Search form

What's wrong with Animation in India?

18 posts / 0 new
Last post
What's wrong with Animation in India?

I got a text message from a fellow animator, yesterday, that Jadoo Works, the famous animation studio in Bangalore, has closed down. It seems the story appeared in 'The Economic Times'. I didn't get a chance to see the story in the newspaper but if it is true then it's not a good news at all.
Jadooworks is not the first major animation studio to close down, there have been many before. Millitoons, Wondertoons, Sriven, are some other major animation studios which have closed their doors in recent past.
Why animation in India is still trying to find it's grip? Is there something wrong with the thinktanks or there is something inherent in the nature of this business? Would anyone like to talk to me about it.

Regards,
Helter Skelter.

Hi Animotion3D,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me. I guess you are right. One swallow doesn't a summer make. The rise and fall of one animation studio cannot effect the overall animation industry. However I have certain opinions of my own about this phenomenon.
It so happens that we have very few places where an aspiring animator can learn animation. Studios spend their time, energy as well as money to train freshers and then all of a sudden another company comes up and takes all the trained animators by offering them better pay packages. Now the company which originally trained these animators is in a lurch. They have their own projects going on and their animators have left. There is no source from which they can get new animators. The only option in front of them is to retain or hire new animators by offering them even better pay packages. This puts a considerable strain on the pockets of animation studio. Meanwhile the project for which they had trained the animators remains undone.
What I mean to say is that if Animation Production has to increase in India then Animation education has to also increase and get better. There are few people who are active on this front. One such place is Parijat Animation Academy, based in Hyderabad, India. Check out their website: www.panimacademy.org and spread the good word!!!

Regards,

HelterSkelter.

whats wrong in india

hi

most companies that have closed are the ones which lack vision and leadership.

indians are used to make a quick buck in IT bussiness where just by the sheer rate advantage they get bussiness and there was not much competetion,animation is adifferent bussiness,its for those who have a passion for it, sure money is the objective for any company but most indian company heads which have closed never understood the business or never hired people who understood the bussiness.

animation business depends a lot on relationships and that takes time to cultivate and build for which indian studios have to hire good marketing people who have a creative bend and who are commited to this bussiness of animation and to there company.

if you have vision and leadership everthing else will follow..... i thinK crest and toonz(thanks to bill) are good examples .

the success of animation bussiness is important as it would give lots of independent producers an opportunity to fufill there dreams .....until africa develops animation

[/FONT] :) :)

And also......

These questions have been asked and answered several times over in various forums.

In my opinion the biggest handicap the industry is facing today is lack of Quality Manpower.Rather Trained Quality Manpower.We have studios recruiting all and sundry and this makes content difficult to sell.Jadoo works in my opinion hasnt closed....they are sure to make a come back with a good and better team.

As a fellow animator and as omeone from the industry i recomend more people enhance their skills and the best way is to train urselves.maybe you shld check out ANTS in Bangalore...they seem to have stuff and are wll supported by the industry.www.antsindia.com wld be the best place to visit.

Wishing the industry and all of us the very best

Chets

Well said Chetan,

...and further on that point, it is a fact that many Indian studios rely heavily on importing talent from here (The Philippines) where we still the have the best pool of experienced artists in all of Asia.

This one is candid about that fact;
http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/article/0,13673,501040712-660982,00.html

India is decades behind in talent & ability but decades ahead in marketing strategy and technical ability. Eventually, the cracks in this imbalance start to show and inevitably companies close down when their foreign clients realise that, despite all the 'techies' and clever businessmen in India......Animation studios still need 'real' ANIMATORS to succeed........and so they move on elsewhere!
:cool:

Nothing wrong with the animators..

Theres nothing wrong with the animators or the creative people as far as I could see - the execs have to be strong and have an in-depth understanding of the business. I've met the top guy at Futurethought which I believe is in India and they seem to have a very strong understanding of animation as well as business - thats a winning combination. The same problem comes up with studios all over the world - either people are purely creative or purely business either of these can be bad.

fairplay: Interesting article! Thanks.
Any more links about the Phillipine production market. Its a white spot on my map...

Philippines...An OPEN Secret!

fairplay: Interesting article! Thanks.
Any more links about the Phillipine production market. Its a white spot on my map...

