In the final installation of a two-part series, CE shows you what happens behind the scenes at an animation studio.We take a look at the avenues it has opened up for people and the process animating a character
KOCHI: Until a couple of decades ago, an artist/animator had to hand-draw every frame of the character to make it come to life. Now, thanks to 3D animation, a lot of avenues are opne for innovation. CE spoke to a few prominent animation training centres to understand what happens behind the scenes and the extent to which animation has expanded opportunities for people.
“The process consists of what we call an animation pipeline,” explains L Balakrishnan, faculty of animation and VFX at Global Institute of Animation and Gaming. “People think animation is a one-shot process of sitting in front of a computer and drawing a character and then making it come to life. But there are a number of specialised teams for each aspect of production.”
The first is a pre-production phase, which consists of ideation, storyboard development and design. The film is created and the basic outlines are sketched. “Then comes production when the actual characters and background details are drawn,” adds Balakrishnan. “This includes the research and development phase, character modelling (features of the character are created), background modelling (details of the background are filled in), texturing (giving the right look to the character), and rigging (giving constraints for movement to the arms and legs). What’s called ‘animation’ involves making the characters move in a required manner. Then there is visual effects added, when required.”
The post-production phase is when the 3D models of the characters are rendered in 2D, allowing us to view it on a flat screen. Then you have colour-correction for the final output. So does animation entail studying all of this? “In a way, yes,” says Uthay V, faculty at Reliance BIG Animation College. “Previously, the industry in India wasn’t growing because the entire workforce was of ‘generalists’ trained to do everything. But now, we need specialists.”
For example, for each process on the three stages, you have animators, who are specialised in that field, working on one of the project. “For pre-production, studios tend to hire animators with a creative background, such as a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) or in sculpting, since they can visualise a character and its background better,” adds Uthay. “Engineering students do very well in rigging, since some technical knowledge of physics is required. You need to know how an arm or a leg bends to give it the required constraints.”
Since it’s the combined effort of several technicians, how lucrative are career prospects? “Constant innovation is a must. It isn’t a mundane job where you are told what to do; you need to be creative to succeed,” says K Suresh, faculty at Arena Animation. “The most
basic qualification is to have passed Class 10; because once you get the requisite experience, you will be wanted by most studios in the country.”
This is relevant to India, as it’s the hub for outsourcing animation work, especially from bigwigs such as Dreamworks, Pixar and Industrial Light and Magic (ILM). “Bangalore, Pune, Chennai and Mumbai are the main centres. Chennai especially is slightly more inclined towards VFX, but most studios such as Pixion, DQ Entertainment, Prime Focus, etc on recruiting animators from India,” adds Suresh.
The pay for such jobs starts anywhere between `15,000-30,000, but there are no limits. V Swaminathan, country head, ICAT Design and Media College, concurs. “People think that animation is only limited to cartoons or VFX, when it’s a part of a larger umbrella of multimedia. It has applications ranging from virtual reality of architecture, to creation of biological models for medical applications. Even doctors have an animated model of a body organ made for better visualisation before operation. So animators need to be that adept and well-equipped to find solutions to these creative problems.”