About

India joy VFX summit 2022



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Saraswathi Vani balgam , Director , writer & creative producer at Dancing Atoms ,Los Angeles was invited as a speaker at VFX summit 2022 organised by Indiajoy & TVAGC held at HICC,
Hyderabad on Nov 1,2 nd 2022 .

Vani is a founder & director of Dancing Atoms - a boutique development studio that creates original animation content for pre-school shows, short films, live action feature films, & documentaries .She believes in bridging the gap between Asian & North American storytellers by bringing unique Indian stories to the global audience.

She is also an Unreal Fellowship Mentor producing over 50 unreal short films and works closely with experts in using the Unreal real-time pipeline for her preschool shows.

One of her preschools shows “Gannu “ was selected by FIAPF & WIA for the Stories x Women Program and pitched at Annecy 2022.




Gannu has a major connection with Andhra ‘s toy village “Kondapalli”  . Vani says “ I'm from Vizianagaram,  a small village in Andhra Pradesh and my grandparents would get us beautiful kondapalli handicraft toys that had lacquer color & finish that i have tried giving it in this show.”
Vani added - “ I was amazed to see how the animation industry is evolving and undergoing a sea change in India. New platforms for exhibition are proliferating, and animation as an art form is ready to move out of the children’s nursery. Animation is ready to take its place as the artistic equal of live-action filmmaking”.
On sharing her views on National XR policies ,Vani said that - “The Indian government must encourage both major and minor businesses in the industry because they are both essential to the sector's success. As they both work together, helping the existing professionals and supporting new studios in growing is equally important.”

While presenting her thoughts on Virtual production - She believes that virtual production and in-camera visual effects will alter how we generate and deliver stories. Storytellers can now skip 2D entirely and leap right into 3D, saving enormous amounts of time and money.

On utilising ICVFX technology in her films , she adds - She is writing the story in a particular way to consider how to best utilize LED walls to develop an emotional connection with the stories and the characters. "


She actively encourages community development all around the world. She is currently the president of Women in Animation - India Collective . She was also the president of Asifa India, a non-profit organisation that has been dedicated to the art of animation for over two decades.

“My objective is to create a space in India for women creatives and animators. There is a huge creative talent pool in India with great potential in the animation, VFX, and virtual production fields. Through the WIA India Collective, I want them to have a space to connect and share their vision with the world,” said Balgam.
To know more about WIA, please visit womeninanimation.org or follow on Instagram, LinkedIn.


Saraswathi had coined the Unreal Epic Games Women Creators Program for India & SE Asia with the aim to inspire and train women creators and form a community of creators.




During VFX summit , She was also a moderator  on Mesmerising Magic of women creators where the women shared exciting glimpses into their films and had interactive session with the audience.