Avid About Animation

DIGITAL reincarnation, true to life representation of timeless classics, and incredible digital effects- the art of Animation has come a long way from its arduous beginnings ninety years ago.

Despite the advances in technology and technique, it still takes thousands of drawings to make a single animated film. There's little credit to you, despite hours of intense, gruelling effort that goes into making the finished product.

Although artistic talent forms an indispensable part of animation, the industry is desperately in need of professionals with the right blend of talent and technical know-how, and they don't mind paying top dollars to get highfliers. With international animation houses tapping into the Indian talent vein, this will be yet another challenging profession for innumerable artistic Indian minds.

Behind the screen

Animation is putting together a series of drawings, in such a way that when viewed in a rapidly moving sequence, it can produce and simulate the effect of a movement. Albeit illusionary, the effects are seamlessly integrated so that the make-believe looks as real and life-like as possible.

Hand drawn images have now been replaced with computerised drawings or ``frames'' (a pixellated representation of animated characters). 24 frames make up a second of 35 mm of animated film footage.

Loony toons

Animation forms an essential part of cartooning. Specialisation in a specific genre in animation is necessary to work at any studio. It all starts when the Director works out the storyline or plot. The actual work begins when the scriptwriters draft a rough script for the cartoon. This is followed by a session of brainstorming, when improvements and changes are made to the dialogue and script before arriving at a final draft. This is a time-consuming process as every line needs to read well.

Voice makeovers

The next step is to dub the voices onto the script. Unlike films where the voice is made to synchronise with the picture, in cartoons the voiceover takes place before any images have been created. Voice-over actors are employed to record the voice of the characters. Sound editors then work on the track to incorporate the best of the recording to bring out the voice- track.

Creative does it!

Storyboarding comes next, and Storyboard artists come to work to present the storyboard pitch. Panels of drawings depicting the important scenes, and rough sketches of poses from key scenes are tacked to the wall and reviewed. This becomes a blow-by blow, visual account of what the animated movie will be like.

Art directors create and supervise detailed storyboards, illustration layouts, artwork, and the people working on them. Mastery over graphics and animation software is essential for him to lead a team of Visual development artists. Supervising animators are responsible to undertake the development of one character and are assisted by a team of assorted animators who take care of the nitty-gritties. Animators work in collaboration with Texture artists, Background/Layout artists, Modellers (Modelling converts real life objects into animated representations. The object is optically scanned transformed into a 3D digital form, which it can be manipulated).

The Cartoonists decide on how each scene should be, and what the characters will look like. The bulk of the work involves drawing the pictures by hand, colouring them partially and scanning them into a digital form to be edited and coloured using a computer. It takes about 12000 pictures at the rate of 16 frames per second for every 22-minute cartoon, with a hundred people working on it for one year.

Clean-up artists make changes, improve and polish the pictures, include the filler frames and make the 'in-between' drawings. Trainees pitch in to help and in the process learn the ropes.

Original or pre-recorded sounds or are then plugged in to give the sound effects. Music and songs are specially composed, produced and recorded to go with the theme.

Other shades to animation

Animation plays a key role in Advertisements and Games. Knowledge of programming in Java, Unix, C, C++, and Open GL is essential.

You need

A degree in Fine Arts with an exceptional talent in drawing and cartooning is essential. In addition knowledge of software like 3D Studio Max, Adobe Photoshop, Dream Weave, Flash, Maya, Macromedia Director, Soft Image, Wavefront, Alias etc is required.

Where to go

Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai , Delhi, Chennai, Kharagpur, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad , Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore are renowned institutes which offer courses in Visual Communication.In the U.S., the California Institute of Arts; Art Center College of Design, Pasadena; Minneapolis College of Art & Design; Ohio State University Columbus; Pratt Institute Brooklyn, New York; School of Visual Arts New York; Texas A&M College are some of the reputed colleges, that offer degrees in art and animation.

Who's who

Overseas employers are outsourcing animation work, as it is labour intensive and countries like India and Korea where labour costs are low, are cashing in on the opportunity. Pentamedia, Pentafour, and Crest are the major developers in the Indian animation market.

Pentamedia also provides training in animation software.

ARCHANA JAYAKAR

archana.hyd@careercommunity.co.in