'Animation is still a young field in India'

By Ruchi Shrimali

Animation evangelists duo - Mr. Anand Gurnani and Mr. P. Rama Krishna of Animation Xpress.com - are on a whirlwind tour of covering twenty cities in twenty days with just one mission on their mind - to promote AVCG (Animation VFX, Comics and Games) industry in India.

Bringing institutes, faculty, studios, professionals and other animation stakeholders to a common platform, their agenda is to discuss growth of India in the global animation markets, strengths and weaknesses of the industry and set quality standards for animation education.

At a time when global giants like Dreamworks, Technicolor and Ubisoft are looking towards India because of its talent pool, Indian animation industry needs to find better ways to collaborate with each other. Read more

Besides entertainment, animation is very much in demand for simulation in teaching and research, medical operations, and military and pilot training.

Artists in India are second to none. However, India needs to work on pre- and post-production skills in the AVCG industry.

Mr. Gurnani and Mr. Rama Krishna also suggest that animation associations should be formed and best practices should be incorporated. Courses should be designed to suite the concurrent needs of the industry and teachers should come from a central registry. They also advocate standardizing animation education in India.

With FICCI-KPMG Report 2012 revealing robust growth of 31% in the fields of Animation and VFX last year, parents are now supporting their children in choosing animation as their mainstream career option. Know about animation prodigy Kottapalli Hemanth

Several universities are also offering high-quality programmes offering full-fledged degree in animation, gaming and design and a range of options to specialise in. The career opportunities in the field are now considered quite stable as India is emerging as a major outsourcing centre for animated movies in Hollywood, mainly for technical support. Besides creative VFX artists and animators, demand for technical directors, pre-production professionals, and rigging and modelling artists is also on the rise.

Architectural firms are also hiring animation professionals. Find other opportunities in animation

Do you want to discuss opportunities available in the field of Animation? Post your queries on Shiksha Café.

If you are interested in animation education, click here to find animation institutes.