Report on

3rd November 2015

NIMHANS Convention Centre, Bangalore

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Contents

Chapter Page No.

1. Overview 02

2. Objectives of DAS 2015 03

3. Program 04

4. Speakers 06

5. Synergy 10

6. Photo Gallery 11

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Chapter 1 Overview

ABAI is on a mission to digitize all the Fine Art Colleges in Karnataka. ABAI with the support of the Government of Karnataka, Department of IT BT and S&T and KBITS is running 'Digital Arts Center' (DAC) program to establish DACs in Fine Art Colleges and have encouraged students to adapt to the digital media and more importantly to start thinking of career opportunities in the AVGC sector and preparing for it while in college.

The following Fine Art Colleges have joined hands with ABAI & Government of Karnataka for the development of the AVGC community in Karnataka through the ABAI - DAC program.

1. Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Bangalore

2. JSS Halbhavi School of Art, Dharwad

3. Vijaya College of Fine Art, Gadag

4. MMK College of Visual Arts, Gulbarga

5. University College of Visual Arts, Davangere

6. Shri Vijaya Mahantesh Lalitakala Mahavidyalaya, Hubli

7. Center for Fine Arts, Animation and Design, Tumkur

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Chapter 2 Objectives of Digital Arts Symposium 2015

ABAI with the support of Government of Karnataka organized its second ‘Digital Arts Symposium’ on 3rd November 2015 at the NIMHANS Convention Center, Bangalore. The symposium was partnered by Autodesk as Technology partner, Arena Animation as Education partner and Wacom as Creative partner. This edition of Symposium comprised of talks, presentations and deliberations which demonstrated the huge demand for Digital Art skills in the AVGC industry. It also highlighted the need for strong traditional fine art foundation at the core.

The objective of DAS 2015 was to take the ABAI-DAC program to the next level by identifying at least 20 Fine Art Colleges and to give an impetus to the DAC program covering whole of Karnataka.

The attendees were Principals, Directors, Deans, Head's of Dept., Professors, Faculties and students of the Fine Arts Schools from all over Karnataka.

Digital Arts Symposium 2015 featured speakers from diverse industries such as Animation, VFX, Gaming, Advertising, Commercial Illustrations, E-Commerce, IT/Technology, Product Companies & Academia speaking about Digital Art, its use, career opportunities and skills from their respective vantage points.

Highlights of DAS 2015

Session by Traditional Fine Arts Professionals on building career in Fine Arts.

Sessions on job opportunities for the Fine Art Community in the AVGC Sector.

Presentation on creating a Digital Platform for the Fine Art Schools.

Presentation on the availability for the latest technology for the Fine Art Community.

Assurance by GoK/KBITS for Government support and initiatives of KBITS.

Impact of ABAI – DAC program on the Fine Art Colleges.

Government – Fine Art Community Interaction.

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Chapter 3 Program

Inauguration:

Smt V. Manjula, IAS, Principal Secretary, Department of IT, BT and Science & Technology

inaugurated the 2nd edition of ABAI – Digital Arts Symposium.

Mr Adi Shayan, Chairman ABAI Fest and KAVGC Summit, Hony Secretary – ABAI proposed

the welcome address and presented the salient features of DAC and action plan for future.

Smt V. Manjula, IAS, Principal Secretary, Department of IT, BT and Science & Technology

addressed ‘Digital Arts Symposium’ and assured cooperation and support of Government of

Karnataka, who pioneered the Karnataka AVGC Policy in the country for development of

animation industry.

Ms Tanusree Deb Barma, IAS, Managing Director, KBITS stated that state of art Digital Media

City and also AVGC Finishing School would be established in Karnataka and called upon

investors and entrepreneurs to invest in animation industry.

Mr Biren Ghose, President ABAI, an association of AVGC industry in India, explained the

scope and characteristics of Digital Arts in the AVGC industry and initiatives of ABAI in skill

development for industry.

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Smt V. Manjula, IAS, Principal Secretary, Department of IT, BT and Science & Technology at the Digital Arts Symposium 2015 presented awards to all the institutions who have successfully implemented the ABAI - DAC Program.

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Chapter 4

Speakers

Abhishek Krishnan (Technical Specialist, Media and Entertainment – Autodesk India)

With more than a decade of experience and expertise in the

Animation and Visual Effects domain, Abhishek has successfully

carried out various roles in the past. From heading the Professional

Graphics industry, technically at AMD for 4 years in India to

Supervising full length CG Animated films. He combines his hardware

expertise and software skills to help out various production houses,

TV channels and studio setups in India at Autodesk as a Technical

Specialist.

His talk at the symposium comprised of how the technology of Autodesk is bridged with the

AVGC and the fine art sector.

Jay Dutta (Head of Design – Flipkart)

Jay, abbreviated to JD, heads User Experience discipline for Flipkart –

India’s largest (and arguably the most visible) e-commerce brand. For

over half a decade, he led and grew the UX practice at Adobe India,

covering a diverse spectrum of Adobe products and digital platforms.

An alumnus of National Institute of Design, Jay has an MSc in Design

Management from UK, has been a Fellow of the Royal Society for

Arts, London. He is on the Board of Advisors for Nasscom’s UX Centre

of Excellence, a Mentor for D.Labs at the Indian School of Business and AsiaOceania

Regional Co-ordinator for IxDA.

In his talk Jay focussed on the career options that open up to designers and artists in the

rapidly growing world of eCommerce. He shared the story of his own career and spoke

about how digital and electronic arts have played a key transformative role – and the

multitude of options available across many industries.

