Tools of the trade
[Cover Story]

Spider talks to four professionals and asks them about the hardware and software they use to get the job done.

Profiles:

Sabeen Mahmud:
"I bought my first Apple Macintosh computer in 1990. It was an all–in-one unit with a nine-inch screen and a single floppy drive. It had one megabyte of RAM, an eight megahertz processor and no hard disk. This machine, along with Pink Floyd, changed my life forever."
Currently the COO of b.i.t.s., Sabeen has been associated with computers for over 15 years now. Having produced her college newspaper and the Asian Womens’ Magazine on her Macintosh while at college, she joined Enabling Technologies (ET), a firm specialising in multimedia development, after graduating. Sabeen believes that she has a natural inclination for multimedia authoring and graphic design and when the internet was introduced in Pakistan, she gravitated towards Web development. She ran Solutions Unlimited – a sister concern of ET – from 1999 to 2000, while managing projects at ET and teaching New Media Development at Hamdard University. In 2001, she joined b.i.t.s. as a New Media Architect where she also performed the additional roles of managing the day-to-day operations and looking at areas of business development. She considers the Faiz–Aaj Kay Naam interactive CD, on which she worked as a lead programmer and graphic designer, as her greatest achievement to date.

Amean J.:
"I’m an Apple person. Everything is compatible with my iPod so everywhere I go, I have everything with me. I’m more of an iPod freak than a computer freak."
A professional photographer and part-time teacher, Amean attained his Bachelor in Fine Arts from the Academy of Art College in San Francisco and a Masters in Arts from the University of Luton, United Kingdom. Besides getting local acclaim for his unique style of capturing images, Amean’s work has also been mentioned in foreign publications such as The New Yorker, Colours, and Graphics and Communication Arts. In 1998, he established 18 per cent grey, a Karachi based photo studio, with a team dedicated to ensuring the finest details are maintained in the photographs produced. 18 per cent grey has managed to acquire a diverse portfolio of clients, by using photography for graphic design, print and multimedia productions, advertisements, annual reports and corporate work.

Babar Shaikh:
"I have never really been a fan of completely falling slave to computers as such. I have friends who have slept right underneath their computer tables, woken up and gotten straight back into their chairs and that’s kind of sickening because I don’t fancy their lifestyles at all."
Musician, film-maker, writer and artist, Babar Shaikh has, at the age of 27, proved himself to be as capable as any of the veterans working in the same field. Babar formed the band Dusk in 1994 and they released their debut album 2.5 kilometres from the Tower three years later. Babar then concentrated on his academics and graduated from the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture to become an art director in an advertising agency before taking on film-making as a full-time profession. He has to his credit the Kitni Sadiyaan video by Mizraab, which stayed on number one for several weeks. Not limiting himself to music videos, Babar has made several documentaries, of which Tabdeeli found its way to the Kara Film Festival in 2005. Babar also teaches at the Karachi University and at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture.*

Hussain Ali Talib:
"I first used a Windows personal computer back in 1998 and have been hooked ever since the first time I used the Web to surf and chat on mIRC."
Currently working as the editor of E-doer’s Digest and Netexpress, Hussain Ali Talib started his career with Rasala Publications when he was in college and has been with them since. He initially joined Rasala Publications as an intern in 1999 and ended up working there part-time while continuing his education. After graduating in 2001, he joined Rasala Publications as a full-time employee. Having been with Rasala for over 10 years now Hussain Ali Talib says that he enjoys working there as it provides him the opportunity to work in a challenging and exciting environment. Hussain Ali Talib describes himself as less of a person–fascinated–by–technology and more of a writer.

Interview:

Q. What kind of a computer system do you use right now?

Sabeen Mahmud: Apple Macintosh Powerbook G4 15" with 512 megabytes of RAM, 80-gigabyte hard disk, Airport Extreme (802.11g), Bluetooth, FireWire 400 and 800, USB 2.0 and internal CD/DVD writer with the following extras: 17" LG LCD monitor, Apple wireless mouse and keyboard, Apple's Mighty Mouse, LaCie 250 gigabyte Brick external hard drive, Harman Kardon SoundSticks and an iPod Shuffle with the Mac OS X operating system.

Amean J.: I use an iMac. I’m an Apple person. It’s the last generation of iMacs. Not this one (the one that is out right now), it’s the one before that. I’ve been working with the latest OS 10.4.6. That is the newer system on it. And it’s a beautiful machine.

