The Hindu Business Line : Visual Computing focusing on TV commercials

"Companies also want to remake their existing films by cutting down the film duration from 15 minutes to 3-4 minutes and using graphics to highlight major aspects," he said. Depending on the CG component in such films, the average size of a contract could vary between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 40 lakh, he said.

Chennai June 6 Visual Computing Labs (VCL), a division of Tata Elxsi Ltd, which is into animation, digital visual effects and game building, will focus on high-end television commercials and game asset building. Towards this, the company intends to raise its creative workforce from 270 to 400.

In Chennai to hire potential employees, Mr Bhaskar Dutt, Head— Marketing, VCL, told Business Line about the company's new focus areas. Television commercials, in recent times, have emerged as the company's mainstay with 6-10 commercials being done every month— more than double the number the company worked on in the past, Mr Dutt said. VCL today chooses only those jobs with high-end CG content.

VCL is also getting into production of ads directly, as opposed to doing jobs for ad agencies.

"Today brands are approaching us directly to make the CG portion for their ads, instead of a production-house choosing us over our competitors," said Mr Dutt.

This brand recognition has helped the company create intellectual property in the form of CG characters such as Cheetos' Chester Cheetah, Diptrix's Trix rabbit and General Mills' Doughboy.

VCL is also seeing a new clientele develop via its parent company Tata Elxsi for corporate films.

"Companies also want to remake their existing films by cutting down the film duration from 15 minutes to 3-4 minutes and using graphics to highlight major aspects," he said.

CG component

Depending on the CG component in such films, the average size of a contract could vary between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 40 lakh, he said.

On the gaming front, the company plans to enter into game programming, given its presence in other gaming components such as game engine creation and game asset development.

In feature films, the company is looking to focus on asset building work (creating infrastructure such as an artificial fort) and is currently working on six films including `Jodhaa Akbar', `Drona' and `Taare Zameen Pe'.

Its most recent work was `Spider-Man 3'.

More Stories on : Software | Advertising | Radio/TV

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page