Vaibhav Kumaresh: Making of the 3 x 9 sequence
We got a call from Aamir Khan productions and they said we need to send them our showreel. We were thrilled just to get a call from them. After some more days we got a call saying we need to meet now. We were even more happy. We fixed up a time and went and met Aamir for the first time. This was around 3 months before the release of the film and we had to deliver 1 month before the release because there were many things – post-production, colour grading and writing onto film – to be done after the final visuals were done. Final sound had to be done. So we figured that we have just 2 months production time.
We met Aamir at his home and he narrated the entire film to us. He took us through the initial bit of the film shot by shot because that was the part of the film loaded with animation and as Dhimant mentioned, he was to do the 3 x 9 sequence and we were going to do the opening title animation. Aamir narrated the entire opening sequence in great detail – the fish in the water and the guppies swimming and you see Ishaan peering into the water and then it moves into the animated sequence.
He also told us that there were a couple of more animation sequences in the film and he said that there is going to be a 3 x 9 sequence also in it. The boy’s character is given this Mathematics problem to solve and how does he see it, how does he tackle it in his own way. Even that sounded very exciting. Then he told us the entire story in a nutshell- so beautifully and in great detail, as if the entire film is running in his head, with sound effects. As we listened to him, we were also cooking up images in our head. It was very exciting and we really wanted to be part of that project. But unfortunately that was one of the most hectic periods for us in the studio we had major plans that we won’t take any more new work for the next 2 months!
But who can resist such a tempting project! After that meeting all our plans changed! We told Aamir that this was the situation but the project sounds very exciting and we really want to be part of it. Give us a day we will figure out internally how to manage our other work but we definitely want to do this. So we went back to the office and discussed this. We decided we would form dedicated teams for each of the other projects and ensure we can take this up because prior to this, we had never done any work for a feature film in our careers so far. The prospect of having such a huge audience seeing our work was simply too exciting. When we create promos or ads for TV, we are still being watched by a limited audience. But as a feature film, it was going to be screened in theaters all over the country, perhaps all over the world. We couldn’t pass on this opportunity. This was such a big platform in front of us. Even the story and the entire film was wonderful for us to be a part of.
In the 1st meeting itself I had a lot of queries – since the sequence was from the boy’s imagination, what kind of boy is he? What is he like? Does he have any friends? Does he get bullied? What is his surrounding like? Does he have pets? Since we had such less time, we had to start getting into the job right away. I had lots of doubts in my head – to visualize I need to know about the boy first. I was asking Aamir a lot of questions – may be stupid questions, I don’t know. Finally Aamir said, OK, do you want to just see the film? Because by then the film had already been shot, a lot of the background sound and music had been done and it was in a very rough edit format. During that time, in fact, they were conducting a lot of screenings of the film. They used to invite people to preview it.
It was in a rough stage and wherever there was to be animation or CG, or post work, there were black frames saying 3 x 9 sequence will come here or title sequence or spider sequence will come here. The live action bit was in place, the sound was there. That was good because we got to see the film. Watching the film itself blew our minds, at such a rough stage it was so simple, so beautiful and we all could associate with it. Like Dhimant said, maybe many of us who get into animation have a certain percentage of Dyslexia in us. There was a special screening and all the animation groups were invited. Dhimant’s team, our team, a lot of people were there, we all really loved the film. And we apparently gave some bizarre feedback which none of the other groups before us had given! The reactions were quite different from those of other groups, in some scenes, diametrically opposite opinions.
Anyways, seeing the film told us a lot about this character. Somewhere in our second meeting when we were talking, Aamir got a call from Dhimant, and they were speaking and Aamir looked at me. I was very curious about what they were discussing. Aamir hung up and then told me, Dhimant wants to do the title sequence, would you do the 3 x 9 one? Perfect! That just suited me fine because from the time I had heard the story I was itching to animate the character. Aamir had given us a lot of still images of the boy which were going to be used for publicity and when I saw the little boy, I felt he was visually so exciting to lay my hands on his character – to animate so I was feeling that 3 x 9 sequence would be fun to animate. Another reason was that it was much shorter in duration! Around 1 and half minutes, while the title sequence was 3 minutes long. That was also good news. But more than that, there was a definite story in that sequence and we are getting to make a doodle out of the hero of the film. Our objective got clear.
