Discreet—Entertainment’s secret ingredient

Till a few years back, special effects and multimedia were alien concepts to most Indian filmmakers. Even the few adventurous directors who understood the benefits of using technology had a tough time using effects. But the situation has reversed today with filmmakers trying to outdo each other on the money invested in special effects. We have one company to thank for this change—Discreet, says Stanley Glancy

30 percent of all big budget movies today have major special effect components as compared to a non-existent market a couple of years ago, says Pankaj Kedia

The Last Samurai, Spider Man, The Lord of the Rings, Minority Report, Star Wars, and The Matrix—other than being mega-budget Hollywood productions these films have one more thing in common. Each relies heavily on Discreet’s visual effects to provide mind-boggling special effects and animated features. Closer home, Star Entertainment Television’s amazing Cricket World Cup 2003 promos, which won the Promax & BDA Asia 2003 award at Singapore were created using Discreet’s systems.

NDTV, B4U, Sony, Zee, Star—all these TV channels are dependent on Discreet’s software products to create channel logo effects and captivating promos. The world of television and advertising might have been the first to discover the magic of Discreet’s products but Bollywood has not been far behind.

Take any recent big budget Bollywood production and it’s highly likely that Discreet had a major role to play in the final output. Thanks to the company’s products like Flame, Inferno, Lustre, Flint, Smoke, etc, the blue sky in those song and dance sequences actually look the way you always imagined it to be. And so did the Sun in the famous surya namaskar sequence in Mohabbettein, and the white Egyptian desert sand in the family melodrama Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Gham.

And if you have wondered how it’s possible to capture those sound-barrier breaking fighter planes on camera, or any of the other seemingly impossible stunts or scenes in movies like Jajantaram Mamantaram or Koi Mil Gaya you have Discreet to thank. All those planes were computer-generated images.

If you are an avid gamer, have you ever wondered how it’s possible to create those games, which provide you hours of interactive entertainment. Yes, even here Discreet has a major role to play. Prince of Persia, Grand Theft Auto, Quake and Tomb Raider—all used 3ds max, Discreet’s popular desktop software.

But Discreet’s image is just like its name; those who are not involved in the intricacies of film-making or gaming have never ever heard about Discreet. One can either blame this on the lack of awareness about the possibilities opened up by technology or on the phenomena being so recent that not enough time has passed for the word to spread. Or as those at Discreet put it, their products don’t attract attention to themselves. They can be seen by watching network television and feature films or by playing some of the games mentioned above.

The journey

Discreet or Discreet Logic, as the company was then known, came into existence in the year 1992 with the development of ‘Flame’, the first ever software developed exclusively for compositing. This brought about a revolution in the feature film business worldwide. Prior to this, special effects were done optically, on the traditional physical medium. This was a minimalist restrictive process.

Then the company developed a high-end product called ‘Inferno’. It was used big time in Hollywood. In 1995-96 Discreet unveiled its online finishing product, a high-end editing software. This helped bring about a big difference in the finished product compared to what was actually shot. Fire and Smoke fall under this segment.

In the same year, Discreet became interested in the Indian film market. At that point in time, India was a big film market with more than 500 films being churned out every year. Though in terms of quantity this was a huge market, there were no special effect elements. What interested Discreet was the sheer quantity of films produced. The company wanted to foray into this market and play a key role in the development of the special effects market here.

Discreet set up operations in India in December 1995. By then the company had already established its presence in most film markets worldwide. The market that took off quickly in India was the advertisement post-production market where Discreet systems found a large number of takers.

By end-2000 Discreet has managed to garner an 80 percent market share thanks to the absence of any significant competition. The market had also grown to 35-40 systems from the two Quantel systems that multimedia firms Western Outdoors and Crest had. The Quantel technology was hardware-based, while Discreet’s was software-based. This enabled the company to come up with quicker releases.

Good content, good instructors and infrastructure are the three key areas that need to be tackled to make quality manpower available to the industry, says Raman Madan

In 1999, the company achieved significant success in the broadcast market. Over a period of time all the major broadcast companies decided to get high-end infrastructure in-house. According to Pankaj Kedia, regional manager-South Asia, today all big national broadcasters in the country with in-house systems are Discreet’s customers. NDTV, for instance, decided to do all design development in-house and so went in for Inferno, Flame and Smoke. Star, Sony, B4U and all other major channels also do their promos in-house.

In March 1999 the company was acquired by Autodesk, one of the largest PC software companies in the world. Autodesk also owned another company called Kinetix, the developers of 3ds max. Kinetix was merged with Discreet Logic to form the present day Discreet. The intent was to have a single division for all entertainment products. Thus 3d studio max became a part of Discreet.

