Here‘s one more to be added to the list of interesting applications of Animation and Illustration!
The smileys that we all use in our chat and mail applications are all frowning. Blame it on competition.
Delhi based Our World of Colours has launched ‘Picicons‘ which aims to take the concept of smileys to the the next level. The studio has come up with a collection of thousands of unique, picture based, fully illustrated characters that load as icons. Each of these characters is hand drawn with great detail and color and comes in a wide variety of expressions.
Speaking to AnimationXpress.com about the Picicons, Gautam Sahni, Director, Our World of Colours shared, “I had been looking up the websites that provide smileys and emoticons as a paid subscription that are larger in size than the usual free smileys, but use the same round face as the base design and are not personal. The USP of the Picicons is that we have created local, regional and culture specific characters such as Sardarji, Odisi Girl, Saree Girl etc and therein lies their appeal and connect”
The concept of PicIcon is quite akin to the Avatars that one uses in RPG sites and forums
Talking about the available icons, Gautam said, “The site has been launched with two thousand eight hundred images; each is a set of 25 Picicons. Animated Picicons are coming soon; also about 2500 images are nearing completion of other Indian characters. These will be added to the website on a regular basis. Other cultures and communities besides India will be taken up, as for Christmas, Santa his elves and Scrooge have been created. This will be extended to Indian festivals as well”
“We have a team of artists and graphic designers. After the initial character has been created and finalized by our concept, the other artists then create the sets of the characters in different emotions and situations. These are then handed over to the graphics staff, who digitize the drawings, colour them and put in the effects for the final product” he further added.
Adding a dash of color and cultural references makes the Picicons quite interesting. Elaborating on this aspect, Gautam shared, “The target audience is specific, most Indians have a great reverence and fondness for Ganesh ji and Hanuman ji. Ravana was done for pure fun factor. Other gods and goddesses and mythological figures from across the diaspora could be added on a regular basis. Specific communities can be added like characters from Maharashtra, Kerala, and the North East to mention a few. Their culture and attire will be given full attention as in the available drawings.”
Talking about the business model, an optimistic Gautam shared “The site has been launched recently and we hope to get a good response from our target audience. The inaugural price has been kept very low at $5 per year per set. This works out about at 0.68 paise per day.”