Now for the process:
1. Stills
All the basic material was given to us. Aamir had given me an entire CD of stills from the film. There were also the doodles that the boy had done – what is depicted of him already in the film because we had to show his visualization – so it was a good reference point. We saw elements like the space ship in the doodles so we thought we could use them.
2. Designs
Once we knew we were doing this 3 x 9 sequence, we were given a printed script which was the basic structure of the sequence – the way the boy sees 3 x 9. That 3 is the 3rd planet from the Sun and 9 is the 9th planet from the Sun, and he has to take 3 and the way Aamir narrated – ‘3 ko 9 mein ‘into’ karna hai’. In Hindi, it is very literal and visual also. That is what the kid things “3 ko pakkad ke 9 mein into karna hai aur jo bhi uska result hai, that is the answer”. That structure was there, and based on the visuals, script and whatever we had seen and grasped of the film and the character – the impression of his loose khakhi uniform and a face which was any animator’s dream, we began trying out different options of how it could be. This kind of home work helps us in any of our projects, whatever we have in our heads, we just keep pouring it out, and we see what works, what doesn’t. I will also play an audio clip which we got from them.
These were the basic visual options that we had. There were different options for the design, We were constantly in touch with Aamir on email, whatever we used to come up with, we would email Aamir since he was travelling, and he used to give his feedback. One thing he said was that he liked the look of it the way it was shaping up, but he is not student Ishaan, in this sequence he is Captain Ishaan. So let us not stick to the student look for him. What if we go for an army kind of feel? Whatever visuals we had as reference, we tried to look at closely.
Then we thought what if the entire thing happens on a sheet of paper so you will notice the sequence has this grainy texture. Then we tried some more costumes. I felt that we should retain the Khakhi colour because we have seen him a lot in that.
Yessss!!
We felt when he achieves his goal he could do something like this because in the film also when he is punished and asked to go outside the class, he does something like this, so we thought we would incorporate it.
The character doesn’t think bad of anyone. he enjoys whatever space he is in. So I thought probably asteroids, meteors could be characters that he passes by. Then there was one more option – a question paper kind of a feel, where some elements could be in colour while others would be like science diagrams, where you have the Solar system. These were different options that we tried out.
3. Animation Test
We did a small animation test and Aamir was also happy with the way things were shaping up.
Then we needed some more data. We asked Aamir if we could time this entire sequence. Can it be more than one and half minutes or less than that? Is this the final script? They had recorded Ishaan’s (Darsheel’s) voice.
This was probably recorded at Darsheel’s home or some place that’s not a sound studio because we hear all sorts of disturbances. But all the sound effects were in his own voice – that was what was interesting. In the final film also, most of these things have been retained, although he dubbed the thing all over again. I really liked the scratch track better, though. It gave us a fair idea of what the final thing would be like and we could see the tempo in which the sequence was going. We wanted to introduce more stuff in the story, so we sliced this audio clip and planned how this would translate visually. The audio was really helpful. It created a lot of visuals in our head.
Then we tried to understand the character. What all is he doing? What is his attitude in this sequence? How is he going to grab planet Earth? Because this was also guiding us as to what angle would look good for each shot or action.
Then, based on the audio we felt the story is just starting and then ending very fast. After Mars (‘garma-garam planet’) which is planet no. 4, the number 9 is still very far. We felt that his journey must be more eventful. So we thought maybe he would see Saturn as a character who is playing the Hoola-Hoop with his rings, so we sketched that out also.
The Octopus character was there in most of the stuff we had seen by then. By the time we met Aamir, the promos had started and the octopus which Dhimant had animated used to come and sit on the title frame. We felt that these guys can make a comeback in this shot also. It may be outer-space but these weird characters could also be there.
