Animation & Digital Technology

Every one knows Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Tom and Jerry and Stuart Little - some of the animated characters that always entertain us. Do you know how these characters were born and how the art of drawing makes such wonders possible? The answer is ‘Animation’ - one of the fastest growing and most in-demand industries in the world. Animation and Visual Effects are among the major hunted jobs of the 21st century. Multimedia, as the name suggests, is an enormous field that uses more than one medium of communication. It merges text, images, graphics, animation, audio and video to create virtual magic. Animation is only one component of multimedia.

Historical overview
The art of animation can be traced to pictures on rock surfaces. It was formally demonstrated in 1828 by a Frenchman, Paul Roget. The first animated film ‘Humorous Phases of Funny Faces’ by J. Stuart Blackton was made in 1906 by drawing comical faces on a blackboard, photographing them, and then erasing it to draw another stage of the facial expression. In 1914, the first cartoon named ‘Gertie, the Dinosaur’ by Winsor McCay, comprising 10,000 drawings, was shown as a film in the theaters. In the early twenties, traditional animation techniques were developed and more sophisticated cartoons were produced. And it was during this time that Warner Bros and Walt Disney studios came to exist. Computer animation, started during seventies and eighties, had a greater impact and with the passage of time, more and more advanced techniques were developed.

Animation, which derived its name from the Latin word ‘anima’ meaning soul, can be defined as the art of breathing life to a character or object. A blend of entertainment industry and technology, it is concerned with design, drawing, layout and production of graphically rich and attractive multimedia clips. In other words animation is making of movies, games or cartoons by moving the drawings or models of animals or people with the help of computers or other electronic means. Time and space play a critical role in animation.

Let’s look at the art of making an animation. Besides the most commonly used animations, i.e. two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D), there is also puppet animation, clay animation, sand animation, etc. Both 2D and 3D animation can be created digitally.

2D animation
Also known as classical animation,
2 dimensional animations deal more with drawing and framing and is the base of 3D animation. 2D animators work mostly on paper, creating frames to define a sequence that are then moved at varying speeds to create the illusion of motion. The process involves creating large number of drawings, and scanning them onto the computer and importing them into the software that helps in setting the timing and layers for the scanned sequence of images. Toonz Harlequin, Adobe Flash, CelAction, Anime Studio, Toon Boom Animation, Animaker are some of the softwares used for creating 2D animation characters. 2D images look shallow, while 3D images have depth, making them look more real.

Computer-generated imagery
 3D animations, are a series of images/objects created using computers or any other digital media. 3D animators deal with modelling, rendering, texturing and lighting. The texture, lighting and colour of the 3D objects are modified using software programmes and virtual cameras are used to focus, resize, zoom and illuminate the figures. Digital animation has the power to create effects not possible with classical animation. Film, advertising, video and gaming are the fast growing fields for 3D animation. This technique makes extensive use of animation software programmes like 3ds Max (Autodesk), Softimage|XSI, Houdini and MAYA (Autodesk) etc. It also finds use in the other areas like web graphics to create websites.

How to become an animator
Training is the most important factor in moulding a skilled professional in animation. To become an animator, one doesn’t require any specific academic qualification. Those with a basic sketching skill and a passion for animation can enter this field. For a better job prospect, one should have a degree or diploma in animation.Degree and diploma courses in animation are now abundant, apart from online services. Minimum qualification for a degree and diploma course in animation is plus two or equivalent.Any graduate, preferably arts graduate could apply for postgraduation in animation. But some institutions such as Industrial Design Center, Indian Institute of Technology and Indian Institute of Design follow eligibility criterion that only a graduate of architecture, technology and engineering, fine arts can apply for the PG course in these institutes.

Besides these graduate and postgraduate courses, there are several professional courses that focus on various styles and techniques. These courses, i.e. courses in Traditional animation, Stop-motion animation, Rotscoping, Computer generated 3D and 2D animation Clay-mation, Photoshop, Human anatomy, Drawing etc. help one to specialize in a particular area. One should also have a basic knowledge in handling a computer.

Creativity is the key
An animator should have an artistic bent with a lot of passion and imaginative skills. Creativity is the most wanted quality as animation starts with developing an idea to a story. The art of sketching or drawing is another basic skill one should possess. Patience, discipline and dedication to work are vital as this field involves a lot of hard work and long hours of thorough planning. He/she should have a sound understanding of anatomy of humans, animals or birds and body movements and lighting effects. Good communication skill is also needed as most of the time it involves teamwork. An animator should have a good sense of colour, proportion, size, design, visualizations, knowledge of background art and layout. They must have expertise in computer design software. Knowledge of programming languages (C++, Java) will be an added benefit. It is advantageous to understand photography, lighting and movement for those planning to work in computer animation. They must be able to visualise how an object will look in three dimensions and have the know-how to make an animated object look real.