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Nithin Rao Kumblekar (Freelance Illustrator)

Nithin is a graduate from Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Bangalore.

He has worked in reputed advertising agencies like Ogilvy, McCann

Erickson and Triton as an art director. Presently he is freelancing for

different ad agencies across the country and overseas.

In his presentation and talks he explained how digital illustration has

been progressing drastically for last one decade. He was one of them

to join this evolution at the early stages. He shared the story of his

journey and his views on the importance of the digital medium in a creative person’s life.

Prof. T K Srikanth (IIT B)

Dr. Srikanth is on the faculty of the International Institute of

Information Technology, Bangalore (IIIT-B). He works in the areas of

computer graphics and visualization, geometric modelling and 3D-

printing, as well as in the area of mobile applications and e-health.

Prior to joining IIITB, he was a Vice President at Sasken

Communication Technologies, where he handled business,

technology and product management roles, especially around

wireless and multimedia technologies and mobility.

In his talk he gave an introduction to the 3D printing process and technologies, where we

are and what the future could be, and showcased examples of use of this technology in the

arts and on how 3D printing is finding wide adoption in the arts and artistic works – from

enabling better aesthetics for familiar objects, to sculpture, jewellery, archaeology, as well

as animation and visual effects.

Vichar B N (Asset team Supervisor – Technicolor India)

Having realized his interest in art from an early age, he received

Masters in sculpting from the Chamarajendra Academy of Visual

Arts, and started his career as a traditional sculptor. During this time

he had the privilege to work as a personal sculptor for the King of

Mysore. With over 10 years of experience in the animation industry,

he is currently working as supervisor for the gaming division at

Technicolor India Pvt Ltd. Over the years he has played many roles as

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an artist in different genres from Tele-Serials to Interior & Exterior Designer.

At the ABAI – Digital Arts Symposium he demonstrated the techniques of Digital Sculpting

(Head Sculpting) using Z – brush.

Dr. Golam Ashraf (Graphics, Games & Pedagogy Specialist)

Dr. Golam Ashraf is a consultant specializing in graphics, games and

education. He did his PhD in Computer Engineering, from NTU

Singapore, in the area of Computer Animation. He has taught games

and graphics at NUS Singapore, and served as Director of Training at

Dreamworks India. He has led numerous research projects in real

time rendering, game algorithms, and computational design. He is

passionate about fusing arts and sciences, and paving ways for our

children to learn better.

In his presentation he depicted the importance of adapting digital techniques and explained

the scope and need of embracing digital technique and tools.

Peyush Agarwal (Head, Experience Design – Wipro)

Peyush has 17 years of design leadership, UX strategy, and consulting

experience in the USA and India on software product design,

research, and usability. Peyush has an MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad,

and an M. Arch from the University of Arizona. He has worked in

ERP, retail, finance, pharmacy, public-health, real-estate, and law-

enforcement domains in startups, universities, and organizations

such as Oracle, Goldman Sachs, and Target. Before Wipro Digital,

Peyush was advising several Bangalore-area startups and helping

build UX competency for organizations such as eGovernments Foundation and Myntra.

His talk gave an outline of how technology can be fused with fine art and he also said

“Technology has long provided new tools that artists have used to create new forms of

expression. Today, technology has progressed to a point of complexity where it needs those

who can use the same skills in digital form in order to make a complicated world

understandable and relevant to its inhabitants”.

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Manu Nanda (President & Managing Director – Wacom India)

Mr Nanda has done around 18+ years in Sales & Marketing

Strategies for global giants like Kodak, Agfa-Bayer and Samsung

Electronics. He has successfully steered teams towards achievement

of targets in highly competitive product categories and has a vast

experience in incubation & launching of new business and growth

engines.

Mr Manu Nanda at the ABAI – Digital Arts Symposium gave a

presentation on the various Wacom products, and why the current design eco-system badly

needs a ‘hardware’ upgrade.

Ganesh L. Bhat (Master Sculptor)

Born in Idagunji,Karnataka state of India my passion to art saw me

exploring in Indian classical music, sculptures and made him travel

across the globe in promoting indian art for last 18+ years. He has

won many awards over the years including Govt. of Karnataka State

Award – 1993 and Shipla Shree Award - 1995

Mr Ganesh Bhatt gave a detailed presentation of how traditional

fundamentals of Art is important and he also displayed a lot of his

works on sculpting

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Chapter 5 Synergy Attendance

250+ attendees across Karnataka

9 Speakers

Well attended by Principals/HoDs/faculty and selected students.

o 110 + Principals/HoDs/faculty from the Fine art community.

o 140 + selected Students and professionals from the Fine art community.

Outcome

DAS brought about huge awareness about DAC project. DAS acted as single

largest platform in Karnataka bringing all Fine Art Colleges together for

knowledge sharing.

Attendees were enriched with knowledge of latest technology and were

enthused about the DAC project.

Resulted in expression of interest from Principals/HODs for speaker contacts and

participation in DAC project.

Resulted in follow-up calls and requests from Principals/HODs for hands on

workshops and more sessions at their institutions.

Next steps

The Symposium gave ABAI an understanding of the training needs, skill

development, scope for improvement, steps required for effective

implementation...etc.

ABAI proposes to submit a more effective version 2 of DAC to Government.

Meeting and submission for proposal to MD KBITS for next phase of DAC and

effective implementation of DAC2.0 version with learnings from the pilot project.

Identifying potential Colleges for the DAC program and obtaining Letter of

Interest (LOI) for DAC. 20+ Colleges by December.

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Chapter 6

Photo Gallery

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