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Contents

1. What Is 2. Terms in Animation 3. Evolution Of Animation 4. 5. Animation

6. Five Useful Presentation Techniques 7. Traditional & 8. Computer Assisted traditional animation 9. Career in Animation 10. 's animation industry 11. Prerequisites to start career in animation 12. Future of animation in India 13. Bibliography Meaning

Animation is the filming a sequence of or positions of models to create an illusion of movement. It is an optical illusion of due to the phenomenon of persistence of .

History

The Earliest form of Animation

The first examples of trying to capture motion into a can already be found in paleolithic cave , where animals are depicted with multiple legs in superimposed positions, clearly attempting to depict a sense of motion.

Shadow was also an animation ancestor, e.g. the Indonesian animated shadow called Wayang around 900 a.d.

Film animation

In the early 1890s, Thomas Edison's was invented. The history of animation begins with the earliest days of silent and continues through the present day.

The first animated film was created by frenchman Charles-Émile Reynaud, inventor of the praxinoscope, an animation system using loops of 12 pictures. On October 28, 1892 at Musée Grévin in Paris, France he exhibited consisting of loops of about 500 frames, using his théatre optique system - similar in principle to a modern film projector.

The first animation on standard picture film was Humorous Phases of Funny Faces by J. Stuart Blackton in the year 1906. It features a cartoonist drawing faces on a chalkboard, and the faces coming to life.

Fantasmagorie, by the French director Émile Cohl (also called Émile Courtet), is also noteworthy; it was projected for the first time on August 17, 1908 at 'Théâtre du Gymnase', in Paris. Émile Courtet later went to Fort Lee, New Jersey near New York City in 1912, where he worked for French studio Éclair and spread its technique in the US.

The first puppet-animated film was The Beautiful Lukanida (1910) by the Russian-born ethnically-Polish Director Wladyslaw Starewicz (Ladislas Starevich)

The first animated was El Apóstol, made in 1917 by Quirino Cristiani from Argentina. He also directed two other animated feature films, including 1931's Peludopolis, the first to use synchronized sound. None of them, however, survive to the present day; the earliest-surviving animated feature, which used colour-tinted scenes, is the silhouette-animated Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) from German and French/Hungarian Berthold Bartosch. 's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, often considered to be the first animated feature when in fact at least eight were previously released, was the nevertheless first to use Technicolor and the first to become successful within the English-speaking world.

Intro To 2-D Animations

To animate means to bring to life and communicate feelings through storytelling. Students of all ages can create animations with new technologies. Telling a story that communicates emotions to an audience involves deep thinking, creativity and . The old saying, “A picture says a thousand words,” is very true with animation because the picture moves, and is alive. And there is usually other media such as sound to add another layer of meaning.

"An is an actor with a pencil", goes the oldest and truest animation cliché. Not "a draftsman that acts", but first and foremost - an actor. If you're trying to tell a story through a , inevitably you're an actor. The only question is whether you are a good actor or a bad one.

In 2D computer animation, animator makes the drawings by the help of digitalizers on a computer screen, not on a paper, which is made by hand working. On the other hand there is another possibility that one can transfer the products of traditional animation that were ones produced on paper to computer by scanning. Some primitive drawing forms like square; , line and the tools for an artist like eraser, brush, and airbrush are simulated in computer. There is no need for the user who produces computer animation to use a ruler to draw a line, to struggle with the measurements for a milimetric square or to mix different colors to obtain the desired color. These kinds of simple operations are made with a high sensitivity by the computer . At the end, computer gives the opportunity to the user to get an outcome for his/her animation through a printer, a , etc.

What is Computer Animation?

By the help of technological improvements the transfer of traditional two dimensional animation productions to made many things easy for the . Though some of the traditional animators don’t feel close to computer-based animations, computers gave the animators much more time to spent on creative thought since the in-between frames are drawn and painted by computers instead of assistant animators. The rapid development of computer software’s directed the animators toward producing animations by computer. What is 3-D Computer Animation?

