Thursday, October 29, 2009

FX School focuses on Mental Ray

In its efforts at being a ‘deep dive‘ center of learning, Mumbai based FX School, a training institute for CG Animation, VFX, Film, and Photography, is amongst other things, focusing big time on production rendering knowledge, especially on Mental Ray.

This focus of the school has evinced a very positive response and has prompted the school to create and devise a short module that will explore the various nuances and tips and tricks around Mental Ray. The module is scheduled to start on 16th November 2009 and will be preceded by a free webinar
on Mental Ray on November 1 (at noon).

Speaking to AnimationXpress.com, the FX School Management consisting of Abhyudaya Morarka, CB Arun Kumar & Dinanath Gokhale shared, "There are two main production renderers that studios use: Renderman and Mental Ray.

Read the full text of the article here

Student Speak @ FX School



Click on the picture to enlarge...

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

FX School presents Free Webinar on Maya 2009

Maya 2009 render pass system for Mental Ray

Blending a photorealistic CG output using Mental Ray with a live action plate

Topics covered:

How to successfully take out passes?

What passes do I need to create that perfect image?

How to crack the Maya 2009 render global window!


When?

Sunday, November 1, 2009 at 12 noon (IST).

How?

This free class will be held online. Please register at www.fxschool.in/webinar. You will receive a confirmation e-mail with a link with which you may attend the session. Please sign in 10 minutes in advance on the day of the class.

Who should attend?

3D Artists, Compositors, Production Managers, VFX Supervisors, Instructors, Students of Advanced Lighting.

Pre-qualifications?

Working knowledge of Maya and any compositing software

About FX School:

FX School is a high quality institute conducting intensive training in the fields of CG Animation, Visual Effects, Digital Film-making and Photography. In order to successfully provide a high level of instruction, FX School has full-time faculty with hard production experience that any studio would be proud to have. This is combined with truly state-of-the-art facilities and a uniquely designed curriculum to deliver a high impact learning experience.

About the instructor: Bibek Basu

Bibek was most recently heading the Department of Lighting at Pixion Studios.


He also has worked in many CG studios from Jadoo Works to TataElxsi in various roles and capacities. He has worked on projects on both the national and international level which include clients like Disney, Warner, Mike Young Productions, etc.

He has worked on VFX on films like Dhoom 2, Tara Rum Pum, and Tare Zameen Par, amongst others. In addition, numerous commercials have been the benefciary of his talent among which Boomerman and Reebok deserve special mention.

A true believer of “the complete artist” he is working towards shader writing and is also known to be one of the most knowledgeable artists on Mental Ray in India. Bibek has earned the reputation as one of best problem solvers in production.

About our full course Matching Live Action with CG using Mental Ray:

A 5 week part time project based approach to blending a photorealistic CG output using Mental Ray with a live action plate.

Why?

The most challenging of all CG work is to blend a Computer Generated output onto a live background. Most of the work in the Visual Effects industry is centered around this.

This is one of the key areas which remain unaddressed by most instructors. Furthermore, international instructors and online courses are unable to successfully address the singularly unique issues faced by Indian studios.

The use of Mental Ray in India has mostly been "push button." We try to go into the depths of it so you can also solve problems.


Visit www.fxschool.in/webinar to register and we'll send you the link

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

FX School Outdoor Campaign

Watch out for The FX School Outdoor Campaign! Ver 2.0
Watch out for FX School...
Watch OUT!



Saturday, October 3, 2009

Animation, gaming jobs set to double by 2012: Nasscom

28 Sep 2009, 0019 hrs IST, Sutanuka Ghosal, ET Bureau

KOLKATA: The animation industry is likely to have the going good in respect of jobs. Nasscom’s projections suggest that employment in this sector
will double from 14,700 now to 29,500 by 2012. Similarly, the gaming industry too will create a huge number of jobs in the next three years, with the projections being 10,700 jobs by 2012 from a meagre 2,300 people now.

Responding to a ET questionnaire over phone from Delhi, Sangeeta Gupta, vice-president of Nasscom said: “The animation and gaming industry in India has immense scope to grow. Given the financial meltdown, many western countries are actively looking at destinations like India to develop animation content within moderate budgets. The increased interest of Bollywood and the regional cinema industry for animation, has boosted growth also. The Indian animation industry has moved from a pure offshore model to co-production model. While the domestic sector contributed with manpower and infrastructure, international producers helped with marketing and distribution.”

Ms Gupta said that according to Nasscom therefore, animation and gaming companies will witness a significant growth by 2012. “At present, there are some 250 animation companies in the country. By 2012, we expect the number of such companies to swell to around 400. The number of gaming companies will also double from around 50 now to 100 by 2012.”

The Nasscom vice-president estimated that the turnover in the animation sector could cross $1 billion by 2012 from $492 million in 2008. Similarly, turnover in the gaming industry stood at $167 million in 2008, but is likely to go up to $830 million by 2012.

Ms Gupta said Nasscom was keen to provide quality training to those, who want to pursue a career in animation. It has already approached the IT ministry for setting up a formal accreditation board for the animation industry.

“The board will come up with a curriculum, which will be taught by all animation training institutes. We feel that there is an immediate need to standardise the courses that existing institutes offer,” the Nasscom vice-president said.