Ashish Kulkarni

HUMAN RESOURCE - One of the biggest issues that faces the Indian animation and gaming industry. Bigger than the issue of funding and as big and important as the issue of original content.

The power panel on skilled human resources was the last session on the final day at NASSCOM Animation India 06, and it seems that the organisers wanted to save the best (most critical) topic for the last.

The power panel featured Indian Animation Stalwart Ashish Kulkarni, Ittina Studios Director Manu Ittina and Electronic Arts Worldwide Arts & Graphics Training Expert Sanjay Mistry.

The need for long term campus based training as well as the urgent need to set up a governing body that defined education standards was the essence of the presentations. Another critical point discussed was that of encouraging the practice of faculty that freelances and works in the industry even while teaching.

To emphasize his observation on the need for developing story writing skills Ashish Kulkarni began his presentation by narrating three stories which drove in the point that Indian animation industry hasn't been learning from its past experiences and hasn't yet taken the importance of human resource development to heart.

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Amongst some other points listed by Kulkarni

-Skill sets are very important in this industry

-Biggest Item in the PNL account of any company

-Existing Artists should upgrade their skills to the next level

-Those who are good with design should migrate to pre production

-We need to reach out to smaller places where there are a lot of people with artistic skills

-We must reach out to parents and apppeal to them that if they spot artistic skills in their children, they ought to let them pursue the same, need to make parents aware about the career potential in animation.

-In 97 we had great schools like Zica and Heart Animation

-Suddenly some where focus has shifted from artisians to technicians

-You can teach technical skills to an artist but not vice a versa

-Another vital aspect overlooked is that of the importance of story telling

-Skills costs - not exorbitant but inflated

-We need to have the IIT of Animation

-A lot of times artists just get bogged down working day in and out meeting deadlines, we as the management need to help them take time out and enhance skills.

Speaking next EA's Sanjay Mistry cited the example of EA which invests a lot in training its people. "We need to invest in training so as to make them enjoy staying at EA" he said.

Mistry also spoke about the production pipeline saying,"A lot of attention has to be given to the creation of the game production pipeline, which is of course dependent on putting in the right people at the right jobs. Unlike Film, nothing can be fixed in post and as every 3-4 years the industry advances one level there is a lot of new learning for everyone in the pipeline

Mistry's list of Future Challenges: Pros and Cons

Pros
India has a great wealth of resource
Great studios, Great People
Everyone is excited about the prospect of making games

Cons
Not production ready
Training is required into what makes a game
Lack of gaming culture
Play more games

Concluding the day's proceedings, Ittina Studios director Manu Ittina made a very profound and thought provoking presentation.

Ittina's Insights

Manu Ittina

"Animation is an industry of people and it is all about the people. Where are the people?" he asked.

Continuing Ittina remarked,"Art is the basic need to express and to be understood. And you cannot rush art (hinting at all the crash course wonder offers)"

Talking about the HR and faculty crunch Ittina shared," HR Bottlenecks are not only in India, they exist everywhere in the world. However most of the faculty abroad is always working in the industry, that practice is not in vogue in India where most academicians are not in practicing in the industry and vice a versa. That habit definitely needs to change"

Comparing the Franchise model vs centre model Ittina pointed out ,"Most succesfull schools in the US operate on a centre model however the one advantage of having a franchise model is the spreading of awareness as well as acess to talent in the interiors"

Concluding his presentation Ittina stated,"We need a governing body to define standards in quality education as well as quality production"