The Hindu Business Line : Animation nation

Young or old, everybody loves a good animation film. The grand success of Hanuman has opened doors to a whole new form of entertainment in India. Even though there are plenty of international productions every year, the Indian audience has begun accepting locally produced animation content only in recent times. This is great news for the animation studios in India which were hitherto primarily dependent on outsource work from overseas.

Animation is the process of creating a subject — a person, an animal or an inanimate object — and simulating lifelike movements in them. In a process that involves both art and craft the cartoonist, illustrator, fine artist, screenwriter, musician, camera operator and motion picture director combine their skills to create the animation effect. In 2D animation even today, each frame is drawn by hand and there is no substitute for this. Animators bring life to their drawings, creating an illusion of spirit and vigour. There are many forms of animation but the two popular forms are 2D or cel animation, and 3D animation or CGI.

Before work begins on any animation feature, the single-most important decision to be taken is the format — 2D or 3D. It is not a good idea to change the format midway. Although 2D animated features have traditionally done well, most of the newer features are 3D animated. Both 2D and 3D animation are equally visually appealing and fun to produce.

The Lion King, Aladdin, The Beauty and the Beast and Hanuman are 2D productions. On the other, hand 3D animation is created entirely using computers. Shrek 2, Toy Story, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Madagascar are examples of 3D productions.

It usually takes about 22-24 months to produce a quality 2D or 3D animated feature from the script stage to the screen.

The producer is vested with the responsibility for ensuring creative and financial inputs and meeting production schedules. Based on the creative and financial demands of the project, the producer puts together an animation team.

Animation is very labour-intensive and the final output totally depends on the skills of the team. With over 3 lakh drawings and over 1,000 hand-painted backgrounds required for a 2D animated movie, proper co-ordination among team members is crucial.

The entire team, including the producer, the animation director, the backgrounds director, department heads, production co-ordinator, animators and so on, work in sync with each other.

The development phase is the crucial period during which the project's creative foundation is laid using visual and written material. A strong development team is therefore needed to bring the concept to life.

Cost of Production

Depending on the quality required, the team deployed, the background score, voices and so on, the cost of producing a good animated feature film can be anything upwards of Rs 4 crore.

The biggest advantage in making an animated film is that the entire world is your market. In the absence of language or cultural barriers animation films enjoy widespread popularity. A good feature can expect collections upwards of Rs 6-8 crore in India alone.

Add to this, collections from other countries, which could be upwards of Rs 10 crore depending on the success of the distributor. On a very optimistic level, if the film turns out really well, revenues could spread smiles all around. Apart from theatre revenues, animated films command other sources of income. Licensing/merchandising revenues can sometimes surpass even theatre collections. Television broadcast, home video/ DVD, toys/ games, computer and console games, mobile and Internet games are some of the other sources of revenue for an animated feature.

Some of the reasons cited for the success of animation films in India are the advent of several cartoon TV channels, and the mushrooming of multiplexes. So let's get set to catch some homegrown animation action.

The author is the founder Director of Digikore Studios Ltd.

More Stories on : Entertainment & Leisure | Software

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Soul food, please

Crisp, coarse... kosa silk!

Enter the dragon?

The "embarrassment" called Bangalore

Animation nation

Play of power suits

Prayers among the icy peaks

Soldiering on

Winning hearts, all the way

Know whodunit first?