Hi Dobermunk,

I had a browse through your site. Nice stuff!!!!! So in reference to your 'field' I will tell you this. The Philippines is way behind in CGI work and that's because there is nobody seriously developing this potential in a big way here. Govt incentives are Non-Existent and in fact, 'discouraging' as the main focus is to tax 'heavily' anything that comes here to do with 3D production. This goes mostly in the Politicians pockets etc. I have worked in many countries and I will 'SWEAR' by the local animation talent here. These guys are world class!!!

many animators see the writing on the wall and want to learn Maya, Lightwave etc. but the opportunity here is very thin. That's why a lot of them go to India. Some get a chance to learn 3D and, as a trade-off, teach Indian animators basics such as acting and timing. Many Indian studios have Filipino Directors manning their 2D projects. One example is 'TOONZ' (Google it)

Here are a few articles for you;
http://itmatters.com.ph/news/news_12042002a.html
http://www.enterblog.com/200402200609.html

This next one is rather long winded so i have an excerpt below of the relevant point from the article;
http://www.expresscomputeronline.com/20030519/focus1.shtml
"India still has a long way to go to measure up to the quality levels of studios in Philippines, Korea or Taiwan. The industry in these countries has years of experience backing them, while in India, it’s relatively new," opines Jayakumar.

Alles Gute-

PS: If you want to see a sample of the best 2D work, send me an email. I should mention (in relation to my other posts) that the Filmax feature El Cid was partly animated by close friends of mine here. Latest local rumors have it that Filmax are offering animation to a local studio (http://pasi.com.ph/) on the GISAKU project.

hey kuun majak kar rahe ho yaar....

hi atish,
good startergy man. keep it up.happy new year.

bye .ur wel wisher.

Hi Animotion3D,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me. I guess you are right. One swallow doesn't a summer make. The rise and fall of one animation studio cannot effect the overall animation industry. However I have certain opinions of my own about this phenomenon.
It so happens that we have very few places where an aspiring animator can learn animation. Studios spend their time, energy as well as money to train freshers and then all of a sudden another company comes up and takes all the trained animators by offering them better pay packages. Now the company which originally trained these animators is in a lurch. They have their own projects going on and their animators have left. There is no source from which they can get new animators. The only option in front of them is to retain or hire new animators by offering them even better pay packages. This puts a considerable strain on the pockets of animation studio. Meanwhile the project for which they had trained the animators remains undone.
What I mean to say is that if Animation Production has to increase in India then Animation education has to also increase and get better. There are few people who are active on this front. One such place is Parijat Animation Academy, based in Hyderabad, India. Check out their website: www.panimacademy.org and spread the good word!!!

Regards,

HelterSkelter.

Jadoo isint shutting down !!

Hey Friends,
I think u guys got the wrong news. Jadoo isint shutting down. Its just like they dont have projects runnning rite now so all they are doin is cutting short ther team.
N i heard that they are lettin those people go who are not doing much for the company !!

Failure of Animation In India

These questions have been asked and answered several times over in various forums.

In my opinion the biggest handicap the industry is facing today is lack of Quality Manpower.Rather Trained Quality Manpower.We have studios recruiting all and sundry and this makes content difficult to sell.Jadoo works in my opinion hasnt closed....they are sure to make a come back with a good and better team.

As a fellow animator and as omeone from the industry i recomend more people enhance their skills and the best way is to train urselves.maybe you shld check out ANTS in Bangalore...they seem to have stuff and are wll supported by the industry.www.antsindia.com wld be the best place to visit.

Wishing the industry and all of us the very best

Chets

I read in an AWN article (nice plug for the host here, eh?) that nearly all the countries have tax incentive programs and subsidies and stuff... except Indonesia and the Phillipines.

From the European position I'm in, I was surprised when - for the last production management work i did - I calculated a production not per month and manpower, as had my predecessor, but animation-second wise. I was able to put a team of American and Californian freelancers together, including animation director, who were considerably better and not more expensive than offers from India and Korea. I proudly report - they were also in control of their productivity and left the project relatively happy. In the meantime, I have to admit that the major focus for outsourced European animation has shifted to Russia, artists there aren't only exploited - they're damned good!

