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(Source:  hindustantimes.com)          To be a success in animation, you need to have an eye for motion; plenty of patience;  to harbor a passion for and understanding of the principles of film and animation;  be willing to redo work again and again; be prepared sitting in front of a computer all day; have good desk research skills, both at work and outside; and have an ability to observe minute details about the world and visualize new worlds.

Pluses:

* High salary prospects. You can earn more than a lakh after a few years.
* Fun, informal, trendy work environment.
* Allows creative people to fully exploit their creative side

Minuses:

* Long hours. Staff can work through the night. Some studios have been described as sweatshops and many staff are workaholics.
* Male dominated
* Mastering software requires hard work and progress up career ladder requires  a lot of dedication to the sector

How you can do it too:

No university degree is required to enter the industry but normally you need to be a 12th standard pass of equivalent. Any age can take the career up but most entry-level employees are in their late teens or twenties.

Since the industry in India is only 10 years old, there is hardly any non-management talent above the age of 35.
Graduates can be from any discipline but an increasing number of studios are preferring those from a fine arts background.

For production jobs studios are divided over what is required. All say that a minimum six months qualification in 3D animation software such as Maya is crucial.

Some studios say that is enough and all that is needed. Others say drawing skills too are essential. Some studios want staff with a background in filmmaking and direction as well.

It is certainly the case that a background in art, photography, filmmaking, drawing, sketching, sculpting, clay modeling or puppetry will definitely make you more attractive to all studios. However many new entrants do not have these skills or come from software and engineering backgrounds.

For jobs in pre-production, however, there is no question you must be able to draw and sculpt characters and come from a fine arts background.

To be a success in animation you need an eye for motion, patience, a passion for and understanding of the principles of film and animation, a willingness to learn and redo work again and again sitting in front of a computer all day, good desk research skills both at work and outside and the ability to visualize and observe the world.

To climb the career ladder you must perform well as it animation is a skills based environment,  you must be committed to the career of animation, not be afraid of hard work, be prepared to constantly upgrade your skills and be prepared to specialize in a particular technique or area.

Generally-speaking people with a background in photography are said to excel at lighting; those from painting backgrounds are said to do well at texturing and so on. Promotion is done on merit and not number of years experience.

“You need to do 10 hours work and not feel like work has started yet,” says Dippesh Jain, marketing director of the Graphiti School of Animation. “Being able to draw is an advantage but it is not necessary for 3D animation. For 2D animation, yes it was.”
Ronald D’Mello, managing director of Maya Entertainment Ltd.

“The basic skills needed in animation are observing the world and drawing. That is how animation is taught internationally. In India the training has been wrong as it has been all about the software. But increasingly in India animation will be about story-telling and for that you have to understand the art form of animation. You must be able to draw and understand the principles of action. We now need many more script writers as we create our own films as in animation as in film making the script is king,” says Gokal K. , head of animation at Whistling Woods International.

The general requirements to get on an animation course are to demonstrate a passion for animation and strong desire to work in industry and have a basic knowledge of a computer software. However some courses demand evidence of creativity and drawing skills.

Those on courses tend to be 12th pass, graduates, career changers or professional animators upgrading their skills.

There is no doubt that a good course will not only teach Autodesk Maya but all aspects of animation such as how to design a character; drawing and sketching; basics of filmmaking; acting; cinema, the production pipeline; visualization and motion.

Institutes which offer animation courses in Mumbai include:

Whistling Woods International in Goregaon (East). Go to www.whistlingwoods.net  or telephone (022) 2841 6000. Their two-year course costs Rs 800,000.

The Workstation in Vile Parle. www.the-workstation.net. Tel: 022 2616 2060. No fee disclosed.

The Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics has six institutes in Mumbai. Go to www.maacindia.com or call (022) 2673 1145-48. Course fees vary from Rs10,000 to Rs175,000 depending on the length.

The Graphiti School of Animation in Mahim. Go to www.graphitimultimedia.com or call 022 2444 0107. Costs Rs 1 lakh 30,000 for one year course.

Arena Animation Academy. Go to  www.arena-multimedia.com or call 022 67727400. Courses range from Rs 2,500 to 93,000.