A 3-D computer animation is fundamentally a dynamic illustration created on a computer.

Method: -Like traditional -animation, a computer animation consists of a series of individual still . Unlike cel-animation, these images are created on a computer and stored one at a time in the computer. When they are viewed at the normal playback speed of 30 frames per second, the result is a moving picture, or animation. The graphic images can then be recorded onto videotape or laser disc to create video animations.

It is important to remember that the computer is only a tool used to improve the generation and the accuracy of the animation.

Benefits Provided by 3-D Computer Animation

A computer animation can graphically simplify complex concepts and it can convey complex interrelationships which are difficult to visualize. Animations are able to take thousands of disparate facts and compress them into a compact package, which can be presented in a coherent manner.

3-D computer animation captures attention

A computer animation can re-create an event, which is too expensive or too dangerous to reproduce, such as an aircraft accident. It can re-create a scene which has been altered or which no longer exists, such as a building which has been demolished.

When used as an illustrative tool, computer animation can help the presenter maintain focus. A speaker who might otherwise be uncomfortable has a tool to enhance his speech so that he can provide a more thorough, confident and interesting presentation. Often computer animation can enhance the credibility of the speaker more than a recitation of credentials.

Five useful presentation techniques are available in 3-D computer animation which are not provided by traditional visual aids:

Viewpoint can be dynamically changed so that objects and events can be viewed from virtually any vantage point. For instance, the audience can be transported to the scene of an event and shown the scene from above, from the side and even from below.

Motion develops a precise chronology of events illustrating complex relationships of time and space. Events can be shown in while changes which took days or even years can be condensed into a few minutes.

Detailing helps direct the audience's attention to a particular part of a mechanism or moment in an event. The camera can zoom in on details and color can be used to highlight important features. The action can also be paused to allow the viewer to focus on the most critical moments while maintaining the context of the event. Dissolves are used to make visual obstructions fade or vanish, thereby allowing the audience to go where it is physically impossible to go with a normal camera (such as inside an engine or a body). or live video can be dissolved into computer animations to remind the viewer that the animation is accurate and based upon events in the real world

Morphing is a , which allows one object to transform into another right before the observer's eyes.

According to production levels, possibilities and differences of obtained results computer made animations are technically divided into two parts: two and three-dimensional animation.

In this respect, it seems logical to start with the classical definition of animation. Its definition is “to create many stable images which show an object in a movement and to direct us to think as if it moves by the help of playing these images one after the other. Another definition is “In traditional frame-by-frame animation, the illusion of motion is created by filming a sequence of hand-painted cells and they playing the images back at high speeds, typically 14 to 30 frames per second”

As it is understood from these definitions, it is necessary to create frames, which are related to each other to form an animation presentation. In early times, this operation was being made by hand and called traditional animation. Every frame was drawn one by one and then painted by hand on paper, celluloid or film. Even the assistants were comforting the animator by drawing and the in-between frames, which complete the movement while the experienced animators were drawing the key frames. With this method it is obvious that a 3-4 minute long animation is very troublesome and requires a lot of time when it is thought that a minute animation requires 12-24 frames per second. Another operation, which also needs high care, is to take, each frame one by one by using a movie camera. The traditional animation process

Storyboards: -

Traditionally-animated productions, just like other forms of animation, usually begin life as a , 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 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.

Voice recording

Before true animation begins, a preliminary 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 , 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.

In the case of most pre-1930 sound animated cartoons, the sound was post- synched; that is, the sound track was recorded after the film elements were finished by watching the film and performing the dialogue, music, and sound effects required. Some studios, most notably , continued to post-synch their cartoons later, which allowed for the presence of the "muttered ad-libs" present in many the Sailor and cartoons. Although virtually all is now pre-synched (and has been since the 1930s), nearly all Japanese animation () is post- synched.

Animatics

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.

