Admiration for actor T.S.Balaiah

I am in absolute admiration of the histrionics of yesteryear actor T.S.Balaiah. I would like to refer to a couple of scenes from the movie 'Kadhalikka Neramillai' in this post.

This scene is packed with full of terrific acting choices. The subtlety and exaggeration at certain places are absolutely spot on. 

Right from the way he toe walks to take Nagesh to the sides, to the way he has his heels up and exaggerates when he says "Samuthiram da, samuthiram" and the way he turns around when Nagesh leaves are just spectacular! 

The other scene that is more popular in this movie is the one in which Nagesh narrates a story to Balaiah. While Nagesh's excellent acting dominates the whole scene, Balaiah's expressions are  perfectly befitting.

At 56 seconds, the way he uses his fingers to express his nervousness is noteworthy. From 1.23 to 1.33, his eyeballs dart frantically, lifting the whole shot. And then on, the breathlessness he has shown is again absolutely awesome.

Always refreshing to see great acting, which is very rare these days.

Monkey Animation in Krishna

One of those very few shots that I have animated in the 'Little Krishna' series developed at BIG animations. Nice to note that it was part of the 'making of' videos available online.

Acting references

14 Actors

Some excellent acting stuff. I quite like the Javier Bardem and Matt Damon ones. It is difficult to do the James Franco stuff in front of the mirror and the Robert Duvall stuff without the mirror! The subtlety in Michael Douglas clip is amazing. I dont know why, but there is something sad about all the clips and none tried comedy which is very tough.

Making of 'Little Krishna'

Big Animation studio has published a video on the 'making' of their flagship product - Little Krishna. It is available in several parts in Youtube. I stumbled upon the videos only a few days back. It was interesting to hear from all the people who worked on it.
Watch the videos from the Big Animation Youtube channel.

I have more reasons to be excited about the videos as some of my shots have been featured in the video(Part-05 linked below).
Making of Little Krishna - part05

It will soon go into my showreel...yay!

WassUP?

Been sometime since watching Disney Pixar's UP. I wanted to write my afterthoughts of the movie but somehow it didn't happen so far.

I read a blog post on UP and thought of sharing it here since I agree with most of the points.

Sunny Kharbanda's blogpost on Pixar's 'UP'

Adding to that, I did love Ellie more than Carl at the beginning. The Silent part was the best in the movie. The adventure of Carl seemed to have been forced on him than done with passion.
And the villain didn't appeal much to me. I also thought something was not in place, probably because I wasn't expecting Muntz at that point of time on his legs and the talking dogs never enthused me.

I felt the Pixar magic missing a bit in UP. It was definitely a let down!

I came across this interesting animation clip posted by one of my favorite animators Richard Lico. It was so brutally comical, that I laughed my heart out. Apart from being technically brilliant, it was so very tastefully created.

Here is the link -----> Mouse tale

Can wait to see the completed project, but I am not sure if it has not already been completed.

Animation Cake

Shawn Kelly, Animator at ILM and co-founder of the online animation school 'Animation Mentor.com' has given this recipe for the "Animation Cake" in his newsletter. Its quite funny to read but at the same time very useful. Here it goes-

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ANIMATION CAKE:

1 gallon of rough thumbnail ideas
2 quarts of video reference (created and/or found)
1 quart of thumbnails derived from the reference

*Note to chef: Be sure to include timing notes! Exaggerate thumbnail timing and posing to personal preference

Mix contents thoroughly and pour into a pan
2 tablespoons of saving key poses based on your thumbnails
1 heaping cup of breakdown poses, again based on your thumbnail poses and timing notes
Season breakdowns with anticipation, weight shifts, eye animation, and rough arcs
Mix with original contents and stir until terrible computer-created in-betweens are completely dissolved
Add contents to baking pan, and place in oven until ready

If possible, allow animation to cool before decorating, to have a fresh eye

Once cooled, polish Animation Cake with Arcs Frosting, Overshoot Sprinkles, and top off with Secondary Animation Candles!

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Sweet!!....... isn't it ?!

For further reading, go here --> 'Recipe for Success: Baking Your Animation Cake'