Scope of Animation

The animation industry in India is expected to grow at a pace faster than the IT industry's! Animation as a career option is a field where you can fulfill your dream of "enjoy-as-you-work" , feel satisfied at the end of your day and get praise from your clients as well.

One can study animation, graphics and multimedia courses either as a full-time or part-time student. Several programs are offered like certificates, diplomas, and degrees etc. While admission into full time courses, i.e. diplomas and degrees etc is offered on the basis of entrance exam, admission into part time and short term courses is offered on first come first serve basis. There are many number of institutes in all major cities and towns of India, both private and government for providing training in animation, graphics and multimedia. Many institutes also provide internship and arranges for job placement during or after completion of the course.

As of 2015, the animation industry has matured in India and has moved on from being just an outsourcing facility to a creator of indigenous intellectual property as well. There are more than 300 animation studios in India as of 2015, which are estimated to have employed more than 15,000 animation professionals. As per the FICCI KPMG 2015 report, the year 2014 saw the value of VFX grow the highest at 22 per cent, followed by post-production at 15 per cent, animation production at 9 per cent and animation services at 1 per cent.

We can see that the animation, VFX, gaming and comics (AVGC) sector of India is only set to grow further. As of now, 20,000 (5%) people out of 4 lakh people in the media and entertainment sector are employed in the animation, VFX and gaming side. This figure is expected to rise to 30,000 by year 2017 and 4.4 lakh by 2023.


Career Options

Work opportunities for quality animators and related professionals like graphic designer, multimedia developer and game developer, character designers, key frame animators, 3D modelers, layout artists etc exists in following sectors at large-

• Advertising
• Online and Print News Media
• Film & Television
• Cartoon production
• Theater
• Video Gaming
• E-learning

Though, these are some examples only. Opportunities exists both with government as well as private sector enterprises. Animation itself is an industry, and as industry it’s on boom. There exist numerous animation houses both in India and abroad who work for clienteles. An animator and multimedia professional can also work as freelancer or start his / her own enterprise given he / she has entrepreneurial skills and funds for investments. Animators work in various capacities. 

Indian Animation Industry has Unlimited Job Opportunities

With a boom in technology and advent of new-age medium of news, the Media and Entertainment industry is producing numerous job opportunities and attracting a large number of people. It is creating plenty of jobs for every work level. Among this most of the students want to make their career as an animator, designer, visual effect designer and multi media designer.

Presently, almost every media house is using some or other form of animation. Animation is becoming the back bone of the media. Now, almost all the advertising agencies and advertising campaign are using animation to grab the attention of the target audience. Now, one of the biggest challenges which the animation industry is facing is the major gap between the supply and demand of talented and skilled professionals. This giant gap has been created due to the non availability of the enough human resources for this industry. Therefore, we can say that there is huge demand for good and skilled professionals in this field.

To get into this creative world one of the most important thing is to sharpen your skills of creativity. Creativity is something which you can not learn from anywhere, but to excel in this world you need to express it well in front of the right people at the right time. There are many colleges which are imparting quality education to students to train them for this creative world. To enter in field you need right kind of grooming and professional training. You can pursue graduate level courses after completion of your 10+2 studies. You can also pursue short term diploma and certificate courses. You can also opt for advanced courses in your chosen field.

Eligibility Criteria: In India most of the institutes offer diploma courses which one can pursue after completion of their 10+2 from a recognised board. Some institutes also offer PG diploma or other courses and the eligibility for these courses is minimum graduation or three years diploma course equivalent to bachelor's degree.

Top 5 Animation Schools in India

1. Arena Animation
2. Frameboxx Animation and Visual Effects
3. Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics
4. Toonz Academy
5. Zee Institute of Creative Arts (ZICA)

Future prospects: This industry has reached to new heights and dealing with the demand of the various private and public sectors in the field has become the need of the hour. One can make his/her career with production houses, advertising agencies, film production, TV programmes, computer games and cartoon channels and with various web sites. They can also work as freelancer or can work as faculty at various institutes. Thus the scope for students in this field is enormous and aspirants can get the right professional edge with perfect grooming.

