Skilled artists such as those for Silicon Illusions are needed to keep up with the demands of the growing industry. Photo courtesy of Silicon Illusions.

Todd Miller, managing director, AXN-ASIA, believes that while Asia is on the threshold of an animation production explosion, it is necessary to move up the value chain beyond execution to storytelling and character creation.

With increasing competition and clients looking at ways to mitigate production costs, the pressure may well be on overseas studios to provide more bang for the buck. It is here that many contend that the government can play a major role by facilitating access to easy finance.

Like any nascent venture, the Indian animation industry suffers from credibility issues. However, with a few Indian studios delivering on time, there has been some improvement in worldwide perceptions.

Trendy East
More and more Asian studios are likely to cash in on the rich repository of regional content and integrate the same with the inherent strengths of animation storytelling. This may help Asian studios not only rise up the value chain but also create and capture an entirely new market altogether.

Tenali Raman hopes to have crossover appeal outside of India. © Toonz Animation.

The challenge lies in creating content that can cater not only to a market such as Greater China (Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, etc.) with 367 million tiny tots in China alone, but also an entirely diverse Indian community with a membership of 250 million children.

Yu also believes the key to success lies in creating styles that best bring out the regional uniqueness. A case in point would be Japan, which has created its own animation style in total contrast to Hollywood. Surprisingly, big budgeted Korean productions modeled after the “La Hollywood” style elicited very little market interest.

Dennis believes the success of Tenali has proved Indian studios can develop and produce Indian content with a cross-over appeal. Perhaps the middle path lies in wedging Asian stories with western production techniques. The widening demographic profile of Asian animation viewing and expression of CG in live-action genres of entertainment may necessitate just the same.

So does that mean Asia will cease to be a low-cost service provider? Not necessarily.

The economics of animation production coupled with global business necessities may drive the need for remote production, except we may expect more standardization in outsourcing procedures.