Creating Miniature sets is an art which requires you to have
the mindset of an engineer, architect, mason, and film maker
all combined into one. What's more it also requires you to
be resourceful and innovative to the extent that you might
have to end up splitting 5000 mustard seed, one at a time!
Says Vaibhav, "Initially the plan was to do more
of claymation with the characters and more of 2d and CG for
the backgrounds and the environment, but as we all got involved
and excited about the project, we took up the challenge of
creating a complete miniature world with a lot of detailing
for each prop. Shankar Chauahan, who is the miniature specialist
was very enthusiastic and came up with a mind blowing set"
Says Shankar, "The scale in wich we work is very small,
you will never get ready materials avilable in market for
this scale, you have to make and attach every thing. Thats
one of the biggest challenges"
"Yet
another important thing is time line and the time alloted
to come up with the sets is very less, where our team works
24 x 7 a week. The toughest shot for Pandu Mangal was the
scene where mangal jumps into the train from horse. A repeated
number of viewings of the clip will make you realise how tough
the scene was' he adds.
"The detailing that we went for was very satisfying,
I ended up splitting 5000 mustard seeds to get the ribbed
joints in the goods trains' body. The details are present
in every frame, be it the differently coloured pebbles in
the rail tracks, or the dirt in the jeep at the end of the
movie"
"The minature material selection depends upon the scale
of the models. Sunboard, Plywood, Foamboards, P.O.P, Biofoam
are some of the common materials which are used majorly. Of
course, Feviquick too plays a very important role" he
adds with a smile.
To be a competent miniature maker one has to be very resourceful
and knowledge of materials has to be very strong, one has
to be ready with a lot of options in terms of scale of drafting
and the look" informs Shankar.