4. Storyboard
We made a rough set of story boards and then refined them and made a second set. We kept playing the audio in our heads again and again, we kept refining the structure. The sequence had to begin with 3 x 9
5. Start and end reference
Vaibhav showed a small clip of the edit from the film – the transition points at the beginning and end. “We had to figure out how it moves from this place to our story and how do we end the story so that it can seamlessly blend into the given frame.
6. Final board
We had notes of the dialogue he says and what visuals should come at that time.
This had the detailed visual structuring of the sequence. We thought we would add small elements like Jupiter as the gentle giant and build it up to the climax where he crashes 3 into 9.
7. Test shot
We decided to now set up the place where Ishaan has to go – ie. the Solar System. The letters don’t mean much to him – so why not have them like symbols which transform into the elements in his fantasy. So 9 becomes the Octopus.
Now how do we end it? After this we had to come back to him writing on the answer paper. Once we figured this out we thought, OK lets put it on a timeline and see.
8. Colour story board
As we got into colour, we started seeing a basic palette evolve, like a colour key for the sequence. Once we saw this entire thing in front of us we knew, we could now analyze it. It was very crucial for us to do this because once things are done in animation, if there any corrections, it is a pain to correct it, specially when working within such a tight timeline.
9. Animatic
This was like a basic timing that we did. If you notice,we chalked the audio track we had initially and we filled wherever we needed more visual data and we pushed. When we shared the rough pencil storyboard with Aamir, he liked it. He had certain comments – like some alphabets we can keep ‘ulta’ the way Ishaan does. Minor things but they add to the over all feel.
As you keep getting into the story, things keep getting added. The audio and visuals feed off each other. Some visuals led to new sounds being added and vice versa. A lot of back and forth kept happening and this, I feel helped the film a lot.
10. Animation Production
Once the animatic was more or less done, we started the animation production, which is the actual execution. We had around a month left at this time.
Vaibhav then showed photographs of the set up, specially for the benefit of those who have never seen a classical animation setup:
The Lightbox with a slider at the bottom to adjust the angle and the peg bar (Oxbury is one form of peg, Acme is another).
Team members working on the drawings, flipping papers to check if the flow of movement is right. Checking the keys.
The basic tools – Reynolds Marker for the outlines, white correction pen to touch up all wrong lines.
Shadow Matte – when there is a source of light, there is a shadow cast. In 2D, the shadow layer is drawn as a separate layer on top of the character. It becomes like an opaque channel.
Ladder – For timing and spacing – In 2D, these are the key drawings. In clay, Dhimant has to keep all frames in his mind and animate every movement one by one, in a linear manner. This is called “straight-ahead animation”. It is a live performance. But for us the job is a little easier. It is a non-linear way of working. It is not live. You have made your key drawings – the main positions and then you make the in-betweens. Vaibhav then explained easing in and easing out. All this is indicated on the ladder.
11. Audio breakdown & Exposure sheet
Here is a frames chart which says 1 2 3 4 so you know they are the no. of frames. Opposite that is the sound, where we have broken down the audio. So you know the dialogue in every frame. If there is a long line it is a hold. Dialogues and movement are fed in the chart so you know what is happening in each frame. When you have too many layers, too many characters, we feed in the basic timing.
In the film there were certain sequences where there is a lot of action and the character is travelling really fast. So we thought we would do a 3D sky. We took a large basic cylinder in Maya and we mapped streaks onto it. Then we took the camera through it that so we got perspective. Otherwise, we would have just made flat photoshop backgrounds.
The stars are on a separate layer so one more element added. If we had done this in 2D we would have had to struggle to create perspective. Since there wasn’t any interaction with the character so it works.
12) Technicalities
This was our first experience working on a large format so technically there were many things we were not aware of. We had goofed up a little bit. When we scanned the images, we thought that since it has to be hires, the images should be very sharp, so we increased the sharpness, made sharp lines. But what we didn’t realise was, that from digital when it is written on to celluloid, if the lines are too sharp, the contrast between the black outline and the other coloured image is so high that it begins to jitter.
