Animation studios' preference for IPR dims job scenario

Hi !!
I promised of writing on 3D lighting and texturing in my last post, but as soon as I had this news, I couldnt stop myself from publishing it. I thot this is at the moment more interesting and important to know for my friends and my readers.
So here it is....

With most animation studios moving away from outsourcing work and focusing on creating their own intellectual property rights (IPR), professionals in this segment face the grim prospects of being unemployed, say industry experts.

Recently, Prana Studio, which is working on Kuchi Kuchi Hota Hai, has terminated around 100-120 artists. Even at UTV Toons, around 70-100 artists are finding it difficult to get through to another studio after the exit of two of its big-ticket projects—Arjuna and Dream Blanket.

Industry analysts say that there is a slowdown in the employment opportunity in the animation industry and most of the bigger studios have not only stopped hiring new talent, but are reducing the current workforce.

Interestingly, there are around 10,000 professionals in the Indian animation space and there is a need for an additional 25,000 by the end of this year. The compounded annual growth rate of Indian animation industry is around 35% and is expected to reach $950 million by 2009, according to estimates.

Even Nasscom has been advocating for facilitating training in order to increase workforce and talent. However, industry observers question the need for training activity, when there are not enough jobs available.

One of the close watchers of the industry, who didn’t want to be named, said, “Most of the bigger studios are now slowly moving towards creating intellectual property rights (IPR) and have either stopped outsource work completely or reduced the number of such work.”

Most of the IPRs are in the form of animation movies and the majority of the studios do not have the experience of handling such projects. In most of the cases, it has gone way beyond the stipulated budget, which is why studios are curtailing talent.

AK Madhavan, CEO, Crest Animation, said, “I have heard such a lull going on in the marketplace.” However, since Crest is focused on overseas projects, there is a continuous workflow.

The two projects that UTV was working on were budgeted close to Rs 40 crore each. Tata Elxsi is now doing Arjuna and Prime Focus will do Dream Blanket and both studios have picked up around 50 artists.

The third IPR that UTV is working on is Alibaba, which was being handled by a studio in Chennai from the very beginning. Industry sources disclose that UTV will now shift from the animation studio model and only finance animation projects, which will be released under the UTV Motions banner. ...

I hope this helped...and the topic i promised will be on in a few days...

Thanks for your patience...

Raktim Chatterjee

www.animatorsparadise.blogspot.com

3D Modelling rocks!!!

Hi,
I am writing this article after a long layoff due to health reasons,but whtever it may be, today 3D aniamtion has earned a broader market as compared to 2D animation, however 2D remains the father of the field. In this article, i m discussing about 3D modelling and 3D models, their types and processes of making them. 3D modelling has evolved as one of the major part of animation. I will lead you to some light on this in this article, in the subsequent articles to come I will write about the other major parts of animation like rigging, texturing, lighting, animation itself etc etc.

Hoping that like always this article will prove beneficial to my readers. Here it is for you.

3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical, wireframe representation of any three-dimensional object (either inanimate or living) via specialized software. The product is called a 3D model. It can be displayed as a two-dimensional image through a process called 3D rendering. Models may be created automatically or manually. The manual modeling process of preparing geometric data for 3D computer graphics is similar to plastic arts such as sculpting.3D models represent a 3D object using a collection of points in 3D space, connected by various geometric entities such as triangles, lines, curved surfaces, etc. Being a collection of data, 3D models can be created by hand, algorithmically or scanned.3D models are widely used anywhere 3D graphics are used. Actually, their use predates the widespread use of 3D graphics on personal computers. Many computer games used pre-rendered images of 3D models as sprites before computers could render them in real-time.

Today, 3D models are used in a wide variety of fields. The medical industry uses detailed models of organs. The movie industry uses them as characters and objects for animated and real-life motion pictures. The video game industry uses them as assets for computer and video games. The science sector uses them as highly detailed models of chemical compounds. The architecture industry uses them to demonstrate proposed buildings and landscapes. The engineering community uses them as designs of new devices, vehicles and structures as well as a host of other uses. In recent decades the earth science community has started to construct 3D geological models as a standard practice.

Almost all 3D models can be divided into two categories.

** Solid - These models define the volume of the object they represent (like a rock). These are more realistic, but more difficult to build. Solid models are mostly used for nonvisual simulations such as medical and engineering simulations, and for specialized visual applications such as ray tracing and constructive solid geometry

** Shell - these models represent the surface, not the volume (like an eggshell). These are easier to work with than solid models. Almost all visual models used in games and film are shell models.

There are two popular ways to represent a model:

* Polygonal modeling - Points in 3D space, called vertices, are connected in a linear fashion to form a polygonal mesh. Used for example by 3DS Max or Maya. The vast majority of 3D models today are built as textured polygonal models, because they are the most flexible and quickest for the computer to handle. However, polygons cannot be bent. Curved surfaces are approximated by using many small flat surfaces.
* NURBS modeling - NURBS Surfaces are defined by Spline curves, which are influenced by weighted control points. The curve follows the points. Increasing the weight for a point will pull the curve closer to that point. NURBS are truly smooth surfaces, not approximations using small flat surfaces, and so are particularly suitable for organic modelling. Maya is the most well-known commercial software that uses NURBS natively.

In the next topic, i will discuss about 3D lighting and texturing, so dont miss out on the next one. Its comin to you sooner then later.
Bye!!

RAKTIM CHATTERJEE
www.animatorsparadise.blogspot.com