Major animation companies in Mumbai: Pixion, Prana Studios, UTV Toonz, Maya Entertainment Ltd, Rhythm and Hues, Crest Animation Studios and Graphiti.

Global opportunities: If you are good and have the right skills, the world is your oyster. You can get a job anywhere as the same international software is used all over the world.

Indian animators have been hired to work in animation studios in Hollywood, Australia and in Europe. The technical director of Pixar in Hollywood is Indian. Job opportunities are found via networking, at animation festivals and on websites. “Good people will be recognized and headhunted,” says Dippesh Jain, marketing director of Graphiti School of Animation.

The majority of jobs in animation in India right now are in production working on fully animated Indian and western TV serials and films. Starting salaries range from Rs 8,000 to 20,000 for a trainee.
Salaries rise to Rs 20,to 40,000 after two years.

(See conversion to US Dollars:  http://coinmill.com/INR_USD.html#INR=40000.0)

As a trainee you are expected to specialise in a particular field such as:

• Character modeller (creating a character’s sculpture)
• Texture/Shading Artists (putting colours and texture on an item)
Lighting artists (puts light and shades on any part of film)
Junior animator (giving life to the object – enabling it to move)
• Environment Designers (designing the environment like trees, roads, lakes)
• Compositors (putting all the elements together to create a scene)
• Effect Specialists (creating dust, rain, clouds, storms, explosions,)
• Character Riggers (adding bones to the model – could be to a human, a cat or even an android)

These are the following posts:

1) Dept lead/lead animator/team leader/supervisor (salary of Rs 50-75,000)
2) Project manager (Rs 75,000 to lakhs)
3) Animation director (Rs 1 and above)
4) Series director (Rs 2 lakhs and above)

You might also choose to specialise in special effects and work on live action feature films. Apart from the big and small screen, animation artists can work as architect visualisers. These artists create animated walkways through buildings before they are built. There are also a tiny number of jobs in e-education and web animation.

Training to be an animator: Wet your feet

Those who get into animation purely for the money, and not out of a passion for it, do not usually end up doing well, say trainers

Students sit quietly in a classroom in Andheri staring at computer screens, learning to master 3D animation software as the teacher goes through the principles on a large screen at the front. Next door, some are sketching characters in an informal setting and cute unusual cartoon characters are stuck all over the walls.

There are 1,200 people enrolled at the modern Andheri branch of the Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics (MAAC).  Most are in their late teens or 20s, and have day-jobs to fund the part-time course. Some are older career changers from engineering or accountancy. Three-fourths are men.

Animation training institutes are mushrooming across Mumbai, but not at a rate fast enough to meet demand. There are 10,000 enrolled nationwide at MAAC, with 2,500 at the six institutes in Mumbai. Two years ago there were just 2,500 enrolled across the country. MAAC is still inundated with applicants.

“This is a very good career option for the not-academically inclined and the pay is good,” explained Shravni Chopra, chief operating officer of MAAC. “But we don’t want time passers as our job is to create manpower for the industry. We look closely at their reason for wanting to do the course. It’s not about fun and glamour. You have to work hard and attend all the course.”

Those who did it only for money did not do well, but those that do it out of passion did, she said.
“Ninety per cent of our students get placements at the end,” she said. “Those who don’t perhaps include girls getting married or those who discovered it was not for them.”

The students tend to be college dropouts, school leavers, commerce graduates and some professionals in the industry upgrading their skills. A few are from fine arts backgrounds.

“We have a lot of students from Bihar and Kolkata,” said Jasmeet Bhasin, director academics of MAAC.  “We have classes from 7am to 10pm and students can choose when they come. Most are in awe of animation or moviegoers or love visual effects. All they need is to be computer literate, we teach them the rest and convert them into animators. But they must be committed to animation.”

Student Rameshwar Preja Pati, 24, from Dahisar, a commerce graduate on the 18-month professional diploma course, said: “I used to play on a PC console, and watch things like Ice Age so I decided to wanted to make characters like that.”

Rituja Pali, 23, a commerce graduate from Borivali, on the same course, added: “I have always liked sketching and when I watched movies like Hanuman I used to start imagining how they were made and I just wanted to do it myself.”

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