Though all Discreet offices became a division of the $1 billion Autodesk, including the one in India, from a business point of view, Autodesk continued to run Discreet as a separate brand. This enabled the company to leverage the brand image built over the years along with the goodwill generated among multimedia and animation specialists. Though separate figures are not available for India, the business here has contributed significantly to the $140 million that Discreet worldwide garnered last year.

Divided we stand

Till a year ago the company didn’t have the vertical division approach. But with the sudden growth in the broadcast market and also the increasing usage of special effects in both feature films as well as television serials it became imperative to put in place clearly defined roles.

Broadly, the company has divided its business into two divisions—systems and software. While all the expensive high-end products fall under the systems division headed by Pankaj Kedia, cheaper, channel-intensive desktop products are categorised under the software division led by Raman Madan, regional sales manager, Animation and Desktop Video, South East Asia and India.

Discreet is focused on four key markets—film special effects, broadcast design, high-end post production and animation. The company boasts 70-80 percent market share in each of these segments, except in the animation space where it faces severe competition from Maya. Quantel and Avid have a presence in the high-end post-production and broadcast design space. In fact, in offline video post-production Avid is the uncrowned king.

In the 3ds space Discreet has 60-65 percent market share, as Maya and SoftImage have a significant presence in this space. Both have a significant share in the after effects and digital fusion space. The company has introduced Combustion in this space, and is looking at growing its market share. With the TV advertising market itself estimated at Rs 6,000-Rs 8,000 crore the opportunities are certainly vast. For the Systems Division, the main issue continues to be lack of awareness. A major part of its business continues to be repeat business. Though this speaks volumes about the quality of the products, it will be some time before the company actually sees the market taking off in a big way.

Currently, the company is following a two-pronged strategy of overall brand building and market development. While in the 3ds space the company continues to combat piracy, perception and value association, in the systems business the company is attempting to increase awareness on what special effects (SE) can do for films.

Systems division

Today, special effects have become part of mainstream cinema in India. Growth expectations are at an all-time high. Not very long ago, in 1997-98, there were only four movies that boasted of special effects. And each had featured a minimum of 10 seconds to a maximum of a minute of animation, with most of it being concentrated in song sequences. That things have changed is apparent from last years’ mega hits like Koi Mil Gaya, J2M2, etc—which featured considerable special effects. According to Kedia, 30 percent of all big budget movies today have major special effect components. From less than a minute of special effects a couple of years ago the industry has come a long way.

This sudden growth spurt was the key reason why the Discreet management decided to set up separate divisions. All turnkey solutions, which the company makes—hardware and software—fall under the Systems division, including high-end products like Inferno, Flame, Flint, Fire, Smoke and Lustre. The company also provides Stone and SIG systems. Stone is a high performance fibre channel storage system with its factory in Montreal, Canada.

Interestingly, even traditional movies that are not special effects-centric now feature considerable minutes of special effects. Though this has largely gone unnoticed, from a film producer’s point of view it has become an important production tool. Most producers have devised their own unique ways of using special effects. Many use it for enhancing movie production. For instance, the complete title sequence in many Bollywood movies is done digitally today.

Though this might not seem much, the volume of business generated is amazing. If a three-minute title sequence is multiplied with the large number of movies that are churned out each year it amounts to hours of special effects. Even the promos are now completely stylised

thanks to increasing budgets. Transitions from one scene to another are also being done digitally in all high budget movies, which includes 50 percent of Bollywood productions. And, if Kedia is to be believed, Discreet technology had a huge role to play in this transition. According to him, the players bringing about this change are all Discreet customers.

Says Kedia, “India entered the scene very late. We were at least 30-40 years behind Hollywood. The Star Wars, for instance, was produced in the 1970s. But in less than five years we are already doing digital colour grading, which shows how much we have matured in a very short period of time.” One of the key reasons for the rapid growth has been the renewed focus on international distribution. Producers have realised there are large revenues to be made in the international market. But the US, the UK, Australia and Europe are all mature markets, making it imperative for Indian movies to match international standards. The multiplex revolution, with pristine, high quality screens, has also contributed to the focus on quality.

Software division

The software division is further divided into animation and desktop video: All shrink-wrapped software, which run on PCs fall under the purview of this division. 3ds max, which contributes to 35 percent of the business, also falls under this division. Discreet’s animation software include 3ds Max and Character Studio. The company has also developed Mental Ray, exclusively for rendering. Other key software products include Plasma, Combustion and Cleaner. The company boasts of a 75 percent market share in each of these areas.

According to Madan, the software business has been growing at a CAGR of 40 percent year-on-year, which is also an indication of where the animation market is headed. Discreet recently appointed Aditya Infotech as its distributor for software products. Aditya Infotech, with its 17 offices spread across the country, is now responsible for driving the business for Discreet. The company had an existing relationship with Aditya for its systems business. Now it plans to set up separate teams for the two divisions of Discreet.

