ICAT Design & Media College: June 2014

Wednesday 18 June 2014

Game Carnival at Jal Vihar(Theme park),Hyderabad on 14 June,2014

"Life is more fun if you play games." - Roald Dahl, My Uncle Oswald

Games are brain wired within us ever since we evolved as civilized people. The cavemen devised strategies to survive, hunt and save his people from deadliest surroundings. He took challenges from every aspect of his life. Our lives will not be fun without challenges. That is why we play games. Games challenge each of us in every possible way we could imagine of.

We, the students of ICAT Design & Media College, Hyderabad know exactly how to design challenging games with an appeal to any kind of audience. As part of a module, which we study in our first year, we create games understanding human psychology and game grammar. To test these games with live audience, we conducted a mega event at a Theme park, "JALA VIHAR" at Hyderabad. There we exhibited various types of physical games designed by us. This event attracted nearly 1000 audience from all age groups.

Each game triggered the gamers to depict their memory power concentration, balance and so on. The entire site was filled with interesting emotions and scenarios like a father encouraging his daughter to finish the Gravity Ball level, friends cheering their guy to utilize his final chance to win the customized Golf game, and children showing off their prizes to their parents. A kid surprised her mom by winning the "Minute to Win It" game, which wasn't an easy one.

There were numerous beautiful moments at the carnival that turned the whole atmosphere in to a celebration. We received overwhelming response from the audience, who gave us the opportunity to understand them more closely and seek direct feedback from them.

We would like to thank our college for providing us the platform to learn and explore games from basics. We would also like to thank our seniors, who played a crucial role in organizing the entire show. We believe that ICAT Design & Media College has always strived to provide the best learning experience for the students by conducting various events like the game carnival and it will continue to do so for the best future of the students.

As part of the World Environment Day celebrations, the Game Development students of ICAT, Chennai joined hands with the faculty members in hosting a variety of carnival games for the public. The students developed games with an effort to create awareness on environmental conservation. The games were presented to the public on 6 June, 2014, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Marina Beach. The games drew in an eager crowd of around 450 people belonging to the age group of 5 to 50. The event was graced by the presence of Inspector and Members from the Chennai Police Department, who also participated in the games with exuberance.

All the games were based on the theme, ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’ and were designed with the purpose of educating people on environmental issues, rain water conservation, reducing pollution, methods of growing plants and the use of eco-friendly equipments.

The games presented at the event were:

Blind Sense
Crawl and Roll
Drip Irrigation
Eco Fishing
Hit and Heal
Memory Cubes
Pour and Pour
Rain the Grain
Trash it
Tin to Bin

During the event, rule books for each game prepared by the students were placed at the respective game stalls for public display in order to help the participants understand the concept of the game, the point system, game play and the rewards. Participants were keen on understanding the concepts of each game and gained new insights on environmental issues and solutions. The essence of each game was made memorable to the public by gifting eco-friendly rewards like potted plants, paper bags, cloth bags and seeds. Feedback forms were filled in by the participants that helped students make further improvement to their games.

Press coverage of the carnival was done by RAJ TV, who actively involved the public during the event, interviewed students who presented their games as well as the faculties on their motive for this event.

With its ‘edutainment’ factor, the Green Carnival was well received with a series of positive reviews from the public who felt encouraged to plant more trees, control pollution and acknowledge their duties of protecting the earth and environment.

Public Feedback:

Mr. A. Sathish Kumar:

The project titled “Drip Irrigation” is outstanding and indeed a creative concept for the 21^st Century.

G.A. Maha Siva Sankari

It is nice idea to create awareness among people. Big thanks to ICAT.

Ballabh

The experience was very good. Such events should take place every year here on.

T. Dilip Kumar

All the concepts were very unique in creating awareness.

ICAT Students Wins Several Positions in the IV International Photocross Contest 2014

Photocross is a prestigious contest for amateur photographers, conducted by the Russian-British Institute of Management, Russia. The objective of this contest is to identify talents, who can reflect a certain topic, show original ideas and creative vision of the object, use various photographic and post-processing techniques and apply artistic approach within a given timeframe.

The IV International Photocross contest started on 14 May, 2014, on which 10 topics were sent to all the participating teams through e-mail. The participating teams were required to submit one picture on each topic on 15 May, 2014. From 16 to 21 May, 2014, an international jury from Russia, UK and India assessed the students’ works and rated the best teams.

29 teams from 8 countries, including India, Australia, USA, China, Kazakhstan, Great Britain and Russia participated in the IV International Photocross contest. Of the 29 teams, 15 teams were from ICAT – 6 teams from ICAT, Chennai and 9 teams from ICAT, Bangalore. Of the 15 teams, 6 teams secured various positions in the contest, which is as listed below.

A Perfect Work of Passion by an ICAT student Appears in Metro Plus

http://www.icat.ac.in/images/campus-activity/photograph-coverpage-hindu-14/1.jpg

A photograph of Mr. Arjun Vijesh, a VFX student at ICAT Design and Media College, Chennai, appears in the cover page of The Hindu - Metro Plus on 20 May, 2014. Though Arjun is a VFX student, he is passionate about Photography, especially Fashion and Portrait Photography. ICAT helped him authentically learn his passion through the ICAT Photography Club. Through the guidance offered at the Photography club and with continuous practice, Arjun was able to showcase his Photography skills to grab this opportunity. The photograph was originally shot in a white background and then made colourful by Arjun. The overall environment design and lighting was developed with an artistic focus to replicate the joy shared between the four friends in the photo. Arjun had done the post-processing work with utmost professionalism, which is reflected in the work.

All the best to Arjun for his future endeavours in his field of passion!

