Animation career is a wow!!!

SKILLS REQUIRED TO BE AN ANIMATOR:

* To be successful in animation you need to have an eye for motion.
* Plenty of Patience.
* Should be willing to redo work again and again.
* Be prepared to sit in front of the computer all day all night.
* Have good desk research skills, both at work and outside.
* No university degree is required to enter the industry, but normally you need to be 12th standard pass.

PLUSES AND MINUSES:

+ High Salary prospects: you can earn more then a lakh a month after a couple of years in the industry.
+ Plenty of promotion prospects.
+ A career you can stay in for life without getting bored.
+ Fun filled, informal and trendy work environment.

- A very male dominated profession.
- Long hours. Staff sometimes must work through the night.Some studios has been described as as sweat shops and many animators become workaholics
- Mastering the softwares require a lot of hard work and progress up career ladder requires a lot of dedication.

GO GLOBAL :

# If you are good and have the skills, you can get a job anywhere in the world as the same international softwares are used all over the world.
# Indian animators have been hired to work in animation studios in Hollywood, Australia and Europe. For example, until recently, the technical director of Pixar in Hollywood was an Indian.
# Some studios like Creast Animation Studios have acquired foreign studios. You can get global exposure by working with foreigners.

CAREER LADDER :

Level 1 : Entry level monthly salary: Rs. 8000-20,000 for trainee rising to Rs. 20,000-40,000 after two years.Five years plus you could be earning in lakhs.

Level 2 : Lead animator / Dept lead / team leader / Supervisor. Rs. 50,000-75,000/-

Level 3: Project Manager. Rs. 75,000-1,00,000/-

Level 4: Animation director. Rs. 1,00,000 and above.

Level 5: Series director. Rs. 2,00,000 and above.

Guys and gals out there what are you waiting for if you have the requisite skills then go get a career in animation.

RAKTIM CHATTERJEE
New Delhi

Maya Masters lead with an example

Maya Masters PETER SANITRA shows an example of his excellent Maya Magic.






This is an inspiration for the wannabe animators; a motivation to do somewhat called above excellence.

A DEMO REEL PRIMER...GO GET AN AMAZING DEMO REEL

A DEMO REEL PRIMER
Written by Zero Dean

What is a demo reel for?

A demo reel is essentially a sales tool. You are selling yourself and proving, to an extent, what sort of positive addition you will be to a company. If you can prove you've got oodles of talent and a creative way of thinking about things, your demo reel will get you noticed. If it is exceptionally good, it's your doorway into the industry.

Who is your audience?

Your audience, obviously, is comprised of those people you want to work for. The thing is, you're not alone. Many, many people want and have tried to get the same job you are applying for. These demo watchers have seen countless reels and guess what, they're tired of seeing the same things over and over again. If you think your 3 minute flying logo is going to win you a job, you better consider it very carefully before putting it on your reel. These people are not obligated to watch your entire reel. If they're dissatisfied, they will hit EJECT and move on, possibly missing your Oscar(tm) worthy animation later in the reel.

What to put on a demo reel SECTION A (general):

Only your best, most amazing work ever. This stuff has to be the best thing since pizza. If you can do it all (model, render, and animate), do it all! You'll earn points for this. Companies are looking for people who can wear many hats and accept many responsibilities. You need to capture their attention and show them you're more than up to the challenge of working in a creative (and crazy) environment like theirs. You want to not only show them you're up to it, you want to show them it'll be a breeze for you.

What to put on a demo reel SECTION B (specific):

You need to get as many strong points across to your audience visually, in as little time as possible. You need to capture their attention, draw them in, and make them forget for an instant that they are watching a demo reel. This can be quite difficult unless you a great deal of vision and a really good story to tell. Currently a lot of business are looking for excellent character animators. You need to bring an object to life, give it a voice, an attitude, "CHARACTER", and have it tell a story. Be fresh, creative, and original (I can't stress that enough). Also, there is a demand for artists who are good at creating low polygon count models. If you have specific skills you want to show off and can, such as adding actual paintings you've created in the real world into a 3d environment, then do it. You are trying to earn as many points as possible. A well rounded artist is always appreciated.

