Animation crosses shores, reaches India Date:   Wednesday , February 16, 2005 As a sequel to the era of IT outsourcing are other eras of animation and car designing. Although initial work offshored to India were shoddy in nature and back end in approach; now is the time of outsourcing creativity. Sectors such as animation, car designing and media are no more than a testament to such creativity crossing shores. After Hollywood; India has the largest entertainment industry and the biggest profitable production unit in the world. According to estimates, India currently has a 1billion animation market and by the end of 2005 it could cap another 0.5 billion more. So, as the cost of production is getting voluminous in the sci-fi world, picture makers across the world are outsourcing the animation part to cheaper but efficient markets like India. Indian animation studios provide a cost effective alternative for sub-contract work. The large film production studios come equipped with state-of -the-art equipment and leading hardware and software like SGI, 3DMax and SoftImage, SFX and processing motion capture facilities. These multimedia workstations also possess trained talent who can work with a wide range of products like SoundBlaster, Video Blaster, Digital cameras, FrameGrabbers, MPEG cards and video conferencing solutions. Advanced sound-editing and post-production suites that come along with leased lines for ISDN data transfer make these workstations a viable option. Entertainment giants like Walt Disney have already signed up for a TV animation deal with an animation company in India. Today, most global companies are outsourcing their work to niche firms such as Pentamedia, JadooWorks, UTV and Digital Art Media. The potential has even spurred industry associations such as the National Association of Software Services Companies (Nasscom) to push India’s case as a global animation hub. A report released by Andersen Consulting states that the Indian multimedia and graphics industry is expected to reach $15 billion by 2008. The study further says that over the next three years, the animation industry (domestic and exports) would reach $2 billion. The Nasscom further estimates that India could use 300000 professionals in content development and animation by the year 2008. Computer animation tools form an integral part of technical, educational, mechanical and architectural fields today. Computer animated graphics are the right tools for presentation purposes. An animated video created on the required specifications can be imported into the right presentation program for viewing by a projector, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, or from a TV monitor using a VHS tape format. According to Nasscom projections, IT and BPO work from animation is expected to grow by 50 per cent. The animation sector had contributed $100 million to the IT and ITES industry in the last fiscal. The salaries that one has to pay in the US is 6 to 15 times that in India, experts point out. Good enough reason for international animation firms to get as much work done from India as possible. The Indian animation industry also has a good outsourcing opportunity. In Asia Pacific, India has been emerging as important outsourcing destination due to its obvious benefits such as large English speaking base, availability of animation capability with 12 animation studios, presence of a successfully entertainment industry, heritage of traditional literature to facilitate content-based partnership and state-of-art computer hardware and software platforms. Another primary advantage is that the cost of animation production in India is the lowest compared to other destinations like Canada, Korea, Taiwan and Philippines.