Contents

1. What Is Animation

2. Terms in Animation

3. Evolution Of Animation

4. Traditional Animation

5. Computer Animation

6. Five Useful Presentation Techniques

7. Traditional & Computer Animation

8. Computer Assisted traditional animation

9. Career in Animation

10. India'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 drawings or positions of models to

create an illusion of movement. It is an optical illusion of motion due to the
phenomenon of persistence of vision.

History

The Earliest form of Animation

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

Shadow Puppetry was also an animation ancestor, e.g. the Indonesian

animated shadow puppet called Wayang around 900 a.d.

Film animation

In the early 1890s, Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope was invented. The history of
film animation begins with the earliest days of silent films 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
animations 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 feature film 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 Lotte Reiniger and
French/Hungarian Berthold Bartosch. Walt Disney'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 reflection. 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 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.

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; circle, 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 software.
At the end, computer gives the opportunity to the user to get an outcome for
his/her animation through a printer, a video, etc.

What is Computer Animation?

By the help of technological improvements the transfer of traditional two

dimensional animation productions to computers made many things easy for
the animators. 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 cel-animation, a computer animation consists of a

series of individual still images. 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 slow motion 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 human body). Photographs 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 special effect, 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 image

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 painting 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, photograph 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 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.

Voice recording

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.

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 Fleischer Studios, continued to
post-synch their cartoons later, which allowed for the presence of the
"muttered ad-libs" present in many Popeye the Sailor and Betty Boop
cartoons. Although virtually all American animation is now pre-synched (and
has been since the 1930s), nearly all Japanese animation (anime) 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 storyboards 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
dimensions. 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 exposure sheet (or X-
sheet for short) is created; this is a printed table 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 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.

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 shape 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 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.

This process is the same for both character animation 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 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 (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 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 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 cels 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
animation studio, 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 computer
program 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 digital video format. It has even become possible
for animators to draw directly into a computer using a graphics 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 Toy Story and ReBoot. However, often
traditional animation and 3D computer animation will be used together, as in
Don Bluth's Titan A.E. and Disney's Tarzan and Treasure Planet. DreamWorks
executive Jeffrey Katzenberg coined the term "tradigital animation" to
describe films produced by his studio which incorporated elements of
traditional and computer animation equally, such as Spirit: Stallion of the
Cimarron and Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas.

Interestingly, many modern video games such as Viewtiful Joe, The Legend of
Zelda: 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 animated series
Futurama.

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 level 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 surface 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 TELEVISION 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,
engineering, entertainment 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 Aladdin); but
usually the script alone is responsible for providing the characters with some
sort of personality.

3D computer graphics 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 2D computer graphics 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 3D modeling, which prepares geometric data for 3D

computer graphics 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 graphics software, 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 Adobe Flash.

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 video card that supports Microsoft
Direct3D.
 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/visualization, 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 areas 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
Thiruvananthapuram 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,
Toonz 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 build 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, government 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 Toonz Animation India.
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 live action
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 China
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 Philippines 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 Taiwan 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 Western 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 Bollywood 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 Cartoon Network 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 Flash animation. 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 map that you envision for Toonz India in the
coming year?
The roadmap for Toonz is pretty much set 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