Powada: A trip to the rich culture and history of Maharashtra
This project of Creative Splash has an intriguing backstory. Back in the lockdown two years ago, we made a short film called “Yanda Hich Vaari”. This short film was an experience of Vaari as a whole. The short film was created by and for us. We poured our efforts into making the short film. After two years, a request for an animated film depicting Maharashtra’s history and culture was made by Ogilvy Agency. We presented the already-produced short film, and guess what? They cherished it. “Our work speaks for itself,” as we always say.




We were so happy that we got the project which we liked so much. Our client was Bahawa Entertainment. They shooted live-action footage. We decided to showcase the history of Maharashtra by using illustrations and animation.

Challenge:
The style that we were going to approach looked very minimal. To convince the client that we can achieve the visuals that they were expecting with this style was a task. The main challenge that we had was the transition from live-action to animated sketches. It needed to be handled smoothly without disturbing the visual flow.

Provision:
The ideas which were floating in our minds were put on a simple white paper with all the details one can ask for. The Storyboarding was made with details not only in the sketches but also with the camera movement. We provided them with a precise view of the video. And the client loved it! We knew we were heading in the right direction. After looking at the storyboard one could imagine what the final result would look like.




After the storyboard was well received by the client we started doing sketches. With 10000 lines and 50000 circles, the Illustrations took a shape. But before moving forward, we had to fill these sketches with colours to bring the soul into the picture. We purposely decided to keep the human figures in black and white and filled the colours only into the background. We chose warm colours such as orange, red and yellow to showcase the warmth of our culture and the rigidness of our history. These warm elements did the magic and brought life to the sketches.



Then we moved to our favourite part. Yes! You guessed it right. Animation! As you all know we love bringing life to static frames. To make this happen, we used Parallax Motion Graphics. It’s a bit difficult to understand but it takes your visuals to the next level. Parallax is not any kind of magic stick which will do its work with a single stroke. It took a lot of detail, hard work and knowledge to give realistic movement in the video. The compilation of the entire video was done using 3D Compositing. The animations and SFX (Sound Effects) enhanced the video and added beauty to the visuals.
The next thing was lighting. Lighting always plays an important part in any visual. Adding the right amount of light is a major task. The tones and the angles of the light change according to each and every situation. We achieved this by using VFX. By adding elements like musical notes and light particles we enhanced the visuals. It added a golden touch to the entire environment of the video. The transitions from one scene to the other managed to happen smoothly without disturbing the visual flow. At the end of the video, the transition from illustrations to live-action footage was creatively done using the camera-matching technique.







The Outcome

The client was mesmerized after watching the video. We achieved more than what they expected. The video got a positive

response from the audience. The rich culture and history of Maharashtra were reflected in each frame. This video added brand

value to the company. To conclude, we loved doing the sketches and animations with our unique ideas and creativity. We

stretched our abilities to achieve what we had imagined. The video was a great success. The video simply reminds everyone

about their history textbook.