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Animation in India A reality check
Sunday, September 1, 2002
FROM THE EDGE OF YOUR seat, you have watched Spider-Man swinging through gulches of city buildings, crawling up walls; dinosaurs hurling cars into the air in Jurassic Park; hundreds sinking into the cold North Atlantic in Titanic, and the supernatural transformation of Jim Carrey in The Mask. Ever wondered what goes into making these animation movies? In a recent interview with Star Movies, Spider-Man’s animation director Anthony LaMolinara and visual effects supervisor Scott Stokdyk said, “As the first step in creating a digital representation of Spider-Man, star Tobey Maguire and his stunt’s bodies were scanned to create duplicate models. It was a daunting task to make a man swing along with various other feats of wonder, in nearly 500 effects shots.”


LaMolinara described part of the process of creating the cityscape as the “pan and tile” procedure. About 25 images (or tiles) of the background were taken along a 180-degree axis and were then stitched together to create a ‘half sphere’ for the action to move through. That is a huge effort for a tiny swing of Spider-Man.


Today, when U.S. companies are doing wonders with 3D Computer Generated Imagery (3D CGI), India still clings to 2D techniques. Musical instruments are modeled using commercial 3D animation software and then animated via proprietary algorithmic animation software in the U.S., while Indian animation companies are still struggling with existing 2D software. Arduously, 2D software takes the frames drawn by an artist and scans them, and for each character, the animator creates a model.


But what is attracting Indian animation firms is the estimated $50-billion market. Top Indian companies like Pentamedia Graphics Ltd, UTV Toons, Crest Communications, Unilazer, Toonz Animation India Ltd, Tata Elxsi and Digital Canvas are busy clinching deals with companies in the U.S. These companies nurse smaller animation companies by sub-contracting a part of their international projects, including those from Disney and Warner Brothers (WB).


Indian animation has interesting history. In 1912, Dadasaheb Phalke produced the first Indian animation movie, which was followed by a hiatus that lasted over 40 years. In 1956, the Films Division set up a cartoon film unit, where Clair Weeks, the veteran Disney animator, was invited to train students. And one of his first students, Ram Mohan, went on to found UTV Toons.


In 1997, Mohan, who had already spent two decades at the Films Division, teamed with United Studios, a division of the UTV group, to spin off an animation company. The venture, initially called RM-USL Animation, was rechristened UTV Toons in 2000. Today, it is one of the largest 2D animation companies in India, and Mohan is considered the “father of Indian animation.”



Cost Factor

It costs a prohibitive $400,000 to 500,000 to produce one hour of animation footage in the U.S. Perhaps that explains why studios there are looking to outsource.


According to Nandini Vaidyanathan, COO of UTV Toons, a division of UTV Software Communications Ltd, “To cut costs, most studios in the West have been contracting work to countries such as Taiwan and Philippines. India is relatively much more cost-effective—it could even be as low as $20,000 per episode.” It is still unclear whether top animation companies like Disney and WB are really looking toward India for outsourcing, although many claim to be executing projects for them.


Take the case of Chennai-based Pentamedia Graphics Ltd. The parent company, Pentafour Software and Exports Ltd, started with selling CD titles and corporate presentations. A joint project with Griboullie, France, for Excalibur was a breakthrough for the company. The company went on to bag other international projects like The King and I from WB in 1999.


V. Chandrasekaran of Pentamedia says, “Initially it was difficult to pitch for the foreign animation projects since India figured nowhere compared to the international levels of sophistication.” The Warner project served as a springboard and it soon bagged Sinbad: Beyond the Veil of Mists from Improvision Corp.


Today, the company’s turnover for the third quarter stands at $2,123 million. “The joint venture with 3dMaxMedia Inc, U.S., to create high-end digital entertainment content using cutting-edge tools for Internet, cinema and TV media was really a fillip,” says Chandrasekaran. Last year, major Hollywood and European studios outsourced services worth $300 million to India because of the obvious cost advantage. “While a 20-minute special effects animation sequence costs about $75,000 in India, studios in the US charge $150,000,” says K. Chandra Shekar, head, (Animation Business), Tata Elxsi (P) Ltd.


Overseas studios, including American and Canadian ones, which normally outsource their back-end animation work from Australia, Philippines, Taiwan and Korea, are now increasingly veering toward India.



Maturity

Although yet to mature, animation companies are throwing their rings on the “classic outsourcing model,” to which goes the credit of building the “Indian software industry,” until of course, the slowdown happened. “If a company can keep the quality of its output at a desirable level with low costs, it can expect to produce movies for Hollywood,” says Chandrasekaran. While most companies were reeling under the slowdown of last year, it turned out to be one of the best for the Indian animation industry. Compudyne, Winfosystems, Maya Entertainment, UTV Toons, Toonz Animation, Western Outdoor and Color Chips India all bagged lucrative foreign contracts.



Roadblocks

One major weakness for all Indian animation houses has been the lack of trained animators—animation is not even offered at Indian art schools. “Many companies try to master only the technology in animation, but pay scant attention to aesthetics like timing and movements. This is the reason why many projects get rejected,” says Tata Elxsi’s Shekar.


Nasscom estimates that India could use 300,000 professionals in content development and animation by 2008, though at the end of 2001 it pegged at 27,000. “Animators must have creative and artistic abilities. A good sense of humor and an observant eye to detect the incongruous are the assets. Along with these qualities, a qualification in fine art and visual communication design is a must,” says Sudhish, managing director of Hyderabad-based ColorChips Ltd.



Acquiring to expand

Companies like Pentamedia Graphics and Crest Communication are now chanting the M&A mantra. Pentamedia, touted in the early part of 2001 as the No. 1 animation company in India, acquired Improvision, a U.S.-based film production and distribution company, for $19.5 million, and a Singapore-based 2D animation company, Animasia International, for SG $0.5 million. “The acquisition has helped the company implement offshore development work, but ideally it could be used to tap the potential in the commercial animation market,” says Chandrasekaran. Crest Communication acquired Rich Animation, a U.S.-based animation production studio for $5 million. Its objective was to use Rich’s pre- and post-production skills. Even companies like Sriveni Multi-Tech and Compudyne Winfosystems have acquired U.S.-based Station X Studios Entertainment and VisionArt Studio for $1 million and $4 million respectively.


Beyond Quality

When it comes to animation, quality has not been easy to achieve. An entry-level professional would take 10 hours for a single second of animation. In fact, even for an experienced animator, it would mean half-a-day’s job. Arena, an Aptech subsidary, churns out thousands of students skilled in animation, Maya, USAnimation, Animo, audio-video editing and special effects. But only a few get to work in the studios. While computer 3D animation is gaining popularity, UTV Toons’ Nandini points out that for traditional 2D animators, drawing skills are still very critical. “What works is a happy marriage of 2D and 3D, such as in the Lion King, where the characters were 2D, but the background 3D.” While 2D animation requires painstaking sketching of characters and movements, 3D animations are often created from wireframes of sketches or models and then manipulated.


With a rich history to generate content, and a talent pool that can easily cross over to 3D animation, India could easily emerge the animation capital. But will it?



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