Design and timing

Once the animatic has been approved, it and the are sent to the design departments. Character designers prepare model sheets for all important characters and props in the film. These model sheets will show how a character or object looks from a variety of angles with a variety of poses and expressions, so that all artists working on the project can deliver consistent work. Sometimes, small statues known as maquettes may be produced, so that an animator can see what a character looks like in three . At the same time, the background stylists will do similar work for the settings and locations in the project, and the art directors and color stylists will determine the art style and color schemes to be used.

While design is going on, the timing director (who in many cases will be the main director) takes the animatic and analyzes exactly what poses, drawings, and lip movements will be needed on what frames. An (or X- sheet for short) is created; this is a printed that breaks down the action, dialogue, and sound frame-by-frame as a guide for the animators. If a film is based more strongly in music, a bar sheet may be prepared in addition to or instead of an X-sheet. Bar sheets show the relationship between the on- screen action, the dialogue, and the actual musical notation used in the score.

Layout

Layout begins after the designs are completed and approved by the director. The layout process is synonymous with the out of shots by a on a live-. It is here that the background layout artists determine the camera angles, camera paths, lighting, and 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.

Animation

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 ("key" in the sense of "important") 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 the sound that character's actor is producing as he or she speaks. (Try making "ah," "ooh" and "ee" sounds out loud, and note how your mouth will subconsciously form a different shape for each sound; good animators must pay attention to such seemingly trivial things).

As they are 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 . 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 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.

This process is the same for both and special effects animation, which on most high-budget productions are done in separate departments. Effects animators animate anything that moves and is not a character, including props, vehicles, machinery and phenomena such as fire, rain, and explosions. Sometimes, instead of drawings, a number of special processes are used to produce special effects in animated films; rain, for example, has been created in Disney films since the late-1930s by filming slow-motion footage of water in front of a black background, with the resulting film superimposed over the animation.

Backgrounds

While the animation is being done, the background artists will the sets over which the action of each animated sequence will take place. These backgrounds are generally done in or acrylic paint, although some animated productions have used backgrounds done in watercolor, , or even crayon. Background artists follow very closely the work of the background layout artists and color stylists (which is usually compiled into a workbook for their use), so that the resulting backgrounds are harmonious in tone with the character designs.

Traditional ink-and-paint and camera

Once the clean-ups and in between drawings for a sequence are completed, they are prepared for , 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 celluloid (acetate is now used). The outline of the drawing is inked or photocopied onto the cel, and gouache or a similar type of paint is used on the reverse sides of the to add colors in the appropriate shades. In many cases, characters will have more than one color scheme 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.

A camera used for shooting traditional animation. 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 cells 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 camera, 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.

The popularity of traditional animation production, which was described above and the increase in perception of some messages by the spectators made the developing technologies inevitable to be used, especially the animation. When computer technology was applied to the animation production, in the beginning, traditional animation point of view was not left aside; developments were reached in transferring two dimensional animation production to computer in terms of time and technical easiness.

Computers and traditional animation

Though the process described above is the traditional animation process, painting cels is becoming increasingly rare as the computer moves into the , and the outline drawings are as mentioned in most cases scanned into the computer and filled with digital paint instead of transferred to cels and then colored by hand. The drawings are composited in a on many transparent "layers" much the same way as they are with cels, and made into a sequence of images which may then be transferred onto film or converted to a format. It has even become possible for animators to draw directly into a computer using a tablet or a similar device, where the outline drawings are done in a similar manner as they would be on paper. The development of such paperless 2D animation, or "tablet animation", is likely to replace the traditional pencil and paper not too far into the future, as mentioned in this article, just as cels and traditional paint was replaced when digital ink and paint was fully introduced in the 90's. Some of the advantages are the possibility and potential of controlling the size of the drawings while working on them, drawing directly on a multiplane background and eliminating the need of photographing line tests and scanning.

Though traditional animation is now commonly done with computers, it is important to differentiate computer-assisted traditional animation from 3D computer animation, such as and ReBoot. However, often traditional animation and 3D computer animation will be used together, as in 's A.E. and Disney's Tarzan and . DreamWorks executive coined the term "tradigital animation" to describe films produced by his studio which incorporated elements of traditional and computer animation equally, such as : Stallion of the Cimarron and Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas.

