After spending two full days at the CGTExpo 2008, I must say the experience was unique. Hundreds of volunteers from all over the country, the CGTantra team, the Nine team, the participants and the supporters, all put in their best to make the event a truly successful one.
The planning was perfect, arrangements flawless and the least possible glitches ensured that everyone had a lot of fun and went back having gained something. Newbies, students, job-seekers, curious spectators, anxious parents of would-be animation students, were all milling around together in the two main halls and two smaller ones.
The event began on the right note by starting on time, which is a rarity these days. (God forbid you reach an event before time, you will be left cooling your heels for 2 hours before there is any sign of life! Thankfully, here it was not the case.)
RK Chand from CGTantra and Jigar Parekh from Nine – Making it Possible performed a small ‘pooja’ to begin with.
The show was inaugurated by volunteers, two girls who had come all the way from Jharkhand to be part of the expo. It was a genuinely nice gesture on the part of the organizers to show their appreciation towards the community that has actually contributed towards the success CGTantra.
The crowd began arriving early on Saturday morning. In the foreground is Laura Dohrmann from NVIDIA. Also seen in the middle of the crowd is Nigel Sumner, scene supervisor for ILM who has worked on films like Transformers, Terminator 3, Space Cowboys, Jurassic Park III, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, Van Helsing, The Hulk, The Perfect Storm, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, War of the Worlds, Poseidon and Eragon.
The 2 day event organised by CGTantra with the help of Nine, went off smoothly right from the word GO. Apart from volunteers from Mumbai, there were students from all over India who had come just for the event, not only to participate but to help and to volunteer.
The opening speeches!
Student competitions in progress throughout the 2 days of the event.
Bang in the center of the hall was the Frameboxx pavilion which was also probably the liveliest and noisiest stall in the entire expo! Their yellow and black branding was everywhere as the team gave demos to curious visitors and prospective Frameboxx students alike. Large banners announced forthcoming projects including a Character Design contest that begins on the 28th of May.
Also present were Hardware vendors like NVIDIA, Apple distributors and resellers like Unicorn and Ample, Institutes from across India, Studios like Paprikaas, BIG Animation and Lucas Film Singapore who had come looking to hire new talent, Animation-related media companies like Animation Xpress, Animation Reporter, Animation Today and of course yours truly representing AAA, Zapak Games play-zone for gaming enthusiasts, Master Classes, student competitions, everything under one roof. TASI – The Animation Society of India also made its presence felt at the expo, announcing this year’s edition of the 3 day animation fest – Anifest India 2008! It was a place to learn, earn, network, have fun, share, make noise and lose your voice with all the talking!
Some more fun stuff!
Education Pavilion
Studios looking to hire fresh as well as experienced talent.
A huge Gaming Plaza by Zapak – every gamers dream…
Keep playing!
Kreeda Games’ Dance Mela and M M Mukhi & Sons’ Book and CD/DVD stall.
…and that’s Yours Truly at the AllAboutAnimation stall. A BIG THANK YOU to all the visitors and the readers who came specially and told me how much they like the website/blog. Feels great to know that one’s hard work is appreciated.
I sincerely hope that CGTantra keeps organizing more such fests in other cities as well. Kudos to their team!
Very impressive . .
A Good overview of everything that was there !
Now thats what you call, beauty lies in simplicity….. Lovely to read at…..
The courage to penetrate and power to see clearly the meaning of things hidden beyond the situation prevailing around us and to act up to the discovered meaning is what is known as revolutionary insight … Revolution can take place only where there is this power of penetrating insight. –Vinoba Bhave
Nice article.Enjoyed reading at it.
Keep Rocking!
I sincerely hope CGTantra keeps organising such fests in all cities. Kudos to the team!!
[…] would be nice to have “placement expos” on a pan-Indian basis and open to all students. CGTExpo by CGTantra was a step in that direction but a little limited in what it had to offer. There were […]