Studio Sideline

IN THE SIDELINES | Showreel . ‘In The Sidelines’ is an in-house venture we started last year, where we explored and pushed the boundaries of our comfort zones to create original animated pieces without the constraints of larger project requirements. Each project within In The Sidelines had a ‘leader’, a ‘subordinate’, and two weeks of time to finish, and we explored every possible combination between us four co-founders to create 12 final products (successfully finishing season 1, yay)! We hope you enjoy this reel, and please do check out all the In The Sidelines projects compiled in our Highlights. You can also check out more information about each project at /in-the-sidelines or click the link in our bio to visit our website! . Season 2 when, you ask? Only time will tell 👀

‘Sushi Song’ | When Chai Met Toast . It’s been a special feeling to have made this music video for the loveliest song by the loveliest @whenchaimettoast ! A fun, adventure-filled music video about a romantic trip to Japan? For the most wonderful band around? We were in before you could say “sushi”. Team: Animation: @saileshgopalan (Director) @preethamdraws Background & 3D: @derekdomnicdsouza @_vibhavsingh @chedilkm

Kill Team Kill | Love, Death + Robots . A little more than a year ago, we were offered the incredible opportunity to help out on the @lovedeathandrobots episode - Kill Team Kill. We had barely launched our studio then, so receiving that message felt like a collective fantasy we had somehow found ourselves in. And now, thinking back to being part of this project and working with the most superpowered team ever, it still feels like a wonderful dream that we could never forget. We played a small part, mostly cleanup work (with the occasional secondary animation and tiedown), but it was an unbelievable experience to work with some of the best animators whose work we’d admired and followed for ages. They carried this entire episode, and we’re just happy we could help! No amount of gratitude could match what we owe @benjybrooke (Animation Director) for bringing us on board and being the most amazing and supportive person we have had the pleasure of working with! Special thanks to the super fun @ryn0saurus (Clean Up Supervisor) for supporting and supervising us along the way, and the incredibly kind @sweitzercharlie (Producer) from @titmouseinc for helping us smoothly make our way through this project. . The slides in the post contain some of the shots we cleaned up, and were animated by the following incredible animators: (1/5) @louvictorsk (2/5) @diego_porral (3/5) @mr.ubach (4/5) @mr.ubach (5/5) @nwakudukaycee . A big thanks and congratulations to everyone from this team for making such a stunning episode, and it was an honour to have been a part of it! . #studiosideline

Nee Dhaarey | Music Video / Intro Sequence . Close to a year ago, we got the amazing opportunity to create an intro sequence for the Telugu feature film – Nee Dhaarey Nee Katha (@ndnkmovie ), the directorial debut of Vamsi Jonnalagadda (@jvproductionsin ). The film itself is a story of passion, perseverance, and striving to achieve your goals, told through the journey of a young orchestra conductor. For the intro sequence, Vamsi gave us complete freedom to develop the concept, style, and execution. The idea we arrived at was to encapsulate these themes in a unique music video that works on its own while also being a perfect intro to the film. Our narrative is told through the journey of three individuals; a young girl with the focused goal of becoming an astronaut, an old man running a marathon, slowly but with unwavering commitment, and an actor struggling to come out of his shell. We arrived at a unique solution for how to showcase their passion as it grows and inspires everyone they meet: with an 'aura' that each person develops around them, its shape based on their calling. It is through this aura that the emptiness on screen fills up with life and beauty as we get to see more and more of the world. We also got to work with some incredible animators who helped bring these characters to life! Here's the full team: Co-Directed by @preethamdraws and @saileshgopalan Producers : @preethamdraws , @saileshgopalan , @derekdomnicdsouza , @_vibhavsingh FX Animation: @preethamdraws Character Animation: @toto_bisbas , @aparna.hegde , @surya_8065 , @saileshgopalan Animation Clean up: @sleepy_owl.0_0 , @ashish_phadke , @van.imite , @striker_p10 Colour: @sumanna010 , @saileshgopalan Background Layouts: @preethamdraws Background Painting: @derekdomnicdsouza , @_vibhavsingh Compositing: @saileshgopalan Our sincerest thanks to Vamsi for being the most patient and understanding person we have ever had the privilege of working with, and for his complete support and trust in our vision for this video! . #studiosideline

'Find You' | Quiet Blue Last year we got approached by @quietblue.mp3 to design a character to represent his music, along with a series of videos to promote his upcoming EP. And now, the second track from the EP has just dropped! Nic wanted us to give Blue - our cute little robot - a romantic interest for this one, so we chose to turn his flying companion from the previous video into yet another cute little robot that Blue could explore the factory with. Done entirely in 3D, this one was another new ground for us as even the characters were executed almost completely inside Blender. Here's the full team: Director: @derekdomnicdsouza Animation: @derekdomnicdsouza @_vibhavsingh @saileshgopalan @preethamdraws 3D: @derekdomnicdsouza Compositing: @_vibhavsingh #studiosideline