As for going 2D to 3D, from experience, there are some animators who will simply never do it. Whether the don't want to or can't is open, but they just won't. Others are intimidated by the interfaces, but in my experience - that only means your TD hasn't done a good job. Any animator should manage the leap with a bit of guidance. I feel strongly that the interfaces and handles on the rigs will advance greatly over the next few years. A 2D animator should be able to get familiar with a computer within 2 months, with animation handles within a week and with curve adjustment and other issues over another 3 - 5 months. The big problem is if you don't have a rig and interface built for them - and god forbid a newbie is left with a god-awful interface like Maya's. That thing HAS to be cut down to size before a 2D artist is left to play on it - or you will have one adamantly 2D 2D animator in a very short amount of time.
My personal favorite is messiah - I'm a dunce and can rig in it anyway! But no software (except maybe mirai and Pixar's internal Puppeteer) has really been concieved for 2D animators. A shame really. This is (one of many) secrets to Pixar's success - they tapped the incredible 2D talents and respected their feedback and wishes...

I haven't seen El Cid yet, unfortunately... love the trailer though.
Thanks for the links - I'll keep my eye out!

And thanks for your comments - flattering. In reality the thing is so totally outdated! I'm working on a feature concept now, so I'm afraid I won't have much time to update until later...
The name is david anyway. I thought a dobermunk must be a humorous and potentially vengeful cross of a doberman and a chipmunk. Ha.

the shutdown can not be because of think tanks

hey,
i am a student animator in india,

here's what i think...

any studio, or almost any business starts and grows up
with a spark in one's head or a group effort.
as well, the downward journey can occur because of one's
or the group's mistakes.

but as long as i know the creative people have very strong
beliefs and they cant let the project sink.
the shutdown of any business happens if any promising client
refuses or any big scandle found inside finance dept.

no one except anyone in jadooworks since long time, can answer
about the fall of jadooworks.
but it will not affect the whole industry in india.
in fact, the animation industry is growing, new studios opening.
and the outsourcing is like red carpet for anyone who wants to do
an animation business.

i m doing freelance work for architecture visualization projects.
from my experience i can tell that there is tendency to find cheap
labour in india, but people here are becoming aware of power of
visualization and advertising.

thats all i have to say,

any comments ...

Just re-read my post from yesterday and none of my interest seems to come across - sorry.

Fairplay, I'm very interested!
Please send me links or files - preferably links - to david (at) stickman.de

I also checked out that studio - interesting. Are there any 3D studios cropping up? I find 3D / 2D crossovers most interesting - nonphotorealistic stuff... 3D backgrounds, 2D characters or vice versa...

Sorry David,

I've been flat out in past days. I want to reply in length to you. Give me a day or so.

Best :)

Animation in the Philippines

Hi Dobermunk,

I would like to correct some data you posted in one of your issues about outsourcing in Philippines, Korea and India.

Here in the Philippines, we do get tax incentives like income tax holiday up to 6 years if you are an export producing company. This is one major tax incentive the government can give you.

As for CGI, it terms of scale, we don't have it yet but we are fast building up the number of CGI people. There are several schools offering 3D animation. Also, check this company, Digital Eye Candy whose doing a 3D Feature Film (production and some designs done by Filipino animators) and also checkout Holy Cow! Animation.

The good thing is, we have a good number of years of experience in animation and the quality of works we have been turning in are at far better. I believe that a good 3D animator whose not just an operator but artist, will turnout a higher quality animation.

Regards,
clubsoda
http://forums.awn.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=11959#

while at the same time the 3-d and CGI education in India is horrible. highly expensive courses where people are being ripped off. which is why the situation is pitiful.
there is a lot of talent but most of them hae been snapped up by people like Maya and Rhythm n Hues etc

One of the biggest challenges that the animation industry currently facing is the demand-supply gap. This has mainly due to the non availability of adequate human resources for the animation industry.

It's raining Animated feature films this summer in India!

Hey Animation Lovers,

It's interesting to see that this thread is still alive since the time it was first started in 2004. Eight years have passed and much has changed in the world and Indian Animation. After several ups and Downs Indian animation slowly seems to be getting it's bearings. Of course, there is still a long way to go but it could be said that we are on our way.

The latest development which has got me excited is the forthcoming release of three animated feature films in coming weeks. Krishna aur Kansa by Reliance, Arjuna by UTV/Disney, and Chota Bheem by Green Gold. It's been a long time that an India animated feature film has hit the theatres and this summer we are gonna have three!

As it has been observed earlier in this thread, Indian animation is still relying heavily upon it's mythological stories, but the quality of animation seems to have improved a lot. Chota Bheem is the only movie which is based upon an original character and story (even though it's name suggests that it's about the childhood stories of popular Mahabharat character Bheem).

I am eagerly looking forward to catch these movies in theatre and hope that they strike a chord with the audience.

HelterSkelter,
http://longy.tv