Animation - II Semester

I have been missing from blogging world for quite a while now. I was busy helping my Mom shift and adjust to a new home in Bangalore. Then it was time to finish off my 2nd semester.

In my last post I shared with you all the way we were taught about different perspectives in 2D drawing.

After the perspective we were taught shading and still life drawing. In shading we had to use different pencils plus we had to spend a lot of time on a single drawing. The more the effort, the better the drawings were. 

The subject of drawing were everyday usage things like our mobile phones, wrist watches, pencil box and so on. For still life drawings, we could draw only one or two drawings every class. Initially I had a feeling that shading and still life drawing were easy, but I hadn't tried my hand at it before. Now that I tried, the result was quite surprising.

Later on we had to do live drawings like different positions and different movement of human body. Each of the students from the class had to give a pose and the other has to draw him and next somebody else had to give the pose. The cycle continued until every student had tried his/her hand at sketching one of the class mate.

Next we were taken outdoors so that we could draw some other people. It was tough task to find someone who is not moving much. At first we felt shy to stare at people and make their sketches, but later on people themselves got interested and few went ahead and asked us to draw them. 

It was quite a unique and funny experience for all the animation students.

 After the live drawings we had to start with human anatomy, which wasn't an easy task. We had to sketch the same figure of the human body with exact proportion from different angles. Shading is very important in this type of drawing, because it gives the dept to the body. We took lot of time to do the anatomy drawings, than we did in creating characters; as in cartoon we can draw anything and get away with it, but in human it should be perfect.

 After initial struggle and a little bit of practice, I could draw better and by the end of the session, I was good enough to clear the course with good grades, yet I know I can improve a lot if I work hard on it. There is no limit to how much we can improve over our work. 

My First Month In Animation...

My Mom and my Uncle left no stone unturned at gathering information about animation before deciding to send me there. Finally it was time for my admission and I went there with my mother and uncle.

At the time of admission I saw the drawings displayed by their students in the college and also watched students working with 3D, Photoshop and other software. It scared me as I felt that I will not be that good in my creations because my drawing was not up to that mark, but then I took refuge in the thought that I will be learning to draw like them here as that was the reason I was joining them, so I shouldn’t be scared about not being good without trying it out. I had choice to take courses which had less drawing and would less of my time and one more which would have lots of drawing to do. I took the higher level course which is a little difficult compared to the others courses, as it has more drawing and we have to make our own 2d short movie. For once in my educational life I felt that I could do it!!

    On the first day my sir asked me to buy a set of different pencils like HB, 2B, 3B, 4B, 6B, etc.  I didn’t know what that meant, later on I learned that with HB we can draw very light and with 6B or 8B we can draw very dark. At first we were given to draw simple circles and other geometrical shapes so our hand could get free. After drawing the basic shapes for while, my sir asked us to draw few characters using the basic shapes. I enjoyed this work and I came up with few good characters.

These are my own characters. They were simple and fun to make.

 I gained confidence and enthusiasm to work harder when I saw that my drawing was quite good compared to my classmates the drawing. The drawing that scared me at the time of admission was done by our seniors.

I was on cloud nine as I gained hope of being one of the top students from my batch with a little more hard work.

Our sir then taught us how to draw perspective drawings, which I felt was quite easy and did pretty well in the class. Here we had to take a point according to the perspective we want to draw from, like - 1 point, 2 point, 3point, and multi-point perspective. In one point perspective, we take 1 vanishing point, in 2 point we take 2 vanishing points and so on. Here are few drawings which I drew; it may give you a little more idea about it. So this was pretty much what I learnt in my first month and enjoyed it a lot!

Characters by me

One Point Perspective

Two Point Perspective

Two Point Perspective

Three Point Perspective

I never felt like I was studying. I felt as though I was enjoying my hobby.  As I loved what I did, I worked more and started showing more interest in studies oooppsss  I mean drawing.  Throughout the time I have spent in my animation course, I never felt like I was studying, because in my mind the idea of studies was reading and writing which was very difficult for me, so I couldn’t imagine the studies could be so easy!

The Diploma Drama

I came back from US after a great trip! I was an amazing experience each day, with different things happening in my life. I met many amazing people who, if I had not met than I would not believe they existed. Also I developed a special bond with Paula aunty,  and also with especially Jay uncle who was very close to my imagination of a perfect man. I will have to create a separate blog about my experience in USA which is something very special and close to my heart.