Interestingly, many modern video games such as Viewtiful Joe, : The Wind Waker and others use "cel-shading" animation filters to make their full 3D animation appear as though it were drawn in a traditional cel style. This technique has recently also been used in the animated movie Appleseed, and was integrated with cel animation in the FOX .

Intro To 3-D computer animations

3-d computer animation is the projecting of two-dimensional pictures one after the other which are rendered in the means of width, length and depth in the space supplied by computer software’s. 3-d computer animation has some characteristics that are different from the traditional animation in terms of method and techniques. By the user’s commands, the computer calculates the details like movement, color, light, and perspective of the objects on the created visual stage accurately and gives the outcome as an image. Animator plans the model, which is thought to be on the stage with architecture sensitiveness, chips into shape with a skill of sculpture, makes it move in aesthetic way by the help of observation, experience and creativeness. While doing this work, his/her brush is digitalizes like mouse and keyboard, his/her canvas is computer screen. His other tools are like modeling, metamorphosis, giving movement; primitive objects, camera, lighting and color materials that the software enables. What are the Technical and Expression Possibilities of the 3-D Computer Animation? Producing animation by using computer technology, without doubt, is closely related with the computer technology technique and a series of capabilities of this technique. Computer gives the opportunity to the animator to use time, technique and creativeness at a higher and enables high quality products to be emerged.

“Computers are used for drawings that animators either can hardly draw or cannot draw by hand. Even if the animators are very good at drawing two- dimensional figures, three-dimensional figures and their movements can challenge the most experienced eyes and hands. If a three dimensional volume is going to be drawn, it is impossible to create the perspective images by hand that a camera can do by moving in this visual environment. The computer can do all the complex and dense mathematical operations while the camera moves around the described three-dimensional objects or the objects move around themselves. In a similar manner, sensitive light effects can be drawn by hand in one frame; but these effects must not change in the consecutive images like in video and cinema. Here, computers can do the painting, shading and lighting calculations for appropriate and consistent lighting effects.”

Producing Steps of 3-D Computer Animation

In the process of 3-d computer animation production, it is inevitable to realize some series of steps related to production technique and methods based on both technique and expression style. The information about these steps is as follows

Design

Producing the models (modeling)

Determining the qualities of models.

Scene arrangement ,Transformation

Rendering the objects

Assembling and special effects

Transferring to video, CD, or film. COMPUTER ANIMATION USAGE FIELDS AND ITS USAGE ON EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS

On screen sometimes we see dinosaurs, strange aliens that run from one place to another; sometimes we walk in the rooms of a house by the sea that has not been built yet; and sometimes in TV commercials we see logos or products flying and bouncing. These are all made by animation techniques. Computer animation shows itself in different fields everyday. Briefly, these fields are; advertising, architecture, art, archeology, chemistry, education, , and game, movie, flight simulation, law court, medicine, military, multimedia, scientific animation, simulation, space searches, video and television. In every field, different dimensions of animation are used through its production and expression possibilities. In this part of the study, the applications and goals of computer animation in TV educational programs is going to be told.

What makes animation different from camera image is that each frame of the images that form the movement is made one by one in animation. Single frame doesn’t represent the animation. It may be considered as a photograph, picture or illustration by itself. Only when these frames are played at a specific speed the animation presentation is occurred. A medium is necessary for the animation presentation. Video and the computers which can process the image digitally and then can transfer are the appropriate basic media for these kinds of works. By transferring the images through these media, the animation can be shown on computer, television or movie screen.

Animation is an audio-visual material since it can be supported by sound. As it is known, audio-visual materials have an important role in educational and instructional environments. Audio-visual materials generally have these five features:

1- Capability of improving perception, 2- Capability of improving understanding, 3- Capability of developing learning transfer, 4- Capability of consolidating obtained learning results, 5- Capability of helping to keep the learned knowledge in mind. "An animator is an actor with a pencil", goes the oldest and truest animation cliché. Not "a draftsman that acts", but first and foremost - an actor. If you're trying to tell a story through a character, inevitably you're an actor. The only question is whether you are a good actor or a bad one.

