MUMBAI: More than 200 students of animation and visual effects from across India got a first hand feed on the tricks of the trade at The National Students Meet 2009 organised at Lonavla this year.

Organized by Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics (MAAC), the students got a crash course from some of the industry stalwarts like Vaibhav Kumaresh of Vaibhav Studios, Merzin Tavaria of Prime Focus Studios, Imran Khan of FX Labs, and Jai Natarajan of MAAC.

The experts presented their animation and visual effects works in productions like Ramayana, Chandni Chowk To China, Love Story 2050, Ghajini – The Game, etc. The meet was organised to provide the students with a vocational and added advantage to their learning portfolios. Over 240 students with a common interest for animation got a chance to see the work of experts and to interact personally with them.

MAAC executive vice president, business Jai Natarajan said, "Although the first thing that comes to your mind is entertainment when you think of animation and computer graphics, but the scope of animation, graphics and visual effects is much wider. It is a blend of the entertainment industry and technology. The NSM aims to promote the wider scope of animation among the Indian youth."

"The range of jobs available for a computer animator can be mind-boggling. There is hardly any industry that doesn’t require or use computer animators. These days animation is used in almost all the industries from automobile, pharmaceutical, medicine, aerospace, civil, and architectural. A heart surgery student can learn by doing an entire surgery on a simulated programme and that too several times to perfect his skills, before he has the confidence to perform the actual surgery in the presence of his seniors. Even a professional can perfect their skills with new techniques on a simulator," he added.

Vaibhav Studios director Kumaresh displayed a selection of their work on the character Simpu – The Sardar of Channel [V]. Kumaresh and his team shared the details of the process that went into the creation of the Simpu series, from sketching to the finalisation of the script.

Tavaria of Prime Focus Studios, who recently won the Filmfare award for Best Visual Effects for Love Story 2050, presented important topics for creation of portfolios. Khan of FX Labs of Hyderabad presented his case on Ghajini-the Game. Khan discussed the idea, concept and process of how the game was prepared, and how the original film and game were interwoven.