The Animation and Gaming Industry in India: A report by Ernst & Young

The animation and gaming industry have undergone a metamorphosis in the past two years. The ride has been eventful from the highs of 2006-07 where expectations were immense to the lows of end 2008 where the industry hit the brakes on the backdrop of global financial meltdown. In the interim the animation and gaming industry has spread its influence across platforms, evolved new business models and emerged as the prominent sunrise industry in the country. This report attempts to encapsulate the evolution of the industry in the last two years, identifies the key growth drivers, examines the challenges, provides recommendations to the government and charts the road ahead.

Key Trends

The significant changes which shaped the industry in the last few years were:

• The shift from a pure offshoring services industry to the growth of domestic consumer market. In gaming, the mobile and console segments contributed to domestic consumption and animation entertainment segment took early steps towards domestic box office success.
• The services market, on the back of successful project deliveries moved up the value chain especially in animation with end to end animation movies being produced in India.
• Growth of sub sectors like custom content development where animation is used for education, training and simulation purposes and also the console gaming market with the entry of global majors like Sony & Microsoft.

Market overview

Animation

The global animation market was estimated at USD 68 billion in 2008 and is expected to grow at a

CAGR of 10 per cent to reach USD 100 billion by 2012. The animation industry in India was estimated at USD 494 million in 2008 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 22 per cent to reach USD 1 billion by 2012. The animation industry in India can be divided into the following key segments:

• Animation entertainment
• Animation education
• Custom content development and multimedia/web design
• VFX

In absolute terms, custom content development and multimedia/web design is the largest segment today, followed by animation entertainment, animation education and VFX. In 2012, custom content development and multimedia/web design is expected to remain the largest segment, followed by animation entertainment, VFX and animation education.

The growth drivers in the animation industry in India are:

• There has been an increase in the size of the domestic animation market as well as the outsourcing market.
• Cost arbitrage is the key driver for development of foreign movies in India.
• Proven credentials, international quality and on time delivery capabilities are helping Indian companies get offshored work from foreign studios.
• The industry has moved from a pure offshored model to co-production model in some cases. The Indian studio brings in the manpower and infrastructure to develop the movie and the international producer will finance marketing, distribution, etc.
• The increased interest of Bollywood and regional cinema industry for animation has also helped the industry.
• With Internet advertising growing along with bandwidth, more complicated multimedia content is being developed for the web.
• The growth of new media and interactive platforms.

Gaming

The global gaming market was estimated at USD 36 billion in 2008 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.5 per cent to reach USD 53.6 billion by 2012. The Indian gaming industry was estimated at USD 167 million in 2008 and is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 49 per cent to reach USD 830 million by 2012. The gaming industry can be divided into the following key segments:

• Online games
• Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG)
• Casual
• Mobile games
• PC games
• Console games
• Regular
• Handheld

In 2008, the console gaming segment is estimated to account for the largest share of the Indian gaming market, followed by mobile gaming, online gaming and PC gaming. In 2012, console gaming is expected to retain market share and still account for the largest share of the Indian gaming market, followed by mobile gaming, online gaming and finally PC gaming.
The growth drivers in the gaming industry in India are:

•  The growth of the gaming industry from 2006 levels is primarily driven by increased  consumer spending on gaming.
•  The services side of the business is propelled by captives set up by international publishers of    mobile game development, BPO support for MMORPG games and development revenues  from PC/console game production, game art, etc.
•  By 2012, the movement up the value chain in services, resulting in more end-to-end offshoring  work, is expected to contribute to the growth of revenue from development services. Domestic  outsourcing is also expected to pick up, especially in the mobile and online gaming segment.
•  Original IP development in domestic and international markets, which is at a nascent stage,  will  gain  in significance in coming years.
•  Falling console prices and increasing mobile and broadband penetration are expected to give a  fillip to consumer markets.

