KOCHI: Epica Studios in association with Italy-based Smartbrands SRL announced the launch of ‘Epica Animatica’ - a state-of-the-art academy to teach Animatronics, 3D and VFX. The academy is the result of Indo-Italian joint venture to focus on international animatronics content development. Animatronics is a multi-disciplinary field which integrates anatomy, robots, mechatronice, and puppetry resulting in lifelike animation.
The first academy will be set up in Thiruvananthapuram by early next year and later in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai. This was announced at press conference conducted at ALIIFF 2015 by Epica CEO Sohan Roy. He was accompanied by Epica managing director Jeemon Pullely and Smart Brands CEO Angelo Poggi.
“The academy division of Epica Animatica will groom young talents in animatronics, and organise twinning programmes that will have foreign faculties and exchange programs to Italy. The academy will conduct courses ranging from six months to one year wherein the students will get the opportunity to work on international projects as part of their course curriculum,” Said Sohan Roy, CEO, Epica.
“Apart from the academy, we are also involved in 3D content creation for our latest offerings - glasses free 3D TV, tabs and smart phones. We shall also be working with major Hollywood and Bollywood production companies for their content creation,” Said Jeemon Pullely, managing director, Epica Animatica.
Smart Brands SRL is one of the leading studios in Europe that are specialists in Animatronics and associated with a lot of Hollywood and European projects. They will be supporting Epica Animatica with the course curriculum and expert faculties from different parts of the world to conduct sessions on Animatronics and also in content creation. Sohan Roy also announced the launch of Epica Media UK and Epica Italy, in partnership with Smart Brands SRL to collaborate for content creation.