An animation company in India expects its employees to produce 12 seconds of animation a day. At the same time Pixar, Dreamworks and many other high-end animation studios expect their animation artists to produce not more than 3-5 seconds of animation a day. |
"Almost 95 per cent of the animation done in India is outsourced work. Most of the Indian animation companies that do animation work for studios abroad often do only low-quality, high volume work," said Manu Ittina, director, Ittina Studios, an animation studio that was launched recently. Ittina has worked on movies like Shrek 2 and Madagascar. |
Some high-end works may be outsourced to India in the near future with the quality of animation improving. But this is hampered by a severe shortage of quality animators and people with the right aptitude. "The animator has to be a good actor to be able to capture the whole gamut of expressions and value of each gesture," said Ittina. |
Animation director of Ittina Studios Bill Miller, a product of the character animation department of California Institute of Arts, has quite a few ideas up his sleeve. He is a well-travelled artist, who has worked in places like Hollywood, New Zealand and Japan. |
Having worked on projects like Hercules, Mighty Joe young, Shrek 2, Madagascar and the newest version of King Kong with big companies, Miller wanted to get the feel of a start-up and joined his friend in the 'happening city' of Bangalore. |
India can grab a big share in the animation industry, which always aims at achieving synergy in production, says Miller. "The big studios give each part of the project to a specialist studio than do it all by themselves," adds Miller. |
While one part of the production may be done at one studio which has specialisation in the field concerned, another aspect may be outsourced to someone with specialisation in that field, many a time in another country. |
For instance, while modelling may be done at one place, the animation may be done at another and lightning in yet another. The $50 billion global animation industry holds much prospects for India as testified by Nasscom. |
But, the lack of artists with the right orientation is a stumbling block. "An artist can learn a software without much difficulty. But, getting a wannabe animator to learn an art is no easy job." says Ittina, who is seconded by Miller. Using artists trained in traditional art forms is one aim of Ittina and Miller. |