Though man has had an obsession with drawing from prehistoric period,Walt Disney rightly can be considered the  father of the Modern Animation Industry. It can be argued that Walt Disney had no idea that he was giving birth to a whole new Industry when he made his first animation of “Snow white and the Seven Dwarfs” back in 1937. But in hindsight, that can be seen as the defining moment of the genesis of what today is a $550 million industry in India with such a high growth rate that it is expected to touch $15 billion in the next five years.

Animation is today a a multi-billion dollar industry generating a great scope of employment for people around the globe. It is a form of media which is no longer restricted to children centered content and has become a serious medium of artistic and commercial expression. It has a role to play in other industries like Gaming, Advertising etc
Though it is a relatively new filed in India, it has unlocked the creativity of the Indian people with a huge number of people taking it up as a serious profession. With proper grooming of hidden potential and talent, India has the scope to become the world leader in this field due to both talent and cost factors. The fact that there are many companies like Walt Disney, I Max and Sony who are ready to outsource their cartoon characters and are ready to invest heavily in this sector in India is just indicative of the future growth potential of this sector in India.

Etymologically Animation comes from the Latin word anima, meaning soul i.e. to breathe life into characters which is essentially what it does. Today Animation is the broad term used to describe the work that deals with linking the series of drawings and simulating their movements together. This rapid display of 2D or 3D images is used to create an illusion of motion. Hence true it its etymology it is an art form in which inanimate objects are brought into life by sequencing the drawn images.
Animation thus is a broad term and encompass both 3D and 2D. Then there is computer-generated animation, animation for films, animation for television and multimedia animation. 2D, the more older of the two forms,  relies on an animator's artistic abilities with ink and paint. Most of the work here is thought of and delivered on paper or cells(which is the frames you see in a cartoon strip).  Most of the older versions of Disney movie like Snow White, Peter Pan etc come under this category. 3D is a totally different ball game altogether, though the intent of the activity and basic framework is similar to 2D the tools and techniques are totally different.

The creation here is  delivered with the help of models and sets. Recent movie like “Toy Story” and “Meet the Robinsons” are examples of the same. Contrary to popular belief, work here depends on an animator's artistic abilities in modeling rather than his/her pure skill with ink and paint.

For example, while the end objective of both streams is to create a sequence of movements which are realistic in their own senses, 2D involves the placing of each cell before an animation camera and then filming it where as 3D animation calls for models to be placed on a set, with body postures manipulated shot by shot.

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