The Magical Mouse Wand - The Animation Industry
- Monday, December 10, 2007, 14:01
Dream and create mind spaces and get paid well for it.
“To mouse or not to mouse is the question?”. It is the mouse rather than the brush that’s going to help the artist express his or hers creative and innovative ideas. The animation industry provides a perfect avenue for such people. Dream and create mind spaces and get paid well for it. Even though animation was not considered such a viable option for many career oriented fresher, not so long ago, Animation is now emerging as a lucrative career option.
The Sensory Overload.
The first thing that comes to ones mind on hearing animation would be the classic cartoon figures like Mickey, Donald, and Tom and Jerry , or cult figures like Superman and Batman. The job involves not just creating such colorful characters but also a lot of effort goes into the conceptualization of such characters before they are animated. Thus it should be understood that the animation is a serious career option and not an avenue for making a fast buck.
An incurable itch to draw is a great reason to have such a career; classical animation involves the above mentioned creation and execution. Here the artist’s magic wand is pencil. This calls for not just good drawing skills, but also a vivid imagination to create a whole new universe for the character to live in. “A global perspective is needed to have a successful career”, says Felix Clement, a leading classical animator currently with IMA. However this should not stop the less artistically skilled people from pursuing it. High end softwares like 3D Max Studio and Maya comes to your rescue. Anyone can seek out a career in computer animation, regardless of any measure of artistic talent; as in the case of all careers one needs to be willing to put in the necessary efforts to achieve it. Computer animation is not an easy task; nor is it something that can be learned overnight and needs to be constantly updated. But if a career in computer animation is that one truly wants to follow, the effort as well as the end results will be enjoyable, rewarding, and fulfilling.
The idea is not to specialize in a mode like media or in technology or product design, but rather have a multi sensory design. The emphasis is on conceptualization and visualization of innovative multimedia applications and this is achieved through various related areas like interaction and interface design, visual communication, content structuring, user experience design, interactive storytelling, script writing etc This should be a wake up call for the people who thought that animation just for people who can draw well. There are job opportunities as author, editor, content provider, animator, designer, graphic artist, illustrator, operator, multimedia developer, multimedia systems analyst, producer, publisher, programmer, project manager, sound technician, musicians and video technician among others. It is the combined efforts of all these people which result in different T.V shows, cartoon series, computer and console games.
A fresher can join an animation house at a junior level with a monthly salary of Rs 8,000-15,000, and can become character animator or a modelling expert in three-four years. The salary at this level will range from Rs 25,000-35,000. One can earn as much as Rs 1 lakh a month if he or she has an experience of seven years.
The Indian scene
According to National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) estimates, the animation market in India is pegged at $250 million. With a 30% annual growth rate, the market may touch $900 million by 2009 .This naturally creates a great demand for qualified artists. Overseas entertainment giants like Walt Disney, Imax and Sony are increasingly outsourcing cartoon characters and special effects to India. “In the case of a Hollywood movie, 40% of the production budget is spent on post production, of which a major amount is spent on animation and special effects”, says Esho Thampy Mathew, Business Development Manager of Arena Multimedia .The reasons for foreign interest are mainly technical manpower to meet the 2-D and 3-D animation requirements and lower costs of animation production. “Even though there is great potential in the Indian animation industry, due to large production cost, the main clients are foreign production houses”, comments Mr.Clement. The advent of numerous domestic entertainment channels have also contributed positively for the development of the animation industry. Skill sets in 2D and 3D animation are leading to opportunities in segments such as TV programs and feature films.
India’s animation studios are catering to the requirements of various end user segments such as advertisements/commercials and computer games. Animation solutions are also finding a place in niches such as film titling, special effects, Web entertainment programs; TV broadcast graphics, 3Dmodeling and background development. In each of these areas extent or scope of services for an animation production company include offering services in animation production services, co-production and content creation.
A segment which is a potential platform of development, but not focused by the animation industry at present is online education CAD/CAE, and various industry specific applications such as architecture, medical, legal/insurance, etc.
The animation market in India today is characterized by the presence of multiple
players including Crest Communications, Films Division Maya Entertainment,
Silvertoon Studio, 2NZ Studio, Cine Magin, Climb Films, UTV Toons, Zee Institute of
Creative Arts (ZICA), Digital Studio, Pentamedia Graphics, Prasad Studios, Acropetal,
JadooWorks, Color Chips, Heart Animation, Ocean Park, Padmalaya Telefilms, and
Toonz Animation, Magic Shop, Moving Pictures, among others. These companies are
spread across cities such as Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Thiruvananthapuram.
Thiruvananthapuram-based Toonz Animation Studio is working on a full-fledged feature film ‘Tommy and Oscar’ for Italy’s Rainbow Productions. Toonz is also working on two original television series, ‘Maharaja Cowboy’ and ‘Paddy’s Page’, along with the project, ‘The Adventures of Hanuman’, which was released in India. Korean production house ANI21 has engaged Toonz to produce its new animated show ‘Twin Princes’.
Mumbai-based Maya Entertainment has produced special effects for ‘The Mummy’ and ‘Stuart Little’. Maya is animating short films, starring a character called Wabo, which the United Nations is using to educate worldwide audiences on the importance of fresh drinking water. Cartoon Network is buying animation films made in India, while MTV has added India to its outsourcing hub. A show called Jakers, produced exclusively at Crest’s Mumbai facility has been nominated for the Daytime Emmy awards and the company has signed on a pact with Lionsgate,which is a major Hollywood production house to produce three feature films in India.
Where to Join!
There are different types of educational and training programs available in the country ranging from six-month certificate courses to three-year Bachelor’s degree in multimedia. A small number of institutes like Industrial Design Centre (IIT Mumbai), National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, C-DAC’s NMRC have been encouraging academic thinking in multimedia application development. The private institutes which offer animation courses have plethora of courses which help one to learn from free hand drawing , Gesture Drawing (Rapid Sketching), Script writing-Story Boarding to high end software courses like 3D Max Studio and Maya. Of the various animation academies in Kerala few courses offered are as follows, Arena Animation Academy has Arena Animation Academy Specialist Program, 5 semester duration. IMA offers Hi End Multimedia With VFX, Diploma, 1 Year, Hi End 2D Classical and Digital Animation, Diploma, 9 Months, Hi End3D Animation, Diploma, 6 Months, Hi End Nonlinear Editing. Toonz-WEBEL Academy provides 1 Year Diploma in 2D Animation, 1 Year Diploma in 3D Animation and 3 Month Foundation Program in Animation. Xplora Design Skool presents Postgraduate Diploma in Multimedia, 11 months.
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