Delhi based Picasso Animation which has a tie up with Centennial College Canada for curriculum as well as faculty has announced its plans to expand into Mumbai and Bangalore.
Speaking to Animation ‘xpress, Picasso Animation MD & CEO ABRP Reddy said,” We have done exceptionally well in Delhi even though there’s hardly any large animation studios here. Our students’ work is very well appreciated by the industry experts. I want to use this learning and experience from our Delhi project to set up similar projects in other metros where animation studios are large in number. We are in the final phase of discussions with partners in Mumbai and Bangalore to set up the campuses”
Currently Picasso has two courses running, Art & Design Foundation and Digital Animation. “Each of the programs is eight months in duration. Aspirants with a good portfolio in any creative field like sketching, painting, acting or music are admitted in to the digital animation program. Others need to go through the Art & Design Foundation. We also started an advanced foundation programme for those with basic creative skills without a strong portfolio. Our first batch started in October 2005 and students are passing out in June” remarked Reddy.
Explaining the duration of the course, Reddy who has been in the IT education industry since the past 18 years including long stints at NIIT (Head of Education NIIT Europe, COO of NIIT Middle East) elaborated that, “The pace at which the Indian animation industry is growing calls for long term as well as immediate solutions to address the manpower needs. There is hardly any initiative in the formal education system to address this so far. It is always the non-formal education system that has addressed the manpower needs in any emerging industry. Adding industry ready people quickly to the existing talent pool is the challenge. We have chosen a well proven model from Canada that can address this challenge and launched Picasso. Our students work on studio quality infrastructure and are trained with a blend of creative and technical inputs to become industry ready professionals”
Head of Animation faculty Professor Ben Mc Evoy commented,” Three months in the industry can teach as much as three years in a classroom, and our aim is to help students into this studio environment with all of the skills they need to succeed. Through the duration of the course we strive to inundate the students with the creative skills, supplemental techniques and professional industry knowledge needed to help them not only establish their careers in the field but to also continue to learn and grow in the production setting. We focus on training production ready creative professionals who will be prepared for the rigors of a studio environment while maintaining the ability to continue to learn and hone their skills independently throughout their careers.
One of the striking features of Picasso was the Student: Faculty ratio. The school has 70 students and seven permanent faculty with an additional five visiting faculty from within the industry. With the kind of training the students at Picasso have been receiving, they have already begun creating some good work featuring exceptional animation performances, to add in their demo reels”