‘Spitze des Bergs’ | Animated Ad Here is another ad project we created two years ago, which unfortunately got scrapped due to the company evolving and changing its vision. However, we cannot emphasise how grateful we are to @artificialerror (company’s new name) for still letting us share the work we did for them! It was our first project where we heavily incorporated 3D into the backgrounds and comp. With a lot of problem-solving and R&D, we arrived at a style that aligned perfectly with this script and a pipeline that we would rely on for several of our later projects. We also had a great time designing and animating lots of fun whacky characters for this! We’re so thankful to @1bunjaku and @m.m.muench for their trust in us to ‘do our thing’ and bring their script to life! Full Team: Director: @preethamdraws 3D Modelling: @derekdomnicdsouza 3D Animation: @derekdomnicdsouza , @_vibhavsingh Character Designs: @preethamdraws , @saileshgopalan Character Animation: @preethamdraws , @saileshgopalan Compositing: @saileshgopalan

This is a piece we created for an ad that was unfortunately rejected due to certain company regulations, but we just wanted to share the work that we did for it, which we’re actually quite proud of! While this didn’t make it to the end product, we’re still so grateful to have worked on this project because we got to collaborate with some ridiculously good artists who took these shots to another level! Here’s the full team: Director/Animation Director: @saileshgopalan Background Layouts: @_vibhavsingh Colour Scripts: @derekdomnicdsouza Character Animation: @saileshgopalan , @d.igvijay_pwr Cleanup: @saileshgopalan , @surya_8065 FX Animation: @sahilartfusion , @preethamdraws Background Painting: @_kzart_ , @_vibhavsingh , @derekdomnicdsouza Compositing: @saileshgopalan @_vibhavsingh And a big thank you to @chalkandcheesefilms for having us on this project, and to @varunramanna for being the chillest, most trustworthy producer!

Here are the process breakdowns for the backgrounds painted by @_vibhavsingh for ‘In The Sidelines’ - 012: Halls of Desire by @saileshgopalan . When Sailesh first briefed me about this piece, one of his main aims with it was to achieve the highest visual quality and finesse, both for the animations and the backgrounds. He asked me to recreate the painting style of our previous collaboration in this series - Trials of Mrythia - which, while very labour intensive, was a style I had grown quite comfortable with over the course of that project. However, despite my familiarity with the style, I knew it was going to be a challenge simply because of the ostentatious setting, with all its motifs, patterns and architectural intricacies, not to mention a combination of different surfaces and materials. Thankfully, what made this a fun challenge rather than a daunting task were the solid and well thought out layouts Sailesh provided me with. As a background painter who also enjoys having some agency over the background design, these layouts were perfect for me because they gave me a solid foundation to work on while still allowing me to riff on top by adding in more architectural and design elements. It also helped that most of the shots are from an eye level view, with no camera tilt and a simple one-point perspective. The painting techniques used here are extremely straightforward and simple, and it’s this simplicity that allowed me to go into the level of detail required here. I kept my colour choices quite limited, resulting in quick decisions, and helping me focus most of my time on clarity and finesse. This also meant that I could lay down confident, opaque brushstrokes, which in my opinion is the key to getting that traditionally painted charm that some of the best anime backgrounds have!

Here’s a breakdown of everything that went into achieving each shot in ‘In The Sidelines’ - 012: Halls of Desire by @saileshgopalan , assisted by @_vibhavsingh ! I would say the process was pretty straightforward. We did what we’re comfortable with, except that we turned the dial to maximum in every aspect. I had figured out my intention and the mood of these shots right at the beginning, and that was all Vibhav needed to take my barebones sketches to these absolutely beautiful, finessed paintings. Compositing was key here; I studied several anime scenes and tried to replicate certain effects and adjustments with the tools I was familiar with on After Effects. Working alongside Vibhav on comp is one of the most fun parts of collaborating with him because we’re both so particular but also insanely experimental that we spend hours trying all sorts of things and making the slightest of adjustments to achieve the perfect look!

‘In The Sidelines’ - 012: Halls of Desire By @saileshgopalan Assisted by @_vibhavsingh . “Beneath the halls of desire and heat, Decrees the queen blood red: She who sits the golden seat, Decides who warms her bed.” . In this round of rejecting the stigma of what constitutes ‘Indian animation’, I explore sexual themes and suggestive imagery. Mature stories and themes have globally become a staple in animated media, and having explored violence/gore in my previous experiment, I wanted to tackle a different facet of animation that’s targeted towards a slightly more adult audience. It doesn’t elude me that explicit nudity could’ve made a more impactful point, but the idea in my head for this animation worked better in inexplicit depictions with high sexual energy. The main inspiration for this style and concept was The Apothecary Diaries, a recent anime adaptation that I can’t seem to get over. The cinematic camera angles were inspired by @yoneyamai ’s gorgeous MV for ‘YOKU’ by Eve. The final inspiration for the art style was the fact that I got to work with @_vibhavsingh on this animation, letting him go wild and perform his signature magic on these backgrounds. . ‘In The Sidelines’ is a new in-house venture where we explore and push the boundaries of our comfort zones to create art and animation pieces outside the constraints of larger project requirements, opening up the potential for a wider portfolio of experiments and collaborations. . #studiosideline

Here's how we went about building the sets for 'In The Sidelines' - 011: Midnight Queen, by @_vibhavsingh , assisted by @derekdomnicdsouza .

A look at some of the directorial decisions behind the camerawork for 'In The Sidelines' - 011: Midnight Queen, by @_vibhavsingh , assisted by @derekdomnicdsouza .