Once back in India, it was as though I was waking up from a dream. I had to do something about my studies and choose a career. I thought of animation again, but still was scared of that as a career option, and I didn’t want to stay in a hostel or room in the city leaving behind my sister and Mom. There was no good animation college nearby.

 We had spent a lot of time enjoying ourselves in USA therefore now I didn’t have much time to think as the admissions were getting closed. I was in a hurry, and decided diploma will be a good option because it didn’t have languages to study. I had been exposed to automobile passion in USA and I planned on getting into the automobile field because I had discovered that I had passion for automobiles, in addition I had gained a lot of knowledge about automobiles in US with Jay uncle in his garage.

Again my choice was in bad luck as someone told my dad that computers are in fashion and I should opt for it. Mom was not there with us to help me out. I was not good enough to explain that working with computers and studying them were two different things to my dad who decided as I was good in applied computer science, I should study it.

I still can very well recall how my dad said that he didn’t want me to work in garage with all the oil on my cloths as his friend told him that automobile engineering was not a good field. I explained to him that it not going to be like, but it had no effect. Sadly the luck was not on my side also as in the college there were no admission open for automobile. Dad did not ask whether they could do something, but I am sure if Mom was there with us she would have changed my career course. So I was in computer science diploma before I knew what was happening.

            The different seasons of roads

Burning hot in summer                                  Dusty in winter                           Filled with muddy pot holes in rainy season

I had to travel a lot for Diploma College which was in Murudeshwar which is nearly 40 kms from Byndoor. Everyday spent 2-3 hours for travelling itself and many times we had to stand in the bus, in addition the roads were full of pot holes which made the travel very tiring. I would be dead tired by the time I came back home and would have tough time sitting down to study.            

Somehow I did pretty well in my first year with 

subjects like maths and science, and also managed first class in Second semester. But in the second year, I had problem with one of the main subject with was c programming. It was a programming language which was very important but the concept didn't go in my head however hard I tried. I again had problem with symbols and language and as a result I failed in it. Later on in the next sem we had C++ which was continuation on C. Since I didn't understand C I couldn't understand C++ and then Java which was another programming language and it went on getting harder and harder as my mind failed to understand the symbols involved in them. I didn't know the basics; therefore I couldn't understand the higher languages. Struggling hard I completed the course but could not clear all subjects. I was glad to get the C.C. (course complete certificate).

   I did not want to go for BE because I found diploma to be too difficult for me, so I discussed with my mom and decided that I should go for animation which was something I always wanted to do and also I had done pretty good editing work and drawing as my hobby.

Few of my friends from diploma where joining animation course in Arena, Jayanagar; so, I was not going there alone. I was a little sad that I had leave behind my Mom and sister back at home, but this time I had to! So this is how I end up in the animation course and finally started doing what I really enjoy.

The PUC Tragedy

 According to my Dad’s wishes I was finally in PUC college called Govt. Junior College, Byndoor, because it was in our village itself and my dad wanted me to make some friends in our native village. I have seldom been in Byndoor in my childhood, as I stayed in Bangalore and when I shifted there, I was in school which was located in another village called Gangolli. Most of my friends were from outside Byndoor. Therefore I did not have many friends in our village and my dad wanted me to make more friends in Byndoor. I did not have much option. I thought of joining the college for all the wrong reasons like it was nearby to our home and thought I could study in the time I saved by travelling,  but I was wrong. I couldn’t study well there as the school I studied earlier was quite different and we used to speak in English or Urdu. But here everyone used to speak in Kannada which I could not understand properly, especially the local dialect which was different from the Kannada in Bangalore. There was no proper place to sit the class room as it was over crowded, and most the good place was occupied by kids who could flex their muscles. I felt like being in some complete different world and couldn’t make many friends because of the language barrier. They used to joke which I never understood and that was another joke for them. Sometimes they made fun of me and I dint understand, so I used to laugh with them, which in a way I was laughing at myself. Sigh!