Visual Effects Student Wins "Delhi CG Awards" for Best Infographics

Vipin Samuel, II year UG VFX student of ICAT, Bangalore won the "Best Infographics and Branding Illustration" award at Delhi CG Awards, 2014. This is a national-level annual awards ceremony conducted to encourage Digital Media students across the country.

Vipin applied for the competition by seeing an online advertisement. The requirement of the competition was to create an infographic on a relevant social issue with an appeal for the chosen target audience. With respect to the requirement, Vipin developed an infographic presentation on "Human Trafficking", for which he was already trained through a module named, "Design and Communication for Specialist practice" (DCSP). For developing the presentation, he conducted a detailed research and came up with the right typography, color scheme, layouts and animation styles; recorded a voice script and edited it to crisp the pacing; designed required illustrations and icons by using Adobe Illustrator; and developed animation and post-production effects by using Adobe After Effects. The highlight of the presentation was the sophisticated typography and the appropriate color scheme used, which enables swifter identification and readability of the text, as they are forced to communicate a huge volume of information in a short span of time. The presentation that won the award outperforming the rest from around the country was titled as, “Let’s Free them before it is Too Late”.
To his pride, Vipin received the award in a grand ceremony held at New Delhi on 19 April, 2014. The team of faculties of the VFX and Design department at ICAT, Bangalore is proud to have trained and guided Vipin in the right direction to create such a prestigious product.

It is also to be noted that his previous presentation on “World hunger” won the “Innovative Visual treatment” award in Chitrotsava, 2013.

ICAT whole heartedly wishes him to win many greater accolades.

Yet another consecutive victory by ourICAT Bangalore student's in the International Photo cross awards 2013. But this time it was a complete victory on achieving the 1st place in the overall rating. Added up to the ranking list ICAT Chennai students were awarded 1st place under topic "Space near us".

International Photo cross awards is a contest for amateur photographers which will be restricted by a certain timeframe and the range of topics. Student teams from all over the world can take part in this competition.April 25th 2013 Russian-British Institute of Management announced the winners of III International photocross (Speed of flash!) 36 teams from 8 countries: China, India, USA, UK, Austria, Macedonia, Ukraine and Russia — for 2 days have taken more than 300 pictures on topics related to student life and beyond.

The International photocross students joined Russian-British Institute of Management (Russia), GlyndwrUniversity(UK), ICAT Design & Media College (India), The University of Texas at Austin (USA), KarazinKharkiv National University, (Ukraine), Universität Wien (Vienna, Austria), Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, (Skopje, Macedonia).

Hearty Congratulations to Christy Sebastian (2nd Yr UG - Visual Effects) from Chennai campus who has won the 2nd Prize for "Best Short Film" and "Best Cinematographer and Editing" for his Malayalam short film titled "DAVID KANDA PENKUTTY".

"En Devenir 2013" was an Inter collegiate short film festival conducted by Kumararani Meena Muthiah College of Arts & Science, Chennai on 11th Feb 2013. Our student was awarded with Prize money, Shield and Certificate by Chettinad Talkies - a production unit of department of Business Administration.

Department: Fashion Design & Communication – L5

Place of Industrial Visit: Tiruppur (MCC EXPORTS, VIGNESHWAR TEX, LUCAS PRINTS)

Date: 29 April, 2014 & 30 April, 2014

Attended by: Bangalore: 3 Students (L5) + 1 faculty, Chennai: 3 Students (L5) + 1 faculty

An industrial visit focusing Knitwear product development was organized for L5 students of Bangalore and Chennai at various Export houses in Tiruppur.
The aim of this visit was to develop a practical understanding of all core elements & processes involved in knitwear apparel development.
This two-days industrial visit helped the students practically understand the Knitting process of various structures in circular knitting and flat knitting, embroidery, printing, knitwear apparel product manufacturing process and various other applications with specification to knits.
Each student got a chance to have hands-on experience of knitting process, specifically various types in circular knitting. They were able to analyze the mechanism of the basic knitting machine and types of knitting machines with a live and practical approach. Every student did get a chance to interact with knitted fabric manufacturing personnel and coordinators during the course of understanding the machinery and quality parameters of knitted fabrics. They did understand the design feasibility and the limitation in knitwear apparel with keen observation of various sub units / departments like Compacting, CAD/Pattern making, Marker Planning, Cutting, Construction, Finishing, Packing, Printing(various techniques like Screen, CMYK, Transfer prints, Roller/Rotary, etc.), Embroidery and other Embellishments on Knits, labeling and other trims.
Overall, each student gained a good practical exposure on the Knitwear Apparel product Development process with all the implications and opportunities.

Student's Testimonials:

Kamila Parveen
This trip enabled me to gain technical knowledge about Knitting. The mechanism of how the machine is being put into use, its work, maintenance, tools or equipments, such as needles used, singers etc., were taught. Much about the knits, their structure, the way it’s being knitted, the texture of every knit variety and its output were quite interesting to learn. Finally, the difference in outcome was felt in hand. Time spent throughout was efficient and thankful.

Nassuh Abdu Nassir
This trip helped me to understand the manufacturing process of knitwear. I learnt different techniques in knitting and the print designs to be used. Various knitted garments like T-Shirts, bottoms, tops, etc., with varied printing and construction brought me diverse thoughts. Proper industrial process of garment construction cleared up my doubts, thus leaving behind the exact professional work that is held.

Carollyn Monisha
The trip to Tirupur was quite useful as the process of knitting was explained practically, right from manufacturing to the final packaged product. We were able to see the different types of machineries used to manufacture the knitted fabric and also the process involved to design the fabric itself. We collected samples of different types of knitted fabric. We also visited the printing and embroidery units. Though we had prior visits to these units, this trip was very useful as we were able to see the types and methods followed to print in a knitted fabric.

