Animation Diplomas: Build creative & analytical skills!

INDIA'S animation industry kicked off with a large chunk of Hollywood’s animation work being outsourced here, due to availability of a large pool of skilled professionals at low costs. Today, the scene also includes work for Indian film and television industry. Animation professionals play leadership roles and look at aspects like conceptualisation and ideation.

Programmes & institutes: To get a foothold in the industry, a host of diplomas are available for Class 12 students, which have good scope for jobs and skill-building. MAAC’s 80+ centres offer two high-end animation-focused courses of 24 and 27-month duration, which trains one in all aspects of animation film-making, from preproduction to post production. Industry interaction is a must, and MAAC lays emphasis on events like popular animation film contest 24FPS. Other institutes offering shorter diplomas include Arena Multimedia, Frameboxx and BIG AIMS.

Skills needed: According to Jesh Krishna Murthy, Founder of studio Anibrain (Pune), which has worked on almost 50 Hollywood productions including The Amazing Spider-Man and Harry Potter & Deathly Hallows II, the VFX industry does not only require creative skills, but also analytical and technical skills.

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Placement opportunities: A dearth of good animation professionals prompted the company to launch Anibrain XDI, which offers two courses – 7-month VFX compositing course and the 15-month Advanced 3D for VFX & Feature Film course. “Apart from those who get hired by us, over 95% of students are absorbed by leading studios like Deluxe, Prime Focus, Reliance MediaWorks, NDTV and Red Chillies,” he shares. Other top animation studios include MAYA Entertainment , Rhythm & Hues, Prana, Pixion, Digitales, Digicaptions, and Underground Worms.

Ram Warrier, Business Head of MAAC shares that employment options go beyond film animation studios into areas like web animation and application-based animations for fields like medical, defence, architecture, interior design, where 3D simulations are created for everything from human anatomy to building designs and defence set-ups. According to him, the animation industry is now experiencing a ‘golden phase’.

Job profiles: It is becoming a multibillion-dollar industry, diversified into many branches, each resulting in thousands of jobs for qualified animators. One can work as a Character Designer, Compositor, Digital link and paint artist, Key frame animator, 3D Modeler, Layout Artist etc. Once you get the knowledge and the work experience in this field you can also start working as Art director, Animation Director and Creative Director.

Salaries: According to Jesh, the pay scale of a fresher starts off at Rs. 8,000 to 12,000 per month,  depending on one’s skills and can goes upwards to 1.5 lakhs after  8 + years of experience. “Unlike the common perception, the VFX industry requires creative skills as well as analytical and technical skills. You need dedication, hard work and passion to excel in this field,” rounds up Jesh.