Careers in Animation, Multimedia and Games Development

Friday, October 03, 2008

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If you have been awed by the extreme graphics effects shown in movies or games and yearn to be part of this creative industry, then you will be pleased to know that there are plenty of opportunities available. However, a career in field of animation or gaming requires plenty of creativity and imagination prowess, and the knowledge of latest computer animation or gaming technologies.

Be it Godzilla rampaging through the streets of New York, or aliens invading our planet, Spiderman swinging from one skyscraper to another, or a kid Hanuman fighting demons; we have all watched these scenes from movies and experienced the excitement that they are able to create. It just shows how human imagination spiced with technology can result in such fantastic and exhilarating experiences to a viewer. Such is the endearing world of animation and computer graphics that brings lifeless images to life through different tools and technologies. In this animated world the creativity makes the impossible become possible. It's not only special effects or animated movies, animation and computer graphics (CG) have found their place in the field of advertising, television, media, and other industry verticals such as medicine, education etc. In the global entertainment industry, animation and CG is gaining unprecedented attention.

India's media and entertainment market is one of the world's largest in terms of the total number of films produced in a year. And the industry is growing 20% annually and generating USD 10 billion of revenue. The movies are becoming more technology-centric and production houses are allocating separate budgets for animation and visual effects (VFX) in movies. This year's epic movie, Jodha-Akbar, had a lot of VFX and even Love Story 2050 had more than 1200 scenes with special effects. Mainstream animation movies too have never been made in such numbers before as is the case now. Animation has made inroads into new bastions, the biggest of them being, Gaming. The upcoming gaming industry and the pace at which the Indian entertainment industry is moving forward, has opened new opportunities for creative people to choose from. One of them is Multimedia, which is a way of conveying a message by combining text, animation, graphics, sound, video and interactivity. The domains of animation, multimedia and gaming, not just require creativity in an individual, but also technical skills. So, apart from good story-telling or sketching skills, having the fundamental knowledge of science, mainly geometry and physics only helps an individual to become an expert. Thus, if you add the latest animation or gaming knowledge to your creativity and imagination prowess, there is no dearth of job opportunities for you.

Opportunities to explore
Like any other upcoming technology, Animation and Visual Effects are growing from infancy to a new level of maturity in India. With work from various industries being outsourced to India, Entertainment related jobs have also started to be outsourced to India. Indian cinema houses have also started to incorporate animation and special effects more in movies. This trend has not only created new job opportunities for fresh graduates in Computer Graphics, but also created a sense of healthy competition amongst various production houses to deliver better quality of images.

Indian animation industry is suffering from challenges like shortage of well-trained professionals, high-cost technology as animation as a career is not as 'lucrative' as it seems. It Ram Mohan, Chairman, Graphiti Multimedia  demands artistic people with creative backgrounds; however, it takes two to three years to make an impact. Moreover, Indian animation industry is a service industry and not a content creation industry. We have to outsource the original content. So, we look for highly-experienced writers, visualizers and designers, and nurture them

Entertainment Industry: The aptitude and skill sets required for various profiles in the Entertainment industry vary with the specific tasks. There are creative jobs in the Pre-Production phase suitable for professionals with mastery in sketching and conceptualization. Then there are specialist profiles in CG Animation & Visual Effects production like Modelers, Animators, Texturing Artists, Lighting Artists, each demanding their own level of expertise. Then there are Post-Production Artists, Editors, and Sound Engineers, etc. who work to give final touches to make visuals more stunning. With suitable experience one can then move into Pipeline Management and Rendering areas for a production studio. The skill set required in the animation and VFX studio would be the knowledge of software like Maya and 3D-Max. Most of the animation work is done on Maya. So, having a good experience on this platform helps to bag opportunities quickly. And although creative prowess is always preferred, the knowledge of software to render the imagination is always a plus. And even though Indian entertainment industry has many opportunities with attractive packages, the lure of working for Hollywood studios is always there. For Hollywood studios like Pixar, Dreamworks and the like, it's the creativity that is evaluated in an individual before they are trained on individual software.

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