Indian animation charts new course on route to recovery

NEW DELHI: Economic slowdown has meant different things to different industries and though the economy has recovered, corporations have taken their lessons. The global phenomenon has left none untouched and industries have had to reshape the way they go about their business. The Rs 17.4 billion Indian animation industry has also found an alternate revenue stream in what was hitherto dubbed as ‘allied’ applications of animation.

From auto designing, and surgical models to fashion designing, engineering, animation has, over the years, found myriad uses and has been growing rather quietly while its use in media and entertainment has hogged all the limelight. But even as the media industry is faces a slowdown, studios working in specialized animation are growing fast, albeit on a small base. Industry estimates put media and entertainment as still providing over 70% of the industry’s revenue. But it is specialized animation that is growing faster, at about 40% (compared to media and entertainment’s 25% annual growth rate), and is powering the industry.

Twenty-one year-old Himanshu Gupta is a happy man. In his two years as a specialized animator, he has been able to steer ahead of his batch-mates at the animation school who, he says, are earning less than him. Himanshu is part of a 15-member team at Scientific Animation, a specialized animation and graphics company based out of Gurgaon.

Although small in size, the company counts multinationals like Johnson & Johnson and Genentech Pharmaceuticals as clients, providing them animated visual representations for training, and marketing purposes. The company makes animated videos teaching how to perform surgeries, using latest medical implements et al. Theses come in handy for doctors and surgeons. It claims to be growing at 30% per annum.

Similar is the case of Mint Infotech- a company that deals in architectural animation- making 3-D architectural walkthroughs. The company provides life-like virtual representations of prospective buildings. These help builders/architects market their version of buildings to their customers. Started in 2004, Mint Infotech is also growing at over 30% and has worked for organizations like the United Nations Organisation (UNO), Hospital Service Consultancy Corporation (HSCC) (a government of India enterprise) and National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC), India’s largest public sector construction company.

read more ......

Animation and Gaming industry to expand in India

Hyderabad: The latest report released by Ernst & Young titled 'The Animation and Gaming Industry in India' reports that the global animation market is estimated at $68 billion in 2008 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10 percent to reach $100 billion by 2012. The quality of animation has improved with the incorporation of 3D effects to enhance the visual appeal. Another key trend witnessed in global animation industry is the outsourcing of animation content to Asia.

Most of the outsourcing contracts in Asia are finding their way to India. The Indian animation industry can be divided into Animation entertainment, animation education, customer content development and multimedia/web design and VFX. The entire animation industry in India was estimated at $314 million in 2006, $494 million in 2008 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 22 percent to reach $1 billion by 2012. Custom content development and multimedia/web design is the largest segment today, followed by animation entertainment, animation education and VFX, respectively.

The global gaming market was estimated at $36 billion in 2008 and is expected to grow at CAGR of 10.5 percent to reach $53.6 billion by 2012. The mobile and online gaming are relatively new segment in the global gaming arena, but have grown rapidly to account for 29 percent (mobile) and 24 percent (online) of global gaming revenues. Game consoles are evolving into multi-functional entertainment systems, offering multiplayer gameplay on the internet, internet browsing capability and options to play high definition movies.

The gaming industry can be divided into online games (massively multi-player online role playing games and casual games), mobile games, PC games and Console games. The Indian gaming industry was estimated at $50 million in 2006, $167 million in 2008 and is forecasted to grow at CAGR of 49 percent to reach $830 million by 2012. The overall size of the Indian gaming industry represents revenues from the consumer market, services market and revenues from non-development activities such as services rendered as technical support to international gaming companies.

read more.....

India has potential to grab the global animation market

MUMBAI: The global animation industry is poised for exponential growth and India has the potential to grab a big slice of the market, according to Samir Hoon, special effects wizard and brain behind several Hollywood blockbusters.

"India has become an important outsourcing destination due to a large English-speaking population, adequate animation capacity in 12 studios confirming to global standards, state-of-the-art computer hardware and software platform and above all, the low-cost factor," Hoon, who has provided special effects for blockbusters like Star Wars, Jurassic Park and 101 Dalmatians, told reporters on Wednesday.

"The cheaper rate of producing animation in India has made it one of the upcoming markets in the world in the field of animation," he said.

According to sources in the industry, currently pegged at $550 million, the Indian animation industry is expected to mop up an additional $2 billion worth of animation business over the next three years or roughly four per cent of the projected $50 billion global market in 2005.

India is expected to be seen as an important destination for outsourcing as far as television and morning serials are concerned, Hoon said.

The demand for trained hands is one of the greatest challenging factors to ensure that India nurtures institutions and training programmes for churning out skilled hands, Hoon added.

Article Source:

Animate your career

This is the computer age, wherein technological advances have opened up a much larger canvas for artists to indulge in, and now it is the mouse, rather than the brush that is used to give vent to the artist's imagination. This has created innumerable careers that didn't exist earlier

Remember the movie, Twister, where a crow flew across the screen? Or Independence Day, where alien spaceships threatened the existence of planet Earth? The mind-blowing special effects in cartoon films, movies like Matrix or the more recent, Spiderman and even Indian movies such as Hey Ram and Hindustani and the special effects in Daler Mehndi’s famous music albums.

Behind all these breathtaking effects is — guess who — a multimedia artist at work who specialises in animation. Artists today do not just work with easels, palettes and brushes. This is the computer age, wherein technological advances have opened up a much larger canvas for artists to indulge in. This includes a plethora of activities, from creating a presentation style for a given topic, to visualising the graphic elements in an application and creating cartoon characters.

Multimedia technology is something that integrates video, audio, text and graphic components in an interactive format from movies to educational tutors. Its applications are wide-ranging, and career opportunities for multimedia specialists include high growth careers in music, publishing, graphic arts, films, television, advertising and corporate communications.

Basically, there are two main work areas for a multimedia professional. One is creation of graphics, animation and usage of audio-video. The other area is: application of multimedia for a range of usages including books, CD-Roms, corporate and marketing presentations, TV and films. Areas of work Radio, television, advertising and the film industry: Editors, together with the film directors, create their films with graphic designers who generate all the graphics and special effects on the computer. Often, this is handled in conjunction with sound recordists who add their inputs using multimedia to create results that truly blow your mind. Interactive multimedia: Multimedia specialists function as web designers and developers for interactive portals. With convergence and interactive technologies being developed every day, specialists in this area will be required for online education, and video conferencing.

read more....