Babar Shaikh: I use a Compaq Presario laptop. I like the convenience of a laptop and it has really been used and abused by me. It’s an AMD Athlon and it’s kind of better for European countries because it gets really hot and it really feels like it’s on fire all the time. I borrowed it from a friend of mine, for a very little while, who is an audio engineer.

Hussain Ali Talib: An Acer Aspire (AMD processor, 128 megabytes of RAM) with Windows 98 operating system.

Q. What kind of programs do you have installed on your computer?

Sabeen Mahmud: Fireworks (Graphic Design), VoodooPad, NetNewsWire, Safari, Camino, Firefox, iCal, Apple Mail, Adium, Skype, iChat, iTunes, TextEdit, Pages, Keynote, OmniGraffle, OmniOutline, iPhoto, iWeb, RapidWeaver, QuickTime, Timbuktu, MarsEdit, Merlin,Transmit, System Optimizer X, LimeWire, iSync and Interface Builder. The only Microsoft program that I occasionally use is Excel and I am awaiting the release of a spreadsheet program that will enable me to be 100 per cent Microsoft free.

Amean J.: Well, Photoshop for one, Safari for browsing and what else do I use? I use my mail software and iTunes very much. I love iTunes. I haven’t really started exploring Garage Band and I use iLife quite regularly which includes the address book, calendar (all of my appointments are on it) and everything is compatible with my iPod so everywhere I go, I have everything with me. As far as high-tech software is concerned, it’s just Photoshop for me. I haven’t tried Aperture yet, the new software by Apple, so I won’t know how to figure that one out yet.

Babar Shaikh: What do I use most of the time? That would be Internet Explorer to browse the internet, Microsoft Word as most of the stuff that I write is on that. For listening to music there is Windows Media Player.

Hussain Ali Talib: Basic office utilities: Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Outlook.

Q. What do you use your system for?

Sabeen Mahmud: Graphic design, interaction design, music, blogging, website design, audio editing, video editing, presentations and demonstrations, E-mail, Web browsing and RSS newsfeeds, page layout, project management, accounting, research, writing, system/application tweaking and modelling.

Amean J.: E-mailing, for sure. I prefer contacting my clients through e-mail for a few reasons. One, I just prefer typing as compared to talking and two, for documentation reasons because everything is documented. Three, to talk to friends all over the world. Four, music for sure and five, for editing my photographs. I don’t manually edit photographs any more.

Babar Shaikh: Other than what I’ve already mentioned, Dusk, which is my band, has been on the internet since 2001 and I’m usually updating my website and stuff but have never really been a fan of becoming a slave to computers as such. I really don’t believe in stuff like MP3s. Sure, I do have MP3s on my computer but stuff like MP3s and all this iPod culture, I don’t support it at all. I have friends who I think download hundreds and hundreds of gigabytes of really obscure music but when you talk to them, they've hardly listened to any of it. They just like to collect the tracks.

Hussain Ali Talib: Work related tasks, organising contacts and material. Internet-based research and communication.

Q. How long have you been using computers?

Sabeen Mahmud: I have been using Macs (the only computers I have ever and will ever use) since 1990. I started with a Mac Plus that had no hard disk, a single floppy drive, and one megabyte of RAM. I learned how to use MacWrite, MacDraw, MacPaint, and MS Word on that computer. Since then, I have used the following Macs: SE, Colour Classic, LC III, IIvx, Quadra 840 AV, PowerMac 8100, PowerMac 8500, PowerMac 7200, PowerBook G3, iBook, and Powerbook G4 12". Indirectly, I have used every Mac produced since the Mac Plus, as we used to sell and service Apple products. I have been using my current PowerBook for four months.

Babar Shaikh: I started using the computer in 1997. It was definitely never a part of my life before that, it was never a necessity. Mainly, I was into trading underground demos for my band through snail mail. Before that, I didn’t really realise that a computer would be necessary.

Hussain Ali Talib: I have been using computers since 1997 and this particular one for the last couple of years.

Q. On average, how much time do you spend on your computer everyday?

Sabeen Mahmud: 12 hours

Amean J.: At least four hours if not more, because even when the work is done I’m usually online at night as well, doing something or the other.