My feeling is that in the past few years, while there's been great progress technology-wise, the art of acting in animation has been abandoned. Compared with the acting quality of characters such as Shere-Khan (The Jungle Book), Captain Hook (Peter Pan) and others, today's characters are pale, dull, and lack personality. In better cases, an exceptionally interesting voice-talent saves the day (Robin Williams as the genie in ); but usually the script alone is responsible for providing the characters with some sort of personality.

3D are works of graphic art that were created with the aid of digital computers and specialized 3D software. In general, the term may also refer to the process of creating such graphics, or the field of study of 3D computer graphic techniques and its related technology.

3D computer graphics are different from in that a three-dimensional representation of geometric data is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images. Sometimes these images are later displayed in a pre-rendered form, and sometimes they are rendered in real-time.

In general, the art of , which prepares geometric data for is akin to sculpting or photography, while the art of 2D graphics is analogous to painting. However, 3D computer graphics rely on many of the same algorithms as 2D computer graphics.

In computer , this distinction is occasionally blurred; some 2D applications use 3D techniques to achieve certain effects such as lighting, while some primarily 3D applications make use of 2D visual techniques.

Though animations can be easily done using Custom Animations provided in PowerPoint, it can be much more tedious to create a movie or game in PowerPoint due to the absence of key frames and tweening found in professional animation programs such as .

When effects such as Emphasis Grow/Shrink and Spin are applied to objects, they may appear to be jagged when previewing in the slide show. In addition, excessive use of effects may degrade the slide show performance. These issues can though be resolved by enabling the hardware graphics acceleration feature which requires that supports Microsoft . Careers in Animation

More Than Just Pen and Paper

The realm of commercial animation is as diverse as the styles and techniques of animation itself. These days, animators can find work in feature films, television, the Internet, CD-ROM production, as well as product design/, architecture, and interior design. And within each of those industries, animators can perform a variety roles.

In a future article, we'll discuss some of those varied industries but, for now, we'll go over a few different career paths that a film/television animator may choose from.

2-D Animator

2-D Animation may sound old-fashioned in a day and age when computers are everywhere and 3-D animation has taken Hollywood by storm, but 2-D animation continues to be an expanding and popular medium -- especially since classical 2-D skills are the foundation for most 3-D work. 2-D animators develop their skills through life drawing, composition, and perspective courses -- studying proportion, line of action, structure, and basic anatomy -- while working in as varied as animation, character design, clean-up, doping, modeling, slugging, and storyboarding.

3-D Animator

3-D animators are occupied with many of the same considerations at their 2- D counterparts -- computers don't get rid of the need for skills in life drawing, concept drawing, composition, character design, etc. 3-D animators will also deal more extensively with modeling, texturing, and lighting in a 3-D environment, often with the use of such software tools and packages as PhotoShop, SoftImage, Alias/Wavefront, Maya, and others.s

Storyboard Artist

The Storyboard Artist interprets scripts to create storyboards. This usually means planning shots, visualizing the story before drawing it, and being careful to maintain continuity among the shots. Starting out on this career track as an assistant, you'll typically start out by doing clean-up and revisions, eventually working up to preparing some parts of the story board under supervision. This work involves a lot of cutting and pasting, drawing and quick sketching, perspective and composition, and perhaps most importantly, story development and interpretation.

Layout Artist

The Layout Artist creates the foundation for the animation by rendering background layouts for each scene -- usually referring to storyboards and additional research materials. These layouts don't appear in the final production, but are critical for the positioning and perspective of the animation. Layouts are usually done with graphite pencil on punched animation paper; the aim is to provide a stage in which the animators will animate their characters and effects, as well as a blueprint or underdrawing, to be rendered in color by the Background Painters.