Key Challenges

Animation

Despite the significant progress made by the industry the growth is shackled by many issues and
challenges. In the animation sector prominent challenges are:

• Lack of quality resources, limited training institutions and non standardization of curriculum resulting in talent crunch
• Limited domestic demand for animation due to limited promotional budgets and restricted theatrical distribution
• Lack of funding for the sector and scarcity of long-term project financing for animated movies.
• High infrastructure costs for studio layout, pipeline setup, render farms etc. restricting scale of animation companies.
• Lack of incentive to develop local IP with the economics favoring offshore development versus investments in indigenous IP creation.
• Majority of the animated content in television is adapted foreign animation leading to low uptake of domestic TV animated serials
• Lack of wider distribution and retail points for animated home video /DVD content
• Relatively smaller VFX budgets and restricted use of VFX in Bollywood and regional cinema

Gaming

The gaming sector has the following challenges:

• Lack of trained man power in the industry who have the skill sets to develop end to end games and have worked in advanced NGN pipelines
• Infrastructure related issues like high cost of consoles, non availability of adequate bandwidth, non availability of SDKs etc
• Pirated copies of gaming software and tampering of consoles in still wide spread in the country
• Acclimatizing the Indian population to gaming which is relatively a newer form of entertainment and not integrated into the Indian culture.
• Lack of original Indian IP and quality games with local themes which can spur the Indian market
• High import duties for gaming hardware and absence of well defined policy for the growth of gaming industry

5 new animation trends for 2015 that will change everything

From apps to Online ads to big screen movies, these animation trends are set to dominate

Whether CG or traditional, animation isn't just about the big Hollywood movies. It's a discipline in demand across a range of media channels, from apps to advertising, websites to music videos and beyond.

Plus the distinction between live action and animation is narrowing all the time, as shown in two of the biggest hits of the year, Guardians of the Galaxy and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, which depended as much on the believability of their animated/motion captured characters as much as the 'real actors'.

In this article, I'll look back at some of the most notable developments of the past year and the animation trends that are most likely to continue into 2015...

1. Mixed Styles

So what trends can we identify in 2014's output that can show us what's ahead for 2015? Let's start by looking at Disney/Pixar and their latest feature, Big Hero 6.
Based on the Marvel Comic about a Japanese Super Hero team, the film concentrates on the relationship between Hiro Hamada and the robot he creates, Baymax.

The film has been well received by cinemagoers in the US, and with its mix of western and eastern stylistic influences is receiving plaudits for its visual originality.
With an entire generation of Western animators influenced by the likes of Hayao Miyazaki now coming to the fore, we can expect this cross-continental mix to grow more and more important on both sides of the Pacific.

2. The rise of NPR
If a mixture of styles is becoming much more prevalent throughout the world of animation, so is an increasing reliance on NPR (Non-Photorealistic Rendering). This is where, rather than a CG animator striving to create a realistic world, the 3D software is instead used to create impressionistic animation that's much more like hand-drawn media.


As an example, Psyop's latest piece for AirBnb, Walls and Chains, is evocatively analogue, but throughout you can see where CGI has aided this beautiful piece.
A lot of this kind of work is run through specialist software such as CelAction, which can be used to create an illustrative style which can be then animated more easily than in applications such as After Effects.

Part of the reason for this trend is that the animation tools have become so advanced that photoreal CGI is now more straightforward to acquire thanks to advances in render engines such as Arnold.

To my mind the greatest achievement in 2014 was the work by Animal Logic for The Lego Movie where every single brick was CGI, but with a desire from CG team to create a look as if the Lego was being shot for real, hence Depth of Field equivalent to a macro lens and glorious scratches and wear on the minifigs and bricks.

3. Organic Influences
Another thing to note in both the Psyop's AirBnb and Lego Movie is that the animation befits the medium the story is told in. This ability to mimic organic media, ranging from film to watercolour, is not just about capturing a 'look'; it's about understanding the properties of the medium in question.


