Back For that `spark of quality' in animation
Abhinav Ramnarayan
| Ittina Animation Studios wants to make the Indian animation industry grow and glow. |
"There's not enough time, not enough money, so we do it faster, so we can't do quality work."
MORE PUNCH to the picture: Manu Ittina
When Ittina Group of Companies, the Bangalore-based property development company, set up Ittina Animation Studios last year, it was more than just a business venture - it was a venture with a mission.
The company, specialising in character animation, and areas related to computer graphics production, aims to catalyse a change in the industry in India, and has brought in Manu Ittina to do just that.
Ittina has extensive experience at Hollywood - he worked as a character animator for PDI/Dreamworks movies such as Shrek2 and Madagascar - and heads the studio in India.
"Currently, animation firms in India are bagging projects because its cheaper," he said, talking to eWorld recently. "It's pretty much the same situation as manufacturing or IT in the country. Our better language situation, and our cheap labour are the factors." This equation must change, he says.
`Stuck in a rut'
He says the animation industry is stuck in a rut. "In the US, an animation company would typically get $60 million for a 90-minute duration film. Here, animation companies are paid between $3,000 and $10,000 a minute. The disparity is huge."
It's a vicious cycle - because of the lack of quality, that's all foreign companies are willing to pay an Indian animator, and because of this poor pay, the infrastructure remains static. "There needs to be more investment in the front end," says Ittina.
An even more crippling factor is the workload, he says. In the big Hollywood studios, an animator would typically work on 3.33 seconds of character animation - or 5 feet, whichever way you look at it - a week. An Indian animator works on 12 seconds of character animation a day! This severely affects the quality of the output, and once again, it falls into the same cycle.
"So there's not enough time, not enough money, so we do it faster, so we can't do quality work," he says.
Two-pronged attack
Ittina is battling this in two ways. First of all, the company will look to give its clients a cost reduction, but somewhere in the range of 30 to 40 per cent as opposed to the vast cost differential in most other Indian animation companies. In return for the hiked price, quality work.
"We don't want to undertake projects that our team can't handle, and we won't hire anyone whom we don't think will make the grade." Keeping a close eye on the grade of work is Manu Ittina himself, supported by Bill Miller, an animation director who has worked with Disney, Dreamworks and Weta Digital, dabbling his fingers in projects such as Hercules, Mighty Joe Young Shrek2, Madagascar and Peter Jackson's King Kong along the way.
Academy for artists
Second, the company has set up Takshaa, an animation academy for artists. The school has tied up with various professionals in major animation studios such as DreamWorks, Pixar and Industrial Light & Magic.
The course will focus on strong traditional skills and storytelling abilities that can then be applied to digital technology. "At the core of every successful animation film is storytelling skill. Take any successful film, and it will boil down to that," says Ittina.
Looking at ads
Another area the company would look at is advertisements. Ad companies today are relying heavily on celebrities to endorse the brand, whereas animation offers an opportunity for the filmmaker to do something unique. Fido Dido, the animated endorser of 7UP, for example, attracts the attention towards the brand. "The potential in this area is unexplored - it could be wire action centric, or blended into the live action."
With ad companies spending Rs 80 lakh per shoot on occasion, animation is a viable option, well able to work in that sort of budget.
Asked if he will go abroad for ad projects, he says, "Yes, but the emphasis is on the local in the domestic market. Even if it doesn't make financial sense, in the longer run it's a good investment."
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