Inbetweener

Most artists enter the world of animation by starting as Inbetweeners -- the artists that help the animators and animation assistants complete the action of a scene. It may not sound like much, but it's an important step where you'll learn the basics of animation. An inbetween is one of the transition drawings between two extreme drawings -- the key drawings that distill the essence of an animated action. The inbetweens fill in the action between these key drawings. You'll usually work in a team and learn to imitate the animator's drawings and line quality. Career in animation

THERE was this family which adopted a mouse as their second son, and the mouse was good friends with them all much to the consternation of the family cat... Remember the movie `Stuart Little', wherein the protagonist, a little mouse Stuart Little, enacts all the human qualities. Credit for all this goes to the animation team. Welcome to the world of film animation - a world where reality meets imagination, where dinosaurs walk across silver screens. This is a world of special effects, unbelievable graphics and exotic technologies that mesh and converge to create unbelievable real and virtual experiences. It's a world that beckons creative minds to unleash their power; and it's calling you!

Animation is the art of conceiving an action by drawing inanimate objects or characters, which are made suitable for filming. It has lately become so high paying a profession that it will soon be matching the pay packets of software professionals. Television channels are applying animation techniques as a relief from ho-hum viewing. According to a study by Andersen Consulting, India's animation industry (domestic and exports) will touch USD 2 billion and create employment for around three lakh professionals, including content developers and animators, by 2008.

The Indian animation market, fairly "static" until a few years ago, is suddenly waking up to a host of global opportunities that promise a lot of "action" for the country's leading design specialists. North American film and television programme producers (that boast worldwide networks) are finding it viable to sub- contract animation production activities to independent studios overseas. The demand for animation production services from international animation studios is thus spurred in large part due to India's lower costs of animation production and technical manpower to meet 2-D and 3-D animation requirements.

The requirement of the burgeoning Indian television segment for animation and special effects- related work is also giving a fillip to this segment. Recognising this potential, 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 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, Animation, Heart Animation, etc. are just a few of the ventures that have dedicated themselves to the world of animation and special effects. What then are the prerequisites to start a career in film animation?

Firstly, you must have an incorrigible itch, to draw! If you have completed higher secondary school and are versatile in drawing, you can enrol in the Visual Communication and Design course. If you are already a graduate in fine arts with an aptitude for drawing, you would do well by joining production houses or studios as a trainee. There is a course in Animation Film Design offered by the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.

You must be familiar with the various modes of drawing methods available in the software.

Recognising the significance of the multimedia industry as an emerging career destination, NIIT, one of the premier computer education institutes, has developed a special programme to help learners the skills needed for this market. Called Maxi media, this programme is a complete learning guide to the art and science of multimedia. From designing annual reports to creating realistic 3-D animation films, Maxi media covers virtually every segment within the multimedia domain.

Following are the courses that can equip you for a career in animation industry:

The Foundation Courses - They offer an introduction to the world of multimedia, covering concepts, tools and techniques

Digital Printing and Publishing - A module focused on designing products for the publishing segment

Digital Web Authoring - A complete course on website creation

Digital Film Animation - A programme for creating professional animators Digital Interactive Multimedia - A course to acquaint students with the new media

Diploma in Digital Visual Communication - Exposes to platforms such as print, the Web and interactive multimedia

Advanced Diploma in Digital Visual Communication and Animation - Prepares for careers in animation, multimedia, special effects, games, CBT (computer- based tutorials) and WBT (Web-based tutorials)

For a successful career in the field, one needs to be familiar with web authoring, digital illustrations, image editing, page layout creation, multimedia authoring, web publishing, conventional animation, contemporary animation, animation for Web, video editing and composing.

You can be absorbed at various levels depending on your skill sets, as graphics designer, visual artist, supervisor, digital film animator, senior animator, content writer, clean up artist, web designer or web author. Salaries are competent and are on par with the software industry.