Girl Hub by Man vs Magnet is an excellent example of this, where motion graphics meld with traditional stylised animation to create a truly memorable piece.
Another good example of this is Riot Games' The Harrowing from Elastic, famous for their Game of Thrones title.
The Harrowing is an brilliant execution of using CG animation to create 'realistic' objects (in this case, string puppets) but in an environment that would be costly or just impractical to build using traditonial set building techniques.

Now here's an example in completely the opposite direction. Instead of using CG for the creation process, The Outside Collective worked with production company Brain London to mix traditional media (in the form of spray paint and a empty warehouse) with advanced post production techniques, to quickly turnaround this viral for the new Little Big Planet PS4 game.

4. CG-generated stop motion
The trend for mixing CG and traditional effects reached its zenith this year with the release of Laika Studio's Boxtrolls. While a stop motion film, using traditional photography, CG and VFX tech was used extensively throughout the production pipeline from VFX either as standalone graphics to create set extensions and more complex animation, or to augment existing practical elements. It's a trend many other animators are likely to draw inspiration from in 2015.

5. Use of 3D Printing
The Boxtrolls is also notable for its use of 3D printing to build the practical models – something has finally come mainstream in a huge variety of creative disciplines. Laika were able to utilise the latest in technology to augment their already excellent traditional skills, and you can read more about how they went about here.

Global Animation Industry 2015: Strategies, Trends and Opportunities

The rapid advancement of technology has made computer animation available to the masses and the animation industry is one of the fastest growing industries. The demand for animated entertainment has expanded with the increase in broadcasting hours by cable and satellite TV along with the growing popularity of the Internet. In the past, animation series were aimed at children aged nine and below. In recent years however, TV stations have been producing animation series for teenagers, adults and the whole family. Animation series like The Simpsons and King of the Hill have been successfully aired on prime time TV. The major markets include the United States, Canada, Japan, France, Britain and Germany. Licensing operations for T-shirts, caps and other items have also been a major source of revenue for animation companies. In Japan, several successful computer games have crossed over and have become animated series like Pokemon, Monster Farm, Power Stone and Detective Conan. More broadly speaking, animation is increasingly used in video games, and movies are also increasingly reliant on animation and computer graphic special effects.

Another key trend we are witnessing is the outsourcing of animation content to Asia. This market is increasingly being tapped by North American film and television program producers. The major factor behind this shift of computer animation production to the Asia/Pacific region continues to be the availability of low cost, powerful computer animation platforms and much lower labour rates in the Asian and Pacific Rim countries compared to North America and Europe. The bulk of the outsourcing happens for 2D animation content with some amount of 3D content.

ECONOMICS OF ANIMATION COPYRIGHTS

Animators face a long and daunting obstacle race to bring their works to market. First they must find a producer prepared to speculatively develop and package the work to an offerable stage. This typically involves the creation of a 'pilot' episode or sequence, plus extensive artwork, scripts and the gathering of commitments from key production facilities and personnel. Next the producer must secure an international consortium of broadcasters, distributors and sales agents prepared to commit to the production - international because no single, local market outside the US offers prices sufficient to underwrite a major animated work. The buying consortium in turn must be supported by a panel of investors or lenders prepared to cashflow production against the consortium's 'presale' and distribution commitments, which are normally contingent on delivery of the finished work. Even at this stage, there is typically a shortfall or 'gap' between the production cost and the presale commitments, which must be met by a third-party investor or else absorbed by the production team in the form of wage deferrals or the foregoing of profits. Only then, often after many years of effort, can the work attempt the final hurdle, of consumer acceptance.

From an economic perspective, the creation of copyright works is a tenuous enterprise, characterised by high levels of risk and low average rates of return. This is not merely a local perspective: it is the same for copyright creators the world over. Even the Hollywood studios earn only a break-even return on their copyright investments, and rely on the 'upstream' profits of distribution for their corporate viability.

