The only thing that curtails Indian Animation from growing at 10x speeds is the paucity of trained, skilled talent. Given the situation, Indian studios are now focusing big time on their outreach programmes. This includes actively participating in seminars and workshops and spreading awareness amongst students and parents about the tremendous career options within Animation, VFX and Gaming.
Recently a host of Animation Industry professionals descended upon Cochin to participate at ‘Perspectives: A seminar on Animation and VFX‘ organised by Arena Animation. These included R&H India‘s Seshaprasad, EFX‘ Mohan Krishnan, MEL‘s Ranjit Tony Singh, IDC‘s Prof Shilpa Ranade, Artery FX‘ Yunus Bukhari and AnimationXpress.com‘s Anand Gurnani. Also present were Arena top brass including Arena Animation Head R.Krishnan, Product Manager Bhavika Chouhan, Regional Head Easo Thampy Mathew, Area Head‘s Johnson Leon & Jose Paul.
The seminar was attended by more than 550 students from places across Kerala including Trichur, Palakkad, Thodupuza, Trivandram and of course Cochin. The occasion also marked the launch of Arena‘s comprehensive program on 2D & 3D animation, DAE – Diploma in Animation Engineering.
Speaking to AnimationXpress.com about the seminar and the launch of the DAE program, Arena Animation head R.Krishnan shared, “Arena Animation launched a series of seminars – “PERSPECTIVES – Animation in India: Future & Careers”, to create awareness among students of the unlimited career opportunities in animation and to create a neutral platform for budding animators to interact with the industry professionals. We are glad that professionals from the industry participated and lent their full support to the seminar”
“We believe that outreach is very necessary for Indian Animation and just made an effort to bring the industry professionals and the student community together on a common platform, which would definitely leave the students with an experience which I am sure they will always cherish” he added.
“PERSPECTIVES will bring together professionals from the Animation Community on a common platform to share their knowledge, thoughts, views and experiences of the animation Industry with the students, which would enable them to think beyond the obvious. We would be definitely taking PERSPECTIVES across India, and the next PERSPECTIVE happens to be in Bangalore, tentatively on the 3rd of February” he further added.
Talking about the launch of the DAE program, Krishnan elaborated, “The Five semester Diploma in Animation Engineering program from Arena Animation provides a thorough understanding of both 2D and 3D animation. While 2D modules delve deep into fundamentals and the various facets involved in 2D animation such as drawing, acting, direction, camera required for producing good 2D animation, each 3D module has a separate topic of specialization, enabling students to master them. Designed with inputs from the industry”
“This premium course is designed as per industry demands and enables students to learn drawing skills, acting, direction, camera movements for animation, and digital animation, all of which are essential to master 2D and 3D animation. Modules include Fine Art, Visual Design & Creative Animation, Cel & Digital Animation, 2D Animation Show Reel, 3D Animation & Visual Fx, and Portfolio Development – Show reel. To provide students with knowledge of the industry, Industry veterans will be invited to deliver guest lectures” he added.
Students who attended the seminar were treated to a variety of presentations which included some fabulous making of Krrish as well as making of Super Man clips played by EFX Mohan Krishnan and R&H Seshaprasad respectively. The students were also treated to different styles of animation where Professor Shilpa Ranade showcased some short films that had a very uniwue style of their own. Kandy Floss clips displayed by Yunus Bukhari had the students asking for more.
Sharing a long list of career opportunities within this field EFX Mohan Krishan said,”A very interesting thing about animation is that it combines aesthetics and art with usage of technology and IT. At EFX we apply a project management approach to the VFX and CG we do films and as such you can guess as to how much of management talent as well people with other skills and talent also work in this industry and help it reach the next level”
Rhythm & Hues Seshaprasad spoke about the need to become specialists. “The CG production process requires a lot of specialised skills and knowledge” he said. “The skills and fundamental knowledge required by an Animator is distinctly different from that which is required of a Lighting and rendering expert. Similarly the skills that a modeler needs can be quite different from those needed by a background artist. When you as as student are attracted to the Animation field you need to know about the various options you have and then enter the field”
MEL‘s Tony Singh shared,”That today you students are lucky that there are so many career options available. As students you should strive to sharpen your focus and take things to the next level”
Be it any of the speakers, In terms of message and guidance shared with the students, the one theme that was hammered upon by all the speakers was that it was ‘fundamentals that needed to be focused on‘ and the field was all about passion and hard work. The speakers also enlightened the student audience by informing them about the many kinds of career opportunities that existed in Animation and how people who could not draw could also be part of the ecosystem in different specialised roles like programmers for plugin pipelines, administrators, lighting experts etc.