A workshop on ‘Creative Thinking, Designing and Prototyping for Games’ was conducted on 15th and 17th of April, 2014, at ICAT, Bangalore. The workshop was conducted by Shailesh Prabhu, Founder of Yellow Monkeys Studios. The workshop was attended by 40 students from Game Design and Development streams. During the workshop, the students learnt about Game Jam, to design a game prototype, and to express their game Idea by using prototyping software and by creating paper prototypes (for first year students). The students were excited to develop their own game prototypes.

Topics Covered:

Game Design Basics: Mr. Shailesh discussed about the Game play and Game mechanics that forms the basics.
Huebrix Game Postmortem: The making of the Huebrix game was explained in detail, right from how the levels were designed to the challenges faced while creating the game.
Marketing Strategy in Appstore or Play Store: Mr.Shailesh explained about the revenue model between free-to-play and Paid version games in Appstore. He also explained how to increase revenue of paid version games through marketing.
Game Jam Ideation: The students were given some themes based on which they have to ideate and develop a game prototype. During the development process, the students were guided to create the prototype in a professional manner.
Assessing Final Game Prototypes: Finally, all the prototypes where play tested and were given constructive feedback for improvements.

Student's Testimonials:

The students felt great about the workshop and they were so happy to learn about Game JAM and Prototyping.

The L4 students of Game Design organized a game carnival as part of the visual Communication and Ethical Practice module at the ICAT, Hyderabad campus on 12th of May , 2014. Physical game carnival is absolute opportunity that ICAT provides to its students to demonstrate their creative game ideas and get their works assessed by their counterparts and for L4, L5, L6 & PG Students. All the games presented in carnival challenged their players (ICAT students) through its requirement of unique skills to win and complex mechanisms. Audience (All UG, PG & Staff only) thoroughly enjoyed the event and gave their valuable feedback to the students, which was helpful to the students to enhance the game play for future demonstrations. Totally there were 13 carnival games displayed by L4 Game Design students, each student made his own game for display.

A Workshop on DirectX 11 was conducted on April 26th and 27th from 10 AM to 6 PM at ICAT, Chennai. The workshop was conducted by Ms. Sujatha Nagarajan from Graxal Games. 18 students from the UG and PG Game Development courses participated in this workshop.
The goal of the workshop was to make the students understand the usage and importance of DirectX 11. To attain this goal, Ms. Sujatha clearly explained the following topics with real-time examples.

DirectX 11 features and its importance in making AAA titles in industry
Differences and new features added in DirectX 11 when compared to DirectX 9 & 10
Geometric Shader, Cube Mapping, Normal Mapping, Shadow Mapping, Stream Output and HLSL features introduced in DirectX 10
New features like Compute Shader, Tessellation Stages, Hull Shader, Cube Mapping, Normal and Displacement Mapping, and Ambient Occlusion in DIRECTX 11
Lighting and color in DIRECTX 11
Texture Snapping in DirectX 11
Vectors, Matrices and 3D Geometry

After each topic, there was Q&A session to clarify the doubts of students and to keep them in track. The workshop was very informative for the students. At the end of the workshop, one of the student was gifted a “Computer Graphics – Principles and Practice in C” book by the Guest Lecturer for being most interactive.

Student's Testimonials:

Balaji Raghuram
This was an excellent hands-on workshop for DirectX 11 Graphics programming. Many concepts of DirectX 11 were taught with the implementation of mathematics concepts. The session was an amazing experience. We acquired the knowledge about Computer Graphics, Tessellation, Shaders and the process pipeline. Ms. Sujahta shared her experience in DirectX 11. The Workshop helped us get an idea on the current scenario of the Indian and International Gaming Industry. Overall, the workshop was very good and motivational.

Mrs. Dhanya Gokul, Design Consultant and Co Founder of Tan-ta-Dan Design conducted a seminar on Communication Design at the ICAT, Chennai campus on 28th of April, 2014. The session was attended by the 1st and 2nd year UG students of 3D, VFX, Game and Graphic Design departments. The seminar aimed to provide students with an understanding on fulfilling client briefs successfully, through essential practices in visual communication. Mrs. Dhanya Gokul shared her outlook towards making a design functional for the relevant target audience through the practice of surveys, which gave students an insight into making aesthetically good designs with a purpose. The session concluded with a showcase of branding material for Medimix.

Topics Covered:

Addressing Client Requirements: Students were provided with tips on corresponding with clients by understanding client expectations, providing variations in design solutions, using mood boards and understanding the importance of recall value for established brands.
Team Work: Mrs. Dhanya Gokul addressed the importance of team contribution based on specialized skill sets and distribution of tasks amongst team members including Product Designers and Animators.
Selection of Ideas: Students were advised to focus on short listing ideas based on the potential the concept/design carries.
Branding for Medimix: Mrs. Dhanya Gokul concluded the seminar with a showcase of her project with Medimix. The project comprised of branding and packaging material. She also showcased a range of design variations that were provided to the client at the time of production.

Student's Testimonials:

Manikandan (2nd year UG, VFX)
I found the session very informative, particularly the use of mood boards during the initial development stage of a project. I also understood the importance of considering client requirements prior to ideation, in order to successfully cater to the relevant target audience.
Jeffrey (2nd year UG, 3D)
The projects showcased comprised good use of design elements, which encouraged me to incorporate similar techniques in my design and development process.