What not to put on a demo reel SECTION A:

Probably whatever you are most likely to think about putting on your demo reel first, is the sort of thing you want to stay away from at all costs. You may think you're being original, but believe it or not, everyone else thinks their name or company logo looks cool flying around the screen too. How about spaceships? They're cool, to be sure...but if you're a demo watcher and that's all you see day in and day out, you're probably dying to see something else. Also, with whatever objects you include in your animation, make sure they are decorated (textured) in the best way possible. Most things in the real world are not shiny and new. Instead they are dented, beat up, scratched, or flawed in some unusual way. Prove your texturing skills by creating your own complex custom textures and make your models even more interesting to look at.

Realize that your audience has seen just about every basic transition and effect out there. These are the things that are only one click away in whatever program you're using. You need to be different and your effects need to be hard won. If it can be done from a simple pull down menu, it's probably not doing to impress them. You need to stand out from the rest of the pack.

What not to put on a demo reel SECTION B (exceptions):

Of course there are exceptions to everything in the computer graphics and animation industry. If the job you are applying for is going to require specific skills, such as flying logos or spaceship battles, then by all means gear your demo reel in that direction. However, if you are going to be applying to a wide variety of jobs, it is best to have something that will appeal and look absolutely amazing to everyone.

How do I create a good demo reel?

Sit, plan, make-up, cross out, plan some more, think, cross out, make up, and then get to work. A good method is to think about what your strengths are and then think about the most effective and entertaining way possible to get those strengths across on screen. Then sit and think about every aspect of what you want to do and storyboard it out. Understand what every scene is going to involve, how long it's going to take, what sort of resources you'll need to accomplish it, and if everything you want to do is really possible. And if it's not possible, how you're going to look that obstacle in the eyes and say "up yours, I'm doing it anyway".

What does a good demo reel look like?

Many companies have their own reels which you could probably arrange to get a hold of. Contact these places and see if they will send you one. If these are places you would like to work for, then pay close attention to the sort of things they do. Otherwise, I suggest checking out many cool animation tapes currently on the market. Look for "The Mind's Eye" series by SMV or "Computer Animation Festival" series also by SMV. Watch the tapes, be inspired, and then think about how you could have done it better...and then do something else, since what you're thinking about doing has already been done. Remember, be original. If you want to do something that's been done before, do it differently (if that makes sense).

Things to remember!

Put your best stuff first. You want to grab your audience's attention as soon as possible. Give credit where credit is due. If you didn't do something, say so. Also, specify the tools you used to create your demo reel.

2D animation is the power...(PART II)

Carrying on the good work from where I left in my last article, I guess I will be quite instrumental in scripting the success stories of many leading animators the country will produce in the future. Not writing much about the future and keeping our focus on the present here is the second part of the article.

In my last post i described till the role and action of the background artist; looking ahead is the next step.Once the clean-ups and in between drawings for a sequence are completed, they are prepared for photography, a process known as ink-and-paint. Each drawing is then transferred from paper to a thin, clear sheet of plastic called a cel, so called because they were once made out of cellulose nitrate.The outline of the drawing is inked or photocopied the cel, and gouache or a similar type of paint is used on the reverse sides of the cels to add colors in the appropriate shades. In many cases, characters will have more than one color palette assigned to them; the usage of each one depends upon the mood and lighting of each scene. The transparent quality of the cel allows for each character or object in a frame to be animated on different cels, as the cel of one character can be seen underneath the cel of another; and the opaque background will be seen beneath all of the cels.

