Story development
The process of animation begins with a good story. Initially, a story is written in a concise manner emphasising on the main scenes. Once the story gets approved, it gets developed into a script with overall conceptualisation of the location, time period and characters expressed in great detail.

Story Board
Story Board can be defined as pre-visualising the movie on paper. Every single shot is put on paper in the form of a sketch. This helps the students to understand the requirements of different shots and angles to reveal the story.

Designing
Fictional environments are generated with the help of CGI ( Computer Generated Interface) softwares. The characters, sets and props are sculpted by hand and then scanned or modelled directly in 3D with the help of softwares like 3Ds Max or Maya.

Layout
Once the storyboard and sound has been recorded, the project is sent to the layout artists to design the background and costumes required for different scenes. This is necessary for understanding the flow of the story and the requirements of different scenes.

Also a layout artist is responsible for model sheets whereby all the possible attitudes, expressions, and actions of a character are drawn inorder to maintain the uniformity of the characters.

Modelling
Modelling is the process of creating 3D wireframe of characters and environments either in 3Ds Max or Maya. Modeling can be done through polygonal modeling, NURBS, Splines & Patches or Primitive modeling. The level of detail depends on the kind of environment or flexibility of the character required, or by the total resolution of the final image.

Lighting & Texturing
The 3D wireframe gets a more realistic look with the application of textures through the Material Editor. Texturing is done with the help of UVW maps, bump mapping, pelt mapping and much more. Texturing gives more character to the 3D objects and attributes transparency, glossiness, matte etc. Also, it is possible to create and display textures such as glass, metal, concrete, water, plastic and fabric.

Lighting influences our perception of scenes and objects. With lighting one can give depth to an object and thus give a realistic 3D look. With lighting we can control shadows, highlights as well as add visual effects to enhance the output of lighting.

Rigging
Rigging is the process of connecting different parts of the body through biped or bones. Rigging creates a hierarchy that allows the animator to make movements onto the object. The skin mesh is also held on the 3D mesh with the help of the bones.

Dynamics
This includes Particle Simulation, Rigid body, Cloth simulation, Hair and Fur Simulation, Fire effects, Explosion effect, Water Simulation, Object Surface Recognizing, and Simulation Solver.

Animation
It is most important for an animation to have successfully executed factors such as the timing of movements and expressiveness. It is also one of the most tedious tasks to make the character behave as the story of the script requires. So, each behavioural trait or scene has to be performed and made ready for rendering and editing.

Rendering
Rendering calculates the pixels required for each frame based on the individual 3d models of the environment, materials and lighting as well as effects. Rendering is a long process, and at times, it may take days to render.

Editing and Compositing
Editing requires a smooth flow of scenes along with the voiceover. Here since timing is critical, editing is done keeping in mind the sequence, animation, expressions and voiceover.

Compositing is the process of combining multiple scenes or videos and merging it as one single scene. This can be achieved with the help of compositing softwares such as Combustion and After Effects, including blur effects for both, motion and depth of field. After compositing, the work requires colour correction and preparing the reel for different formats.

Sound
Finally the animated reel is sent to the sound department to adjust the sound tracks and voice over as per the scenes.

Digital Academy-The Film School offers the following 3 mainstream courses in Animation which cover all of the above mentioned stages.

Special Effects Orientation- SFX1

Visual Special Effects - SFX2

Advanced Creative Animation- SFX3

This course teaches the basic principles of computer graphics, visual effects and animation. Special care is taken to nurture in students the artistic talent required to develop animated content for film, television, games, architectural walkthroughs and music videos. Students will carry a demo reel of their work on completing the course.

Softwares used
-Photoshop
-3Ds Max

Course Structure
- Basics of Photoshop
- Designing
-Storyboarding
- Modelling
- Scene creation
- Lighting
- Texturing
- Camera
- Animation
- Rendering methods
- Production techniques
- The use of SFX in cinema

P1: High end modelling of Organic and Inorganic characters
In this project students will create organic as well as inorganic models.

P2 : Texturing
In this project, students create textures to develop characters with a realistic feel.

P3: Lighting
Students will be asked to experiment with different forms of lighting to suit different environment scenes.

P4: Rigging
Students be asked to give a frame to the structure and also the levers to handle the character. IK and FK will be used to give movement to the characters.

P5: Animation and Dynamics
Students will work on the animation process of transformation (which include movement, rotation and size) of objects on the basis of time. Students will also work on the expression, emotion, poses, walk cycle, jump cycle, & run cycle of biped (two legged characters) or quadruped (four legged characters). Finally, they will work on the basic movements, camera movements, light movements etc.

For Dynamics, students will achieve object simulation, fire effects, blasts and several other special effects as well.

P6: Production techniques
In this project, students will create the various types of work-flow pipelines in order to optimize production time as well as rendering time.

Final project:
Students will have to submit a final project based on the assimilation of the earlier projects to complete their demo reel.

This advanced course develops students’ skills in creating visual enhancement and effects for motion pictures and television. The emphasis is not only on the in-depth knowledge of contempoary software but also on hands-on training in various aspects of visual effects like chroma lighting, colour theory and composition. Students will carry a demo reel of their work on completing the course.

Softwares used
- Combustion
- Adobe After Effects.

Course Structure
- Basics of design
- Colour fundamentals
- Composition
- Advanced image editing with Photoshop
-Masking
- Animation
- Wire removal
- Chroma and luma keying
- Tracking
- Colour correction
- Titling for Film and Television
- Deep Paint 3D for advanced texturing
- Hands-on training on Chroma lighting
- Framing and composition
- Fundamantels of music and rhythm

Students will learn in-depth character animation, 3D imagery and other advanced techniques of computer-generated animation. Students will be able to conceptualise believable and life like characters and create a virtual world for a dramatic cinematic experience. Students will carry a demo reel of their work on completing the course.

Softwares used
-Maya Unlimited
-Photoshop

Course Structure:
- Character Studio
- Character design basics
-Personality development of a character
- Making model sheets
-Two legged and four legged walk cycles
- Modelling (polygon, NURB’s and Subdivision)
- Texturing
- Lighting
- Camera
- Rigging
- Paint, cloth and fur effects using Maya Unlimited
- Deep Paint 3D for advanced texturing
- Basics of Photoshop