Department: Fashion Design – L4
Place of Industrial Visit: Kancheepuram (Kanchivaram)
Date: 14- Mar -2014
Students of L4 were taken to Kanchivaram to have the look at the various processes followed to manufacture authenticate Kanchivaram silk sarees. The students were taken to various hubs like yarn sourcing, marketing, yarn dyeing, warping, preparatory process and weaving, where they wondered to see the manufacturing of a poem in 6 yard which is one of the prestigious sarees from Traditional Indian textiles. Also they had a questionnaire session with weavers of Kanchi silk saree during which the students gathered more clarity about the manufacturing process.

Student's Testimonials:

Shamni
First, we saw the process of making the sarees — how the weft and warp yarns are interlaced to form the fabric. We saw the looms and the process of making the weft yarns. And we also learnt the difficulties the workers are facing in this industry. We saw the dying process of silk yarns. They used chemicals for dying process but they weren’t willing to let out the name of the chemical. We saw the punch cards which are used to create designs in the sarees. We also went to a shop where they sell dyed yarns. The owner of the shop gave us more information about Kanchivaram silk sarees.

Pooja
As we were learning everything in a theoretical way, having a live look at the working process made us understand the method very clearly. We had a nice experience and an opportunity to interact with the weavers. We are looking forward for more such industrial visits in the future. I feel really thankful to our faculty Mr. Rajesh Kumar for creating this opportunity for us.

A Lead Compositor and Technical Director, Mr.Ganesh Shankar conducted a workshop on ‘VFX Compositing’, at the ICAT, Chennai campus on 9th of April, 2014. The workshop was conducted for the 2nd and 3rd year students of the VFX department. The session focused on the essential tools and industrial methods of keying and compositing by using leading compositing software. Mr.Ganesh Shankar also shared the usage of color correcting film plates and multi pass compositing. During the 4 hour workshop, the students had the opportunity to work on some industrial footage, enabling them to composite CG elements and live action footage, which they found to be very beneficial in understanding the concepts practically. Forthcoming workshops will follow up on Camera Projection techniques and Outdoor Shooting techniques.

Topics Covered:

Breakdown of BMW Commercial: Students were explained the various processes involved in creating the BMW commercial by showcasing the integration of live action footage with CGI elements.
Keying Process: The session continued by exploring the essential techniques of shooting green/blue screen footage and how to prepare them for keying. The importance of evaluating a shot by breaking it and adding multiple key for better result was explored. Students were also taught how to handle cine on and DPX footages.
Multi pass compositing: The session continued on how to render for multipass compositing and other critical factors that need to be considered during render from CGI packages. Later on, how to layer and fix in compositing for shot enhancement were discussed.
Camera Projection: During the end of session, the students were given an introduction of camera projection and its advantages, and were prepared for next session on camera projection.

Student's Testimonials:

Shreemud Chandrakant Dave – III UG Animation
The Compositing session was really easy to comprehend with respect to 3D elements and an in depth study of passes was shared. It was also helpful in the area of 3D rendering.

Ram Kamal SK - II UG Visual Effects
The workshop was really beneficial as Mr.Ganesh provided examples from his projects on CG compositing, which further helped in understanding how to composite a scene using CG elements in live action footage with different passes and channels.

Rachel Irene Connors - PG Visual Effects
The session was very informative, covering a comprehensive range of techniques which gave a better idea of the software and the workflow. I look forward to attend similar workshops in the future.

A Voteathon quiz competition was held at the ICAT, Bangalore campus on 15th of April, 2015. The quiz was organized by the "Volunteer for a Better India" group, which is a non–partisan, non-political, non-religious and non-sectarian Group working closely with the election commission to increase voter registration and voting awareness in the country.

Voteathon is an inter-college competition that aims at increasing the awareness and importance of voting in our civil society, especially among the youth, and thereby developing a sense of responsibility towards the country.

Many of the L4 students enthusiastically participated in the competition. There were 120 questions to be answered on Indian constitution, parliamentary procedures, voting, election process etc. The winners of the completion will be announced after the Parliamentary Elections in 2014. To make a mention here, on February’28th “Vote for a Better India” held a workshop in our college to educate the students on the importance of voting and helped them get their Voter’s ID.

The Film club at ICAT Hyderabad has initiated to celebrate World Film’s Day from this year. The main aim of the celebrations is to emphasize the power of visual language and appreciate other culture and cinematic techniques irrespective of the language. During the celebrations this year Mr. Sriguha who is a senior editor worked for various films and visiting faculty for film schools in India and abroad. Mr. Anil Kumar who is a freelance Documentary film maker, also worked for UNESCO Projects. He is currently working for an NGO on a project called participatory video film making. They have shared information about the evolution of cinematic language and exhibitionism of moving image in the present context. On behalf of the Film club, few of our students made the presentation on early cinema and glimpses of world Famous films. The Event was very successful with lot of learning and sharing experiences. As part of the presentation they have shown some film clippings which are innovative in terms of resource and techniques.

As a follow-up session to the previous workshop on ‘Basic Studio Lighting Techniques’, ICAT, Chennai conducted a workshop on ‘Advanced Studio Lighting Techniques’ on 29th of March, 2014. The workshop was conducted by Mr. Vinod Kumar, the Head of Photography department. A group of students from the ICAT Photography Club participated in this workshop, during which they incorporated their knowledge on basic light setup in the context of advanced lighting techniques. During the workshop, all the students were allowed to experiment with the industry-standard approach to portrait lighting and direct a female model. While experiencing the direction process, the students were exposed to some major elements of Fashion Photography shoot, such as:

Fashion Photography Lighting Kit: Students were given the latest update on recommended lighting equipments used in the industry and also discussed on popular lighting gears & accessories.
Style of Organizing a Successful Shoot: The shoot organizing style of famous photographers were elaborated to inspire the students to manipulate the working process with a whole new understanding.
Creative Ideas for Fashion Photography: Developing new ideas in Commercial photography have become very popular and mark a unique style for each photographer. Students where thought how to link their ideas with their photography skill to produce the final output.
Key Lighting Techniques: The session’s core part covered everything the students need to learn about the key portrait lighting techniques, such as Paramount, Rembrandt, Loop and split lighting used in Fashion Photography. The knowledge over these lighting techniques will help them to shoot more efficiently and capture consistently well-lit images.
Hair Styling and Make Up for a Fashion Shoot: Students were made aware of the use of hair and makeup styling to compliment the cloth and beauty. They were also taught how to direct a stylist during and before planning a shoot.