As for the lessons and classes, I didn’t understand what the teacher was teaching because they used to teach in Kannada as many students didn’t understand English. I did not like going there and every day I spent there was kind of torture for me. I would reach there just on time for the class to start and leave as soon as the class was over. I did not want to spend a minute more there then it was required, with that attitude I did not do well in my studies either. As for the languages, I didn’t have an option for Urdu, so I had to choose between Kannada and Hindi. As for Kannada, It was already proven that I was not good at it and it was very difficult in PUC. So I had to opt for Hindi. When all my classmates were studying and writing the notes, the teacher gave me all the basic alphabets to learn like A,B,C,D... . I used to sit in the first bench, right in front of the Hindi ma’am learning basics. It was very awkward feeling I felt back then, but I got used to it as I had in my school. Whatever effort I put, it was of no use and I couldn’t learn Hindi well. Mom gave me tuitions at home lecturer tried her best to help me out, yet I couldn’t not cope with the new language in my life. As for other subjects most of the things were taught in Kannada, as a result I didn’t understand anything. Sometimes I used to get lost in my own imagination of being a superhero, swimming in a flooded streets, a monster destroying the college etc but later on I used to study the subjects from my textbook in home but not much as I was not interested in the college or its studies anymore. The biggest problem was Hindi. I couldn’t even study that subject in home and clearing PUC looked hopeless to me no matter how hard I tried. I decided I couldn’t pass and I didn’t want to go through all the tension I had been through for SSLC. Somewhere down the year I gave up, and did not put much effort for the exams. I somehow wrote the exams and as soon as I finished my final exam, we left to USA.  There I could meet Paula aunty and Jay uncle, with whom I spent very nice time for four months. As for the result, it didn’t turn out good as expected and I had to choose for some other career.

SSLC and After that...

SSLC is a scary demon that keeps lurking in the mind of the student right from his entrance to 5^th standard or so. Once in high school, my main worry was of clearing languages in SSLC. I was doing very well in Maths and Science, which made many of the teachers worry, why I was not scoring in languages which according to them was much easier than those tough subjects. My mom tried to talk to them and explain that languages are not easy for everyone but I don’t think anyone believed her. Anyway, it was routine that the teachers would say, I was obedient, nice student, hard working but scored very less marks in languages and I should work hard to score passing marks in those subjects if I am to do something in my life. I was wondering why I would need more than one language to do something in my life. It did not connect well, but SSLC is not something for a child to argue about, because no one will listen.

My Mom and I both put efforts towards the SSLC exams. The pictures my Mom clicked would tell you how tough it was for me to study those languages for SSLC.

        

Concentrating on Learning

Concentrating too hard and drowned in book

Taking help from nature to keep me awake. I could not
afford to fall asleep sitting there ;)

May be I can hold myself  awake

No I cannot...

My mom says that I would talk in my sleep often and recite poetry either from Kannada or Urdu book. After all the hard work towards my SSLC exams and writing it to the best I could do, I had to worry about the results. My mom kept telling me leave it alone and accept whatever happens will happen for good. But I know she was worried too.

Finally the results were out. I had done very good in English, Science and Maths and OK in Urdu and Social but just managed to scrape through Kannada. Whew!! I had cleared all the subjects and missed First Class by 1%.  I let myself go I enjoyed for a month. We had lots of fun on beach, in my backyard and entertainment parks. Soon it was time for me to wonder what to do next. If I enrolled in PUC I had to take any two languages again and I couldn’t deal with them all over again. The next option was diploma where I had no languages or to go ahead and join animation. As animation was new at that time I was scared to take it as my career. I was not sure it would work out.  Other than my Mom no one supported me with my idea.  Later on, my dad told me to join the PUC College because his friend’s son was doing well there, and it was within our village itself. Parents sometimes forget that every child is different and what would be good for a friend’s child may not be good for their own kid. So I was in Govt. Junior College of Byndoor for all wrong reasons. Sigh!

Gathering Storm... the Natural Way

Once I had visited the Someshwara beach in monsoon season. We hadn't been there for few weeks due to heavy rains. The sun was out after a long time and we all decided to have a look at the beach we were missing so much....

You can see how the situation changed within minutes from a bright day to a dangerous stormy one. We left in a hurry but not before clicking a few pictures. The clouds, the way they started gathering and the hue, everything was different and scary. 

