The EdTech platforms have revamped the traditional way of classroom learning with their meticulousness in designing and execution of the student’s curriculum which is a perfect amalgamation of progressive pedagogy and state-of-the-art technology. And thanks to the dedicated teams at BYJU’S, they have made it possible for the company to become a household name by creating the virtual world and offering an immersive learning experience.
Senior art & media director Soumya Choudhury who had dropped Biotechnology in the final year to pursue a dream career in art and animation, shares his insights on how creativity, technology and commerce are coming together to create such platforms and contributing to new-age learning.
Hailing from a family inclined towards art, he got the right support to realise his dreams. Choudhury has bagged Dadasaheb Phalke Award (7th edition) and Kolkata International Short Film Award (6th edition) for his short animation film CLICK. His greatest contribution to BYJU’S has been to introduce rich and quick concept art, matte painting, and 2.5D environments that have tremendously boosted the visual qualities of content created. This enables the teachers to take the support of hyper-realistic visuals while teaching.
In an in-depth interview with Animation Xpress, the creative genius who is passionate about teaching explained the intricacies of education technology platforms where each creator needs to think from a teacher’s perspective and also deliver amazing visual content and works of animation that would be engaging as well as informative.
“It has been an amazing journey from the time I have been a part of BYJU’S. Any artist will know that the most challenging aspect of servicing clients is the number of iterations that are involved in the creation process to live upto the visualised outcome. BYJU’S has always focused on making immersive and engaging content for every child. From User Interface (UI), accessibility, immersiveness, and more – we ensure every process is done thoroughly to make our products a success. Every team member has to put on the hat of an educator to create the final product for students. This is not a job of one person, but a team of creative and competent minds,” he said.
For the team at BYJU’S, film and animation have quite a complicated production process where they need to have a sense of the final piece that a student will consume before they start spending time and resources into creation.
“This is where detailed concept art comes in that helps with quick prototype iterations before the final product path is locked in. The mood, the pedagogical flow of content, the focus of consumable elements between frames, the overall learning world – these require iterative inputs from multiple stakeholders before a student is exposed to that piece of content. The whole process brings in the pedagogs, teachers and designers onto the same page,” Choudhury revealed.
The senior art & media director further mentioned, “Using filmmaking tools, and adding elements to concept art and storyboarding is our USP that has helped in deciding and developing the looks of various products, streamlining visual content communication, production cycles, template creation, VFX planning, and motion graphics design. The number of versions in our review cycle of the finished artwork has been reduced, thereby reducing overall costs. With time, more cinematic environments and more powerful immersion were an inevitable result.”
Explaining about the hyper-realistic visuals he said, “In regards to matte paintings and 2.5D, it is essentially creating virtual worlds that the teacher invites the student into, from the comfort of their own space. It isn’t visuals for the sake of making the video ‘look good’ alone. The idea of depth and parallax brings a sense of altered realism and immersion while learning. Design experts, with tools of 3D blocking and low-fidelity art, have helped us tackle many visual challenges in a much more impactful and efficient manner. The greater fun was up-skilling and building/working with great teams.”
The pandemic pushed millions of students around the world into virtual learning. As a result, the way education products and services deliver learning has shifted dramatically. With the distinctive rise of e-learning, teaching is mostly done remotely using digital tech platforms. This transition from the classroom in many parts of the globe made students, parents, teachers and even governments explore the possibility of adopting online learning through virtualization.
Asked if virtualization of education impacted the quality of what is being taught, Choudhury opined, “Given the current circumstance, I believe that virtual learning is the best learning process one could opt for today. Research also indicates that audio-visuals are processed 60,000 times faster in the brain than textual information. Images, videos and sound convey a richer experience than text or diagram based content alone. Content, the king of the education world, is not being looked at for information dissemination alone, but for effective content consumption and learner engagement. Be it synchronous (hybrid or classroom) or asynchronous, newer and redefined models are being employed by educators to deeply understand and serve what each child needs. As mentioned earlier, the impact of the virtualization of education has influenced teaching and learning for the better, while also giving meaningful data to further continuously improve the process.”
The Award winning animation director explained that there is a whole lot of tech in EdTech! It might not be physical per-sé, but experiential learning is much better facilitated than the rote methods that are prevalent in classrooms around the world.
“Synchronous co-participation sessions are facilitated through many powerful tools; simulations and learning games do a lot more than give dopamine hits by engaging students actively as they create powerful learning experiences for a large number of students. This breaks the physical and logistical constraints of the traditional methods that aren’t really built for scale,” the BYJU’S mentor said.
The genius who took to painting and depicting stories through art when he was just three years old feels anyone with even a speckle of creativity can pursue a role in digital art and animation. With the right tools, environment, trust and support, every child can follow their heart and identify the true spark at an early age.
Sharing a leaf out of his life’s mantra, Choudhury said, “As an individual and as an artist, I work on developing my skills each day so that I stay updated with the state-of-the-art technologies and software. ‘Learn, Unlearn and Relearn’ has become a necessity in this lifelong learning journey as it plays a vital role in shaping the future.”
