Grants for animation works

THE Media Development Authority (MDA) is inviting funding applications for new animation projects under the International Animation Fund launched in partnership with FremantleMedia Enterprises.

MDA will co-invest up to $5 million for each qualifying animation project in any format, including television series, telemovies and theatrical features. Fremantle will be the worldwide distributor for the chosen projects.

Shortlisted projects, which must have a Singapore partner, will be required to do a face-to-face pitch to an evaluation panel comprising senior executives from MDA and FremantleMedia.

'We look forward very much to co-creating new intellectual property in and by Singapore's animation community in partnership with like-minded members of the animation cluster from around the world,' MDA's chief executive Christopher Chia said of the initiative on Monday.

David Ellender, FremantleMedia's global chief executive said that the partnership with MDA shows their 'belief in the animation resources Singapore has to deploy to the world market.'

Source: http://www.straitstimes.com

How To Select Best Animation Services Firm

With ever increasing avenues to advertise and promote your business, there are few methods as eye-catching as 3D Animation. The graphic design companies should be able to provide stunning 3D representations of your logo, characters, a concept you're pitching, or a catchy animation that illustrates a point. They should also provide prototyping of products you're trying to develop which really helps one visualize an idea. No matter the need or situation and the 3D team can provide powerful solutions that can bolster any business.

3D Character Animation

Nowadays, static and dull websites seem to be to out of the trend. Make your websites and presentations more entertaining and interactive. One way to liven your website is through 3D character animations. You should ask your creator to present you the most charismatic characters from the 3D world. Get character animation, flash character animation, character modeling, cartoon animation and all other kinds of 3D cartoon animation.

These 3D animation characters can not only have audio components, but move and express all the emotions you want to display. Using these 3D characters, you can make a lot of difference in the marketing and promotion of your services and offerings. The flash character animation should be created using the most advanced versions of flash and other animation tools. Hence, these characters will have real time body and lip movements. They can display all the emotions you ask for. 3d cartoon animations should be portrays of your imaginations.

These characters should be created as per marketing purpose and customer psyches. Only then these characters will make an indelible impression on the minds of the audiences.

Source: http://www.articlesbase.com

Prices for Facial Animation Announced

Cubic Motion has announced that its pricing range for facial animation in video games will start at $7 per second for low-complexity characters, rising to a maximum of $32 per second for the most complex characters currently possible in games. For low-volume projects there is usually a small per-character setup charge. Mike Jones, Cubic Motion's Director of Production explained: "We feel it's important for potential users of performance-based animation to know that the process can be extremely affordable."

The UK-based animation consultancy creates custom software for clients but also builds in-house pipelines for clients who wish to outsource their facial animation directly to Cubic Motion. Dr. Steve Caulkin, Cubic's Chief Scientific Officer explains: "The key to offering such low cost, high-quality animation for games is that we don't rely on a single pipeline or any particular technology - instead we have a scientific team who rapidly identify the appropriate technologies based on the particular project. Facial animation is far more diverse than many people appreciate, and what is right for one client may not work for another.

A lot depends on the choices the client makes about rigs and their chosen game engine. The client also has to think about whether a marker-based approach is best for them and whether audio-based animation may be an appropriate addition to the overall approach. As for specific technologies, a few years ago, choices were very limited, but now things have changed. For example, you only need to scan recent SIGGRAPH proceedings, to see just how many excellent techniques are available in the public domain. This fact, alongside the growing maturity of powerful open-source machine vision libraries such as OpenCV, is great news for all in the industry, but with this choice, navigating the space and identifying the 'best' solution has actually become more difficult. We're not tied to any single technology - instead we're trying to provide an expert-led gateway into custom solutions. The result is pipelines that are tightly crafted to a particular project, resulting in much lower overall costs."

Cubic Motion was founded in 2009 by Mike Jones, Doug Tate and Dr. Steven Dorning. The scientific team includes Dr. Gareth Edwards, co-inventor of the Active Appearance Model, and Dr. Steve Caulkin. The company's advisers include Professor Chris Taylor FrEng OBE, Associate Vice President of Research at Manchester University, and Andy Wood, a games industry veteran and director of Peter Gabriel's Real World. The company's future plans include a range of standalone products, particularly in the field of real-time animation.

Source: http://www.woodtv.com

Animation Business Quite Different From A Typical BPO

Indian icons in the information technology industry such as Infosys have often been tracked as true blue stories which serve as a beacon for any industry aiming to target the offshore space in services. Little wonder then that there are many companies that started out in search of the ‘holy grail’ of animation services — to be the Infosys of the animation world!

Public memory is very short, however, and almost no one knew about Infosys for over a decade before it became a corporate giant. At the time, it was a software company that honed its technical and management skills and evolved into a well-organised IT company before it saw a window of opportunity and could drive home that advantage.

The animation business is presently not comparable as there are hardly any companies (in the long form broadcast/theatrical sector) with that vintage and readiness to play such a game.

So, is this comparison with IT valid, and is animation all about technology play? Well, the entertainment and media business has been demonstrating substantial capabilities in the past decade. Although it is primarily content driven, its methods of delivery — including in the future the intervention of mobile and Net-based technologies — will make it a tandem technology plus content play.

Like the IT community did overseas, the electronic media has succeeded in delivering to both local and international markets locally created entertainment software in TV and movies. These media players have already demonstrated their global expertise in producing “live action” software! They now use repurposing or servicing methods to exploit their TV programming, to leverage already created libraries in world markets. But this did not happen as BPO (business process outsourcing)!

It happened because the local market was deep enough to allow original content to be produced. Finding additional revenues prompted the search for overseas pockets of consumers for a product/market extension. Animation has potential parallels in content production, provided the local markets find the financial ability to fuel such original content.

However, in my mind there is no controversy. While animation has several leverages through technology tools, it is primarily a media content business.Then, we come to the issue of scope for animation as a BPO business. For instance, how is the animation BPO business different from BPOs in other IT-enabled services sectors in India? In recent years, the BPO syndrome has caused a flurry among entrepreneurs and has caught the imagination of investors...

Source: http://www.financialexpress.com/