Melbourne - Flight of My Dream

Amazing Coastline of Melbourne 

While casually surfing through Indiblogger, I chanced upon the contest by http://www.visitmelbourne.com/in. which promised two winners a tour of Melbourne. Not an ardent contributor to the contests on the site, I did not further look into it, but my curiosity did make me Google about the city, and also check out the link on Indiblogger wondering what memories could I bring back from Melbourne. What met my eyes was mind boggling amazement full of lights, adventures, beach and many more such attractions, which finally lured me into writing my second post for a contest.

My adventurous life :)

I have always been a great fan of adventures, be it swimming in the ocean, climbing hills, cycling away into jungles, or going to places where just nature surrounds us. I enjoy the thrill in it immensely, though it sometimes scares my loved ones. But with my studies, restrictions from family and other things called generally our lifestyle placing hurdles on my path; I don’t often get to have fun the way I want to. Most of my adventures do take place in my imagination, so no wonder seeing all those colorful balloons, welcoming beaches, museums and other equally enthralling images on the site, my imagination ran wild and said ‘…it's your time to visit Melbourne NOW!’ , landing me bang on a balloon floating over the green meadows on the outskirts of Melbourne. 

New Way Of Entering The City

What an amazing experience to fly into a city like a bird! I landed in front of the sports museum, which held the split second of those wonderful winning moments of sportspeople, stopping the time, which brought glory to the player forever by allowing people to see and live the moment if their victory once again. There were nearly 3500 objects related to the greatest moments in Australian sporting history, I loved them all.

An Animators Delight

As I walked out into the streets, the animator in me had a great time, as the city was buzzing with dynamic cutting-edge arts and cultural companies.  There were Art galleries, Museums, libraries, theatres, musicals, performing arts and public art to quench the thirst of an artist. It was wonderful learning experience for me professionally to check out the work by local and international artists involved in the City Lights programme. Later I took a tram ride to the Art from the City Circle, and later walked through city streets, laneways and along the Yarra River to experience the city's countless public artworks. It was unbelievable that this city was holding underneath its bosom so much of amazing art.

Exotic Restaurants 

Fed Square

Running around the city had made me quite hungry by now. I checked out and found restaurants, cafes, and bistros that reflected the cultural diversity of the city. For the wine lovers, there were exotic bars too... but that does not interest me. I just enjoyed a good meal at a Mexican restaurant near the Federation square. Fed Square is a unique fusion of civic and cultural activities, which are recognized internationally as one of the world's great public spaces. There were amazing recipes of Indian food available too, but why would I travel to Melbourne to eat what I have to eat once I get back to India. I vowed not be seduced by the inviting Indian cuisines which gave out enticing aromas.

I had heard a lot about the Melbourne cricket stadium, but decided to skip it as I was not a great cricket fan. Now it was time for me to travel on my new Scott bicycle along the Great Ocean Road and beyond for one of the world’s most scenic coastal drives. I came across the 12 Apostles, iconic surf breaks and waterfalls through my journey. I cycled all the way through to Victoria’s largest alpine resort where I decided to spend the night.

I woke up to the morning where the resort invited me to enjoy a wide range of activities including children's snow sports, attractions and events. I tried my hand at skiing and though not successful it was quite fun. It was so nice to watch even toddlers trying to ski. I went ahead to watch adventurers having fun with snowboarding too, but I was hesitant to try that on.

Whale watching

After enjoying the snow for the first time in my life to the fullest, I travelled back through the gardens of Melbourne situated on the Yarra river. I ventured into the Royal Botanic Gardens – an ornamental labyrinth of lawns, weaving paths and venerable old trees, which took my breath away. I had tough time believing that I was not in some kind of a wonderland.

 Amazing beaches of Melbourne

My next stop was at the beaches. I ventured deep into the ocean and had fun without any fear as most of the beaches were being patrolled by surf life savers. I could see lots of yachting and swimming going on the sea. Some of the beaches had facilities for boat ramp and an excellent foreshore reserve with picnic, barbecue and play facilities. What else would I need? I spent two days on the beaches because I loved it a lot.

Koala, how cute!

Penguins of Phillip Island

Couple feeding a Kangaroo in Wildlife Sanctuary on Yarra River

I spent some more time in the wild life,watching the Penguins, Koalas, Kangaroos and many other wonderful sights of nature. This was the first time I was watching many of those animals for real, so far I had seen them only on computer or television.