The direction experience was made very professional by using a live model, whose hairstyle was done by Mr. Gopinath, a professional in field. The students were excited about having a real-time experience directing a model and thus gained confidence to face the real world challenges. Forthcoming workshops aim to focus on outdoor fashion and portraiture shoots.

Student's Testimonials:

Shruthi
The workshop helped in carrying forward skills from the basic studio lighting session by providing the opportunity to be more experimental with the light set up.

Arjun
The workshop was very helpful as it provided me a comprehensive understanding of an indoor light set up with varied possibilities. I look forward to forthcoming workshops involving theme based fashion shoots.

VarunAdithya
It was very useful as I was given a clear idea of the aesthetics of advanced lighting techniques and understanding the importance of giving equal consideration to the staging of the lights and the model in order to create a dramatic shot.

Kishore
The workshop was very engaging and struck a balance between theory of lighting and its practicality. It was a good follow up session from the basic studio lighting workshop.

A Renowned Game Developer, Mr.Siddharth Shekar conducted a workshop on the new Cocos2D-X game engine, at the ICAT Chennai campus. The workshop was held, on the 4th and 5th of April, 2014 for around 25 students from the Game Development department. Mr.Siddharth Shekar explained the primary importance and usage of Mobile technology, including the creation of single class, sprites, collisions, score, time, text, particle effect, AI, UI and importance of global variables in Cocos2D-X. He also taught the use of schedule update, touch functions, creating an animation and spawn enemy functions by random numbers using script. The session further continued on the use of script in Cocos2D-X, in order to go from one scene to another. A detailed explanation was also given on the various resolutions of screens on iPhones, ipads, android smart phones and making a single code to work perfectly in all devices without scaling the images. Mr.Siddharth also focused on the use of various audio formats such as mp3, oog, wav in ipads, iphones, android and windows phones. He further stated the importance of Draw Calls when making games for mobile phones.

He also provided inputs on the use of case-sensitive programming for a better structured program called Camel Casing. He further demonstrated the usage of python, C++ and the functionality of app delegate script and its importance in Cocos2D-X.

Student’s Feedback:

The presentation was well delivered and was very good. We were able to understand every topic very clearly. We have gained a good experience through this workshop. We are really pleased as he helped us in developing a game using Cocos2D-X, which was an exciting experience.

A seminar on "Writing and Designing for Web and Interactive Media" and "Idea Generation-Brief to Production" was conducted at ICAT, Bangalore on 3rd of April, 2014. The seminar was conducted by Ms Kasturi Shelar Wardle and Ms Neeraja M. Ms Kasturi Sheral Wardle is an Integrated Media Designer from UK and a former Art Director at Publicic Groupe, Singapore; and McCann Erickson, India. Ms Neeraja M was a former Associate creative Director at McCann Erickson, India Students of L4 Communication Design and PG Advertising attended the seminar. Ms Kasturi shared a presentation on how to generate ideas for creative concepts and execute a project from Brief to final production. She also shared her experience of working on various projects as a creative professional. Ms Neeraja and Ms Kasturi further spoke to students and shared a presentation on the potential of Web and interactive media, how to write and design for Web, and the innovative ways to effectively communicate the message to the target audience . The interactive seminar concluded with a Q and A session.

A three-day workshop on Creative Fashion Photography was conducted by a professional Photographer and Graphic Designer, Ms Shamshad Khan, at ICAT, Bangalore during the 1st week of April, 2014. Ms Shamshad Khan is a former lecturer of Light and Life Academy, Ooty and has an impressive portfolio of varied photography projects.

Students of L4 /L5 of Fashion Design and other interested students attended the workshop, in whichMs Shamshad taught the finer aspects of creativity in Fashion Photography. Through a presentation, she explained the art of lighting, composition, working around a theme etc, which was further demonstrated to the students through an actual photo shoot.

The workshop included an indoor (studio) and outdoor model photo shoot, featuring garments which depicted themes such as tribal, retro, jazz etc, created by the students of Fashion Design programme.

Workshop On Pottery - Chennai

A Pottery workshop was conducted on 24^th of March, 2014 for Interior Design students. The workshop was organized by Ar. Shivi Palod (Lecturer) in collaboration with Dewakar from Life & Art studio (Chennai). The workshop aimed at giving the students an opportunity to tap their creativity using Mud Clay. The three-hour workshop included, teaching students the basic methodologies of cutting and rolling mud tiles & creating vibrant designs with the help of professional pottery tools. It also provided a hands-on-experience with the pottery wheel, giving students the feel of pottery making, which they found amusing. It was endearing to see the students swing their innovative thought process and come up with varied 3D designs on the tile and the wheel. The students were able to shape their creative energies and come up with wonderful designs with mud, which were the best of the takeaways from the workshop. The urge to join a proper Pottery class in the students reflects that the workshop was able to trigger their interest in the art and they had a good time playing with the mud clay!

