Indian animation industry though a late starter is on the threshold of a boom period and so has a great career potential. India has great mythological stories and characters, good artists and technicians. There has been a lot of big money deals and investment in India including the US$14 million deal between Italy's Mondo TV, Europe's No 2 cartoon producer and distributor, and India's Padmalaya Telefilms and others. This has boosted India's creative reputation and consequently NASSCOM has projected a creation of an additional 300,000 jobs in this sector in next few years.

The outsourcing bug has caught the animation industry too and Indian cartoonists and animators have begun working for foreign companies and are considered better than other South-East-Asian countries in the filed of animation outsourcing . The western countries are favoring India over other countries for outsourcing animation because of cheap but extremely talented manpower that is available here. North American film and television program producers (that boast worldwide networks) are finding it viable to sub- contract animation production activities to independent studios overseas. The requirement of the burgeoning Indian television segment for animation and special effects related work is also helping the health growth of the industry

Due to this demand a number of Indian software players have turned their attention to animation. Animation studios now dot the country and the industry is also witnessing the arrival of training houses that are dedicated to building skilled manpower for this market. Indian cities such as Mumbai (which houses India's movie industry), Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Thiruvananthapuram house some of the country's leading animation houses. Companies such as Crest Communications, Films Division, Maya Entertainment, Silverton Studio, UTV Toons, Zee Institute of Creative Arts (ZICA), 2NZ Studios, Prasad Studios, Acropetal, jadooWorks, Color Chips, Toonz Animation, Heart Animation, etc. are just a few of the ventures that have dedicated themselves to the world of animation and special effects.

The areas where Animation has application is just too many to list but some of them include  

•    Advertising (commercials and print ads)

•    Animation

•    Development of computer games/mobile games

•    Cartography

•    Photography

•    Fashion

•    Interface designing

•    Web designing

•    Entertainment (movies and television)

•    Business (product promotions and marketing demos)

•    Sales (presentations)

•    Education (Computer Based Tutorials/Web Based Tutorials)

•    Publishing (graphics and printing)

•    Virtual reality in Defense

•    Web designing

•    Engineering

•    Fashion designing and interior designing

•    Medical, legal and insurance industry (presentations and models)

•    Leading studios and training institutes

Some of the roles that one can expect after a course include

•    Modeler - Modeler is the one who makes the models for animation. They should have a solid understanding of anatomy, form and volume.

•    Story Broad Artist - Those with strong drawing skills could be hired as storyboard artists who can visualize a sequence of events from frame to frame.

•    Character animator- They brings characters to life and generally has knowledge of traditional animation, stop-motion animation as
well as claymation

•    Background artist- The background artist is the person who specialises to paint the background of the characters and sets the background for the project.

•    Layout artist- layout artist is just like a cinematographer of that animation project as they are decides the lighting and camera angles and he is sketching the background design for the animation.

•    2D animator - They involves the creation of a high volume of separate drawings that define a sequence.

•    In-between animator- In between animator one can learn all the basics of animation and it is the beginning position of an animator.

•    Scanner operator-The scanner operator does the scanning of the clean up artist’s drawings.

•    Compositing artist - Compositing consists of layering individual frames of animation on top of one another to create final images. These images are then strung together to create complete shots or mini animated movies.

•    Special effects artist - They integrate live-action footage with Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) or other elements (such as model work)

•    Audio & video specialist

•    Visualizer

•    Texture artist - They applies a surface to the 3D modeled character, object or environment.

•    Rigging artist - A rigging artist takes the modeled, textured 3D character or object and sets it up with a skeletal system or joints (if required). Without this step, the 3D model would not be able to animate, talk or move fluidly and correctly.

•    Clean-up artist- The clean up artist checks the accuracy and consistency of the designs and drawings. To be a good clean up artist, he should have good draft-man skill with the knowledge of density, width, volume and mass.

•    Lighting artist - They create variations of shade, colour intensity and shadows
Digital ink and paint artist- It is the duty of a digital ink and paint artist to give colors to each frame.
Compositor- It is the compositor brings together all the different characters and backgrounds in to single frame.

•    Editor

•    Key frame animator- Key frame animator draws the pictures of a movement’s beginning and end.

•    Rendering artist - They take all the data in a scene such as models, textures, animation, lighting, etc and output the correct combination in the form of individual frames of animation.

•    3D animator - They takes the sculpted, textured and rigged 3D model and breathes life into it. This is done by putting in order the key frames such that they appear to be in motion.

•    Image Editor - They assembles various visual and audio components of the film into a coherent and effective whole
So one can work as a

•    Modeler

•    Layout artist

•    Clean-up artist

•    Scanner operator

•    Digital ink and paint artist

•    Compositor

•    Key frame animator

•    Background artist

•    In-between animator etc

As far as compensation goes even though animation is at its nascent stage in India it pays competitive salaries compared to similar opportunities in other fields . After finishing the in-house training in some leading animation production studio, you can be a junior animator and can start earning between Rs.12000 to Rs.14000. A senior animator with an experience of 3 to 5 years can take home a sum of Rs.25000 to Rs.35000. But if you have a portfolio of some good and outstanding animation work you would even be able to earn more than Rs.50000 to Rs.60000.So in just a few years one can draw a salary of six figures.  It is jovially but rightly said that animation is a career where one can literally 'draw' ones salary. Most The training institutes help the candidates in their placements and a lot of them hire the students themselves for example institutes like Maya Entertainment absorb on an average 70% of the around 2500 students that graduate from them each year.

If you have the talent and apply yourself, the world is your canvas in animation industry

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