DYNAMICS OF COPYRIGHTS

How can such low average profitability be reconciled with the tremendous popularity of movies, animations and other copyright-based entertainments? To answer this question requires an assessment of the dynamics of copyright markets, noting in particular:

- The long chain of intermediaries linking creation with consumption, each deducting their costs and profits before the remainder is passed on. The copyright market resembles a pyramid where the revenues flow from the top to the various entities below.
- The zero-pricing of entertainment products in the main, free-to-air television markets, which are fully funded by third-party advertisers, so that consumers pay only by their attention to the advertising messages. Customers do a trade-off, whereby consumers accept their preferences in return for free entertainment. Web-based subscriptions systems may overcome this approach in the future.
- TThe market power of ruling intermediaries who are the broadcasters and distributors who dominate the world market for content. Globally, there are about five or six corporations which between them command 70-80 per cent of the main media markets; locally, their power is further concentrated so that a matrix of international media power would show a cross-linked and vertically-integrated network of interests. 

Marvel’s Mutants Return in Trailer to ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’

Fox has released a trailer for its upcoming comic book adaptation X-Men: Apocalypse, the eighth film set in the X-Men universe.

The film brings to the screen the fan-favorite villain Apocalypse, who first appeared in the pages of X-Factor #5 and #6 in 1986. Directed by Bryan Singer, the movie follows En Sabah Nur, the world’s first and most-powerful mutant, who has been worshipped as a god since the dawn of civilization. Upon awakening after thousands of years, he is disillusioned with the world as he finds it and recruits a team of powerful mutants, including a disheartened Magneto (Michael Fassbender), to cleanse mankind and create a new world order, over which he will reign. As the fate of the Earth hangs in the balance, Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) with the help of Professor X (James McAvoy) must lead a team of young X-Men to stop their greatest nemesis and save mankind from complete destruction.

The film also stars Oscar Isaac, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Olivia Munn, Lucas Till, Evan Peters, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Alexandra Shipp, Josh Helman, Lana Condor and Ben Hardy.

It’s due in theaters May 27.

Hockey, Ballet and Flash Combine to Create ‘Curse of Clara’ Holiday Special

Even if you’re not from Canada or have ever been to Canada, there are still a couple things about the country known to almost everyone: It’s cold there in winter, and Canadians love hockey.

So it should be no surprise that the latter element at least could find its way into an animated holiday special focused on ballet, as is the case with The Curse of Clara: A Holiday Tale.

The half-hour animated special, produced by Toronto-based Smiley Guy Studios, tells the tale of a young girl in 1972 at the National Ballet School who aspires to the lead role of Clara in the holiday production The Nutcracker. She finds inspiration in the form of Phil Esposito, who was a leader of the Canadian national hockey team that played an iconic eight-game Summit Series with the Soviet Union that same year, and is one of the game’s all-time greats. To Vickie, the image and voice of Esposito offers inspiration that leads her to defy expectations and land the coveted role — and an encounter with the real-life Esposito.

Producer and co-writer Jeremy Diamond says the project originated in 2013 when Smiley Guy was invited to make its first pitch to the CBC. The source is an autobiographical story by Vickie Fagan that was published in a family journal magazine and came to the attention of Smiley Guy Studios.

“We recognized its potential as a holiday special — especially for Canada: it had the Christmas Nutcracker element, it had the hockey element,” says Diamond. “And our instincts proved correct – they were really into it.
”Landing a development deal in 2014, Diamond and Fagan went to work on adapting the story into animation. “It’s basically the short story but it veers off significantly in that she never met Phil Esposito in the story and there’s a lot less action that way,” he says. “Bringing Phil into the story as a figment of her imagination and then as a real person was where we added to the story to put a little more holiday magic into it.”

Even without a final script, the CBC gave Smiley Guy the green light on June 1 — giving them about six months to complete the special.

Animation director Mateusz Garbulinski, who has been with the company since its start in 1998 as a new-media producer, says he was excited by the project and also anxious about the deadline.

Garbulinski says the company has, from the start, used Flash as its primary animation tool. “I would say in the last three or four years we’ve really been trying to push it to the breaking point,” he says. “It’s like, how far can we push Flash to make it look good enough so you wouldn’t even know it’s Flash?”