Babar Shaikh: I think my basic usage of a computer is usually two to three hours a day, or maybe a little more. I check my e-mail maybe four or five times a day and that’s usually for 10 to 20 minutes and the rest is I guess when I have to check out some stuff or get some references for my film work.

Hussain Ali Talib: On average about six hours.

Credits:
Amean J.'s photograph was taken by Izdeyar Setna
Babar Shaikh's photograph was taken by Amean J.

Spider's Email Box
The misplaced tool
In the cover story ‘Tools of the trade’ in the last issue of Spider, it was mentioned that Babar Sheikh’s band ‘Dusk’ released an album titled ‘2.5 km from the watchtower’ when it was infact his band ‘Ganda banda and the 3D cats’ that released that album.

Khurram
barzakh@gmail.com

First Published:
Spider
June 2006

Joy! Oh Joy!

[Last Byte]

A music buff’s quest to discover the perfect P2P software

The day I discovered that music could be downloaded – free of cost – using relatively simple P2P software was the happiest day of my life on the internet. It opened a world of possibilities for me. I could download any song that I wanted. I did not have to make a list of CDs to friends and relatives traveling abroad–for those not available in Pakistan–all I had to do was get an internet connection, install the software that connected me to thousands of users across the globe and using their libraries of MP3s, I could search and download to my heart’s content.

Kaaza, the software in vogue at that time had the advantage of being the first of its kind to be introduced to our local internet user population. The speed at which one could download songs was frustratingly slow: it could take from one to four days for a song to download depending on how many people on the network could share the file and how long one remained online. Those were the times when the concept of cable internet or a LAN was still relatively new and very few areas within the city offered the service.

After cable internet had been introduced in our area, I was heartbroken to discover that Kaaza wouldn’t work on it. The reason given to me back than was too technical for me to understand and I really didn’t care. What mattered was that I couldn’t download free music anymore. Friends who had no trouble downloading from other software suggested some that might work for me. They ranged from Kaaza Lite to Morpheus to Phex. They came nowhere near the simplicity of Kaaza and proved too complex for me to handle. All I wanted was to search and download songs, pictures and videos how difficult was it going to be finding software which could provide me with the above mentioned services? In my sad, depressed state of not finding the right software, I had given up all hope and had resigned myself to actually buying music online. My Kazaa years were over.

I found the answer to my prayers when a certain someone in a certain radio station introduced me to certain software that they used to download music. I went mad with joy and proceeded to spread the word around as fast as I could. It turned out “everyone” had been using that software for a quite a while.

Fast forward to 2006 and I can download an average of 150 to 200 songs a day depending on whether I spend the entire day on the computer typing, searching and selecting appropriate MP3s. The software that I now use is LimeWire and it takes an average of five minutes per song and ten minutes per music video to download.

With LimeWire, I thought I had found ‘it’ at last: the perfect downloading P2P software. LimeWire on the other hand, did have its drawbacks: relatively unknown tracks couldn’t be found and a track simply wouldn’t download if there weren’t enough users online to share it, even if the search engine conjured up the MP3 as being ‘available’ on the network. Getting back to the point I was about to make, I had thought I’d found the perfect software, till I was introduced to Azureus. A program that uses bit-torrents (sounds cool doesn’t it?) to download.

The best part is that all I have to do is go on a torrent compatible website, type the name of the album (yes, I have advanced from searching individual songs to entire albums) and select an album depending on the number of people who can share it and the number of people who are having it downloaded on their systems. It takes an average of one to four days for each album to download (similar to my Kazaa days), but it’s worth the wait because it beats having to search individual songs to download. Plus you get to see what the original CD cover looks like as each torrent file usually contains one.

From Kaaza to nothing to LimeWire and then to Azureus, not only have I discovered how P2P has evolved with time but have also noticed significant changes in the way I search online and the kind of music I download. I’ve also noticed that the idea of having the whole world’s music library at a single tap of your keyboard can be exciting at first, leading one to download all kinds of obscure music (most of which I haven’t listened to, but like to keep to show off) but after a while, it becomes a bit of a burden when one discovers they’ve downloaded practically everything cant think of anything else.