When we did a 10 second test, when we rendered, wrote onto film and projected on the big screen in Adlabs, we saw there were too many jitters happening and the contrast was very high. We felt very disappointed after all the effort that went into it, it was just few days before we had to deliver. We spoke to few other technical people. They had also not done a transfer of this kind of 2D animation before, so they were also going by their hunches and guessing what the problem might be.
So we went back to our scan sources and we saw that the sharpness level was the problem because the image was getting blown up so much that when it was sharp, you could see the jagged lines. This we could never see when we were drawing with a marker on a piece of paper and at the magnified size the resolution is 3600 by 1836 and the small image that we have made with our marker, when you zoom in on it, you can see the fibers of the paper and the ink is going into the fiber and making each line appear crooked. That was not helping on the big screen. We had to go back and rework all the source images and we reduced the sharpness. So there was a slight fuzziness that came in. It was not pure black and white. The basic outline that we had, there were a few grey pixels, it became a little fuzzy and that helped. On the big screen it didn’t jitter much anymore. Even the black was looking too heavy so we tried out tests where we inked the lines. We tried out many options. The lines are now deep reddish brown,. Manually we had to paint the lines again, changing the colour. That was a learning experience.
Vaibhav then called Mehboob and Chandni from his team on stage for a big round of applause from the audience.
Questions from the Audience:
Q. Why didn’t you opt for vector tracing if you had the problem of pixelating lines?
A. The problem was not of pixellation. We had scanned the images at a very high resolution. The lines were too sharp so visually they didn’t look right. When we reduced the sharpness it looked better. It didn’t look blurred. We did try vectorization at one point thinking that if it is vectorized, the lines will be smoother. But that was not giving us the right result because it was taking away certain qualities of the actual line drawing. If it had to be vectorised we would have had to draw it using a vector based software in the beginning itself. If you draw first and then try to vectorise, the computer is going to configure it on its own and you won’t get the results that you desire.
Q. What was the final resolution of the output?
A. 3600 x 1836 pixels. What happens is that when you give it in that resolution, when they write it onto film, they squeeze it. So this double size becomes half. The projection system in cinemascope again blows it up. If you see the actual negative of this shot, it is a squeezed image and while projecting the image again expands to its original size and that is what you see.
Q. Why didn’t you try anything else in the design? This is your patented design. Did Aamir ask you to follow this style?
A. We made those designs and Aamir said “Wow! You are going in the right direction.” After that, I agree we also didn’t push ourselves much. Now even I feel that I have seen this character so many times. I could have tried more options in the design. Also because of the time constraint we didnot experiment too much. We did a little bit but we didn’t go all out to try something new.
Q. The animation that you have done, have you shot it on ones or twos or threes?
A. Its a mixture of ones and twos and very rarely threes. It depends. Then there are also 10s which are holds! It depends on the design of the actions, on the scene. What is it that you are trying to convey in that particular shot? These are just techniques. You know that if your drawing is going to change in every frame, it is going to move at a certain speed. If your drawing is going to change every alternate frame, it is going to create a certain feel. Wherever you want that speed, you use it. There is no formula.
Q. You mentioned you animated different elements – like different parts of the body on separate layers. What is the advantage of that? When I tried it, I found that more difficult than trying to animate everything on one layer.
A. Let me give you an example. If the spaceship is static and only the boy is moving around, I don’t have to redraw the spaceship in those many frames if I just keep it on a separate layer. That is the biggest advantage of working in this way. If the character is not moving for half a second, which is 12 frames, why should I draw 12 drawings of the entire body? Sometimes you may do it intentionally. You keep drawing so it moves. No matter how well you draw over the same line, its texture, its quality is different. So when it plays, you will have a slight dance or a “boil” as we call it. If that is the result that you want, you may do it.
Making of TZP – Part 1 : Dhimant Vyas – Clay Animation for Title Sequence