Got the aptitude for animation? Check your attitude!

By Ruchi Shrimali

Industry experts are betting high on animation sector in India. A report by auditing firm PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PwC) predicts that animation, gaming and VFX industry in India will grow from the current size of INR 3,130 crore to INR 8,260 crore in 2015. Nasscom reported that animation industry is growing by 22% annually, with custom content development and multimedia/web design being the largest segment.

However, Nasscom also said that there is a talent crunch in the field because of lack of quality resources, non-standardization of curriculum and limited training institutions. On the other hand, animation graduates and diploma holders often complain of lack of good jobs and opportunities in the field.

Let’s dig deeper to find out what major factors are ailing animation students and professionals in India:

Attitude and Aptitude: Traditionally, Indians like to opt for professions such as – engineering, medicine, law, civil services, or chartered accountancy. If they fail to join one of these, they opt for anything that comes their way. The ‘herd’ mentality takes over and students opt for just any course their fellow students join. They hardly care about their ‘aptitude’ for the course. This ‘casual attitude’ kills a student’s career even before it shapes up. Lack of focus, passion and will is most certainly a recipe for failure.

Ed Hooks, author of 'Acting for Animators' and a speaker at animation events around the world, agrees with the point. He says, “Careers popular in India are essentially "left brain" work - analytical, logical, and unemotional.  Missing conspicuously from the list is "the arts", which would encompass a lot of professions, including character animation. I wonder if an Indian kid with strong artistic inclinations is encouraged to pursue the arts. In the US, most parents do not want their children to be artists because this is a devilishly difficult way to make a living. In the US, the government provides virtually nothing in support of the arts because art is equated with commerce. On the other hand, European cultures consider arts to be an essential part of education, and artists are celebrated.  The city of Paris alone spends more on supporting the arts than the entire United States. England invests heavily in the arts. My point is that orienting to a career in the arts, including animation, is less risky in some countries than in others.

One thing that we need to understand is that there are many uses for animation other than character animation. There are plenty of non-entertainment-industry uses for animation – including advertising, education and medical. I doubt a nervous Indian parent would be quite as nervous if his 15 year old started talking about being an animator in the field of medicine, or aerospace, or automotive.”

Do you have the aptitude for animation?

Besides watching cartoons and enjoying the magical VFX in the cine and television world, you need to have artistic ability to make it big in the creative and imaginative field of animation. The ability to draw and/or create 3D models is absolutely essential to succeed in the field. To express what you have in mind to others, you will also need good communication skills. You should also have excellent concentration, stamina and tenacity to be able to spend hours bent over your drawing board or work tirelessly on your desktop to finish your piece, keeping deadlines in mind.

Know what to ask: Students in India either think that Indian animation industry is all about labour-intensive jobs that come from outsourcing or limit the scope of animation to making cartoons and character animation.

"Nothing can be more wrong," says Mehar Wadhwa, the Centre Head of D Q School of Visual Arts. She says, "India has too many creative job openings for which we are not able to find quality people. In fact, our parent company D Q Entertainment (the one that produced 'Jungle Book' and worked for 'Mickey Mouse Club House') opened up this training institute to be able to provide right kind of training to animation aspirants. The problem lies with the fact that students do not research properly. They are not aware about what they want, what they are capable of, and what are the job prospects of a particular course. If you do a Character Animation course in Delhi and try to find a job here itself, you will find yourself in a fix. Simply, because Delhi is not known for producing movies. Animation can offer you many lucrative careers, only if you do your research well and ask the right questions to the institute. In fact, a graduation degree in animation is perhaps the only professional degree that leads to fifteen different kinds of career openings."

Research well

You should not be blinded by the infrastructure or kind of reception an institute offers you. Know exactly where an institute stands in the market. Even if an institute has performed really well in the past, it is imperative to know how well it is respected in the industry at present. You should ask about the nature of jobs a course will lead to, and whether you can find such jobs at the location where you want to work.

You may ask Shiksha experts for any queries and doubts you might have.

Take step-by-step approach: "It is not easy to find students with right mix of talents. Students who do not have ‘it’ have to struggle much harder and are not easily employable. However, right kind of students always have opportunities if they get good mentors and can step into the right kind of studios," says Vineet Raj Kapoor, who is a mentor himself and involved in various web and animation assignments. He also helps students of Arena Animation, Chandigarh to achieve their creative potential.

According to him, "In the initial years, one has to slog hard and have patience. It takes time for your work to become known. It is an artistic field and not one where your salary package doubles every year.”

“The most successful people in the fields are avid readers, good writers, love sketching, and are usually good at dramatics too. These people are usually at the top in the industry. You can make it to the middle rung with even one of these qualities. However, if you don't have any of them, you are most likely to work at the bottom of the ladder in a production department," says Kapoor.

Prepare and Persevere

If you really want to make it big in animation, hone all the skills that you need in the field. Subscribe to animation-related blogs, forums and magazines. Watch movies and always be eager to read more about the latest developments in the field. Learn to express your ideas well – through your sketches, verbally and in writing. Pay attention to theatre settings and acting – it helps you in making a character come alive. And in the end, never give up! If you have the perseverance to pursue your passion, you will certainly reach the sky.

We will soon introduce you to 15 careers that an animation degree leads to. Keep checking Shiksha.com for it!