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SCENE 1: The Idea.
What I remember at the outset is that it was a really frustrating day. Television production, for the uninformed is the only thing that compares to hitting yourself against a sturdy wall. Day after day. Occasionally the wall budges, but mostly, your head and body gets stronger.

Manyu ( aka, Abhimanyu Singh, CEO Contiloe Films, CEO Contiloe Pictures, Owner and Boss) had been toying with the idea of making a film ever since we had pulled off a fairly nice job on the packaging of Sssssh… Phir Koi Hai, a horror series, all done using the green backlot technique, using tremendous CG and VFX work, a la SIN CITY, 300, etc. Unfortunately(for me!) we had just shelved and shut down a very frustrating 5 weeks of script development for our ‘to be first film’ Samudri Lootere! So I was in Manyu’s office and his never say die attitude came rushing through. ‘How about a film on Rama?’. Internally I retched. Externally I threw up at the idea. ‘Another Ramayana? You’ve got to be kidding Manyu’. Arun Govil more or less had murdered Rama and Ramayana for me. Apologies, really, but that is the first damn face that appears in my mind when I think of the very saccharine straight laced Rama. ‘No NO. A film on Rama versus Ravana. Cutting all other things out’, said Manyu, rolling his eyes and jumping on his seat, seeming to get visibly excited.

Magic moment! All people, including those asserting to be creative, those who are actually creative and the wanna be creative, will tell you about the ‘magic moment’ when a 1 line idea suddenly makes your heart thump, hands get clammy, excitement courses through your body and you realize that you have a winner on hand. At least on paper. And that’s how Mahayoddha Rama, The warrior Prince, was born.

Time lapse to the script in hand and Pixion as the production partners.

SCENE 2: The Awakening
And that’s when excitement strikes me. Ah! Animation. Visions of vistas unexplored, ingenuity at its peak, inspiring experimentation possibilities, un-chartered roads and the sky is the limit. Yeah! Nothing is further from the truth.

‘We’, live action storytellers, might have discovered great opportunities in this way of telling our story, but the industry has been around for a long time even in India. And there have been structures created to manage the work, mostly outsourced till now, by the people in the west. Structures, work flow, how to design a project has all been learnt from a heavy inflow of outsourced work.

An animation film’s delivery structure, most basically is divided into 2 parts. The pre production and the production. The pre production includes, designing of characters, designing of environments AND story boarding the scenes that have been broken down into shots. The designing of characters and environments are done, in sketch form, and then on approval, their color concepts, with embellishments, costumes etc. This is 2D. Done in a traditional way, sketched by hand, scanned onto the computer, worked on within, lighting, colors, costumes, etc. Once a design lets say a character has been approved by the director, a model sheet is created in the standard T pose of the character, with its hands stretched out either side thereby giving the basis of looking like a ‘T’. The character is clearly explained using the model sheet’s, back, front and side view .

This design is then sent to the 3D boys. Here starts the production end of the film. The 2D design is now translated to 3D. The character is modeled, rigged(so it can move), animated(the process of giving it expression and movement), textured(to reduce flatness, add the typicalities of precision and to give it a better finish), hair and fur is added(if required. The complexity here is mind boggling), lit (response to light), and composited (added within the environment).

Meanwhile the story board artists have sketched a scene into many different shots, typically into thumbnails first and then the in betweens which are loaded onto the computer, put in the edit order, the consideration being the timing, the basic positions of characters, dialogues are added, angle of camera, focal length, movement of camera, characters etc. This is called Animatics. This is edited with sound and sfx etc and also sent to the 3D boys. They take this and create a low res (resolution) environment and with a basic low poly model or proxy work the movement of the camera and character. This is the layout stage and is critical for camera blocking. This is also a fantastic tool to be able to see the lens options, movement of the camera etc. and so on.

The reason I have done a basic explanation is so that the woes and wonderments can be better understood. Lets start with the wonderments. They finish faster!! The director’s vision is the limit. You can create costumes, back grounds, characters, worlds like you see them or have always wanted to see them, camera moves to befuddle the mind, props(properties) and environments that can be the envy of all. You can see the character in the layout stage and design the camera moves and lenses, play with a lens within a movement etc.. lighting is in your hands, characters are your puppets and environments are yours for the making. You decide how a character will talk, his/her nuances, how they move, its all you, you, YOU!

YOU are screwed. With great power comes greater power failure.

SCENE 3: THE TRUTH
WOE 1: Words VS Pictures. Not all live action directors can sketch. My 2D design people are brilliant. Bloody talented and fabulous artists. And on the opposite end of the spectrum is me. I can see things in my head that give me hope on my continuing brilliance(!!), shapes, worlds, objects, designs etc. AND the skill of communicating with sketches on paper of a paraplegic. I manage to get a cow made if just a protoplasmic shape and four legs can aspire to be that. I am at the mercy of my communication and the person I am communicating with. Thus starts the process of hope and despair.

