Hindustan Times, New Delhi, Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Animation Gears For New Age
(Venkatesh Ganesh)
IT is like a cartoon character coming to life. India’s animation services industry is slowly moving away from merely performing basics tasks like giving touches for animated characters to even storytelling and conceptualization.
Entertainment majors like Disney, Dreamwork or Pixar which used to look towards India to provide such basics task are now increasingly looking at India animators for concepts and ideation for the next shrek.
Recently, for the first time an Indian animator company, Compact disc India, was asked to develop a 90-minute 3D animated movie title “Goal” based on Brazilian football legend Ronaldo.
The company will co-produce this film with canyon Films, a Howllywood production company and as a part of the deal will develop all animated characters, including that of Ronaldo, out of its offices Thiruanthapuram. Just a few days back, the company joined hands with White Light Entertainment makersto produce a movie titled ‘Playing with the Enemy’ and for which it will provide visual effects (VFX).
Similarly, Accel Animation Studios, another company based in KINFRA Films & Video Park in Kerla the first SEZ (special economic zone) in the country for animation and gaming companies, is working on the release of ‘South India Fables’ for Los Angeles based Long Tale Inc.
South India Fables is an animation series based on the ancient Tamil work of couplet5s, Thirukkural, which is being taken all over the world.
Indian animation firm are increasingly in demand –both as an outsourcing destination and for home grown content. India with its rich past and storytelling that can relates to the global audience is slowly beginning to make its mark in the West,” says Tapaas Chakravati, CEO of DQ Entertainment.
“In a few years from now, we would like to be remembered as an Infosys in the animation sector.” says Suresh Kumar, chair man, Compact disc India.
There is considerable interst in Indian mythology with it sheer variety, which companies on the west are looking to cash on, Chakravati said.” Now we are getting work from Disney, Nickelodeon Group, Mattel USA, Electroinic Arts World Wide, BBC WorldWide.”
Despite the laurels, still a bulk of the work that comes to India is of basic ‘color correction’ kind ,that is equivalent to low –end coding work done by Indian software exporters.”if you were to look at Indian animation, it still has miles to go before a Nemo or Shrek is conceptualized by an Indian company, says the CEO of a Hyderabad-based animation company.
dexigner.com
The global animation industry has crossed the 30 billion USD mark in the year 2000 and is rapidly in rise with the key players being USA, Canada and the European Union demanding more content for Television, Internet and Feature Films.
The focus of these countries is now on the Asian countries like Korea, Philippines, Singapore, China, Malaysia and India so that these countries can do the service jobs and also co-production with US and European countries.
The Indian animation industry pegged to grow at an unbelievable rate of 30% annually .This very upcoming and popular field of artwork is one of the fastest growing industries, which has a very high commercial value.
India is fast catching up with already established countries like South Korea and Phillipines and is garnering more service jobs in animation in the last couple of years. But still, the supply of animators in India doesn't meet the latest demand. The major reason for the same is very few established Animation Training. Source: http://www.dexigner.com/jump/news66.html
THE HINDU online edition:
Animation industry on a growth path
Shortage of manpower
The visual arts and animation industry is facing acute shortage of skilled manpower, according to R. Madhan, an expert in the field. The animation and filmed effects industry is projected to reach $ 108 billion in 2008 at a compound annual growth rate of 7.5 per cent. The gaming industry revenue is estimated at $ 55.6 billion by 2008. The e-learning market revenue is expected to touch $ 23.7 billion by 2008, according to him.
India's animation market is estimated to be just 1 per cent of the global animation content development market of Rs.1,125 billion. An unprecedented growth in the mobile subscriber base in India has provided the opportunity for Indian game developers to develop worldclass mobile games.
At present, mobile subscribers who are downloading games are about 2 per cent of the total number of subscribers. This is projected to increase to 4.5 per cent by 2010. The mobile gaming industry is projected to increase from its present size of Rs.200 million to Rs.2,600 million by 2010, says Philip Thomas, regional Manager of Image Infotainment.
Industry will grow by 12-14 p.c.
The television advertising market in India is estimated at $1,067 million. The growth of the television industry is primarily linked to the overall growth and development of the economy. With the increasing number of channels being launched, it was estimated that the industry will grow by 12-14 per cent, said Mr. Madhan.
Though the animation and gaming industry was tipped for very good growth, there was not much awareness on the scope and opportunity that the digital media presents.
The digital media being a discipline based on the convergence of art, science and technology, the industry needed more fusion artistes who can combine artistic and technical skills, says Mr. Thomas.
Meanwhile, a Kochi-based private entity, mobilebulls.com, announced the launch of mobile alert to benefit customers investing in the stock market. The customers who register with the company would be provided with price alerts for the required scrips.
The service would be beneficial to those who wanted to sell or purchase the scrips at a particular price, said Sailesh, Business Development Director of the company.
Source:http://www.hindu.com/2006/10/15/06hdline.htm<br/>
