The Hindu Business Line : The action's in India

It'll have a faculty drawn from among people who have worked with directors such as Steven Spielberg; a faculty comprising global specialists in disciplines such as character animation, special effects, gaming, broadcast graphics, etc; a faculty that will be only too happy to see its graduating students becoming the bone of contention among players in the global animation industry.

`Ready to Go Animate' is the brainchild of 23-year-old Arjun Jindal who has roped in experts from the US animation industry to give life to his dream — creating a pool of skilled Indian animators for the global market.

Arjun believes his `Ready to Go Animate' will provide an appropriate platform for creative people to sharpen their skills while being gainfully engaged.

The academy's curriculum has drawn from the best practices in vogue globally and seeks to supplement and complement the creativity of artists and facilitate their transformation into skilled animators, he says.

"The creation of animation professionals requires more than merely teaching computer skills. Animation is an art form that is culture-neutral, and computers are mere devices that cannot compensate for the lack of aesthetic understanding," says Arjun.

All the way from LA

Arjun has roped in Vincent Edwards, who has come all the way from Los Angeles with wife and three children in tow. Vincent, who has worked with several global animation majors, has taken charge as Dean of `Ready to Go Animate'. Earlier, he'd worked as the lead storyboard artist on premier episodes of shows such as Men in Black, Godzilla and Starship Troopers.

Vincent has decided to make India his home for at least the next three years. "In the days ahead, I see a lot of the US's offshore animation business coming to India, especially animation programmes for television", says Vincent. IT skills and the relatively cheap cost of manpower make India an ideal outsourcing destination for the development of animation content, he says.

According to Vincent, with animation programming being a manpower-intensive activity, "tens of billions of dollars of the global animation programming business" is expected to come to India over the next decade.

Towards this end, Vincent's mandate is to create a pool of world-class animators in India and build an animation studio that will create content as subcontractors for offshore clients as well as for the Indian animation industry.

"There is not a single animated television show in the US that is entirely produced in that country and, invariably, parts of animation feature films are produced offshore, in countries such as Korea, China, the Philippines and India," he says.

Denis Deegan, Animation Director of `Ready to Go Animate', says: "India is a hugely underserved market for animated theatrical programmes and video games. There is a huge latent audience for animation films in India but, unfortunately, there is lack of content, both in terms of quantity and quality".

He cites data to prove his point. Of the estimated $800 million spent every year on the creation of content for films in Bollywood, animation content accounts for less than $2 million.

A point worth listening to, especially when it comes from one who, as a lad of 16 in 1985, worked on Steven Spielberg's An American Tail. Later, he worked with Richard Williams, Director of Who framed Roger Rabbit.

Vincent agrees with Denis. "Not being successful in the animation business in India is like failing to catch fish in the Great Barrier Reef. Some of those who have failed have only themselves to blame because they had bad business models," he says.

`Ready to Go Animate' offers programmes in basic and advanced 2D and CG (Computer Generated) animation with a curriculum that focuses on hands-on training.

An alliance has been forged with the Los Angeles-based Gigapix Studios to facilitate technical support, co-production and co-finance of animation content. Students of `Ready to Go Animate' will be able to participate in internship programmes at Gigapix.

The academy currently has the capacity to enrol 300 students annually at its Kolkata centre. It plans to expand its footprint to other major cities across India. The ultimate goal is to ensure that India is Ready to Go (and) Animate for and on behalf of the global animation industry.

ambar_singhroy@rediffmail.com

Picture by Mohamed Yousuf

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