First Published:
Spider
June 2006

A revival of radio

Set in a warehouse in the Commune Artist Colony, K’la (“Art” in Hindi) performed its first ever play Tihai to an interesting mix of an audience: the event was attended by both those well known and working within the media industry and students of the Indus valley and their friends. The play had been written by Omar Kasmani and had been co-directed by Omar Kasmani himself, as well as Amean J. The cast and crew included Natasha Mukarram, Ali Hayat Rizvi, Rubab Paracha, Arsalan-ul-Haq, Amna Iqbal, Amean J., Imran Khan, Yousuf Bashir, Mansoor Wahab, Leena Naqvi, Marvi Mazhar and Rabia Ashfaque.

There were three showings of the play, one of which had been scheduled at the last moment, and all three of them started relatively on time. The set was simple, with transitions between different acts being done by alternate lighting. The event started with Omar Kasmani giving a brief introduction of the group and the play. K’la was formed as a result of a group of individuals meeting every weekend to share literature and art, and seeks a revival of drama on radio. This was clearly apparent as the play concentrated more on the script, its rendition and expression within the voice rather than on the visual aspect of body language and facial expression. Although, it must be mentioned that the actors did not entirely fail in that department, but there seemed to be more concentration on how the play ‘sounded’ rather than how it ‘looked’.

The play centered around three stories of different genres: Sartaj nahi Maharaj: breakfast with a family, Platform number three: the final dialogue and Meri pyari Su: a monologue, letter from a friend. Well written, the transitions between the different stories within the play had been cleverly done.

Sartaj nahi Maharaj centered round a typical early morning breakfast table with a family comprising of both parents and a son, with a little bit of satire thrown in. Natasha Mukarram played the typical mother, fussing over her son, her husband, the breakfast, the neighbours, the chickens*— yes, apparently this family had half a dozen chickens* running around the house. She displayed all of the attributes of an irritated housewife with ease. Ali Hayat Rizvi displayed a maturity in his acting that easily made him stand out from amongst the rest of the cast. Playing the role of the father, the timing of his dialogues matched his facial expressions to perfection. Arsalan-ul-haq, playing the role of the eleven year old son, was entertaining to say the least, however, his acting lacked the subtlety apparent in that of the other actors.

With the family tuning in to listen to a radio drama, the second story, Platform No 3, begins with Omar Akhtar performing an original piece Nazar, composed by himself, on his acoustic guitar. A story of two estranged individuals, Platform comprised confessions of a college infatuation by Sarah, played by Amna Iqbal to an arrogant Asad—intent on leaving—played by Amean J. Throughout their conversation, Sarah seems reluctant to let go of what happened, or rather what did not happen, between Asad and herself with Asad focused on moving ahead with his life, preferring to leave the past behind. Natasha Mokarram delivered well in terms of clarity of speech and expression, but her timing was a bit off. Holding an open folder with papers stacked in it, one wondered whether Amean was carrying his script around or whether that was just a prop meant to compliment the role of Asad as the lawyer, the role that seemed to come naturally to him.

Finding ourselves back with the family around the breakfast table, the third story Meri pyari Su, is introduced as a letter mistakenly delivered to the wrong house and is read by Imran Khan, dressed in a full black veil, playing the role of Su’s childhood friend. The letter is about the adventures of two friends, their many loves and their many marriages. Read in a manner similar to that in old, sub-continental movies and punctuated by giggles that invited laughter from the audience, Imran khan delivered the punch lines in the letter to perfection. The audience loved him; and after the satirical humor in the first and the seriousness in the second act, Meri pyari Su proved to be the perfect ending to a pleasant evening.

Although in the first showing, the sound system fell short of delivering clarity of speech, it was a pleasure to see that this problem had been rectified in the second and third showing. For a first performance that was sold out within two days of its announcement, K’la did well and as a group, seem to hold promise. Omar Kasmani, on naming the group K’la says, “We do not want to restrict ourselves when it comes to theatre. We have a lot of other skills. I have a background in classical dance, Amean is a photographer, there are other people who have theatre background, someone can sing and so on. Our objective was to keep such a generic name so we could fit in all kinds of performances. K'la is a result of that thought”.

*chickens was supposed to be "chics", it got edited to "chickens" somehow.

First Published:
Images
May 28th, 2006

The June bug

[Over view]
June seems to be the scheduled month for the launch of the albums of three major bands in the industry— Fuzon, Aaroh and Sajid and Zeeshan. For the latter it will mark the debut of their first album while for Fuzon and Aaroh it will be an opportunity to show how they have matured and are not just one-hit wonders.

