THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: This May, the capital city will play host to some of the best-known names in the animation industry. Toonz Media Group, whose clientele include animation giants like Disney, Lionsgate, Netflix and BBC, is organising its annual conference, ‘Animation Masters Summit’ on May 4 and 5 in Thiruvananthapuram with the aim of connecting the masters of animation with aspiring young artists. The summit will be held on May 4 and 5 at Park Centre, Technopark campus, Toonz CEO P Jayakumar said on Thursday. This summit will also feature the fourth edition of ‘Flying Elephant’, the annual short film contest for both amateurs and experts to showcase their talent in film-making.
Started in 1999 by Toonz media group, this summit provides a platform for artists to engage with expert animators and award-winning content creators. This year’s conference will feature talks by nine international professionals of the animation industry.
Resul Pokutty, Academy Award winner for best sound mixing in the film “Slumdog Millionaire”, will talk about the aesthetics of sound in cinema. Being passionate about acoustics, Pookutty is a master of a multitude of equipment and techniques.
Considering the potential of the video sharing platform YouTube, and the rise of YouTubing as a profession in India, the summit features Antoine Torres who is the head of YouTube Family & Learning, South America. He would speak on the topic “Understanding the region through the lenses of YouTube”. Vinoth Chandar, the creative director of ChuChu TV, India’s third most subscribed YouTube channel, will also be featured in this summit.
P C Sanath, the director of Firefly Creative studio and the man behind the CGI and animations of films like Baahubali and Pulimurugan, is set to talk on pre-designing before actual production of movies. Kiran Antony, the executive creative director of ‘Ogilvy & Mather’, the advertising agency behind iconic ads of Dove and IBM will speak on minimalism. Vaibhav Kumaresh, the founder of the studio behind the creation of the acclaimed advertisements like Vodafone Zumis, is also speaking in this summit.
The summit also features gaming expert Arvind Neelakantan and media executive Paul Robinson.
The keynote is to be delivered by Aashish Kulkarni, who is regarded as the most dedicated personality in Indian animation industry. Toonz media group has decided to honour V G Samant with this year’s ‘Legend of Animation’ award. Samant is renowned for his role in creating India’s first indigenous animated movie Hanuman in 2005.