Flash is not the easiest program to work with, Garbulinski says, but good animation shines through. “Every day, I’m amazed with the results and how much control animators can actually have using this program,” he says. “These are just single drawings that are being squashed and stretched and skewed to create these really nuanced, almost micro expressions that really come through in the characters.”

The key to making the final product look un-Flash like is to give it a second pass, or what Smiley Guy staff refer to as 2½-D. “That second pass is fabrics and secondary action,” says Garbulinski. “So on Vickie’s ponytail, as she’s jumping through or she’s dancing, her dress is following through. That’s not cheated, that’sGarbulinski says he has always tried to push his animation ability to improve and has encouraged the same in his colleagues.

“I don’t think there’s a single animator in the world who doesn’t want to develop their skills and I know everyone wants to work on a high quality project,” he says. “It’s kind of my own personal goal to really bring out the best in the animators. That’s where people find themselves invested in a project and become more contributors than workers.”

One of the more difficult aspects was needing to animate characters dancing ballet, especially with former Prima Ballerina of Canada Victoria Tennant as producer on the project and scrutinizing the accuracy of the animators’ work. classically animated; that’s frame-by-frame animation.
“(Ballet) is such a specific thing that doing your research was really important,” says Garbulinski. “Almost every single animator had a YouTube video playing some sort of ballet performance (for reference). It’s through osmosis and observation that we were able to get these ballet moves to look somewhat authentic.”

With six or seven principal animators focused entirely on performance and about 10 more working on the rest of the project, production moved at a quick pace.

One of the more fun aspects of the project was getting Esposito to voice his younger self. “He had acted before in Rescue Me, so he had some acting chops, and he was a real pleasure to work with,” says Diamond. “I think he brought that character to his character.”

The final shots were delivered on time and the special will premiere Dec. 14 in Canada at 7 p.m. ET/PT on the CBC, with an encore to air Dec. 25 at 5:30 p.m. ET/PT. Viewers outside of Canada will have to content themselves for now with some clips while awaiting international sales for the special.

Animation In India In Dire Need Of Good Content And Marketing

NASSCOM Industry Report says, the money earned by Indian animation and VFX studios from global projects has steadily increased over the past decade.

Near the end of 2013, the animated movie Mahabharat was released and was touted as "India's most expensive multi-starrer animation film." The voice actors included the who's who of contemporary Indian cinema. Amitabh Bachchan lent his voice to the iconic character of Bhishma; Ajay Devgan was Arjun; Sunny Deol was Bheem and Vidya Balan was Draupadi. None of the actors charged any fee and yet, the movie had a budget of Rs 50 crore. After the first week, it managed to earn just Rs 1.5 crore.

Mahabharat was a phenomenal flop.
But much of it had to do with the low quality animation that people ended up watching on-screen. And the studio blamed for such below-par work was a Juhu-based one called Pen India Pvt Ltd. Surely, there was nothing wrong with the story - Mahabharat is one of the most popular epics in the world. And the voice-acting was top-notch. So the only factors behind the debacle were the quality of animation and marketing.

Is Outsourcing killing creativity ?
Yes it is killing the creativity. Like many other industries, animation in India earns most of its revenues through outsourced projects from American and European studios. According to a secondary research presented in the NASSCOM Industry Report, the money earned by Indian animation and VFX studios from global projects has steadily increased over the past decade.

While that is good news from a business standpoint, the increasing number of outsourced projects also means that the animators are constantly working under strict deadlines and their project work is always under remote supervision which hardly leaves any room for creative decision-making. For the global studios, the Indian animation talent is akin to a sweatshop where the designs and plans are already in place and the workers are only expected to execute them.

Such an environment not only tramples upon creativity but also leaves little time to pursue one's creative aspirations. The few animators who choose not to work for those studios often find it difficult to earn a decent living. This is because the domestic market for animation is quite small. In 2009, domestic projects only accounted for 30% of the total revenues the industry earned. The rest came from outsourced animation, gaming and VFX work.

Failure to woo the target audience
As animated movies are relatively new in India, one of the biggest mistakes happened in figuring out the right content for a particular demographic. If you were to look at some of the animated films that came from India and achieved very little success, you might end up thinking - here's a country where kids love Hindu mythology.