Fuzon’s highly anticipated second album, which currently remains untitled, will be released after a gap of about four years since their first. They had initially scheduled the launch sometime between March and April, but have since delayed proceedings until the first week of June. The overall sound of the album is supposed to be a little more upbeat and aggressive as compared to their debut, Sagar, while still maintaining the Fuzon element. The album will see them evolving more towards pop rock. The title track of the album is Neend na aye tere bina, the video of which will be directed by Sohail Javed. What is interesting to note is that the actual recording of the album didn’t take that much time—eight songs were recorded in 11 days.

Having already released two videos from their second album, Yara and Pyar ka jaal, Aaroh’s second album will showcase the guitar skills of the latest addition of their band—lead guitarist Haider. They haven’t come up with a title of their album, simply calling it Aaroh. Where the old album had a very serious dark–romantic element to it, this one attempts to deliver a lighter, funkier sound while still maintaining the old–school Aaroh touch.

The album will also display Haider’s song writing skills as according to Farooq, (vocalist and founding member) almost 90 per cent of the songs in the album have been composed by him. Shafqat Amanat Ali has also composed a song in the album titled Aik chah. With this new album, Aaroh hopes to explore the lighter side of raag.

Meanwhile, after making a mark among both fans and critics with the release of their debut single King of Self last year and bagging an award for their single Freestyle Dive, Sajid and Zeeshan will release their debut album sometime in mid–June this year, titled One Light Year at Snail Speed. Embodying the Sajid and Zeeshan sound—a fusion of acoustic, bass, percussion and house music—the album has both up– and down–tempo tracks. The album contains one jazz inspired instrumental track and also a song composed by Fasi Zaka. Sajid and Zeeshan haven’t restricted the album to an overall theme and will see them exploring different sides of their personalities and issues close to their heart.

It remains to be seen whether Fuzon’s second album will live up to the success of the first and whether Aaroh will prove itself able enough to rise again after shedding its controversial past. It will also be interesting to observe whether Sajid and Zeeshan can manage to further the small revolution they have started and carve a niche for themselves in the music industry.

*Photographs: 1) Sajid and Zeeshan, 2) Fuzon, 3) Aaroh

First Published:
Images
May 14^th, 2006

Animated Conversations
[Digi Art]

From being virtually non-existent to becoming an industry-in-the-making, animation finally seems to have taken off in Pakistan. Spider decided to talk to those involved – both veteran and promising newcomers – on how they see the current animation industry and the factors affecting its growth.

Company Profiles:
Sharp Image: Founded in 1994 by two entrepreneurs, Tahir Moosa and Amyn Farooqui, Sharp Image evolved from having its premises in a small 10x12 room to a state-of-the-art studio and lab equipped with facilities for 2D and 3D animations, design, post-production and special effects. Having built up its reputation over the years, Sharp Image has managed to carve a significant niche for itself in the market with its expertise in 3D animation and special effects and have completed more than 900 projects so far. Their clientele include high-profile companies such as Procter & Gamble, Unilever, J. Walter Thompson, Page 33, WAM Films and Ambience Films.

Post Amazers: Generally acknowledged as the largest post-production and animations house in Pakistan, Post Amazers was established in January 2002 by Asif Iqbal with the objective of providing local producers and directors an alternative to going abroad for the post-production of their projects. Striving to provide a world-class standard, its services include a wide range of post-production, animation, art direction and broadcast design facilities. They have done work on the film Son of the Mask and gained popular acclaim after creating the character of “Captain Safeguard” for Unilever Pakistan.

Zeeshan Parwez: A resident of Peshawar and considered a “revolutionary” director by many die-hard fans, Zeeshan Parwez is a film-maker and music producer by profession with a Masters degree in Marketing from Peshawar University. Having founded an AV studio eponymously called Zeepar Studios, he has been making documentaries and music videos for several years. He has his own show on Indus Music called “On the Fringe”. He also has to his credit the “Freestyle Dive” video which won the Indus Music Award for Best Breakthrough Video.

Ali Kapadia: One of the most promising newcomers in the multimedia and animation industry, Ali wowed Pakistani viewers with the direction of his first video for the band Evolution’s song “Mujo Mei”. Holding a degree in Information Technology, Ali is also a double multimedia champion, having won the Softcom (ACM GIKI) for two years in a row (2003 and 2004). A perfectionist to the core with an experimental attitude, Ali’s area of expertise is actually interactive media.

