My homage to Terryl Whitlatch

The original illustration: black ink and sketch pens

An interplay between the colours of the bg and the illustration

A blue wash over the illustration

Terryl Whitlatch's character designs have always fascinated me, particularly the way she inculcates the smallest details into her work. It is of no surprise that her animal anatomy drawing skills make a budding artist like me envious. After browsing for what seemed like hours, I finally discovered her wonderful book up for sale. Imagine my excitement. :)

To see some pages from her latest book click here

Waiting for Adobe Premier Pro to render footage always takes its toll on me, so I drew this creature in the meantime. :)

Opening Credits (Tests)

Smoke theme

Ancient title

Cloud theme

As the film is nearing its completion, I am beckoned by the thrilling world of vfx and compositing which adobe after effects has acquainted me with. So I have decided that I shall devote a small portion of this week to generate different ideas for the title sequence of the film. When I first began compositing, the whole exercise seemed extremely tedious to me, but over the last few months I have started to appreciate the marvels that it is known to produce, often effortlessly. I would really like your feedback on these small test shots that I have uploaded. :)

Mammoth + Shark ray + prawn

An attempt to bring back three classic prehistoric species with a twist.

The first glimpse

It is that time of the year when we must all go scouting and rallying for job interviews nationwide. I am soon to graduate and with that reality, comes the stark realization of facing the world without the chaperone of an institute you have grown to love over the past four years.

PS- Sorry for the poor resolution of the video. Please watch it in its original size to avoid distorting the quality.

Diwali greetings from the lazy squad

Film stills

Against all odds, I stand halfway en route to the completion my first student film. With five minutes in and another three to go, its a precarious place to be. Everyday my mind reels in new ideas which I try to analyze and incorporate into the shots, sometimes resulting in very intriguing insights. Its been a tough ride, bearing the seed of this idea against a windstorm of critics and well-wishers. Hope this tale will soon be ready to meet you all across the shore!

In retrospect

I was initially planning to keep the treatment of the film restricted to a grayscale when I had made this illustration last year. Surprisingly, it had a date scribbled on it which read 8th august 2009. I can't believe it's been a year since I began working on this film and so much time has actually passed since this germ of an idea had emerged. My documentation is almost complete as I prepare for the final, and perhaps the most complicated leg of the journey (which involves a lot of softwares).

Initial character explorations on Ru

Linked: Vomeja Major

There is a certain need of a chimera at times when your thoughts play themselves out in a veritable loop of images. When this happens, you know that you need to deviate. After seven months of constant rumination over my film, I picked up my pencil to create something distinctly different from it. As I stared at the sheet lying before me, I was conscious of the 'blackhole' which was slowly forming inside my creative cranium and I said, "Fie! I can't think of anything?!".

I drew a dot and circled it...hmmmm....a tadpole...nope...clumsy

With no apparent image in my head I started to search for things I had been ruminating about besides my film. Lets say...constellations for instance. A friend of mine had once joked that he would ask me to create constellations representing anima kingdoms if his holiness ever wished to hire someone from earth (Why on earth would he do that?!). Needless to say, I felt the tip of my pencil quivering as I began my odyssey to represent this absurd concept.

After developing an elaborate mesh of dots, I decided to combine features of a bobcat and a jack rabbit. It still needs a lot of work as I am yet to position the stars..will upload that once it is complete.

Alice in Vegas: Perspective

My rendition of the immortal characters created by Lewis Carroll. From left to right: The Cheshire Cat, The White Rabbit, Alice, The Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts.

I've always wondered how Lewis Carroll actually went about creating such diverse archetypes with his characters. With each character offering a new perspective on curiosity, stealth, jealousy, fear and eccentricity, I've often rediscovered many hidden layers to this story after every read-through. It sure deserves the crown of an ultimate fictional fantasy.

Muninn

“If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be clever enough to be crows."--Reverend Henry Ward Beecher

Nothing like a retreat into Norse mythology when you feel overwhelmed with yourself. It has always worked for me and it continues as I admit that the Greek Gods were not always the 'historically cool' ones. Norse Gods were brewing their own brawn and dousing their fear in mugs of ale made from the skulls their enemies.

Formidable as Odin was, I was always struck by the fact that he had this fascination for ravens much like Chengiz Khan. His ravens were named Huginn (Thought) and Muninn (Memory). Each day, he would send these two birds off around the world at daybreak to bring him news or tidings. In 'Grimnismal', Odin says

"For Huginn I fear lest he return not home, but I am more anxious for Muninn".

This suggests that Odin valued memory more than thought, something you wouldn't normally conceive about the God of war.

In this illustration, I have sought to represent a 'humaniod' or a 'sprite' (whichever you'd prefer) version of Muninn, which I feel, for obvious reasons should be represented as a feminine apparition. I am also working on Huginn's apparition, although with little success.

Reticuli on turntable

Reticuli from Nimisha Saikia on Vimeo.

I should have uploaded this way back in March, but it took me a while to locate the video file. I'm sorry about the render quality, it's way too low but I had no space in my laptop while I was exporting it. :)

I had made a sketch of this robot sometime during my fourth semester and decided to create it on Autodesk Maya as part of a course. The character is inspired by a wasp, inline skating but mostly by ARCEE ( Fifth Generation Autobot from Transformers Armada, Japan), the coolest female autobot. Even though I'm not too fond of bikes, I thing she can hold off pretty well with her gadgetry.

Some basic linework for my film

Its been like a decade since I put something up, so I decided to post some ongoing explorations for my classroom project. These aren't final, mind you. I pretty much feel like a big ol can of LPG these days, and I don't even know why I can relate to an old can of LPG. Its a frustrating process..but it's bound to get better when the production starts (methinks!). Apparently there is something called a 'gestation period' while conceiving a film, and I'm not a big fan of that.

IF: Unfold

Ahern

Flingalong a flight

Rapta

Wacomizing at Famous

IF: Talisman

It had taken Jefito the gypsy, seventy years to accumulate and collect talismans in the form of pendants, coins, plants, rings, stones, statues etc from different parts of the world. One night, after having heard the Gods whisper about her impending departure from earth, she decided to bestow her bounty to the world through a little window of her house. Wanting to bless the world with her charms, Jefito was instead damned as a witch and incarcerated in a penitenttiary where she slowly died.

Laviosa

After completing this particular piece I affirmed the fact that I simply hadn't learn how to use water colours. I used them like acrylic paints. But considering the amount of time it took for me to complete this, I'd say I feel pretty invested right now and dang those paints needed a giant push out of the tubes!