Tata Elxsi renders astounding visual effects for the epical romance ‘Jodha Akbar’

Indian entertainment industry riding on the animation and graphics wave

New Delhi, February 21, 2008 –Visual Computing Labs (VCL), a division of Tata Elxsi Ltd, today announced that it has rendered the exclusive visual effects for the most awaited movie of the year ‘Jodha Akbar’. A whole year of post production and over one hundred artists from VCL helped make give this epic drama a large scale canvas that has till now not been seen in Indian cinema.

Focused on providing world-class, quality animation (2D & 3D), special effects, and gaming services to customers world wide, VCL has combined creativity and technology for Jodha Akbar, producing realistic and breathtaking images and creating the much required glory of the splendid Mughal era.

Mr. Pankaj Khandpur, Creative Director, Visual Computing Labs, Tata Elxsi said, “Mr. Ashutosh Gowarikar, the director and co-producer of Jodha Akbar, discussed the visual effects of the movie with Tata Elxsi way back in 2005. With world-class creative talent, a strong and experienced team of artists and advanced CG filmmaking technology and techniques, VCL has been able to create realistic battle sequences in the movie and restore the long lost splendour of the 16th century Mughal dynasty.”

“Our team spent many months prior to the shooting to just test the feasibility of doing the shots in CGI. A team of modellers and texture artists was put onto the job to digitally restore the forts and palaces to look like they did in the 16th century. Wherever the structures were badly ruined Tata Elxsi went in and completely rebuilt them in CGI, and then using high-resolution digital images texture mapped the structures to blend in seamlessly with the existing fort or palace,” he further added.

Over 200 shots were meticulously planned during pre production in computer-generated imagery (CGI) for the 3 battle sequences in the movie. Wherever the camera movement was complicated and the existing layers proved inadequate VCL built the soldiers in CGI using crowd duplication software.

Additionally, all the arrows were hand animated in CGI and put into the battle sequences. Large tracts of ground had to be cleared of all modern day traces, most apparent being tyre marks of vehicles. Dust was added digitally to enhance the feeling of scale to the battle sequences and then the ground was strewn with dead bodies and vultures in the sky all done in CGI to show the devastation after a heavy battle.

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About Visual Computing Labs

Visual Computing Labs, a division of Tata Elxsi Ltd, is a creative facility offering animation, digital visual effects and game asset building for the global entertainment and broadcast industry. With its global delivery center in Mumbai, India, VCL is a unique mix of engineering and creative skills, which provides solutions from scripting, pre/post production, character modelling & animation, VFX and development services among others.

About Tata Elxsi

Tata Elxsi Limited, the Product Design arm of the multi-billion Tata Group, is a company focused on delivering outsourced Product Design and R&D services and solutions to customers worldwide. Core technology strengths, domain skills, system engineering capabilities, custom processes for design and proficient designers form the nucleus of the company. Tata Elxsi is a SEI CMMi Level 5 company.

Headquartered in Bangalore, India, the company is supported by a strong network of offices all over the world. Tata Elxsi’s design services are supported by state-of-the-art design and development centers in Bangalore and Thiruvananthapuram in India. Tata Elxsi’s local presence in the USA, UK, Germany, Canada and Japan assures easy access to the company’s global customers as well. Tata Elxsi is a public stock company traded in the Indian stock exchanges.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Bhaskar Dutt, Head – Marketing

Visual Computing Labs, A division of Tata Elxsi Ltd.

Tel: +91 22 26822142
Mobile: +91 98671 64977

Email: bhaskar {at} tataelxsi.co(.)in

Website: www.tataelxsi.com

Sanjay Chaudhary / Manpreet Singh,

Vaishnavi Corporate Communications,

9810203810 / 9810286337,

sanjayc {at} vccpl(.)com / manpreet.singh {at} vccpl(.)com