Tuesday, March 5, 2013

ANIMATION

Animation industry looks promising

08th March 2010 03:40 PM














Avatar, the animation epic by James Cameron, happened a decade after the movie was born in Cameron's mind. Back then, Pandora, the  fictional planet or its inhabitants, were not even considered a possibility. But  animation, as always, took several leaps and bounds to make a man's dream come true. That exactly is the charm of this gargantuan industry; it runs on individual creativity .
Animation industry has never looked so promising, and this competitive, too. But there is the sad side of supply not meeting the demand, just because the ‘trained’ are always not the ‘skilled’ .
Unofficial figures would rate a whopping 50,000 students passing out of animation schools in a year in Kerala alone. With animation finding new horizons like TV channels, ads, gaming, education and even space science, it would have meant sure placement. But experts in the industry say there is a dearth of talent when it tails down to real production .
“Animation is a wonderful medium. It has various aspects as an art and aesthetic medium, as an education tool and as an industry but on the academic side, it is being exploited heavily. Numerous academies are sprouting up, promising advanced courses. They, however, do not take into account the creativity of the student. What happens is that these students, once out of these academies, find themselves totally in the dark about their future,” says K D Shybu, operations head, Vismayas Max Animation, Thiruvananthapuram. Viasmayas is owned by actor Mohanlal .
It may be due to the lack of a monitoring system in place to check on the syllabus of animation courses, a screening system to induct students to courses (like you have for professional courses) or the sheer inability of the students to realise that animation needs an-other-kind-of-creativity,  bordering on obsession and undying passion .
“Students must have drawing skills, a clear idea of acting, grasp of politics, extra dose of the understanding of art and aesthetics and not too obsessed with the money-part of it. Otherwise, go for engineering or opt for medicine, but don’t opt for animation,” says Shybu .
Hardwork and creativity have always paid off. Men from the south like Anand P G (Dreamworks), Dilip Varma and Nirmal David (who are with Rhythm and Hues studios) are names to reckon with in the industry. Nirmal and Dilip have been associated with the making of The Golden Compass and Shrek. Anand was a student of College of Fine Arts,
Thiruvananthapuram, before he began his journey. Sureshkumar, another animator from the South, is the man behind the animated images in TV ads, including Strepsils, Amaron  Battery and Docomo.  Vismayas Animation team creates the animated versions for the clip ‘n’ touch greetings for Facebook. Goes to show how in a shrunken world, it is easy to
enter into an international arena provided you are talented .
“Animation has grown into an alternate career option. But some people think learning Maya or any other software would make them be a good animator, which is wrong. This is a creative field and with soaring competition, you must have the ability to create value products,” says Radhakrishnan Nair, CEO of Toonz Academy and former CEO of Technopark .
Which means a student must be focused right from his/her teens if he/she needs to find a footing in this industry. It might mean 24x7 in animation. “It doesn't tire you out. Because if you are at the right place its fun. The ambience in animation just keeps you happy,” says Bibin Krishna, a student at Vismayas Max. Shybu winds it up wonderfully: “You need Rs 10 lakh to start a bakery. You need the same to start an animation academy. But if you see both with the same business eye, then the industry is doomed.” Right!  —asha.nair@expressbuzz.com  

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