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How
long have you been involved with India and has there been any significant
growth since then?
Toon Boom is into its 11th year of operations. I have been involved
with the Indian animation industry for the last 7 years, the first
few studios that we dealt with were DQ, Heart Animation, Color Chips
and UTV Toons. The number of studios that we are involved with in
India has risen considerably of late, however I would still like
to see many more studios getting on board soon. I'd like to contribute
in terms of creating a vibrant industry which is profit generating
and creates content that cuts across cultural barriers.
Are you satisfied with the growth of the Industry? What is the challenge?
One can never be satisfied because one is always striving for growth.
Today the Indian animation industry has accomplished a lot in 7
years time. Lot of the Top Executives are individually known across
global animation circles. The challenge is to make it something
sustainable and growing.
What
about animation education in India ?
We are trying and we continue to take interest in coaxing some of
the top international animation schools to come and share their
knowhow in India. Last year there were more than 12 Canadian schools
that came and looked at the Indian market. The discussions are beginning,
its a matter of getting the right partners
together that can come up with a win win scenario.
Talking
about training, India lacks in numbers when it comes to good animation
faculty. Why doesn't some intl studio or body start a decently sized
institute out here?
I am not sure why that doesnt happen. One of the reasons, is that
which you have already mentioned in your question, there is hardly
any mass of well trained people. Actually its a chicken n egg story.
Which
are the formats that contribute to the consumption of animation
globally?
TV, DVD , Feature, Webisodes, Mobile.
2D
vs 3D - Your views
Artists are people who like creative variety, they like different
looks and styles too. At Toonboom we support the mixing of techniques
to create newer fresher and original styles and looks. To me its
not 2D vs 3D to me it is how do we enable people to use whichever
technique they wish to use. We have a network pipeline management
system which helps enable the same.
What's
your market share in 2D
We are available globally and have a 75% share in the 2D segment
in most of the Asian countries like Taiwan, Korea, China , Phillipines
and India. We have recently come out with a product called Harmony.
It enables artists at work to do a flash style animation (Industrial
quality) at a reduced cost due to production effeciency.
I'd
like to sum up with a single fact and that is 'Globally consumer
interest in animation is increasing by the day and these are reflected
by number of downloads of our software from the web which indicates
that not only is animation growing as an entertainment form wherein
studios create it, but also as a personal art form as a substantial
part of our downloads is from kids and children'
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