A Seperation Review

12th Feb 2012
Watched an amazing film today, that I've been planning to watch for a looong time. It's an Iranian film titled 'A Separation'. It's absolutely beautiful, and I think it's a mus-watch for every film student. The actors were so believable and real that it was getting really hard to read the subtitles simultaneously! I just wanted to delve into their performance. It was stunning. The story is simple - a story about a separation of a married couple, and an incident that takes place in their lives which makes you wonder whether they will stay or separate. On a moral ground it asks so many questions, it makes you choose between two grey people throughout the film. It was so honest, and simple, just the way it happens in reality. The emotions were rooted, and not only did I sympathize, but empathized with the characters of the story.

Lastly, (spoiler alert!) I'd like to write about some of the most beautiful parts in the film.
When the dad's father almost dies and he later bathes and cleans him, while scrubbing his back he sinks into his shoulders and cries. His father, suffering from Alzheimer's doesn't react. It is so real and candid that it makes you uncomfortable.
When the daughter confronts her father, asking him if he knew about the maid's pregnancy, we see what he goes through, trying to lie to his daughter and yet teach her the values and lessons of life. So much in this film is about trust, and doing the right thing, even though you have to do some wrong to reach there. It leaves LOTS of room for interpretation to the viewer, and that's how effective it makes cinema look.
At the end I waited till the credits went off the scene, even though they were in arabic. I wanted to know whether the daughter would ever come out with her decision. And more than that, it was the aftershock of the movie's greatness.

So those who haven't seen it yet, try your best to get a hand on it. You won't regret it. :)

'A Separation' by Asghar Farhadi

Iron Giant Review

8th March 2012

Woke up to the sound of many people cheering. I'm going through a very tough phase right now. I'm fighting with a lot of decisions that are um - not exactly work related. So I couldn't whole-heartedly join the celebration. I knew it was my last year here, and that I would never get to play again in MIT, but I could get myself to go downstairs. So the morning started off pretty terribly. I am now in class, trying to work on my backgrounds. I gotta admit, you really do need A LOT of energy and enthusiam to fuel a project like 'The Mailox'. A shortfilm takes time, patience, and a LOT of self motivation. So once again, I watched 'The Iron Giant' - a HIGHLY underrated 2D animation feature directed by the one and only - Brad Bird!

I gotta say there was so much I didn't notice the first time. Though the effect of the story stayed the same (I was in tears when the giant says 'You stay, I go') there was so much more to see in terms of animation and staging. I also noticed some of the shots would have not been possible without 3D. I saw so many shots that I can refer to while animating! For example, Hogarth running away from the camera, Hogarth on his bicycle, clicking a photo etc. it makes you laugh, and cry, and learn about life. I love the part where a deer in the woods get shot, and Hogarth explains to Giant how he perceives death and the idea of a soul. :)

Well, some fruit out of the uneventful morning! Will start with my backgrounds now!

Psycho Review - Spoiler Alert!

10th April 2012

Wow, I'm speechless. Another brilliant Hitchcock film and it stood up to all I'd heard about it. I love the good old classic cinema. Besides the absolutely brilliant staging, lighting, color or black and white, there is a ton more to learn from it. I feel like pausing it and soaking everything in. It's becoming harder to watch good films for the story now. Animation makes you so sensitive to framing, continuity, lighting, acting, and all the other 1000 technical aspects of a film. Coming back to Psycho - the story was absolutely gripping. I was at the edge of my chair at all times. There's this thing I noticed Hitchcock does in all his films - he fools you into believing that something is very important (in Psycho, let's say the money she steals in the beginning), and then he just makes you realise that that wasn't important at all! (the money gets drowned in the swamp with her body). He seems to do this a lot in all his movies - he confuses you, misguides you, but all these sub-stories guide you to the bigger picture - and the end unravels everything so beautifully that you're mind puts all the pieces together. It was sheer creative brilliance. Actors of that time were so charming - their dialogue delivery was so grand and theatrical, your ears would pay attention to what they said. It's true - they don't make them like they used to.

Another thing I would really appreciate is the staging. It completely stood out. Every scene was so planned, so crisp - yet it didn't reveal the story completely. Here are some of my favourite screenshots.

Did anyone notice the stuffed birds in the background and foreground, adding to the strange personality of our newly introduced character?


Vertical lines suggesting anxiety, nervousness. The composition guides your eyes towards him.



Amazing lighting, creating so much suspense! As the detective climbs up the staircase we see this door opening very slowly.


More suspense! We see the body of a person in a gown, and we see his/her head, but we can't see the face! Throughout the film, there has only been a suggestion of her.

The almost haunted mansion.

Sharp lines and foreground elements guiding us towards her - almost as if someone is watching her.


Well composed 3 shots and 4 shots. It's not easy to place so many characters in one frame without it looking artificial and staged!


The film ends with the Rule of thirds, with our subject on the golden point. I don't know if all his shots were intentional - maybe all the rules we know are rules based on movies like his that managed to communicate the story so well! :)

Ummm....

