VFX and Motion Graphics Seminar

Audacious! No, it is blatant stupidity if one believes that the glam of modern cinema and its mini-screen counterpart pertains only to the perseverance of cast, directors and crewmembers. The men working on their retina display screens are to be given equal credit, if not more. It is not oblivious that their efforts are overshadowed. Acknowledgement and appreciation (which is long overdue) must be given to the real heroes, those geeks who forsake even the basic necessity of sleep in order to meet the deadline- the special effects team.  Keanu Reeves demonstrated his appreciation by giving over $70 million dollars to the special effects team of the Matrix. Though we cannot hope to compete with his prodigious act, our college did take an initiative and endeavoured to make aware of the deeds of these unsung heroes.[su_carousel source=”media: 5787,5788,5789,5790,5791,5792,5793,5794,5795,5796,5797,5798,5799,5800,5801,5802″ limit=”100″ link=”lightbox” height=”130″ items=”4″ title=”no”]

On August 21st, 2015, the Vignette collective organised a seminar on VFX and Motion Graphics. The first horde of faculties to storm the gates of The Bhawanipur Education Society College and conquer the awe of the attendees, were representatives from Reliance Animations. The event commenced at 10:30 am. Shradha Hindocha who is a student representative delivered the welcome speech while giving a brief introduction of Vignette. Prof. Dilip Shah, the Dean of Students’ Affairs took over the lectern and introduced the guest faculties. The core faculty consisted of Mr. Animesh Malakar, Mr. Sudip Sahoo, Mr. Ashish Maheshwari and Mr. Subrata Biswas. The projects undertaken by them were made aware of… astonished! It would have possibly never occurred to even film fanatics while watching Transformers, Final Destination and Bahubali that Reliance Animations was responsible for all the horror and thrills. A short video of a student acting was taken which would later be green screened and shown with a dinosaur breathing fire at him. These are the wonders of VFX… Mr. Malakar was handed the microphone and he conducted rest of the session which included a glimpse into logo designing and the wonders of motion graphics. The event concluded with them projecting, literally projecting on the screen their Hollywood masterpiece and of course, the dino-boy.

If the seminar conducted by Reliance Animations was the climax, the grand closure was yet to come- Webel Animatrix Academy. The second phase of the seminar commenced at 1:30 pm. Student representative Saurav Rai welcomed the second horde of faculties. At a moment when we thought we had seen it all, our awes were conquered a second time. Accompanied by the director of the academy Mr. Arijit Bhadra, his team ravaged the simplicity of our stage with high-end gadgets and instruments. The seminar was mainly conducted by Mr. Bhadra in which he went into great lengths to speak about the scope and value of the profession. Numerous videos inherently stating the necessity of motion graphics and VFX were shown which received a thunderous applaud, and as it slowed and finally went silent, so did the time come for credits to roll and the seminar to end. 

-Saurav Rai