Thomson in strategic alliance with DreamWorks Animation for India animation studio

Thomson today announced that its Technicolor Services division has formed a strategic alliance with DreamWorks Animation to develop animation facilities in India. The alliance leverages Thomson's acquisition in February of a controlling stake in Bangalore-based animation and game content provider Paprikaas Animation Studios. DreamWorks Animation will assist Technicolor in the recruitment, training and development of top-tier animation talent to the Paprikaas facility in India, an official release states. Paprikaas has made a name for itself in CGI animation for feature films, television programming, commercials and video games, with a strong focus on digital 3D content. The Paprikaas team's work on FARMkids, an animated children's series, recently won a "Best TV Series" award at the Australian Effects and Animation Festival in Sydney.

Frameboxx Animation institute begins operations with 11 centers in India

A team of management and technical evangelists launched a new animation and visual effects education centre, Frameboxx, in Chandigarh, India. Founded by Naveen Gupta and Rajesh Turakhia, Frameboxx has been established to drive the industry's need for super specialists in the field of animation and visual effects. Frameboxx started its simultaneous operations in 11 cities of India, including seven centers in Delhi, two in Bangalore, and one each in Ludhiana and Chandigarh. "Frameboxx shall be launching another 10 centres in the next three months in cities like Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, said Naveen Gupta."In one years time we shall have at least 50 centers with 10 centers overseas to provide the quality education in CG, animation and visual effects that matches the industry's requirements", added Rajesh Turakhia. Frameboxx shall soon be launching online animation training and DVD training modules for the working professionals and SOHO segment, he added.

"India is the most favored destination for Hollywood and entertainment industry to outsource their animation work, and with the explosion of the media within the country itself, the need for highly trained creative artists to provide animated contents and visual effects, the country has the potential to grow at 35 percent to reach Rs. 42 billion by 2009 from current Rs. 15 billion," says Naveen Gupta.

Animation boom in entertainment

With a market size valued at USD 300 million, the Indian animation industry has come a long way in the last couple of years. According to a recent report by Nasscom, India should easily cross USD 869 by 2010, pushing the compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) to over 25 percent during 2006-2010. Currently the market is mainly driven by outsourced work, with about 60-70 percent of the revenues coming from the West. However, that would not be the case for long say experts; the domestic market might soon take a bigger share in the growth. With over 140 million kids who are the largest consumers of the animation industry, India definitely has a potential of being one of the biggest markets. This is probably why several Bollywood big-wigs are looking at producing animated content in a big way. One more trend which is an indication of the market drivers is introduction of special effects in Hindi, regional and animated films. Animation companies have already started leveraging this fact by releasing multi-lingual content of their films. This especially should help the growing demand in non-metros. Another important factor that could drive the Indian market for animation content is the growth of multiplexes with 3D and 4D movie halls, say experts.