Ra.One: India's Iron Man
HH: We have developed and used a lot of proprietary software, plug-ins & pipeline tools. Besides using everything off-the-shelf, we have done a lot of sequences through scripting to fasten the process.
MN: Keitan, what kinds of challenges have you have faced?
KY: The challenges faced are firstly the huge scale of the project, working with multiple studios both locally & globally, complexity of the shots & sequences, syncing the entire production pipeline and keeping tab of the progress and finally quality control.
MN: What about you, Jeff?
JK: It has been an exciting journey. Generally, I have been in a position to provide the solution where the solution doesn't exist. There has been lots of collaboration. And most of the time we have written our own software.
MN: What it's been like working with SRK, director Anubhav Sinha and redchillies.vfx?
JK: It's very exciting. SRK takes filmmaking quite seriously; very friendly and humble; he gives so much attention despite his busy schedule. Director Anubhav Sinha has a wonderful vision of the film and has become a good friend during the production. We have developed a very close relationship that allows for the design of 130 shots being executed by my company, Synthespian Studios, as well as the thousands of shots being executed by redchillies.vfx.
MN: Harry, what software are used in the making of?
HH: Houdini, Maya and 3ds Max. For composting, Nuke, Shake and Fusion. We have setup a few plug-ins to export the 800 suit Matchmation shots from Maya to Houdini to render everything procedurally, hence making the whole procedure automatic. In regards to compositing, we have used the same procedure using Nuke scripts.
HH: 3.
MN: 3?
HH: Yes, 3. Well, that's the fact. Most of the faculties that are teaching in institutes have been trained by their institutes. That's why VFX falls into a loop. We need to learn a lot apart from this. In the case of Ra.One, we have Jeff, who's the lead vfx supervisor and we need more collaboration like this to be on the global map. Budget is a big constraint; if we have higher budgets, we can dig more.
JK: Well, I can't answer this question because I haven't gotten the chance to visit any of the institutes. India has lots of talent, which requires nurturing and I would like to help initiate the Indian chapter of the Visual Effects Society.
MN: Harry, do you see Ra.One advancing the Indian VFX industry?
HH: Yes, some of the big VFX movies didn't do well. But I do see Ra.One as a turning point. The Indian industry has started recognizing the value of VFX. Still, we need higher budget films with a focus on VFX.
MN: Jeff, personally how you see the future of Hollywood plus Bollywood? Will there be a true amalgamation?
JK: Yes. I will definitely spread the word to whomever I meet in Hollywood, especially at the studios, that there is very good talent in India that should be brought in to work with Hollywood productions.
Mamta Narang is founder/director of AAshmam, a company that provides high-end software solutions.
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TUpGoLW
Just tired of Indians taking away American Jobs. Thats all. Has nothing to do with the culture, if they're nice people or not etc.
THe cheap ass American Companies, like Dreamworks, Rhythm and Hues, and Sony are to blame for this shit work.
If they didn't only see the "bottom line" as a factor for the work, and actually cared about quality, and putting dollars back into the American economy, they wouldn't outsource it to a cut-rate country that does sub-par work.
So... not saying India is to blame. If we were in a similar financial position as you, i.e. living in a mud hut....yes...I'm sure we'd take the work and do it with a whistle and a smile.
The whole situation is just sickening. across the board.
It saddens me to see so many harsh comments based on just one article about the state of Indian VFX and Indian Film in general.
India obviously has a lot of catching up to do on the VFX front, but considering that they haven't been doing it for a long time their stuff isn't that bad at all.
Having been to the place a few times has made me appreciate that a lot of the workers there haven't had the opportunities that us westerners have in terms of education and training, let alone availability of tools.
But it certainly isn't for lack of trying and Indians in general are some of the hardest working people you'll ever meet (and in fact also some of the most generous and friendly!).
We also have to appreciate the cultural differences; if your attitude is that anything that isn't western is shit, or you don't recognize that there are vast cultural differences between Indian culture and our own (and thus also in storytelling), then you're missing out greatly and doing yourself a disservice.
That doesn't mean that at times they'll imitate something from the west (and sometimes badly); but it's not like we ourselves aren't guilty of that:) (how many foreign films have been remade in the past 5 years for an english/american audience?!!!)
Last but not least, if you read the article you'll find that they're actually very aware of their own limitations and quality of work compared to the west; I'd even go as far saying that they're far too humble about what they have achieved...
So no need for the negativity and slagging; if you think (or know) you can do it better, then surely you can live with safe with the knowledge that you could do it a lot better without having to badmouth people...
Knowledge wants to be free, just like these arteicls!
I worked with Indian professionals (use that term loosely) as outsourced talent (this term as well). And this looks just like what they would give us back, half quality poorly conceived cg. If you tell them specifically step by step how to do something you may just get back what you want, but otherwise you will get back garbage.
Garbage in garbage out.
This movie looks exactly like what I would expect them to do rip off existing ideas due to the lack of imagination and creativity in their workers. Also I can guarantee it took three times as long as it would take an American team to do, but cost 50 times less.
Just go away from the rest of the CG World India!!
Thank you so much for this aticlre, it saved me time!
redchillies is one of the best studio in india for a quality work.
i m very exited to see india new india super hero.
The big budget film Ra.one is the AWESOME movie for india & for all of us....waiting for it
people think they know it all.. try to make a superhero movie with the buget of 150 crore.
I respect all people who are working on ra.one cuz they are doing somthing new in india vfx wise dont come and here judge like you are the director of Avatar.
If a 3 out of 10 quality is all India is shooting for.....then, I'd say they're a success.
"An Original Story"? Good luck. All India does is Rip Off existing stories and properties from other countries.
Monkey see, monkey try to do...but do 1/3 as well.
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