Humans always try to discern sense in moving pictures, connection in line drawings and even a smile with the odd GIF, meme or two. These animations, from the blockbuster releases to a clip that went viral – are all indicators of a silent revolution brewing in India. India is the emerging new hub for animation in the world.
Animation industry in India
Indian animation industry has progressed and come a long way from early comics and 2D animated content that restricted the dynamic industry of animation to offline pages. But now, Animation is being used for expressing and communicating in various domains like e-education, medical/mechanical information, architecture visualization, web designing, smart phones, YouTube, web comics and various segments of entertainment industry like Television broadcast, cartoons, animated movies computer games and VFX.
The consumption of 2D & 3D animation content is extensive, whether it’s embracing the mainstream VFX-fuelled movies like Lion King and Jungle Book, the overwhelming experience of Baahubali – The Lost Legends or even kids bingeing on YouTube channels like Maha Cartoon TV or Chu Chu TV. The consumption of animated content is not restricted to an age group or demographic. Adults also love watching good animated content. Now, animation is not just about entertainment, it is used for communicating the right messages.
Creating an animated world
The Indian Animation and VFX Industry Outlook by Goldstein Research projects that the industry would swell to a size of $91 billion by 2025. While this is largely VFX, animation has a projected arc for 9% too.
This is largely the result of massive workforce that’s into animation industry in India. Talented minds constantly trying out new stuff to do better in 2D and 3D animation. There are artists who are freelancers and working with the biggest animation employers in India like Maya Digital Studios, Pentamedia Graphics, Toonz Animation India, UTV Toonz and Reliance Media Works.
India has also been receiving enormous recognition, work and support from all over the world. With Hollywood and Bollywood, Indian government has also been taking initiatives like Telangana VFX, Animation and Gaming Association (TVAGA) to organize and support the needs of this talented workforce. These initiatives strive to inspire more and more such animators to join the animation industry.
What’s the next step
There is a massive workforce of animation artists and experts, right from graphic designers, 2D & 3D animators to storyboard artists and modelers. What would be the next big opportunity for them? This big opportunity is available on a much smaller scale, on a device that’s used by almost every person in the world now – The smart phone.
A whole new world is open for all the budding animators as a result of more exposure to low-cost technology and faster internet connections. Any person with a smart phone and a good internet connection exposed to opportunities of becoming a content creator and broadcaster. One can create a package of the content and publish it on various platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, etc – with no minimum charge.
The scope of animation industry widens as the world witnesses the technological convergence or integration of two or more different technologies in a single device or system like our smart phones. Making our lives easier, smart phones are a part of almost everything we consume in our digital dies, right from entertainment, e-learning, news, advertisements, marketing, ordering food or anything for that matter and even gaming.
The smaller screen is all about telling a good story that has a relevance and people find a connection with the story, whereas large scale entertainment houses are breaking the stereotypes to combining reality and 3D animation. An artist’s imagination is the only limit left for an animator in the growing animation industry in India.
Authored by Shakir Ebrahim – Founder of GoBisbo Broadcasting Network Pvt. Ltd. and Creator of Bisbo
