Kathaa

Hum Tum – From Concept to completion, Kathaa Animations

Hum Tum, the beginning… “Hum Tum”, one of the most awaited films from India’s premier production houses – Yash Raj Films, captures the great divide between the two sexes – men and women. In the film, the characters Hum and Tum are the creations of cartoonist Karan Kapoor (Saif Ali Khan) who works in the Times of India. These characters come to life through live animation and take the film forward in a unique way. Animation, though one of the most creative areas in the arena of film making, has been untouched by the Indian Film industry for years. For years together, the Indian Animation Industry has been servicing the animation production houses worldwide. For the first time, animated characters shall come alive on the silver screen in a Bollywood film. It is a small step for Bollywood, but a giant step for Indian animation. This film thus paves the way to inspire production houses to take a look at animation in an entirely different perspective. This is just a small beginning for animation in the Indian film industry. There is much more to come. The creation of the characters from the sketchbook to the silver screen has gone through immense transformations. The whole journey has been capsuled briefly in the forthcoming pages… With a dream we began this journey… and realized we were awake all the time…

Prakash Nambiar (CEO – Kathaa Animations Pvt. Ltd.)

Hum Tum – the concept… The animated characters Hum and Tum were developed by the team at Kathaa Animation under the able guidance of the producer Aditya Chopra and the director Kunal Kohli. The character development went through a sea of changes during the initial stages of the project. From a ‘cool’ looking teenage guy to a quick-witted prankster… from a mature woman to a mature ‘sweet’ and simple girl… Hum and Tum has seen it all. The initial sketches reveal the characters were much older, but as the brain storming sessions continued, we realized that something was missing in the characters being worked on. At this stage, Mr. Aditya Chopra suggested that the characters could be younger in age – about 8-9 year old kids, but who think and speak like grown ups, depicting the divide between men and women. This was one of the turning points in the whole project. It just changed the whole outlook of the characters. Suddenly everything fell into place. We had an interesting concept at hand. The film already catered to the youth, but with Hum and Tum being kids, it would automatically attract another huge audience – of children. “Hum and Tum thus grew smaller in size but bigger in concept.” Prakash Nambiar, CEO

The Character Sketches Hum: Hum is “cool”. A little self-absorbed, a little egotistical, Hum is very confident in social situations. His sharp intellect, and a quick wit, is most often used to achieve his primary goal – bugging girls in general, and Tum in Particular! But deep inside, Hum is just a boy. Sometimes a bit too eager to impress, sometimes surprisingly sensitive, Hum is not a uni-dimensional character with single minded characterizations. His actions and emotions reflect that there is a “nice guy” within Hum who understands the difference between pulling someone’s leg, and hurting someone’s feelings. Tum: Tum is a girl, and she’s proud of it. She stands up for herself and who she is. While she’s often not a match for Hum’s quick wit and incessant bugging, she surely considers herself to be more “grown up”, and appeases herself in knowing that she is more “mature” than Hum. Tum has her own brand of attitude. She may sometimes be a little aloof, but she genuinely cares for those around her. She’s a “sweet” girl, thoughtful, generous, but sometimes a little reserved. She keeps trying to go one up over Hum, to prove once and for all, the facts as she sees them.

“We had to get a uniqueness in the character. Something that people could identify with. The hair do was a great idea. It just gave the character a whole new dimension and a whole new attitude” Vivek Karandikar – Character Designer

Hum Tum – the animation experience… Once the characters were developed, the process of bringing these characters to life began. It was important that the stories were depicted in a manner in which it seamlessly integrated with the flow of the film. Once the script was ready, it was the time to convert words into sketches using visually appealing storyboards, which gave a rough idea of how the story for a particular scene would flow. “The storyboard sessions were one of the most important sessions during the production. It was a stage when we could see the whole sequence as an extended cartoon strip. This session gave a fair idea of how the animation is going to look like in terms of staging and framing of the shots” Satish Thokade, Animation Director “Since the animation was coming in between the film, there was always a fear that it might look like an ad commercial in the middle of the film, so we had to be very careful that it does not look like a break, but instead smoothly flow with the film” Vijay Raibole, Animation Director Once the storyboards were approved, the process went on the next stage called the animatics. The animatic is a process where the storyboard panels are presented with the dialogues like a slide show. This helps in understanding the length of the shot. It also gives us an idea whether the shot is too long and if we can add another cut in between. Unlike the usual filmmaking, in animation the editing happens prior to the actual production. The animatics give an idea of the timing of the sequence. Once the timing is ready, it is time for the storyboards to get into production. The storyboards are then passed on to the Layouts Department. The layout artists then compose the frame of each shot with detailed information about the direction of the light source for the sequence as well as the camera movements. Concurrently, the voices (of the boy and girl) to be used for both the characters were recorded and were painstakingly broken down into individual frames. This is an important part of the animation process since the lip synchronization depends on this part. Once the layouts are ready, the lead animators begin the process of animation. Meanwhile the layouts are also forwarded to the Background department. Animators are the actors of the animation. They plan the movements, expressions, reactions etc. – in short, they breathe life into the characters. This animation is then tested for errors at the Line test level. The movements of the characters are jerky at this stage, but nevertheless it gives an overall judgment of the acting of the individual characters. Any corrections in the acting are made at this level. Based on the animation, an exposure chart is made which breaks down the whole animation into individual frames. Under the guidance of the supervising animators, the animation is then passed on to the next department, which is the “In-between” (IB) Department. The IB department comprises of a team who in fact creates the in-between drawings of the animation that smoothens the acting of the characters. Once the action is smoothened out, the clean up department starts cleaning the drawings. This is also an important process as they decide the final line that will be seen on the screen. The thickness of the line has to be consistently maintained through out that particular sequence to create a seamless animation. On completion of this process, this animation is now ready for its final destination. The “Ink & paint and Compositing” department. Here the animation is given color. The animation with its color is then composited with the backgrounds to create the final animation. The animation is then ready to be transferred onto film with sound.

Hum Tum animation – the beginning of a long journey… Finally animation has come of age in Indian Cinema. While the west is far ahead in its technical expertise, in India, a beginning has been made. This film opens wide opportunities and new avenues in this field. The whole experience of the animation for the film has widened our horizons and expanded our own boundaries. With this project taking off, we have already started working on one of our most ambitious inhouse projects – an animation film. Given the kind of costs involved, the film is targeted for an international audience. Seeing the tremendous appreciation towards the cartoon strips in The Times of India, we are confident that Hum and Tum are now ready to create waves…

Corporate Profile – Kathaa Animations Pvt. Ltd. Kathaa Animations Pvt. Ltd. is an animation company, envisaged with a dream of creating animated stories for all ages - with a dream of bringing dreams to life. At Kathaa, we believe in giving the very best to every project. Right from its inception, it has been made as a habit, within each individual in the team to think of innovative solutions to keep improving the quality of the products - visually, technically and more important - psychologically. Kathaa Animations Pvt. Ltd. was founded in November 2001. Ever since it has been in the market, it has held on to its values and principles. Whether the client is as a reputed corporate, or a proprietary company, it has always given utmost importance to every project. Kathaa Animations Pvt. Ltd., with its aim of developing full-length animated feature films, has been developing into various other arenas too. With its extensive skills in multimedia, it is one of the best quality multimedia providers in Mumbai. The other arenas it caters to are Corporate films, Short films, Web development, and Software Development.