Animation fascination initiates a new boom in India!
By Ruchi Shrimali
Today, 2D and 3D animation has rapidly emerged as the chosen form of media for a number of applications – from cartoon movies to comics to children books to sophisticated animation movies. Mobile games and web apps are other genres that have boosted the demand for animation professionals in the industry.
In India, demand for animated toys, creative advertisements, computer games, and educational DVDs has been rising rapidly. Growing at a rate of 22 per cent per annum, Indian entertainment and media industry is worth Rs 29 billion annually. The gaming industry in India is growing at an astonishing rate of 68 per cent, which is still less than 2 per cent of the international gaming market.
Animation involves several steps – from conception and story boarding to character sketching to creating environments, character and mechanical animation, voice recording and digital editing. The demand for skilled animation professionals in all these fields is rising. See details about career in animation
The specialists in animation focus on one or more of these fields. Some of the most popular animation specializations in India are:
- Modeling, that offers expertise in evolving designs, shapes, and bodies of 2D or 3D animated objects through gesture drawing, sketching, clay modeling, moulding, or digital sculpting software.
- Texturing, where professionals add depth and character to a scene by using shading, colours, and painting.
- Lighting and photography are very important in making a scene look realistic.
- Rigging is lending life to your animation model. It is about how an animated object will move or look like in a particular scene. It is often done through C programming.
- Software & coding is very important in digital animation world of today. It requires expertise in XHTML, XML, Jave Script, CSS, and Photoshop CS4.
- Special Effects or VFX specialists need to master Adobe Fireworks CS4, Dreamweaver, Maya Dynamics (VFX), Flash with Action Script, Blast Code, and may also require RealFlow.
- Game development may require skills on multiple platforms – ranging from casual games to browser-based games to mobile-based games. It may also require knowledge about game engine programming and multi-player infrastructure. More about animation specialisations
Seeing the growing prospects in the field, the government has also become pro-active in introducing animation courses at the school and college levels. Karnataka government tied up with Reliance for introducing weekend animation courses by way of summer holiday camps in Balbhavans across the state. Read more about the course