The question explored here, concerns the future of animation, animation technology and the changes that the new technology will bring to the field. How will studios, marketing executives and sales staffs sell their animation products created beyond celluloid? As animation expands, creative marketing becomes germane. Admittedly it is possible that in some remote unexplored region of a third world country, there may exist a small population untouched by animation or its byproduct, but globally, the masses have seen the art form commercialized into a trade, touching nearly every aspect of each day.

Animation is increasingly becoming more popular as a mainstream entertainment medium. The once male dominated cartoon format is pushing itself into the female demographic, with strong feminine characters. More notable, however is the utilization of animation with fresh commercial applications. The educational, industrial, research, and advertising applications are formidable. As end users respond favorably to the product, the outer limits of the craft seem pushed into an infinite, and previously unimaginable state. Article on: -Future of animation in India is brilliant"

"Kinetic Art is the first new category of art since prehistory. It took until this century to discover the art that moves. Had we taken the aesthetic qualities of sound as much for granted as we have taken those of motion, we would not now have music. But now, in kinetic art and animation, we have begun to compose motion. We've all been conditioned to viewing film as an adjunct to drama and literature, as a medium for story-telling. These virtues are absolutely secondary to the kinetic fine-art end of motion composition", said Len Lye, animator, kinetic sculptor in 1964. The art makes good business sense too. The global digital animation industry is poised to grow to a whopping $70 billion by 2005 from the current level of $30 billion. According to a Nasscom study, the Indian Animation industry, pegged at over $550 million, is likely to register a 30 per cent growth rate annually and is expected to reach $15 billion by 2008. Sculpting this art of motion composition is Trivandrum based . AssureConsulting.com catches up with CEO Mr. Bill Dennis in Los Angeles.

Could you briefly introduce Toonz India for our readers? Toonz Animation India is a relatively young studio. Founded in 1999 in Trivandrum, the studio now has over 400 artists working on a variety of animation formats. The studio does both 2D and 3D production work for ad films, commercials, television series, feature length films and films. Toonz also publishes a full line of comic books. Last year we added a studio in Mumbai (formerly ToonSense). This studio concentrates on ad films and pilot shows, but gets involved in longer format work as well.

Is the animation industry in India witnessing an outsourcing boom? What are the factors that are driving studious in the West to trend to shift work to India? India is becoming a popular destination for animation production work. The major factor driving this move is price. India is competing head-on with for animation production business and India is able to offer very competitive rates.

In terms of quality of animation work how does India compare with outsourcing destinations such as and China? In addition, is India on the same wavelength as other countries? I believe that India has a long way to go measure up to the quality levels of the Philippine, Korean or studios. After all, the industry in those countries is well seasoned, while in India, it's relatively new. As for China, I think India can be quite competitive from a quality point of view. And, India has a very distinct advantage over China in that English is a second language here. Our artists understand humor and that's very helpful as they try to animate a gag. What is the nature of the work that is being outsourced to India, post-production, illustration etc? Most of the work being outsourced to India involves animation, in-betweening and cleanup as well as ink and paint/compositing. In some cases studios are also doing layouts and backgrounds.

What is the percentage of Indian based themes in the work you do? With Indian curry, fiction and films fast becoming the rage in certain parts of the West, do you foresee greater acceptability for Indian themes in the international market? Probably half of the work we're doing has an Indian theme. Presently we're doing a full television series (26-eleven minute episodes) of The Adventures of Tenali Raman. This has already been picked up for worldwide distribution. I think as long as Indian studios produce high quality series with great storytelling, there will be a strong worldwide market for the films.

Are Indian filmmakers gradually adopting special effects and animation? Most live action adventure films involve a lot of special effects and animation. Toonz is currently providing these services for two films.

India boasts of a rich tradition of folklore and mythology, which lends itself exceedingly well to animation. India is also the highest producer of films in the world, yet Indian filmmakers have shied away from producing animation films. How do you view and explain this paradox? Animation is very expensive to produce. Far more expensive than live action films. I think this has been a major factor in pushing animation producers away. Since it's so expensive to produce, it's hard to get advertisers to pay the higher prices. However, Toonz has developed a formula which allows us to produce series at an international standard but at 1/5 the costs normally associated with this kind of work.

