Talent needs a lot of training on how to use CGI: Famous Studios’ Anant Roongta

It was the 2023 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and PUMA had launched a television commercial for its product Nitro. Apart from the deft picturisation of the shoe’s features, the television commercial, which is CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery) based, showcased the shoe’s capability and resistance by highlighting different conditions in the background.

PUMA had approached Famous Studios with a technical brief on the shoe, which involved highlighting it as an ‘all-weather shoe’. Hence the decision to position the shoe in different environments.

Since no agency was involved, Famous Studios was tasked with building the script and had to lead it in terms of the creative thought process and concept design.

Making of the commercial

Anant Roongta, managing director, Famous Studios, revealed that computer generated imagery (CGI) has been in the advertising arena for a long time. Famous Studios’ animation business was set up in 1998. The team has spent 18 months (leading up to IPL 2023) in building human capital on newer technologies Blender and Unreal Engine (a game engine software run by Epic Games).

“We got hold of the shoe. Then, we used a technology called photogrammetry, which is basically a setup of multiple cameras that take images of a product from various angles. That technology gives a digital 3D mesh as an image. Then, it is imported into the blender, which is a CGI based software,” Roongta explained.

Then began the creation of the movements of the shoe, and the usage of Unreal Engine to create different environments.

Why IPL?

There are two things that India worships: Cricket and Cinema. The IPL, which was established in 2007 by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has over the years firmed a place for itself in the history of cricket.

In 2023, IPL viewership—the tournament was telecast on Star Sports Network—touched 505 million viewers, as per the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC). That was one of the reasons to launch the commercial around this period.

There was another reason to be associated with the IPL. According to Roongta, the shoe has the stamp of One8, a sportswear brand owned by cricketer Virat Kohli.

CGI: Advantages and disadvantages

In the year gone by, Disney+Hotstar announced the next season of Koffee with Karan (launched on October 26) with the help of CGI, where the Gateway of India was used as the backdrop. Another prominent international ad saw Maybelline running its mascara on a running train.

One of the advantages of CGI is that hyper-realistic environments can be created. Another example, as stated by Roongta is that practicality can be blended with CGI. Roongta cites the example of cereal brand Kellogg’s Frosties.

A tiger is the mascot of Frosties. In one of its oldest commercials, children are seen relishing Frosties. The gleeful mascot joins them at the table, and follows them in every situation. “So, this is also an element of CGI that is being used in a real world scenario. If your budgets are low, and you can’t go to a foreign location to shoot, you can actually take videos of that particular background, put it into your LED wall in any place. So, that’s another advanced CGI technique,” says Roongta.

But, Roongta is of the opinion that there’s still a lot of training needed with regard to how to use CGI technology in the right way. “If you don’t use it the right way, you can actually end up losing a lot of money. But, after one or two years, things will stabilise and the capital that is required to be invested in that technology will reduce, and then it will become the norm for the future,” the Famous Studios’ MD concludes.