After years and years of demanding an event of their own, Animation, VFX and Gaming professionals in the Garden City of Bangalore finally have something to look forward to.
The Association of Bangalore Animation Industry (ABAI) is organizing ABAI Fest 2006 in Bangalore on Sunday 3 September 2006.
The event which is to be held at The J N Tata Auditorium located in the IISC Campus Bangalore kick-starts at 8.30 am in the morning and shall go on till 6.30 pm in the evening.
An official release from the Association states, “ABAI brings in the like minded people from Bangalore’s animation and gaming industry, who dream big, who care for quality and who want to leapfrog into the emerging opportunities in global animation, gaming & VFX. The fest shall get in the best talent from the country to share their knowledge with Bangalore & largely artists in South India”
Speaking to Animation Xpress.com, ABAI Fest Chairman Ashish Kulkarni shared, “The focus of the event is ‘What is high quality and how can we all achieve it?'”
Keeping the quality theme in mind, ABAI fest 2006 will be a bouquet of case studies on gaming, VFX and animation, which will be presented by the best in the field. “We want all of the professionals and students who attend the Fest to go back with good learning and an open mind” remarked Kulkarni.
“ABAI creates the much-awaited platform for betterment of animation business of Bangalore and of India” remarked ABAI President Dr Suparno Chaudhari.
ABAI FEST 2006 has attracted high-powered guests. Subhash Ghai, Chairman, Mukta Arts & Whistling Woods International is the chief guest.The guests of honor are Mohan Das Pai, Director HR Infosys and Dr. Anup K. Pujari, Principal Secretary to Government of Karnataka, Department of Information Technology, Bio Technology and Science & Technology.
The Keynote address is to be delivered by Rajiv Vaishnav, Regional Director, NASSCOM.
This will be Followed by an industry panel session on Critical factors in Animation, Gaming & VFX business in India by Rajesh Turakhia CEO of MEL, Sekhar Mukherjee of NID, Siddharth Jain of AdLabs, Vincent Edwards of AniRights Infomedia and Pankaj Kedia of Autodesk.
Other highlights of the event include
- A case study on Digicon 6+2 International award wining short film “The Bad Egg” by R.Bala, Vikram Veturi, Vikas Verma & Ashish S.K. Skills enhancement session on “Achieving High quality animation” by Manu Ittina & Bill Miller of Ittina studio.
- Case study of an Indian game by Rajesh Rao of Dhruva.
- A case study on the next generation 3D engine technology “The XForce Engine’ to be presented by Sandeep Kowdley & Jayanth Kannan of Raptor Entertainment.
- TASI presentation by Ranjit Tony Singh (the session will additionally boast of one interaction session with students and parents) A special “Effective filmmaking in animation” session by Vaibhav Kumaresh.
- VFX case study session by Madhusudhan.
- KRRISH VFX presented by Mohan Krishnan of Prasad Group,
- Best VFX of Rang de Basanti & KANK by Visual Computing labs
- VFX for Hollywood movies by Seshaprasad from Rhythm & Hues India.
Echoing a united sentiment of progress for the Industry, ABAI’s C Prakash, Chetan S and Sandeep Gangatkar exclaimed, “We would like to invite one and all to join us at the event. This is our first step to bring the experienced professionals to talk to animation professionals and students at Bangalore”
The event is supported by FICCI- Animation & Gaming Forum, TASI and iSearch. The media partners are Animation Xpress & Animation Reporter.
Many corporate and educational institutes are also supporting the event through sponsorships.
Registration fees for ABAI Fest 2006 are Rs500/- for professionals and Rs250/- for students. Delegates and attendees can register at any of the ANTS, ARENA or MAAC centers in Bangalore.