ICAT conducted a Placement Orientation Program for the UG and PG students of VFX, at the Chennai campus on 18th of March, 2014. The seminar was led by an independent VFX Producer, Mrs. Asmita Madhu who is recognized for her collaborative projects with Senior VFX Supervisor and industry veteran, Mr. Madhusudhanan. Some of their noteworthy projects include Gullivers Travel, In Time, Vishwaroopam and the forthcoming sequel Vishwaroopam 2.

The session commenced with an overview of the 3D and VFX industry, followed by a presentation on the VFX breakdown in Gullivers Travel and Vishwaroopam. Asmita further shared her industry experience towards the Placement Orientation session, providing career guidance to students by outlining the industry hierarchy, its expectations and showreel development. The session concluded with an open session, where Asmita answered to several queries thereby giving students a good exposure of the current industry trends.

Student’s Feedback:

The seminar by Asmita Madhu was quite helpful because we gained knowledge about the industry and understood the needs of an employer in the VFX industry.

Brand and Innovation Consultant, Mr.Rohit Banka conducted a one week workshop on ‘Idea Generation and Typography’ for the first year UG students of VFX and 3D animation. The workshop was conducted on 24 March, 2013 at the ICAT, Chennai campus. During his session, he conducted brainstorming sessions through varied approaches and introduced students to comprehensive research methodologies that are essential in project development. In the Typography segment, the students were presented with a range of examples that helped them in developing unique outputs in typography syntax.

L4 students of ICAT, Hyderabad visited Saradhi Film Production studio to experience the live action game show shooting, make up sessions, and editing. Accompanied by Mr. Khaja, they spent four hours in the studio on April 2nd.They had the opportunity to interact with the Director and with other crew members. They also observed set designing and other properties for game show. Students were very excited and enjoyed the live shooting.

The 1st year students of ICAT, Hyderabad visited the EFL Television Studio as a part of VCMEP (Visual Communication Methods and Ethical Practices) module’s Photography classes. The students were accompanied by Mr. Mohan Singh. The students were introduced to handling various equipments, production techniques and recording process, by the expert, Mr. Ramesh Desai (Cinematographer). It was interesting and enjoyable for the students.

ICAT conducted a Placement Orientation Program for the final year UG students from Game Design and Game Development, held at the Chennai campus on 25th March 2014. The seminar was led by Mr.Vijay Karunakaran, CEO of ig Ingage who is recognized for his collaboration with director, Mrs.Soundarya Rajinikanth in the development of augmented reality project ‘Kochadaiyaan’ the game.

The session commenced with a talk giving an overview of his company, followed by a showcase of the development of the game app launched by Karbonn mobiles. Vijay also focused on the essentials to create a good game from understanding the game flow to code optimization. He provided an insight into show reel development for games and concluded with an open session answering to several queries pertaining to storylines, software and resume tips, thereby giving students a good exposure of the current industry trends. Totally 30 students were part of this placement orientation program.

Student’s Feedback:

The seminar was useful and helped us in understanding the Gaming Industry requirements, and new technologies like Augmented Reality. He has taken us to the current gaming trends. I was very interactive and informative. We are expecting this kind of seminars in future to motivate us.

Moderator, Clive Hickinbottom from University of Wales conducted a faculty training titled ‘Exploring the creative journey’ at the ICAT Chennai campus on 20th March 2014. The primary objective of the session was to introduce teaching methodologies contributing to enhancing the academic quality. Clive further demonstrated the practice of student learning journals at the time of project documentation. He also focused on QAA, the UK Quality Code for Higher Education (Chapter B4 & B5), which enables student development and achievement. The session concluded with a showcase of student works ranging from ceramics and illustrations to found objects.

Students from the Game Development department of ICAT attended an informative seminar on DirectX 3D, conducted by Mr. Sudarshan (Game Programmer) from Buddhas and Monks, Chennai. Around Thirty students participated in this seminar.

During the Seminar, our students understood the:

Best five methods to be followed for best output
Importance of Code Optimization, Encapsulation, Abstract Classes, Inheritance and Event Driven Classes
Advantages OF Direct X
3D Math uses
Importance of SOLID principle
Useful reference books for Game Programmers
Most often used Game Engines in the market
Career in Game Industry
Basics to be remembered during Interviews

Student’s Feedback:

The seminar was useful and helped us in understanding the Gaming Industry requirements, importance of Direct X, 3D Math and Pointers.

The trainer motivated us to concentrate on specialization. The seminar was more interactive and also helped students to get an idea on the current scenario of the Indian Gaming Industry. Overall, the seminar was very good and looking forward for more such classes on 3D Math and OOPS.

A Workshop on 'Cocos2D-X' was conducted at ICAT, Bangalore on 27^th & 28^th of February, 2014, by Mr.Siddarth Shekar, a renowned Game Programmer. Around 25 participants were part of the workshop. The workshop was quiet interesting and informative. Concepts like Game Play, Sprite Animations, and Game Mechanics were discussed. During the workshop, the Students were involved in developing a prototype, which helped them understand the current technology involved in the Mobile Gaming.

A Seminar on Mobile Gaming was also organized at ICAT, Bangalore on 1st of March. It was conducted by Mr. Suraj Chandrakar, Lead Game programmer at Tiny Mogul Games. In the seminar, the concepts like Layer Design for Mobile Gaming and Deployment Process were discussed.

Student’s Feedback:

It was a nice experience participating in the 'Cocos2D-X' workshop, which helped us in understanding Mobile game development in a better way. Concepts like Game Play and Sprite Animations were discussed. The technical aspects related to code implementation were taken through in very interesting manner, which helped us understand the technicalities and difficulties included in the mobile gaming. We showed very keen interest in developing our own game, which gave us an amazing hands-on experience to us.