I suddenly remembered that I had to take something back home to my family, especially to my Mom and Sister. They had given me their lists of things that I was required to buy if I was to be allowed back inside my home again. Off I went to explore the department stores and shopping centers. While I wandered through the city's myriad arcades and lane ways, who do you think I ran into in a shop? None other than my favorite star Hugh Jackman!  I was dumbstruck for a moment, but then went ahead and asked for an autograph. He obliged but I could not find anything for getting autographed. He made me turn back and autographed the T shirt I was wearing, but he slipped and pricked my back with the nib. OUCH!

All of the sudden I found myself crouched before my laptop, looking at the pictures of Melbourne. There was a mosquito trying to fly away, so he was the one who gave me the prick on my back and not Hugh Jackman. But who knows? May be I will be sent there through the contest and really get his autograph. Now this is the experience I would love to bring back from Melbourne… my dream to come true. 

All the Images of Melbourne are from http://www.visitmelbourne.com/in

The Dyslexic’s Dilemma

Glimpse of Boat On Way To School

When I finished my 5^th grade, we had to shift to my dad’s place, which was a village was called Byndoor. I had a tough time leaving behind my grandmother, grandfather, uncle and aunty. Before moving over, my mother promised me that she will keep me happy over there. And if I missed her family a lot or had tough time adjusting there, then she would move me back to Bangalore. She kept that promise, as  I was quite happy there.

TEMS, Gangolli

I did miss my family but then I had lots of freedom in Byndoor when compared to Bangalore. That made up for other losses. My grandmother never let me go out for long or alone, because she was worried that I may hurt myself. She was very nervous even about my grown up uncle. Here in Byndoor, my Mom allowed me to explore the world and learn about it myself. The problem of my languages was still there with me. The school I joined was a little far from my village so I had to travel for nearly two hours every day, but I did not mind the travel. Every day as we traveled, we all enjoyed sights of rivers, bridges, mountains, animals, birds and many other amazing scenes. Marvanthe beach always excited me though I saw it every day. 

Marvanthe Beach

I really had great classmates, but at first I didn't make many friends there because I was very shy and quite different in every aspect from them, but as days passed by I got used to that place, the people and the environment. 

As for the languages I had a bigger problem because I had to learn a new language, and that was Urdu. I took the challenge because; any way I was no expert in Hindi, so learning Hindi also required much effort. Another attraction was the assumption that Urdu might be easier then Hindi.  I was wrong!

Having fun after exams .. whew!!

It was more difficult than Hindi, and all I could remember was some kind of weird shapes. I named them, heart, 1, b etc and wrote the exams recalling sentences of which I created visual images in mind.

The situation of exams did not change much in my new school either, I would score poor marks in languages and teachers would try hard to give me passing marks so I could go to the next class. The real challenge came in 7^th grade when we had public exam, which meant the papers would get corrected by other school teachers, therefore my teachers couldn’t help me. They were more worried about me than me.

Beautiful Scenes on way to school..

View from the terrace of our school

We would cross many such rivers to reach the school

Lucky for me the year I was supposed to write the public exam, the system changed and it got cancelled. It was made compulsory only for 10^th from then on and somehow I managed to go till 10^th without being fluent in reading or writing Urdu and Kannada, but scraping enough marks to pull through. Now to pass the SSLC exam I had to do well in the final exams. I and my mom talked it over and decided that I will work really hard for 5-6 months and pass the SSLC exam .So I started getting up at 5:00 in the morning and started studying. I started going to our neighbour’s home, who tried teaching me Urdu. The lady was very eager to teach me, but she did not have experience in teaching children and also she could not understand my dyslexic problem. I worked very hard but it was like running fast to stay on the same spot.
It was then that my mom decided to take the reins in her hand. She learned Urdu so she could teach me (she was new to that language), that was an inspiration and hope for me that I could do it. After 5-6 months of hard work I could write a full chapter, could write letters, one word answers, but the funny thing was, I didn’t know what I was writing. My mom was more of a smart worker than hard worker, so she found out all those questions that had chances of being repeated and had plan made for me to learn those, and one world answers etc.  So with all the effort somehow I passed in those languages.