29th March 2012

Haaahh!! I am so out of schedule on the mailbox. Anyway, the reason I write is because I finally showed it to Gayatri ma'am. She's been taking a class for the juniors on Maya - so she came where I sat and asked me where I was. I looked like this:


Lately my answer to everything has been "Ummmmm......"
Dad: Nikhi, what about your portfolio? What about intership?"
Me: Ummmmm......

Mumma: What've you thought about your job??
Me: Ummmmm......

En: Where do you wanna go for dinner?
Me: Ummmmm......

And the worst one happened today:
Gayatri Ma'am: Where have you reached with 'The Mailbox?'
Me: Ummmmm......I'll just show you.

So I showed her the layers of the psd files that I took approx. 4 hours to save as Jpgs. The reason I could 'automate batch' them was that I had to manually hide/unhide what was to be shown in every frame. So she liked it! And thought I'd made a great deal of progress. The worst part is, premier is acting b***hy... It hangs every 5 minutes. I've tried everything, emptied cache, temp files, transferred my data to my HDD - it's STILL b***hy. :| Oh heck, I guess I'll just take a few days longer.

*Sigh*
Well. See u guys.

Glen Keane's resignation

26th March 2012

Breaking news in the world of Laminasun! The wonderful Glen Keane has left Disney’s Feature Animation studio. He worked at Disney for round 37 years. For many of us he has been an inspiration, and has taught us so much about animation and characters. He animated lead characters in the Disney classics - Ariel (Little Mermaid), Beast (Beauty and the Beast), Alladin (Alladin), Tarzan (Tarzan), and one of his last characters at Disney - Rapunzel (Tangled) in her 2D form. Even before he left he made sure that even CGI as a medium could be used as a beautiful lifelike artform. He has given so many so much to take back. I will be looking forward to what he brings in next - and I hope the best for him! Thanks sir!

Here're some images of an exclusive article:
Make sure you check out his talks on animating on youtube.

In the news: Disney artists received an email late-Friday afternoon LA time with the text: “Glen Keane has decided that the time has come to take the next step in his personal exploration of the art of animation.” ( Brew has the exclusive full text of Glen Keane’s letter to his co-workers.) Keane had worked at Disney since 1974, though he left the studio in 1986 and worked as a freelancer for a period of time.

Update and progress!

17th March 2012

It's a quiet Saturday morning in the computer lab and I 'm currently on the BG stage in pre-production. According to my new safer schedule, I was supposed to be done with them on the 9th of March, and today's the 17th! Well anyway, I learned a LOT on the way, esp. about line, thickness, inking, depth, composition, and how WONDERFUL Maya is when it comes to taking a reference. I've become super hard in modelling. Of course it's just blocks, but it helps a ton to figure out the placement of objects. A huge inspiration has been the backgrounds of Triplets of Belleville. I wish I could get that kind of look in my film, with Goan backdrops. I really hope it looks pretty after the coloring. Hopefully I'll finish the remaining BGs today, and start with the character design. I have no idea how I'm gonna animate the characters in the backgrounds that have such dynamic angles. And the cycle! :-s Anywho, I've got a lot of great references.

Here's a peak at the great pen I bought from the stationary, really good for inking stuff since it has a really thin nib. Helps give the handmade look I want for my film:


Alok's been in a tense fix. He can't visualise his movie since the world of his film is upside down in an anglo indian house! I'm trying my best to help him as well. That's all for today morning.

Final storyboards for 'The Mailbox'

27th Feb 2012

The final storyboard. I have no idea how well it communicates. In the animatic the dialogue is missing so its harder to follow, but here I've added the important stuff. This was more difficult than a thought. I thought I could finish it in 2 days but I took 6, and figured out so many things on the way - especially creating the world of the film - where he lives, the rooms, the continuity, etc.

Colorscripts for 'The Mailbox'

The first few color scripts I tried - in order of the scenes. Learnt a lot about overthinking! Well as students we always want to make our first short film very fancy, with a really unique style. Now all this is great when 1) You're NOT a one woman job, 2) You're on a tight deadline and 3) You're not getting paid.

Leaving all of that aside, I took a lot of help from artists I admire who really know how to use color. Pascal Campion, Hans Bacher, Abhishek Singh's advice, and Ram, my friend who will be a graduate today! :) Also great films like Triplets of Belleville have had a huge influence on me, and I want someone that kind of look for my film. There are tons more who I have studied from over the years, but one thing' for sure, you really can't learn color unless you observe and imitate. After all that's said and done it comes down to the practice of color. It was really frustrating in the beginning. I wanted to concentrate on light, tones, mood, but we should always remember that we are trying to communicate something.

First Animatic!

So here's the first animatic!! The dialogues are missing. Anywho, this whole process took 1 week, and now I'm working my way into color scripts.

Pascal Campion's Interview

So I've been trying to learn lighting and color for my film's color script. I didn't want anything complex, but the deeper I get into it the more difficult it gets!!! There are amazing artists who I
've been learning these things from, some of them are Chris Appelhans - who designed some of the art of one of my fav. films - 'Fantastic Mr. Fox', and there's Lou Romano who makes color scripts for pixar movies - here's his BLOG.

BUT! I'm sure you've heard of Pascal Campion as well! His work is so inspiring. It creates a beautful mood and they all tell an emotional story. Here's his BLOG, and along with that, a special interview on vimeo! Here it is.