Mr.J.Prem Shankar from Blur 16 Studio conducted a workshop on ‘Studio Lighting’, at the ICAT, Chennai campus on 24^th February, 2014. A group of students from the ICAT Photography Club actively participated in this session, which provided them the platform to learn the fundamentals of studio lighting set up for a fashion photo shoot. During the workshop, the students were allowed to experiment with varied lighting positions and directing a female model during the a shoot. In continuation to this workshop, we look forward to more workshops focusing on advanced studio lighting techniques.

To our pleasure, a team from Rocksalt Games pooled in at ICAT, Hyderabad on March 1st and 2nd. The team, including Mr. NeerajKumar(Game Programmer), Zainuddin Fahad (Founder of RockSalt Games), and Aubhik Nath(Creative Lead) conducted a workshop for our students on the various nuances of the Game Development Process and insisted on the importance of Teamwork, Code of Conduct, Project Development and Management. Students from Chennai ICAT and Hyderabad ICAT were part of this event. 25 students have participated in this industrial visit and attended the workshop including both the campus. Followed by the workshop, our students visited their studio to meet the other crew members/departments to understand their work process.

During the Workshop and the Industrial Visit, our students understood the:

Importance of a team and being open minded in a team
Importance of self discipline and work ethics
Importance of sharing, helping, and being proactive in a team
Project development pipeline –Developing Prototype, Development, Testing and Addressing Target Audience Feedback
Nuances of creating a polished product
Preproduction , production and post production tasks in the development of games
Importance of code optimization, co–routines, single tone classes, and event management
Game development related Websites for further learning

During the session, the students explored on interactive games and met various Industrial professionals to discuss about real-time game development. They clarified their doubts from the industry professionals. Also, some of the game reviews were screened and the complete Game development pipeline was explained. Finally, the students had the opportunity to create their own game, which helped them understand the current trend involved in Game Technology.

Student's Feedback

Visit to Rocksalt Interactive was an amazing experience. The visit was a motivation to the youngsters; it’s a glimpse of hardware turning to success. We acquired the knowledge about team coordination, working of the process pipeline and achieving a polished product. The team from Rocksalt interactive shared their experience they have acquired till date. They also motivated us to create our own ideal game company. The Workshop by Rocksalt Interactive also helped us get an idea on the current scenario of the Indian Gaming Industry and understand how small teams can make good games. Overall, the workshop was very good and looking forward for more such classes on Game Engine.

Subject leader, Robert Gibbs of Birmingham City University conducted a 3-day workshop titled, ‘Creative Ideas in Photography’ for the ICAT Photography Club Students. The workshop was held at the ICAT Design & Media College, Chennai campus on 18th of February, 2014. His session initiated with a presentation on various methods and sources for conceiving new ideas and the ability to translate them visually. During this interactive session, our students were taught to deconstruct photographs which were supported by a series of case studies. Students were also encouraged to take on a 24 hour assignment, wherein they worked as groups to photograph and visually communicate the relevant title chosen by them. Towards the end of the session, students wrote a 200 word brief that explains their best photograph. The workshop concluded on an inspiring note where Robert showcased some of the best works of his graduated students.

ICAT always has it's best strategics to provide compelling learning experience. As part of many teaching methods, the game industry seminar on 2nd June revealed many secrets of game development process. Right from creation to distribution Mr Sagar, one of the founders of LEONGAME Company spent his valuable time with our students to share his experience as many roles he played in the industry.

An interactive seminar was held for the Game Development & Design students at ICAT, Chennai. The seminar was conducted by Mr.Vinod Asokan from Gameshastra, Hyderabad. Mr. Vinod is an Alumni of ICAT student, who hails as an expert in Game Programming in Unity 3D for more than 2 years. He was able to guide the students with various aspects of using Unity. Seminar started on a simple note, with how Unity works & treats entities. Also scripting tips were given by Mr.Vinod. He was able to explain to our enthusiastic students about the various aspects of using this engine, in development of games for mobiles. Scripting, Optimization, using Animated models etc were some of the topics which were covered in specific.

Along with sharing his expertise on Unity 3D, Mr.Vinod also got our students excited about their careers as Game Programmers and Designers. He shared his insight about the Indian gaming industry and what it has in hands for all the aspiring Game creators. The seminar ended with a quick vote of thanks and a souvenir.

Many of our past ICAT students are now leads in the visual effects industry. Our current batch students witnessed this by an inspirational session by ICAT alumni's Mr. Dinesh Kumar and Mr. Karthikeyan who are currently working as VFX leads in a well-known studio based in Chennai.

Mr. Dinesh Kumar and Mr. Karthikeyan volunteered to share their industrial experiences on 4th May 2013 at ICAT Chennai campus. The core content of this session was done with an ambitious aim to improve the new entrant skill. The session started with principles of camera projections and foundations of camera tracking techniques followed by a practical hour on real time footage manipulation. Certain other technical question where answered in brief with a creative passion. Mr. Dinesh outlined the visual effect pipeline and stressed the importance of planning the shots at the initial stage of filming. The students enjoyed the session and got a balance to meet the industrial needs.

Student from Game Development department, attended an informative seminar on Game Mathematics & DirectX 3D, given by Mr. Rakesh Kumar from Game Shastra, Hyderabad.

Mr. Rakesh is a Computer Engineer graduate, who completed his PG Diploma in Game Development from ICAT, Chennai. From there he worked in GameShastra for 1 year. He completed his Master's Degree in Game Development, at Abertay University, Dundee, UK.

The first day of seminar covered various topics on mathematics which are used a lot in Game Development Industry. The day started with core basics on Vectors and the operations performed on them. Students were taught how these are used in making Games, and how they would ease a programmer’s life. Examples were given while covering each topic in relation with game development from an industry point of view. And how it will help programmers achieve better & optimized code. For example collision checks using Dot Products.

