| The Indian animation market, fairly “static” until a few years ago and activity on this
front only began in earnest in the later half of the 90s when animation studios made an appearance in the country and the industry developed a more serious, export oriented outlook. India is now waking up to a host of global opportunities that promise a lot of “action” for the country’s leading design specialists.
According to NASSCOM study, the forces that are shaping the development of the animation industry in India include technical manpower to meet the 2-D and 3-D animation requirements, lower costs of animation production, the expected demand from domestic Indian television channels and the formation of domestic animation studios and training centres.
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.
A snapshot of the Indian animation market scenario in the 90’s:
1. The merger of two existing and leading design studios-Ram Mohan Biographic and United Studios-made available for the first time, infrastructure and resources required for animation. Design studios began teaming up with overseas animation firms, taking the co-producing or subcontracting route, and in this way upgraded their technical skill sets
2. By 1993, there were around 15 animation studies in the country, with three to four using IT tools and techniques. These studios were coming up in cities such as Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and New Delhi.
3. Leading animation studios included the Silvertoon Studio and Crest Communications, both of which took on subcontracted work from US, French and British studios.
4. Training in animation became more rampant, because some of the professionals have shown their interest to groom future generations of the animation and media related programs and also various organizations such as the Film and Television Institute in Pune offering three-year diploma programs in Animation. If some one looking for a firm foothold in the industry doesn’t look for the certificate or brand credibility, look for the professional training, professional training and professional training only.
5. India attempted to enter the global animation market in 1997 with the setting up of Heart Animation Academy, a specialized animation school established in Hyderabad.
India has several training institutes that cater to the demand of training animation professionals. Chief among them are the National Institute of Design (Ahmedabad), J.J. School of Arts, Zee Institute of Creative Arts (ZICA), Mumbai, Industrial Design Center (IIT Mumbai), IIT Guwahati, C-DAC’s National Multimedia Resource Center (Pune). Private training institutes include Arena Animation Academy (Mumbai) and Pentamedia Graphics (Chennai).
India’s animation studios are catering to the requirements of various end user segments such as feature films, TV programs, 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, 3D modeling and background development. Segments such as online education, CAD/CAE, and industry specific applications such as architecture, medical, legal/insurance, etc. are also potential platforms for animation, though Indian studios are not focused on these markets. Skill sets in 2D and 3D animation are leading to opportunities in segments such as TV programs and feature films.
To be continued............................ |