It might seem odd now but that's exactly what the producers had in mind when they released movies like Ramayan, Chhota Bheem, Ghatotkach, Krishna, etc. All of these feature stories from Hindu mythology and as India has the largest Hindu population, the producers just assumed that these stories would be popular. What a wrong assumption to make! What they don't realise is that these stories are already known to Indian kids and they are not getting anything new or original out of these films. However, the Indian film industry is partly to blame for this - originality has never been its strong point.

Animation film-makers of India need to learn from studios like Pixar, DreamWorks and Disney who come up with highly original scripts such as WALL-E, Kung-fu Panda, Madagascar, Toy Story, How to Train Your Dragon and more. On the other hand, the Indian audience must change their mindset and start enjoying good animated films. Discarding an animated movie as a 'cartoon' film is an indication that most Indian viewers still think that anything animated is meant 'for the kids.' If only our people grew up on Japanese Manga and Anime from a very early age...

Training Counts
Animation can be taught while sketching is a talent that is honed over a longer period of time. So, the first thing wannabe animators need to know is that you need to love art, drawing and sketching. In India, people often choose animation as a career just because it is a booming sector. Five years ago, they might have chosen biotechnology or marine engineering for the same reason. But that's not the way to go about choosing a career. There are a handful of really good schools in India for learning animation, illustration or design - such as the National Institute of Design (NID), Srishti School of Art and Design, J.J. Institute of Applied Art, Arena Multimedia, etc. Aspirants should target these schools instead of opting for short-term certificate courses that promise placement. Some of the best Indian animators studied in these well-known institutions. For instance, Vaibhav Kumaresh, a student of NID, is one of the most coveted names in Indian animation. He is the one who created Channel V's famous Sardar Simpoo Singh Sodhi and the Amaron Battery characters. Gitanjali Rao, an alumnus of J.J. Institute of Applied Art, won an award in Cannes in 2006 for her animated short, Printed Rainbow.

The future of animation in India can go either way. If we can come up with a few studios which will devote resources and talent for consistently creating really good content and art, the production will be on par with the industry leaders. A good marketing team can then sell it to the world. But without such initiatives, animation in India may just end up being a prop for creating logos for production houses and meeting deadlines for other studios who will get all the credit for creativity.

ENDHIRAN 2 ropes in International Prosthetics Expert Sean Foot

Rajinikanth’s upcoming VFX giant Endhiran 2 (Enthiran 2) has roped in prolific prosthetics expert, Sean Foot, to create a new Rajinikanth altogether. Sean Foot will supervise a special make-up test for Rajinikanth from 5-7 December at Chennai.

Having started his career under the aegis of New Zealand-based special effects powerhouse Weta Workshop, Sean is best known for his extensive work in the Lord of the Rings series which earned him accolades for his incredible work on prosthetic creation which were surreal to the naked eye.

The International make-up artist, Sean, has also worked in Indian cinema for the recent astonishing film ‘I‘ that portrayed a different form of make-up all together. Along with director Shankar, Sean worked on one of Vikram’s stunning make-overs of a disfigured face that gave the viewers a different character representation with a palpable essence.

Endhiran 2, apart from having the rock star Rajinikanth, has roped in Amy Jackson to play the lead heroine. AR Rahman will compose music for the project and Nirav Shah will call the shots. So, the film already has big minds at the helm and Sean Foot has added to the bunch of creativity to make the project more quirky.

And to add to the thrill, VFX specialist Srinivas Mohan, who enchanted the viewers with the recent box-office blockbuster Baahubali, will take charge of the entire visual effects for Endhiran 2. Definitely, in terms of special effects and prosthetic upshots, this film seems like a power packed project led by creative minds.

Animation "India as the outsourcing hub"

The current size of the industry is estimated at US$ 247 million and expected to grow at 15-20% per annum. The Indian animation industry employs over 80,000 people.

