Computer Graphics World

November / December 2016

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32 cgw n o v e m b e r . d e c e m b e r 2 0 1 6 animation, and lighting; Aer Effects for compositing; Mental Ray within Maya for rendering; and Maya's cloud system for sim- ulations within the dream sequence, which cost an extra month of rendering time but something Narse feels was well worth the additional time. Animation proved to be the most time-consuming and difficult, as solid emotions were required to convey meaning. "We started filming ourselves for reference, then we blocked the short in Maya to hit key poses, then finally animated those key poses with several sub-poses before getting a polished pass," explains Narse. Another technical hurdle was maintaining the look of the main character, Christopher, using cloth simulation and absolute skin- ning. "Our character rig became too heavy when we included the muscle system for his huge torso," recalls Narse. "Most of the time the rig broke, so we had to solve the techni- cal problem on each shot separately." Of course, the work involved a learning curve, something Narse recognizes. "We were all students, and our technical capa- bilities were not up to a feature standard, and everyone was learning at the time," he says of the process while a student. "The important thing was to keep trying and not expose those issues in the final cut." Another student legacy was inherent in the rendering, as the group was using the school's shared renderfarm, which some- times took several days to render a single shot. "Aer days of renders, you might find a glitch in the render," says Narse. In addition, the filmmaker and his crew utilized other hardware at SCAD, includ- ing Dell monitors and "reasonably fast" workstations. SHARED EXPERIENCE Initially, Narse kicked off the project with just two artists, and by the end, the team had grown significantly. "Interestingly, the crew members never worked together, and not all of them even knew the others – during the making of the film, many had graduated and, while they were unable to attend the meetings, each made major contributions," he says. Throughout his journey, Narse and the team experienced typical ups and downs but were never discouraged. "Technical challenges are always going to be there, but to complete a project, a strong desire is always necessary," he says. Narse later found work as an animator/ previsualization artist at The Third Floor. He credits his work on the film for leading to that position as well as that of animation intern, which he held at Laika. He also worked at Luma Pictures and Halon Entertainment. Karen Moltenbrey is the chief editor at CGW. WHILE A STUDENT AT SCAD, PRASAD NARSE PUSHED EMOTIONAL, TECHNICAL, AND ARTISTIC BOUNDARIES FOR "I M POSSIBLE." November.December 2016, Volume 39, Issue 6: COMPUTER GRAPHICS WORLD (USPS 665-250) (ISSN-0271-4159) is published bi-monthly with special additional issues in Jan- uary and July resulting in 8 issues per year by COP Communications, Inc. Corporate offices: 620 West Elk Avenue, Glendale, CA 91204, Tel: 818-291-1100; FAX: 818-291-1190; Web Address: info@copprints.com. Periodicals Postage Paid at Glendale, CA, 91205 & additional mailing offices. COMPUTER GRAPHICS WORLD is distributed worldwide. Annual sub- scription prices are $72, USA; $98, Canada & Mexico; $150 International airfreight. To order subscriptions, call 847-559-7310. © 2016 CGW by COP Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted without permission. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use, or the internal or personal use of specific clients, is granted by Computer Graphics World, ISSN-0271-4159, provided that the appropriate fee is paid directly to Copyright Clearance Center Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923 USA 508-750-8400. Prior to photocopying items for educational classroom use, please contact Copyright Clearance Center Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923 USA 508-750-8400. For further information check Copyright Clearance Center Inc. online at: www.copyright.com. The COMPUTER GRAPHICS WORLD fee code for users of the Transactional Reporting Services is 0271-4159/96 $1.00 + .35. POSTMASTER: Send change of address form to Computer Graphics World, P.O. Box 3296, Northbrook, IL 60065-3296.

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