Madan believes that support is key to building the business. The company regularly brings in experienced professionals from abroad and conducts special sessions for key accounts. This has helped in transforming the relationship from that of vendor-customer into a strong partnership, one of the key reasons for the high amount of repeat business that the company boasts.

But rampant piracy continues to be the bete noire of this division. According to Madan, the piracy rate for Discreet software is almost 90 percent, which is significantly higher than the current industry average. Discreet has started an extensive anti-piracy campaign. Towards this end, it has appointed a legal counsel for South East Asia and India, and also a dedicated software compliance manager. The effort has definitely paid rich dividends. It has not only helped in creating awareness but also in increasing business avenues.

Catch them young

And watch them grow. That’s the strategy that Discreet believes will take them places. The company focus has continually been the education market, especially the trained manpower segment. Discreet sees huge opportunities in sectors like architecture, interior decoration, engineering companies, and product design companies. But it has to break the mindset barrier before it can make any headway. A doctor for instance, doesn’t have the time or the skill sets required to create a 3D image. By taking multimedia to the school level, Discreet plans to create a new generation workforce well-versed with the intricacies of Discreet’s technologies. This would ensure that multimedia is used at all levels. CBSE has already approved 3D as part of its vocational course.

Discreet also introduced an Education Training Partner Programme (ETPP), a local programme indigenously developed to meet the requirements of the fledgling Indian animation and multimedia industry. The intent was not to have a large number of centres but to improve the quality of available manpower. The software is made available to certified centres at almost one-third the actual cost of the product, the intent being to introduce seriousness rather than revenues.

For a centre to be certified by Discreet each trainer at the institute has to pass certain tests conducted periodically by the company. Also, the trainer is required to have extensive experience using Discreet products.

Though Discreet has developed its own courseware, the centres are free to use their own content, provided it is certified by experts at Discreet. Content has contributed hugely to the success of the programme. Says Madan, “Improvement of talent is very key to the success of markets. We believe good content, good instructors and infrastructure are the three key areas that need to be tackled to make quality manpower available to the industry.” Each student is certified by Discreet. This has brought about uniformity in the quality of training and the skill sets of animators.

Today Discreet boasts 30 certified institutes across the country. Some of them are specific application-based centres, catering to a niche segment. According to Madan, around 1,500 trained people come out of these institutes every year.

Discreet is now looking at setting up centres for its high-end products. According to Kedia, the next step is to set up various schools for special effects, another one for broadcast and video post-production. This will be in place once the company has identified the right training partners. This won’t be quantity driven, as it will cater to a niche market requiring high-end specialised training.

Animated future

Pricing still remains a major issue thanks to the heavy customs duties the company ends up paying. Budgets in India are much smaller compared to those abroad. So the affordability of its products is a problem area. Though this issue is being tackled successfully, availability of highly-skilled trained manpower continues to be major issue in its growth plans.

Also, the banking and financial services community is not very open to this industry due to a lack of understanding of the medium. But Kedia believes this mentality has been undergoing a slow change over the last couple of years.

Discreet India is also responsible for the South East Asia markets, especially ASEAN countries like Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Though the markets here are not as big as India each of these countries have large broadcast markets. Even the post-production market is very mature in these countries, as they started off before Mumbai became a big market. New markets are emerging in countries such as Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Kedia plans to grow this market in the coming days.

In India, Discreet sees significant growth in the film space. The 3D game development industry is another market that has been witnessing slow but steady growth. Even worldwide, the gaming industry has been growing rapidly.

3D animation is also a growing market in India. Many animation houses in the West are looking at outsourcing work to India. It’s only a matter of time before we see a full-fledged 3D movie from India hitting the big screen. This spells another huge opportunity for Discreet.

High Definition Television (HDTV) is also taking off in India. HDTV is being used in the film making process. People are making films on HD and putting it on film, as it is a very flexible medium. The icing on the cake is that the quality is much higher compared to traditional video. Digital film is also happening slowly and is expected to ramp up big time in India. For Discreet, its investment over the last seven to eight years is finally bearing fruit.

Key strategies

Tap the young and make multimedia an integral part of their everyday lives. Fight piracy at all levels. Focus on emerging markets like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Develop markets in ASEAN countries. Provide support to existing clientele in terms of training and services.

Digital colour grading

The next big opportunity for Discreet is digital colour grading (DCG). The technology gained prominence with The Lord of the Rings, among the earliest movies to be wholly digitally colour graded. Traditional production techniques don’t allow much scope for creativity in colour. A movie is generally shot at different times over different days and across locations leading to colour imbalances. The digital process allows unlimited control over this process enabling producers to achieve continuity throughout the film. The beauty of the technology is that any section of the movie can be colour corrected to achieve the required effect.

stanley@expresscomputeronline.com