India’s animation sector is growing at a rapid pace. Indian animation companies and studios have been moving up the value chain to create their own intellectual property rights. Global giants such as Walt Disney, Warner brothers and Sony have been outsourcing animation characters and special effects to Indian firms. Though the animation industry has often been clubbed under the technology sector, entrepreneurs say the business is 70 per cent art and only 30 per cent technology. This is why small enterprises driven by the passion of art-loving are bagging notable deals.

With the emerging of the animation industry and outsourcing demands, various animation companies have emerged across India. Cities such as Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Trivandrum are becoming the country’s major animation hubs. These companies own high-tech studios, employ high-quality and highly-skilled engineers and are backed by state-of-the-art equipment. These companies offer a full range of services from 2D animation, 3D animation, storyboards, medical animation and animatics to product demos, viral videos, illustrations, logos, banners, portraits and caricatures. They also provide special animation services customized to the clients’ needs.

The reasons why global entertainment firms are flocking to India are as follows:

a) The cost of animation production in India is one fourth of North America and about 35 per cent lower than countries such as Korea and the Philippines. The key countries outsourcing animation production work to India include the US, the UK, France, Italy and Spain, states a report.

b) India has the second largest entertainment industry in the world. Animation studios in the country provide a large pool of low-cost, high-quality software engineers. A number of Indian animation companies have set up hi-tech studios (equipped with state-of-the-art hardware and software) to execute overseas projects.

c) Large English speaking workforce which effectively overcomes the language barrier. A number of animation companies in the country are also creating skilled manpower for the animation market through various training programs.

d) Numerous individual training programs are available from leading advertising and media institutes in the country. These institutes offer various programs in animation and digital production.

India’s animation entertainment sector has experienced a major boom over the last few years. The current size of the industry is estimated at US$ 247 million and expected to grow at 15-20% per annum. The Indian animation industry employs over 80,000 people. The cost of outsourcing one of 2D animation work to India is about US$ 71,000. Demand for animation production services from India is growing with the emergence of an organized animation production sector, with state-of-the-art of work required for international TV program production, at substantially lower costs.

Growth in the sector will be further achieved on the back of increased outsourcing contract work, higher content in movies, more 2D/3D conversion projects, demand for animated TV serials, licensing and merchandising of popular characters. The trend also intrigues the establishment of numerous new animation companies and animation-related training courses in schools and outside. All these developments will drive significant growth, both in terms of revenue and participation in the value chain and will position India as a leading country in animation production and outsourcing.

KIDOZ Opens Platform to Developers

KIDOZ, the COPPA compliant children’s entertainment solution, is launching KIDOZ NETWORK and opening its platform to kids’ brands and app developers. The new offering is based on proprietary technology which was previously only available on the KIDOZ Mode content discovery platform (used by leading device manufacturers and carriers including Acer, Hisense, Polaroid, US Cellular, Deutsche Telekom, KURIO and more).

Through KIDOZ Network, app developers can embed KIDOZ technology as a content recommendation tool inside their apps to increase engagement and generate revenue in a kid-safe way without ads or in-app purchases. Kids brands are also able to promote their content directly to millions of young users on the KIDOZ Network.

In support of this expansion, KIDOZ also announced that it has raised $3.5 million in new funding from Millhouse Capital owned by Roman Abramovich and CIG Capital. KIDOZ is set to open offices in New York and China in 2016.

20 VFX Contenders Advance in Oscar Race

The Academy has announced 20 films that will advance to the short-listing round in the Best Visual Effects Oscar race for the 88th Academy Awards.

The films are listed below in alphabetical order:

• Ant-Man
• Avengers: Age of Ultron
• Bridge of Spies
• Chappie
• Everest
• Ex Machina
• Furious Seven
• The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2
• In the Heart of the Sea
• Jupiter Ascending
• Jurassic World
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• The Martian
• Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
• The Revenant
• Spectre
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens
• Terminator Genisys
• Tomorrowland
• The Walk

The 10-film short list will be announced later this month, with nominations to be announced January 14. The Awards ceremony will be broadcast live on February 28.