Job prospects and options
A strong work portfolio is an essential part of landing a job in computer animation. Numerous job opportunities are available in India and abroad. It opens the door to major film industries such as Hollywood, the world of visual effects and imagery. It is a booming industry with wide job openings and one can work on full length animation movies or any other related field like television, advertising industry etc. An Animated feature film, which offers considerable employment prospects, is a combined talented effort of a wide variety of artists. A typical animation film requires around 500 animators. Some of the jobs offered in the industry are:

Content developers
Modellers - They make the models for animation. Must have a solid understanding of anatomy, form and volume.
Story board artists - Those with strong drawing skills, who can visualize a sequence of events from frame to frame.
Character animators - They bring characters to life and generally have knowledge of traditional animation, stop-motion animation as well as claymation
Background artists - They specialise in painting the background of the characters and setting the background for the project.
Layout artists - They decide the lighting and camera angles and sketch the background design for the animation.
2D animators - They are involved in the creation of a high volume of separate drawings that define a sequence.
In-between animators - They have to learn all the basics of animation and are at the beginning position in the career.
Scanner operators - They scan the clean up artists’ drawings.
Compositing artists - Layering individual frames of animation on top of one another to create final images.
These images are then strung together to create complete shots or mini animated movies.
Visual effects artists - They integrate live-action footage with computer-generated imagery or other elements.
Audio and video specialists - Designing the sound for animation and also editing the visuals with softwares such as Avid and Final Cut Pro.
Visualisers – Visualise the script and create basic designs for the project.
Texture artists - Apply surface to the 3D character, object or environment.
Rigging artists - They take the modelled, textured 3D character or object and set it up with a skeletal system or joints (if required). Without this step, the 3D model would not be able to animate, talk or move fluidly and correctly.
Clean-up artists - They check the accuracy and consistency of the designs and drawings. A good clean up artist should have excellent draftsman skill with the knowledge of density, width, volume and mass.
Lighting artists - They create variations of shade, colour intensity and shadows.
Digital ink and paint artists - They give colours to each frame.
Compositors - They bring together all the different characters and backgrounds into a single frame.
Editors - They edit the visuals with softwares like Avid and Final Cut Pro.
Key frame animators - Draw pictures of a movement’s beginning and end.
Rendering artists - They take all the data in a scene such as models, textures, animation, lighting, etc and output the correct combination in the form of individual frames of animation.
3D animators - They take the sculpted, textured and rigged 3D model and breathe life into it. This is done by putting in order the key frames so that they appear to be in motion.
Image Editors - They assemble visual and audio components of a film into a coherent and effective whole.
Compositors - They combine visual elements from separate sources into single images, often to create an illusion. It involves the replacement of selected parts of an image with other materials.
Visual effects (commonly shortened to VFX) are the various processes by which imagery is created and/or manipulated outside the context of a live action shoot. Visual effects often involve the integration of live-action footage and computer-generated imagery in order to create environments which look realistic, but would be dangerous, or costly, to capture on film. They have become increasingly common in big-budget films, and have also recently become accessible to  amateur filmmakers with the introduction of affordable animation and compositing software.

More avenues
Website designing, CD-Rom production, graphics designing and three-dimensional product modelling are some other fields where animators can gain employment. Though entertainment through film and television is the main area of application in this profession, animation is also needed in other areas like business, sales, engineering, education and advertising. It has chances in fashion designing and interior designing and even in medical, legal and insurance companies for their presentations and models. The gaming industry that includes video and mobile games looks forward to good animators. Some animation institutions appoint students for teaching assistance, so they can also take up teaching as a career. Animators could even find jobs at print media and publishing firms. Freelance work is another option for animators, particularly those specializing in web animation. India has more than 300 animation studios employing over 15,000 animation professionals. Outsourced job work from US and European studios to India is a boom factor. Indian companies are also creating a number of animated films and cartoons. So, the chances for good creative animators never end.

Nature of work
Creating an animation consists of idea development, pre -production, production and postproduction. The characters are created in idea development. In pre-production, the ideas are converted into layouts. Scriptwriting, storyboarding, character development, backgrounds, layout designing, animatics and voice come under pre-production. The actual result of the story can be visualised in the production stage which is a blend of animation, in-betweening or tweening (i.e. the creation of intermediate frames between two main images to give the appearance that the first image flows smoothly into the second one), scanning, compositing (i.e. combining images from different sources to create a finished frame of animation), background preparation and colouring. Final sound recordings, colour editing, testing and special sound effects are all added at the post-production stage. Post-production stage activities include editing, special effects (SFX), colour correction, compositing, voice and music editing and rendering. Rendering gives the final touches to an animation scene, in which the data is converted to raster image or animation.

Pay packet
A good salary is the most attractive part of this profession. Within a few years these professionals can earn six-digit salaries. As a junior animator or trainee one could get between Rs.8,000-15,000 per month. With three to five years experience an animator will get Rs.25,000- 40,000. And a well-experienced animator who has a good portfolio of excellent animation work could easily get Rs.50,000- 60,000 per month.

Various courses
Many institutes in India and abroad offer graduation and diploma courses in animation, besides the online services. Many of the institutes offer placements for their students as well.

Courses offered in animation.
 Postgraduation in Animation
 Graduation in Animation
 Diploma in Animation
 Certificate in Animation
Animation industry has the scope of transcending itself beyond the entertainment sector. It has vast applications in a number of fields than those mentioned above. Identify the right school. Select the appropriate course. Go ahead and do it. Good luck!

Yunus Bukhari is the founder of  Artery Animation & Fx