When an entire sequence has been transferred to cels, the photography process begins. Each cel involved in a frame of a sequence is laid on top of each other, with the background at the bottom of the stack. A piece of glass is lowered onto the artwork in order to flatten any irregularities, and the composite image is then photographed by a special animation camera, also called rostrum camera .The cels are removed, and the process repeats for the next frame until each frame in the sequence has been photographed. Each cel has registration holes, small holes along the top or bottom edge of the cel, which allow the cel to be placed on corresponding peg bars before the camera to ensure that each cel aligns with the one before it; if the cels are not aligned in such a manner, the animation, when played at full speed, will appear "jittery." Sometimes, frames may need to be photographed more than once, in order to implement superimpositions and other camera effects. Pans are created by either moving the cels or backgrounds one step at a time over a succession of frames.

As the scenes come out of final photography, they are spliced into the Leica reel, taking the place of the pencil animation. Once every sequence in the production has been photographed, the final film is sent for development and processing, while the final music and sound effects are added to the soundtrack. Again, editing is generally not done in animation, but if it is required it is done at this time, before the final print of the film is ready for duplication or broadcast.
It should be noted that the actual "traditional" ink-and-paint process is no longer in use by any major animated productions at present.

Computers and video cameras in traditional cel animation can also be used as tools without affecting the film directly, assisting the animators in their work and making the whole process faster and easier. Doing the layouts on a computer is much more effective than doing it the old original way. And video cameras gives the opportunity to see a "sneak preview" of the scenes and how they will look when finished, enabling the animators to correct and improve them without having to complete them first. This can be considered a digital form of pencil testing.

2d Animation is the power...(PART I)

2D animation is often unbuffered to as classical or traditional animation. It is called to be the purest form of animation because it was the first form to be implemented. It is said that 2D animation is the father of 3D animation and is also very difficult to do as it is done frame by frame and is thus really tough.
2D animation makes one understand the timing and spacing, arcs in animation, the C-S curves last but not the least the line of action.
2D animation started big time back.
Traditionally-animated productions, just like other forms of animation, usually begin life as a storyboard, which is a script of sorts written with images as well as words, similar to a giant comic strip. The images allow the animation team to plan the flow of the plot and the composition of the imagery. The storyboard artists will have regular meetings with the director, and may have to redraw or "re-board" a sequence many times before it meets final approval.

Before true animation begins, a preliminary soundtrack or "scratch track" is recorded, so that the animation may be more precisely synchronized to the soundtrack. Given the slow, methodical manner in which traditional animation is produced, it is almost always easier to synchronize animation to a pre-existing soundtrack than it is to synchronize a soundtrack to pre-existing animation. A completed cartoon soundtrack will feature music, sound effects, and dialogue performed by voice actors. However, the scratch track used during animation typically contains just the voices, any vocal songs that the characters must sing along to, and temporary musical score tracks; the final score and sound effects are added in post-production.

Often, an animatic or story reel is made after the soundtrack is created, but before full animation begins. An animatic typically consists of pictures of the storyboard synchronized with the soundtrack. This allows the animators and directors to work out any script and timing issues that may exist with the current storyboard. The storyboard and soundtrack are amended if necessary, and a new animatic may be created and reviewed with the director until the storyboard is perfected. Editing the film at the animatic stage prevents the animation of scenes that would be edited out of the film; as traditional animation is a very expensive and time-consuming process, creating scenes that will eventually be edited out of the completed cartoon is strictly avoided.

Layout begins after the designs are completed and approved by the director. The layout process is the same as the blocking out of shots by a cinematographer on a live-action film. It is here that the background layout artists determine the camera angles, camera paths, lighting, and shading of the scene. Character layout artists will determine the major poses for the characters in the scene, and will make a drawing to indicate each pose. For short films, character layouts are often the responsibility of the director.
The layout drawings are spliced into the animatic, using the X-sheet as a guide. Once the animatic is made up of all layout drawings, it is called a Leica reel. The term originates from the Disney Studio in the 1930s, from the frame format used by Leica cameras.