Matrix calculations & their implementation were covered next by Mr. Rakesh. He gave an in depth explanation of how matrices are used internally to achieve camera movement, translation etc. The day ended with a inspiring session of how the game industry works and what it has for budding programmers. He also shared his experience of how game industry works in India.

The second day kicked off with how DirectX works. Mr.Rakesh gave an indepth explanation of topics related to DirectX 3D. Topics covered included Vertex Shaders, Pixel Shaders, HLSL, Light concepts,ray tracing, reflections, usage of 3D objects in making games. He was able to relate the Vectors concepts to DirectX and how to use them to make meaningful techniques for usage in Games, which amazed all the students. Students were very happy to a level, where they cut short on their meal break and kept shooting questions towards Mr.Rakesh Kumar.

Mr.Rakesh clarified many doubts & questions the students had in regards with the upcoming Campus placements from various companies. He prepared students as to what kind of concepts they should learn & train themselves on.

Seminar came to an end with all this knowledge transfer. Overall the seminar was informative, gave a clear idea of how everything works in a very frank and in-formal way, which impressed all students.

UDK workshop happened at Bangalore from 8th April to 13th April. Mr. Jasdeep Greewal from WingsIntellect, Bombay, addressed a Packed crowd in the Class Room 1 consisting majorly of aspiring II UG,PG I,II Game Developers of our college.

He talked about their operations being 3D outsourcing and Core Development. He was generous enough to name their Key Clients and also to show his Games Portfolios.

Getting down to some serious talks. He Explained about the production pipeline for games which is created by Engine. He was kind enough to show some of the examples in the internet too. He started to explain the topics which he already got it from the college.

Once he was done with the presentation. He asked the students for any queries or doubts they have about the field on the UDK engines and technical doubts. And our students poured down questions to be honest, he answered each and every question asked with great patience.

The Workshop on a whole was benefited greatly by our students. They definitely have a better understanding of all the development processes involved in UDK Engine and their opportunities in future.

As a part of "Visual Communication Methods and Ethical Practices" Module for I UG Students, we had a Guest Faculty Mr Karn Malhotra

"Acting and Theater as a means of Communication", under which he discussed the following with the Students:

Acting and communication
Acting and different forms of theater used as tool for social change
Principles of acting for effective communication

The Guest asked half the class to dress in business formals and the rest in 'design student' casuals - but all had to carry the other set as a change to reverse roles.

The students enjoyed the workshop, they got a chance to brush up their acting skills. The feedback was very good.

DOLBY ATMOS ‘Sound and Picture - Together Telling the Story ‘ by Oscar Winner - Ioan Allen

This informative seminar was attended by our UG & PG – Vfx batches on 11th March 2013 at Serene, Satyam Cinemas, Chennai

A Hands On workshop on the topic "IOS Game development" was held for a week from 18th February 2013 to 22nd February 2013 at ICAT, Chennai conducted by Industry Expert Mr Satish. The topics like Introduction to IOS, Xcode,objective C and cocos2D were covered. Finally he taught our students to develop games in Cocos2d. It was an interesting & informative session.

All our Game development students were benefited out of this.This session made a great place to get industry exposure.

Mr. Nanda Kumar, photo journalist at Dashing and graduate of ICAT Design & Media College, Chennai, who has a unique aim and daring ambition in photography, conducted his first workshop in Digital Photography post processing for ICAT students on 12th January 2013. He explained the comprehensive set of tools available for digital post processing and simple one click adjustment that would make creative enhancements.

Mr. Nanda Kumar taught the art of seeing, visual perception and how to develop as an artist in photo making and explained the elements of design in photography. This session made a great place for collaborative study from Mr. Nanda Kumar and his sort of photography style.

An interactive seminar on ‘Cinematography’ by Mr. Sukumar, Cinematographer of tamil movies Kumki and Mynna - was organized by ICAT on 30th January, 2013 at the Chennai campus.

Mr. Sukumar started his career as photographer, and then gradually made most of the cinematography works for Director Prabhu Soloman in tamil movies - Mynaa and Kumki. He has created an impression by enhancing a range of camera and the art of controlling light so effectively to produce a gripping look in forest scape.

During the session, he detailed the impact of cinematography in storytelling and the overall workflow. He also explained the technical aspects and the need to take cinematography during pre production stage. Mr. Sukumar advised the students to experiment with their photography and storytelling skills to reflect on film making.

This seminar made a great place for sharing experience from Mr. Sukumar and his sort of cinematography style will come as a welcome addition to the industry as well as the audience.

A seminar on the topic “From Design Pro to Ad Pro” by Mr.P.Thomas from Disha Communications was held on the 23rd of January, 2013. Students from various streams attended and benefitted highly from this informative session.

Mr.Thomas gave us an insight into advertising and put the concept into the new perspective of Market Communication. He stressed on the fact that what the consumer is looking for is not only good idea or a good design, but also a solution to the problems he faces in his everyday life. This way he helped us visualize from the point of view of a consumer.

Students were shown the ads made for ICAT and Image which were used as case studies to emphasize the importance of a brief and the way a brief is translated into an advt. They were also taught how to construct a brief and what key questions have to be answered in a good brief. Ads with minor glitches were also shown to explain the dos and don’ts of advertising and the problems that are faced by advertising professionals due to client pressure. The seminar was concluded by giving students an opportunity to showcase their talents by constructing a brief and making an ad for the same.

It can be said without any doubt, that the session was very enlightening and made students feel enthusiastic about the future in store!

Wednesday 18 June 2014

Friday 6 June 2014

Thursday 5 June 2014

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