I need to show references in case my words and ranting and desperate tones aren’t understood. Hell I even have a hearing impaired artist, a freaking genius whose talent and vision is awe inspiring. However does one get and further more explain something that is nebulous. As an example lets talk about the look of Rama. He should be perfect, the most handsome man, well formed lips, not pouty, not thin, not average. His body? Well…not big but well built, gentle eyes prone to sternness if required, wind blown hair but not wild, etc. I explain this. Talk about it. Give examples of girls reaction to his different ages and finally, I start giving references, and more references and….

So, though I LOVE RAMA and the way he looks, am not sure what could have been if only I could communicate better or the skill set of the designers wasn’t oriented towards referencing but more an understanding of my words. Impossible because of the amount of variation and possibilities in just understanding the word ‘HANDSOME’. My mother thought Charles Bronson was handsome!!!.

As a director, though I have the vision of the kind of world I want Lanka or Ayodhya to be and with a shimmery feel of props, the look of the Ravana’s castle(my vision is like a dream that cant be seen fully, or more truthfully, like a person with a cataract), the roads, the houses that people live in etc… it is all conceptual!!!! The issue is that Lanka is WIP(Work in Progress) and looking really good, but its been on and off for the last 6 months. It’s a vast area, huge and very dark and foreboding, but just getting the first design is giving me ulcers. Not because its not looking good, its looking awesome, but the question, ‘can it be more?’. Have I not been able to tell all the thoughts in my head? Have I communicated right?

The bigger issues are when there are NO references to give. As an example Ayodhya. What I want does not have a reference. So I have pulled out road references, colour schemes, whatever the hell I believe might help or what triggers off some feeling in my brain and load the designers with it. Man, their patience is to be complimented. I feel schizoid sometimes! The thing is that the designers are not architects and town planners. They are coping with their training too. Add to this a ranting director.

WOE 2: Time Versus Want. Once the basic model is done, i.e, from 2d it has been translated to 3D, I see the character. This is in a T pose, flat, unlit, boring. Looks like the concept drawing, but not. Ah! He is unlit, something the concept people build into their creation. Ah! He has no expression, it’s a neutral expression aka DEAD ZOMBIE GHOUL expression. And I, a live action director, trained for things visceral, who also needs to see rather than think what it’ll finally look like is in PAIN! These machines don’t work real time. Sometimes a complex single frame take 12 hours and longer to render. 1 frame!

Now I want to see my Rama at 6, looking like my concept art which is my bible. To see that, they have to get the bg ready, then the pose of the 6 year old Rama, then composite it, lighting it just correct… so by the time I see it, 15 days or longer have gone by and if there is anything to be reworked, I feel like a heel to demand it. But I do, and will(!)

WOE 3: Delivery versus Ingenuity. The ‘cant be done in this time frame’ scenario. Amazingly out of adversity comes HATE! I hate my CG head (!!) There. I said it! A great problem solver, a good peoples person, his hate for me comes because I have hair and he does not!! Jokes aside, its an exhausting process. Being second to technique is nothing new. We all are. And that’s where ingenuity lies. But being second to deliveries all the time?

The bloody problem of understanding is that it doesn’t help me in any way. I understand that the people/technicians working on the project, particularly the CG head, CG supervisor, lead on the story board , supervisors, animators(God’s angels), leads of modeling, rigging, texturing, hair, lighting, compositing etc, start feeling the pressure of delivery. Obviously 2 years is not a small amount of time for which work happens. Overheads shoot up, dedicated manpower tied for that amount of time. Getting the film out on time is critical, where a 1 month delay can cost anything upwards of 1crore plus. That’s their pressure.

I understand it, and as the captain of the ship, as the director, bear that pressure stoically. But that’s where the compromises start. The CG head’s job is to translate the directors vision to the best with all things taken into account. However delivery in this very touch feel art form, ‘What you see is what you get, but to see you gotta wait bro’, sometimes blindsides the content. That is why a large part of the directors time goes in protecting the idea from falling below an acceptable threshold. Ingenuity comes in, but lets not fool ourselves, with compromises.

SCENE 4: VERDICT
It’s a mixed bag. I love it. It frustrates me. Its refreshing, powerful, all encompassing and demanding! Irrespective, that I have started studying again, poring over ‘Timing for animation’ ‘Techniques of animation’ ‘Toons and everything’ etc to get a better understanding, the richness, the possibilities and if you actually have the time (HAH!) when you make your animation film, the complete film making experience is unparalleled. Where else can you play GOD, not take the tantrums of stars, create everything you possibly want, and be paid for it??

Mahayoddha Rama’s Teaser