Can you enumerate some of the projects that Toonz India is working on currently?

Besides The Adventures of Tenali Raman, Toonz is co-producing a large series entitled, How to care for your Monster. This is a 52 episode series on which we are providing layouts, backgrounds and all animation. Our co- production partners are in The United Kingdom, France and Canada. We're also in development on another Indian series based on the legendary action hero and god, Hanuman. This will be produced in 3D. We've already hired our story editor from the United States. He'll be joining us in November.

Apart from films, to what other market segments does Toonz India cater? Toonz publishes comic books under the banner Paaka Toonz and Classic Toonz. We publish one new comic monthly. We also are in three national newspapers with our comic strips. The characters in the comics and strips are Toonz characters. We've developed them and we own the rights. Toonz also sponsors the Childrens Animation Workshop. This has become a very significant event which showcases the talents of Indian childen and introduces them to the field of animation. Some of the little films we've made with these children have won awards around the world. This year's slate of films will be premiered on the on Children's Day (November 14).

In what way have new technologies transformed animation? What are the technologies/tools largely deployed by Toonz? Toonz use a balance of traditional hand drawn animation and digital assisted animation. Instead of hand painting each and every cell by hand and shooting it on a camera, we digitally paint all of our films. We also use a lot of 3D animation and we're working on a series involving . We're even painting some of our backgrounds digitally. But, most of the animation is still done by hand by a group of very talented artists.

How will trends such as interactive entertainment impact on the animation industry? Interactive entertainment is providing opportunities for animation houses to get involved in game production. It's my understanding that a couple of Indian studios are currently working on game production.

What's the road that you envision for Toonz India in the coming year? The roadmap for Toonz is pretty much for this coming year. We'll be doing our own series and marketing the series to a worldwide audience. We'll be doing co- production work, we'll be producing ad films and commercials, publishing our comic books and we'll be doing straight contract work.

In the future do you foresee 3D overtaking 2D animation? I don't think 3D will overtake 2D animation. I think they'll survive together quite well. 3D is becoming very popular with action series and special effects heavy series. But recently we've seen where Disney's Lila and Stitch (done in 2D animation) was incredibly successful at the box-office. I think there's a market for both. What will determine their popularity will be how good the story is written and how well the film is executed.

Are technology companies making use of the visually stimulating effects offered by animation to beef up dull and drab user documentation and training programs?

We're aware of a couple of animation studios that are adding some special effects to training films and documentaries. It's a natural fit.

Awareness of Animation industry in India is abysmal How acute is the problem of a technically qualified and creatively inclined workforce?

A lot is being done to improve the visibility of Indian animation around the world. There is now an organization, ASIFA-India, which is a branch of the international ASIFA Animation association. They're trying to help establish Indian animation. Currently there are 75 members representing over a dozen various studios. Another organization is being formed in an attempt to pool the collective resources of Indian studios so that they can make a global statement. This is a new effort, and it will be interesting to see how effective they can become. I think that what Toonz is doing with its television series is dong a lot to raise the profile. A press release was just reprinted in every major entertainment industry publication in Europe and America talking about this new Indian series. The more of this kind of activity coming from India the higher the profile. Also, Toonz sponsors an international animation festival called Week with the Masters Animation Celebration. Held every two years, the event brings top talent from around the globe to India to screen their films and talk about their art. It also becomes a showcase for Indian animation talent.

What's the future for the animation industry in India?

I believe the future of animation in India is BRILLIANT. We have everything going for us. Great talent, great prices, great stories. We only have to be able to manage it at an international plateau to become successful. I think the world is now focused on India. Many major studios in the US (Disney, Sony, Warner Bros, DreamWorks) are looking very closely at how we're handling our selves and the work we're producing. I expect that one or more of these studios will get involved in India within the next year.

Bibliography

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animation

 http://www. 3D Computer Animation.htm

 http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-215387/animation