Once the Leica reel is finally approved by the director, animation begins.
In the traditional animation process, animators will begin by drawing sequences of animation on sheets of paper perforated to fit the peg bars in their desks, often using colored pencils, one picture or "frame" at a time. A key animator or lead animator will draw the key drawings in a scene, using the character layouts as a guide. The key animator draws enough of the frames to get across the major points of the action; in a sequence of a character jumping across a gap, the key animator may draw a frame of the character as he is about to leap, two or more frames as the character is flying through the air, and the frame for the character landing on the other side of the gap.
Timing is important for the animators drawing these frames; each frame must match exactly what is going on in the soundtrack at the moment the frame will appear, or else the discrepancy between sound and visual will be distracting to the audience. For example, in high-budget productions, extensive effort is given in making sure a speaking character's mouth matches in shape the sound that character's actor is producing as he or she speaks.
While working on a scene, a key animator will usually prepare a pencil test of the scene. A pencil test is a preliminary version of the final animated scene; the pencil drawings are quickly photographed or scanned and synced with the necessary soundtracks. This allows the animation to be reviewed and improved upon before passing the work on to his assistant animators, who will go add details and some of the missing frames in the scene. The work of the assistant animators is reviewed, pencil-tested, and corrected until the lead animator is ready to meet with the director and have his scene sweatboxed, or reviewed by the director, producer, and other key creative team members. Similar to the storyboarding stage, an animator may be required to re-do a scene many times before the director will approve it.
In high-budget animated productions, often each major character will have an animator or group of animators solely dedicated to drawing that character. The group will be made up of one supervising animator, a small group of key animators, and a larger group of assistant animators. For scenes where two characters interact, the key animators for both characters will decide which character is "leading" the scene, and that character will be drawn first. The second character will be animated to react to and support the actions of the "leading" character.
Once the key animation is approved, the lead animator forwards the scene on to the clean-up department, made up of the clean-up animators and the inbetweeners. The clean-up animators take the lead and assistant animators' drawings and trace them onto a new sheet of paper, taking care in including all of the details present on the original model sheets, so that it appears that one person animated the entire film. The inbetweeners will draw in whatever frames are still missing in between the other animators' drawings. This procedure is called tweening. The resulting drawings are again pencil-tested and sweatboxed until they meet approval.
At each stage during pencil animation, approved artwork is spliced into the Leica reel.

While the animation is being done, the background artists will paint the sets over which the action of each animated sequence will take place. These backgrounds are generally done in gouache or acrylic paint, although some animated productions have used backgrounds done in watercolor, oil paint, or even crayon. Background artists follow very closely the work of the background layout artists and color stylists

Raktim Chatterjee
THE ARTICLE WILL CONTINUE ON PART 2
PART 2 OF THIS ARTICLE COMING UP SHORTLY...

ANIMATION IN INDIA

India's animation sector is witnessing a major boom. Overseas entertainment giants like Walt Disney, Imax and Sony are increasingly outsourcing cartoon characters and special effects to India. Other companies are outsourcing animation from India for commercials and computer games.

So what makes India a hub for animation? Why is the sector experiencing exponential growth? In this special series, we take a look at what makes India shine in the world of animation.

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A full-fledged feature film called Tommy and Oscar is in the final stages of production at the Toonz Animation Studio, Technopark, Kerala. A team of artists and technicians is working frenetically to complete the film for the Italian producer Rainbow Productions.
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Applied Gravity, a New Zealand-based company, has outsourced nearly 90 per cent of it animation work to Nipuna Services, the business process outsourcing subsidiary of Satyam [Get Quote] Computer Servcies. An animatronics dog for Animal Planet (Discovery channel) for a popular episode called K9 to11 and animatronics models for New Zealand theme parks were some of the best-known creations of Applied Gravity in India.
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The Walt Disney Company has outsourced some of its major animation projects to various studios across India. Cartoon Network is buying animation films made in India. MTV has added India to its outsourcing hub along with the Philippines and South Korea.

