Global recession has affected the job market the world over. It has made us understood that continuous innovations in educational practices are very important to survive during such a crisis. Highly regarded careers like engineering, medicine and management have also faced severe problems in terms of job offer and package these days. It is the time to think something out of box. The Indian animation market, fairly ‘static’ until a few years ago, is suddenly waking up to a host of global opportunities. India has all the right ingredients like budding talent, ingenuity, culture, language, entrepreneurial spirit, and innovative thinking to be the superpower in animation industry in the world.

From the career point of view, animation industry bears lots of opportunities for the competent. No one can forget Walt Disney for the creation of his cartoons, especially the Mickey Mouse! Animation is an art form in which inanimate objects are brought to life by sequencing the drawn images.

Global film and television programme producers (especially from America) are outsourcing animation production activities from India. The demand for animation production services from international players is thus increasing due to India's lower costs of animation production and technical manpower to meet 2-D and 3-D animation requirements. In domestic market also animation is accepted as a special form of media. Animation is growing to a multi-billion dollar industry, generating a great platform of employment. Animation demands hard work and long hours of meticulous planning. Since this field is new to Indian market, huge potential is waiting for the right talent. Thus the needs for skilled professionals are increasing like anything. International players like Sony, I-max are ready to outsource the animation activities from India and also to invest in this sector to create appropriate talent.

One should have creativity, imaginative skills, flair of sketching/drawing, passion, good visualization skills, choice of colours, consistency in works and dedication for a successful and rewarding career in animation Industry. For pursuing a diploma or degree in animation, one should have passed XII standard. For postgraduation diploma/degree one must be graduate preferably in arts. Again the educational criterion depends on the institute. Some institutes like IITs, NID, etc have strict criteria. One must go through the admission notification before applying to these institutes.

After a successful completion of degree/diploma in animation, one can work as professional animators, modeler, layout artist, scanner operator, key frame animator, compositor, graphic designer, content writer, web designer, etc in various film productions centres, TV channels and studios, business houses, educational institutes, publishing house, medical/legal/insurance industry for presentation and models, defence (virtual reality), advertising world (ads and commercials), fashion industry, etc.

There are various professional courses that one can study like advanced diploma in digital visual communication and animation, diploma in rotoscoping, traditional and stop-motion animation, 3-D/2-D animation, human anatomy, drawing, Interactive multimedia, web authoring, film animation, etc. These courses focus on training with latest techniques of animation world.

NASSCOM says that India's gaming industry (computer games and mobile games) is expected to generate $424 million by the 2010. The creative reputation of India is also at the top due to its rich cultural and mythological history. NASSCOM has projected a creation of an additional 300,000 jobs in this sector in the next few years. Thus job prospects are very high.

A lot private and public institutes offer courses in animation in various parts of India. To name a few are: NID, Ahmadabad [www.nid.edu], IIT Mumbai and Guwahati, Zee Institutes of Creative Arts [www.zica.org], Arena Multimedia [www.arena-multimedia.com], Indian Academy of Digital Arts & Science, Pune [www.iadasanimationworld.com], Institute of Gaming & Animation, Pune, Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics [www.maacindia.com], BITS, Ranchi [www.bitmesra.ac.in].

Amalesh Sharma