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prevalent in the industry are dominated by word of mouth and
friendly contacts. Few recruitment agencies specialise in
animation placements since this is still a relatively new
field. Training institutes still lack serious credibility
among the industry and as a result formal ties with animation
houses to take on the 'qualified animators' they produce are
more or less non-existent.
At
present it is pretty much dependent on the individual drive
and stamina of the artist to seek out his chosen place of
work. Poaching becomes very common especially when a studio
lands a project that it finds too big to handle on its current
strength. Often such recruitments are for short project-based
durations. Smaller units that cannot afford high overheads
now prefer free-lance animators and artists.
The
main drawback to recruitment is the limited number of qualified
animators. Most companies are of the opinion that it is
not the lack of talent or skills rather the sheer lack of
numbers that bothers them. Most people who have been in
the industry for over 10 years have their own businesses
to run. Artists with experience between 5 to 10 years are
gainfully employed by the larger houses and this leaves
a relatively young and inexperienced pool of talent for
the remaining companies to choose from.
This divide is growing constantly as fresh inputs into the
industry are dismally short on fundamental knowledge. Companies
are facing and will face the problem of recruiting senior
staff members. There is a shortfall in technically qualified
people. Companies that depend on traditional animation as
their main source of revenue are more likely to face a shortage
of pre-production and production staff. Those that are aiming
to enter the 3d character animation field will find animators
with little or no traditional animation experience. Multimedia
programming companies too will face a problem of technical
qualifications in their new recruits. The industry being
fragmented and pressed for resources cannot support a large
pool of trainees while they gain valuable experience.
Be
it setting up his own animation and sfx studio in 1995
or providing insights and project reports to help re
structure organisations and animation training schools,
independent animation producer and TASI India founding
member/spokesman Ranjit Singh's 15 yr old stint
in the animation Industry is marked with many highlights.
In 2001, Ranjit resigned from the company he founded
and has since been working as an independent animation
producer, director and consultant. He is currently writing
the first of a series of books on animation for beginners.
An animator and modeler himself, Ranjit is very passionate
about animation. He wants the new breed of animators
to avoid the struggle of his formative years and in
this endeavor he is forever available for advice to
students and animators alike. He can be reached at phanspal@vsnl.net
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Coupled
with this is the fact that animation is a very specialised
field. Not enough importance has been given towards industry
relevant training in India and as a result today we find
a shortage of skilled people that can be absorbed into the
industry and those that become useful to a company from
day one.
In
a nutshell we are sitting on a disaster waiting to happen.
One player can undo the years of hard work by a few companies
to get India onto the animation world map by over committing
and being unable to deliver due to manpower inadequacies.
It is high time we wake up and look at ground realities
and work for the future.
End
of Part 7
Part
8 of the series entitled 'Essentials of an Animation training
course' shall appear in the next issue of Animation 'xpress.
Read
Part 1
Read
Part 2
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Part 3
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Part 4
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Part 5
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Part 6
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