FOSSEE, IIT Bombay, And Whistling Woods International Hosts ANIMATE 2024
ANIMATE 2024, a 2D animation hackathon was organized by FOSSEE, IIT Bombay, in partnership with Whistling Woods International. The program was concluded on Friday, September 20, 2024, with an award ceremony at the Whistling Woods campus. The FOSSEE Project is part of the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Ministry of Education (MoE), Government of India.
This was the third consecutive year of the hackathon. This year ANIMATE 2024 saw a record 5,000 plus registrations. The event was themed “Celebrating India’s Innovation” and it was run between March 2024 to June 2024.
Veteran Indian filmmaker and educationist Mr. Subhash Ghai, actors Vikrant Massey and Medha Shankr presented the awards in the presence of Prof. Kannan Moudgalya, Principal Investigator of FOSSEE, Mr. Chaitanya Chinchlikar, VP & CTO of WWI and Dr. Sanjukta Ghosh, Head of Studies at Srishti Manipal.
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During the hackathon, students were provided free learning materials to master 2D animation software, Synfig Studio and other free and open-source tools, through the event’s education technology partner, Spoken Tutorial, IIT Bombay. Students were able to self-learn at their own pace, in their vernacular languages, making the event more accessible to diverse participants across India.
While praising the program Mr. Chaitanya Chinchlikar said, “Whistling Woods International has been partnering with IIT Bombay to conduct Animation Hackathon for the last 3 years. Open source software helps democratize animation technology to all. It’s very heartening to see so many students from across India, including rural areas, taking part in this competition”.
Prof. Kannan Moudgalya added, “Animation and video skills are crucial for India’s youth, especially with the Union Cabinet’s approval of the National Centre of Excellence for Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, Comics and Extended Reality. Seeing participation from tier 3 and tier 4 cities aligns perfectly with our mission to empower India’s rural population with high-quality education in their own languages. The response has been overwhelming and heartening”.
Dr. Sanjukta Ghosh emphasized, “ANIMATE 2024 empowers rural Indian communities to express their stories through animation and videography, fostering creative intelligence at the grassroots level. This event can nurture original thinking and creativity in rural India”.
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Harshini VM from Vellalar College, Erode, Tamil Nadu, whose team won the first prize for Forest Protection shared, “We didn’t just learn Synfig Studio but also other tools like Inkscape and Openshot Video Editor, gaining invaluable skills. We are very grateful for this opportunity”.
Seikh Nabab Uddin from Dr. B.C. Roy Engineering College, Durgapur, West Bengal, whose team won the third prize for their animation on Beehive Cooler said, “We thoroughly enjoyed creating our animation and wanted to focus on helping rural communities. The Spoken Tutorial made it easier for us to learn in our preferred language”.
