Prosenjit Ganguly, Independent Animation Film Designer regularly conducts workshops for animation enthusiasts across the country, throughout the year. This time he started with Chandigarh, went on to Dehradun and then Indore. In Chandigarh and Dehradun the workshops were hosted by Franchisees of Arena Animation while in Indore ZICA, MAAC, Frameboxx, Virtual Voyage and Arena co-hosted the event.
Prosenjit is an alumnus and former Member of the Faculty of the National Institute of Design, Ahmadabad. He is a screenwriter, creative director, IP creator, stop-motion animator, voice artist and media educator. His short films have been showcased in more than 20 countries winning 3 international awards. He has also been on the advisory board of NASSCOM’s Animation and Gaming division and was previously on the Advisory board of The Animation Society of Kolkata (TASK) and on the Working Committee of The Animation Society of India (TASI).
Dehradun had a 5 day introductory module of the Living Animation Workshop series. This module essentially introduces the participants to communication design concepts and Animation as a language. In this session the audience watched animation and live action films made across various mediums and formats, dissected and discussed them in minute details. They questioned aesthetics and creative decision making abilities through several short assignments, discussions and critique.
The assignments also introduced students to time bound research, information analysis and creative problem solving. This provided a real-world taste of the professional scenario. One major focus of this module was on making the participants push their individual boundaries. Every assignment was designed to make the participant think way beyond the obvious. For that the participants were urged to relook at events and experiences from unique perspectives with a dash of wild imagination.
At Chandigarh and Indore, the workshop focused on experimental media animation. They also delved into the art of making unconventional music. They animated sand, clay and light using traditional stop motion techniques. The only digital interface was the image capture program. Everything else was done by hand. That in itself was a big break for students who usually spend all their hours working on digital platforms. It exposed them to a very different level of aesthetics and form.
“Working by hand frame by frame, builds a very strong bond between the animator and the medium. Strange but true, working on a traditional platform actually enhances the understanding of the digital platforms in more than one way”, Prosenjit explained.
They watched films made using each of the mediums and had little hands on demonstrations of each. Teams were created in groups of 3 or 4 members. Each team was asked to think up an abstract theme based on a human emotion, storyboard the idea and make a 30 sec non narrative animatic out of the panels. Next, they had to create a music track using vocal or improvised sounds.
Once put together, they would animate the 30 sec idea using sand, clay and light. Equipment was never an issue. Simple digital cameras and tripods did the job. Some even used cell phone cameras to achieve their task. The students in Chandigarh had turned their classrooms into makeshift home-studios, where they worked through the cold nights to meet their deadlines. They also had a very active participation from the faculty here. When mentors and pupils work together, learning happens.
“It’s important that the excitement generated by these events is sustained and refueled. Many students with a genuine love for the medium opt for the part time courses mainly because of financial constraints or the limited seats in the full time schools. Engagements like these can help bring the best out of them and thereby serve as the best advertisement for the institution or academy”, Prosenjit added.
These workshops were made possible by Vineet Kapoor in Chandigarh, Vishal Bharati in Dehradun and Sanjay Khimsera in Indore. Currently Prosenjit Ganguly is working on the story and screenplay for an animated feature film and a personal stop-motion short film.