Interview:

Q. How would you describe the animation industry in Pakistan as it stands right now?

Sharp Image: Generally speaking, it’s very good. I think the only difference at the moment (between the Pakistani industry and the international industry) is that of scale. And by scale, I mean there is less manpower, investment, time et cetera. If we start to take care of these factors and if money is invested, people will learn. The only thing that is lacking here is a background in art. Our “art” is not mature at this point when it comes to the animation industry. But yes, work is being done.

Post Amazers: Currently, I think it’s a very small industry, if I were to make a rough calculation, it would involve not more than a hundred talented, what I can call, professionals in this industry. So it’s a very small industry. In terms of business again, it is not a big industry. I would say not more than a million dollars. Which is worth nothing. I don’t think this industry is big enough to even be called an industry.

Zeeshan Parwez: You can't really call it an industry at the moment because the only animation work that is going on in this country supports a few major projects. A few brands such as Safeguard, who took the initiative to promote their product using traditional 3D animation as their target film for children... and it worked like anything. For my nephew, Spiderman and Captain Safeguard are one and the same thing. These projects are highly corporate-based because big organisations have the financial clout to carry out such a project. We would have had an animation industry if we had full-length cartoons as well as half-hour cartoon follow-ups, indie animation movies, anime festivals and more animated music videos. To my knowledge, I think there have been just five or six partially animated videos in this media boom period that we've been facing.

Ali Kapadia: Right now, we've got loads to learn. Not in terms of technicalities but in terms of aesthetics, standards and especially team building. I've seen the work of some of the most brilliant animators, designers and artists from Pakistan. But unfortunately, most of these people end up making cookies jump out of a box and into a cup of tea. When you turn on the TV, it seems as if these great artists don’t even exist. Anyone would say we are far behind but in reality we’re not. I think we are at a point where we are beginning to realise that importing expensive mega computers and learning all those techniques is not enough, we need something else. What we need is a special breed of people, crazy maniac people, rebels who argue against the current standards, who eventually get discarded by their own employers for their stubborn nature and end up working on their own experiments. Belief is an important role player here, belief in one's ideology and ideas.

Q. Has the industry been evolving? How?

Sharp Image: It is definitely advancing everyday. Compared to what has been done in the international market, there is still a lot that needs to be done and there is definitely room for improvement. If we get some truly enthusiastic people in this industry then that’s very good because it is a form of art. I don’t think the industry is in a mature phase right now but it is definitely a start. People are now becoming more and more aware.

Post Amazers: Before, I think some four years back, there was no such animation industry – in terms of anything happening in this country, in terms of character animation or story telling. The animation that was going on before was all about product animation. They made a Dalda container or a toothpaste tube – things like that, or anything related to the basic advertising component of animation. Until now animation has bee dependant on the advertising industry. I don’t think the advertising industry is the only one that can bring up the animation industry. The reason being that if you take animation to a higher level, then you are talking about children's programmes, feature films and other things which don’t currently exist.

Zeeshan Parwez: I can now rightfully say that animation standards and output quality are increasing day by day because post-production houses are delivering amazing work. There was nil evolution in the 1990s when a little bit of traditional 3D was used to replicate the product or animate the brand's name in many TV commercials. For me, real work started off some time around 2002 in most of the post-production houses. Since then, quality animation and compositing work is being done in TV commercials and promo movies. Many freelancers are getting modelling work from Hollywood as well.

Ali Kapadia: It has evolved enough to make a statement. The kid can speak now – big deal. People won’t pay attention until the kid says something interesting and for that, the kid's brain needs a certain type of intellect. Now, if there are some brains out there who disagree and branch out from the standard, they bear the pain of being the only people who adhere to their ideology. They will end up making a masterpiece that hasn’t been created to sell a soap but rather, is solely a piece of original imagination and belief. That is what makes industries evolve.

Q. What do you look for in an animator?

Sharp Image: To give expression to a character, you create lines. You can’t expect that from an MBA. It is a combination of art and science and hence is considered “digital art”. It may not be conventional art but it starts from conventional art. A person who has an inclination towards art and who has a developed aesthetic sense as a result of that interest is preferred.

