Cycore Studios: Meet the self-taught animators taking Bangladesh to the intl stage

Cycore Studios was founded in 2014 and is a leading 3D animation studio of the country. Photos: Courtesy

Inside a humble studio, a team of skilled artists and technologists weave dreams into existence. 

With their digital wands, they sculpt virtual landscapes and breathe life into characters, giving them emotions as real as your own, converging imagination with reality in the process.

The process is akin to crafting a symphony, where each note is a meticulously designed movement, with each frame being a brushstroke of creativity.

Founded in 2014, Cycore Studios, is the leading 3D animation studio of the country. Without a question or doubt, they are the most sought after studio as well. 

The studio came into limelight through their 2020 groundbreaking feature film, 'Tomorrow.' Based on a story about climate change, 'Tomorrow' has received several international awards, including the Best Animation Film award at Cannes World Film Festival in 2021. 

Up until the international accolades came in, Cycore Studios only engaged in commercial projects with local clients.

"Truth be told, our studio really took off after 'Tomorrow.' With the release of the film and the honours that followed, it launched us into the international realm," said Murad Abrar, the founder of Cycore Studios.

"Right now, we are mostly working with big name international clients besides some renowned Bangladeshi companies and this feels truly unreal; how far we've come," 

The many designs created by Cycore Studios.

The beginning of Cycore Studios is a bit different from most other ambitious dreams. Although he built it from scratch, Cycore Studios was not a lifelong dream or childhood ambition of the founder, Abrar. Rather it was a result of him getting lured into the magical loop of 3D arts when he was still a student.

Despite lacking formal training, Abrar had a knack for 3D art and his fellow university mates always approached him for help with digital designs.

"I gathered a few other like minded people around me with similar skill sets and working on 3D projects on a regular basis. I was slowly but surely getting hooked into the world of animation and soon after, we launched Cycore in 2014," he said.

Cycore Studios started with a small, yet a very talented team; with most members being self- taught. While committing themselves to commercial projects, they also took up a project of their own. Years of hard work, struggle and experiments then culminated into their award winning film.

"We were not really expecting to win something so big with the movie. The core idea for it came out as a byproduct of a commercial project.  So we started working on it on the side. It was a delightful shock really," he said.

The production of 3D animated films is by no means an easy task. There are numerous complex tasks before, during and at the end of a project. From making the models to setting up the perfect lighting to portray the scenes, it takes a lot of hardwork and brainstorming. Even the director's job in 3D animation films is different from that of a conventional movie director.

When explaining the nuances of the process, Abrar said, "The production pipeline for 3D films are largely different from conventional ways. If we take 'Tomorrow' for example, we had to spend six months just planning things out. When we started making the film, we had to divide our small team into different areas such as environment design, character modelling and rendering."

Abrar further informed that 3D animation comes with a lot of hardware and software demands. The rendering process alone is a tremendous task, which requires a lot of time and the right choice of  hardware. 

"We use softwares like 'Autodesk Maya' and 'Zbrush' to create the animations and then render them to see the final outcome. Then comes the part of animating them, tuning the animation with the right physics and all that, so the final film looks like what we expect it to." 

Cycore Studio's last movie project is titled 'Rickshaw Girl', directed by Amitabh Reza Chowdhury, and was released in 2021. It too created a buzz among audiences who had already loved 'Tomorrow'. It also further pushed the studio towards greater heights.