A new outsourcing fever has gripped India.

Global entertainment majors like Walt Disney, Imax, Warner Brothers and Sony are signing up huge contracts with Indian animation companies.

And cities in India like Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Trivandrum have emerged as the country's major animation hubs.

A slew of companies across these cities have dedicated themselves to the outsourced world of animation and special effects. These include Toonz Animation, Crest Communications, Maya Entertainment, Silvertoon Studio, UTV Toons, Zee Institute of Creative Arts, 2NZ Studios, Pentamedia Graphics [Get Quote], Prasad Studios, Acropetal, JadooWorks, Color Chips and Heart Animation.

These animation firms have set up large production studios that are equipped with state-of -the-art equipment and hardware and software like SGI, 3DMax and SoftImage, SFX and processing motion capture facilities.

"Work is pouring in from places like the United States, Europe and Asia in the form of outsourced projects and co-production deals," points out P Jayakumar, Chief Executive Officer of Toonz Animation, arguably India's biggest animation player.

Toonz Animation is a complete state-of-the-art facility, staffed with internationally trained creative professionals from around the world. Its primary studio, Studio A, is located at Technopark in Trivandrum where over 400 artists and technicians create animated 2D and 3D films.

Jayakumar says Toonz formats include episodic television animation, ad films, direct-to-video and feature length.

Animation veterans like Jayakumar says that India has become an outsourcing hub for animation films because:

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India has a vast base of English speaking workforce: Animation, which requires familiarity with the English language, benefits when the work is outsourced to India. A number of animation companies in the country are also creating skilled manpower for the animation market through various training programmes.
* Presence of good studios: India has the second largest entertainment industry in the world, after Hollywood. Animation studios in the country provide a large supply of low-cost, high-quality software engineers. A number of Indian animation companies have set up hi-tech studios (equipped with state-of-the-art hardware and software) to execute overseas projects.
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Low cost of animation services: The main reason why foreign entertainment firms are flocking to India is the cost advantage the country offers. For instance, in the US, animators can cost about $125 an hour; in India, they cost $25 an hour. Toonz Animation offers animation at 25 per cent to 40 per cent lower rates than other Asian studios and much lower than those of American studios.

The total cost for making a full-length animated film in America is estimated to be $100 million to $175 million. In India, it can be made for $15 million to $25 million.

C K Prahlad, an animation consultant based in Bangalore, says the biggest advantage is the cost factor. "Indian animation companies are charging extremely low rates compared to other countries. That is attracting the Hollywood companies to outsource their animation film series to the country," he said.

Major US animation studios and producers are realizing this huge cost advantage that India offers.

"Due to changing viewing habits, channels or networks are being forced to bring down licence fees. As a result, the volume of work has been dropping.

In this situation, India's advantage of low production costs could be a boon to the domestic animation industry," said Margaret Dean, Sony Pictures' head of family entertainment group and a consultant to various animation studios in the US, during a recent India visit.

According to the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), the total revenues of the animation production services sector in India were estimated by between $200 million and $300 million in 2004.

Nasscom estimates the animation sector grew at a rate of over 20 per cent last year. "Demand for animation production services from India is growing with the emergence of an organised animation production sector, with state-of -the-art of work required for international TV program production, at substantially lower costs," a Nasscom report said.

Last year, a Nasscom study on the animation industry showed that the global animation production market is set for major growth. The study, which is based on multiple statistical projections on the market, from segments such as industry sources, Pixel Inc and Arthur Andersen (Study on the Entertainment and Media sector) forecast that the global animation market would generate revenues worth $50-70 billion this year.

But which are the countries that India is competing with in getting animation outsourcing?

"Primarily, we are competing with China. But even here, our quality standards are much higher than Chinese studios," argues Jayakumar.