Post Amazers: What we look for is basically traditional skills in art. So, we look for drawing, we look for sculpture or traditional painter. What happens as a result is that we get the basic talent and then 99 per cent of the time, we provide them with in-house training. Up till now, there has been no proper training for animation in this country. One should invest on people who have the skills to be an animator because animation is about feelings, it's about acting, it's about creating a life and a model, whether on paper or on a computer. We look for traditional fine art skills and not technical skills because the latter we can provide within six months to a year.

Ali Kapadia: Respect for details. It's all in the details. The more observant an artist is, the more detailed his artwork will be. Again, you need a personality that takes your mind far enough to fetch those details and then come up with an interesting way to implement them. You need to be a khuar.

Q. What would you tell someone who wants to enter the industry?

Sharp Image: If you want to do anything in animation, first acquire skills in traditional art. If it is too late, try to learn how to draw and develop your own aesthetic sense so that you may be aware of different perspectives, angles, proportions, anatomy et cetera. Because when you sit down to make something, everything comes out in a very haphazard manner. You may start out making a boy but might end up making a girl.

Post Amazers: Animation requires, like any other art, a lifelong observation and feeling about it. If a person decides to enter into it all of a sudden, then it won’t work. The good thing is that in every nation and every culture there is a certain percentage of people who are inclined towards art. If these people come, then they will be more successful than people who don’t have the observation or required skills. My advice would be that required skills and passion are mandatory. It’s a very tough profession takes a lot out of you. It’s not 9:00 am to 5:00 pm situation. Unless and until you are well equipped with the skills, it’s very difficult. So, until you have those skills, you cannot draw on a piece of paper and you cannot draw on a computer.

Zeeshan Parwez: What I can suggest is one should hit the books, install filter screens on their monitors (for long hours of work), have a proper mindset to achieve something, have coffee and then start their computers. I knew nothing about serious animation. I just had a clear way of how to go about it with 2D animation and I made "Freestyle Dive" without any help here in Peshawar. Man, if a lazy guy like me could do it, trust me, anyone can.

Ali Kapadia: There are two things to do. First, get yourself a dream. Without this, you are headed nowhere. Second, run towards your dream. Make your way towards it no matter what it takes. Negotiate with obstacles: start getting used to bearing physical limitations, staying tired, overworked, sleepy. You have to work like an insane maniac because there is no other way. Forget what the elders say. It's true, they really don’t know what’s best for you. In the words of Nadeem Farooq Paracha, "stop talking to your parents, start talking to your dog". It's stupid to say money makes the world go round. What makes the world go round is energy. It's not philosophy, just simple science.

First Published:
Spider
May 2006

Green
[ music box ]

Quietly stepping into the local music scene with their single Hum Na sometime last year, Rung managed to stick around long enough to release their debut album “Green”, the title subliminally delivering national connotations as well as hints at what the band stands for—something fresh and pleasing.

The album contains the Rung classics Hum Na and Koi Janey Na, both of which haven’t lost their charm and still appeal to the listener greatly. They have managed to stand out with Koi Janey Na easily tempting the listener to tap his/her feet as they listen.

The album kicks off with the appropriately chosen Naey Rung, an intriguing number with beautifully composed music which would have been perfect except for the fact that the vocalist simply screams in–totally uncalled for. One notable thing about their track Behissy is that it has a really good bass line. Tu Mila starts of surprisingly well—a little upbeat but slows down near the middle and continues the same way till the end.

Saath Saath, Kahan and Sochna turned out to be pretty mediocre with Sochna leaning more towards the forgettable; the weakest song in the album. Mairi Duniy is a fun track to listen to, though it gets a little monotonous during its chorus. Bin Kahey turned out to be a treat to listen to; dominated by soft guitar music in the likes of Simon and Garfunkle, this track steps away from the typical Rung sound that the rest of the album embodies and manages to sound truly original. The album also contains two karaoke tracks, one for Hum Na and the other for Naey Rung which are available only on audio cassette.

The original version of Saath Saath wasn’t very impressive but the remix version rectifies that. Subtly done, it breathes a new life into the song and turns it into something worth listening to.

Overall, the album has been beautifully composed, particularly the karaoke numbers. The lyrics in most of the tracks, though, are pretty mediocre and don’t have much to offer to the listener.


First Published:
Dawn Images
April 30th, 2006