 COVER STORY P r e -p r o d u c t io n Albeit animation and gaming are di erent fields, their roots meet for they share common developmental processes. Both development cycles begin with conceptualization and brain-storming. For instance, animation involves strong forms of communication such as acting, emotions, expressions and storytelling. A script is prepared, which is similar to a movie script. And gaming involves conceptualization. During the course of our research, we spoke to Amol Gurwara, Head of Operations, Mobile Division, EA Games India and learnt that EA makes games based on movies and books, such as the Harry Potter series. To stay true to the franchise, they extract the spirit of the movie and use it for the storyboard. For games such as football, EA emulates the real venues, players’ and uniforms. This sums up the conceptualization stage. Somil Gupta, Managing Director, Trine Entertainment said, “In the Conceptualization phase, we design our asset’s look, shape, colors and ‘feel’. In animation too, the nd process is initiated with paper and pencil and 2D animation (this is also called traditional animation technique). Doing so maintains the link with humanlike reality. Gokul K, HOD at Whistling Woods International says, “The basic fundamentals of traditional animation techniques are very important and 3D animation comes later in our course.” the latter involves more than just that. Ovi Lupas, Director of Development at Trine Games and Amol Gurwara of EA Games gave us a collective insight into the pipeline. After the conceptualization, other parameters are sorted beforehand such as business strategy, Game Design Document (GDD), Technical Design Document (TDD), an alpha and a beta re release and finally the testing. This p process is more or less same for game development across all platforms and devices. Poornima Iyer, a lead game designer at India Games opines, “There is no di erence in the stages of dev developing a mobile or a PC gam game”. A GDD decides the art and a TDD deals with the technicalities. In this section we will talk only about the GDD and move on to the common factor—animation. Later, you'll see the technical leads of a game in action. In the GDD, the designers brainstorm over the concept. This document decides the levels of a game, di culty level, scoring systems, physical appearance of characters, complexity, and the sequels intended. Basically, a GDD decides what the game must look like in the end. A TDD is referred to in parallel with a GDD to keep the artists and the technicians ‘on the same page’. A TDD is where the game development cycle parts ways with the animation cycle. In a sense that technical aspects such as human inveracity and compatibility are prioritized. Images courtesy: Visual Computing Labs, Tata Elxsi e scop reer riters, Ca t w , Scrip archers s, ese artist r ch sket rketing . ma ialists sp e c The Businesses: Businesses, and the markets that they cater to, are interdependent and the animation or gaming industries are no exceptions. At EA Games for instance, strategies are in place in the pre-production stage. Here, they have discussions around the business logic and their target audience. However, if there are ideas linked with a franchise or a brand, then operations are subject to constraints. Licensing involves developers talking to Hollywood studios and vice-versa, followed by resolving financial matters. Companies agree upon either revenue shares or fixed plus revenue shares. Decisions are taken regarding launches of a game in various languages and countries. What we’ve discussed so far is just the tip of the iceberg. There lies an ocean of exciting information ahead. And if you’re reading this right now, you definitely want to go all the way to the end of the story! Animation: Animation filmmaking has a pipeline with many processes. After the script is ready, the concept art is prepared and then comes the preproduction stage. A character bible is prepared which defines the characters in the film, which is followed by 2D photomatics (modeling), 3D production, rendering, compositing, editing, sound mixing and final corrections. The entire process moves forward only if the director approves the characters (sketches), and then the characters go for digitization and geometrical constructions. Gaming: The process of animation is an integral part of game development. But 34 02/2009 INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP