Paprikaas Animation Studios, a CG and vfx studio in Bangalore, recently completed work for the documentary Elephus Maximus. © Paprikaas Animation Studios.

Many observers believe the CG animation market will move more toward original, domestic content and away from purely service work. The recent success in India of a homegrown 2D-animated film, Hanuman, has given the industry hope for future animation properties. But growth in this sector is likely to be slow. “In the local domestic industry, the buzz is all about creation of original content,” adds Domlur. “But I must say that we as an industry are still a few years from producing original content for the global market.”

Most domestic features currently are produced on a fast timetable and a low budget, which is likely to be a barrier to global acceptance. “Due to budgets, animated films in India that are based on local concepts and material are not very viable,” adds Agarwal. “If they are produced, it’s with a limited budget and hence not well-received by Indian audiences, as they are exposed to high-end animated films like Shrek.”

One area of interest for the future is the creation of art and assets for interactive games. “Most of the game publishers and developers are already under tremendous pressure both on costs and also time to market vis-à-vis the competitors,” suggests Domlur. “So it is logical to look at India as a key development hub and also for ancillary services like testing.”

Nandish Domlur of Paprikaas believes India will become a hub for full-length animated feature films within the next decade. Its recent projects include the 3D-animated series FARMkids. © Farmkids Pty Ltd. Courtesy of Paprikaas Animation S

Growth Factors
One element that has attracted global producers to the Indian service market is its low cost. While cost comparisons are difficult, being dependent on a range of factors such as quality, in-kind value contributed through co-productions, and subsidies offered in other countries, a rule of thumb is that CG and vfx work in India can be done for about 30% to 35% of the cost in Europe or North America.

But this estimate comes with caveats. “The overall cost of production is a function of the quality of the output of animation and other production overheads,” says Balgam. “Today most studios in India do not output the same quality of work as the North American counterparts, so the production costs can appear to be much cheaper. However, when trying to compare apples to apples in terms of production quality, the difference in cost is not nearly as dramatic.

“At R&H India,” she continues, “we strive very hard to achieve the same quality levels as our Los Angeles colleagues and thus we have to not only put more resources into the projects, but we also have to support the relatively inexperienced Indian artists with lots of American supervision and overhead. Thus the overall cost savings from the salaries are not that dramatic at this point.”

Many observers point out that as the Indian vfx/CG industry moves up the value chain, it will be able to rely not just on cost to attract business, but on high quality as well. “It is pretty much emulating the IT industry, where the overseas client came here for low cost but stayed for the high quality,” Domlur says.

Unlike in other animation centers, from South Korea and China to Canada, France and the U.K., India’s governments offer no support to the industry in the form of tax breaks or subsidies, with the exception of a few state governments.

Indian animation industry consultant Jai Natarajan predicts that over the next several years a unified industry body will come together to push for government support.

Jai Natarajan, a consultant to the Indian animation industry, predicts that throughout the next several years, a unified industry body will come together to push for government support. In the meantime, he believes that global co-productions involving Indian studios will continue to grow as producers look for tax rebates in other countries.

Another key issue facing the industry is the lack of training, with few higher-education institutions offering relevant programs. Therefore, the potentially large talent pool lacks a well-rounded education on both the art and technology side of animation, includes few people capable of filling higher-level positions (e.g., senior animation producers or CG supervisors), and is unfamiliar with Western entertainment and culture. This means studios need to bring in supervisors, technical directors and other critical personnel from other countries.

“The dearth of trained and production-ready artists is one of the bugbears of this industry, which has limited the growth,” Domlur asserts. “There is immense raw talent available here, which has to be groomed for CG production.”

Balgam thinks the next five to 10 years will bring a trend similar to what has happened in North America in the past. “The artist pool in India will start shifting from a purely studio staff basis to a mix of staff and freelance artists that move from project to project at various studios,” she says. “This should change the dynamics of our industry quite dramatically, and hopefully there will be more exchange of information and knowledge to help form a true community of artists.”