Wednesday, 25 March 2015

The Magic of Animation –Do You Have It?

Let’s face it, living in the highly competitive world that we do, the professional playing field seems the absolute heights of competition. As is true for all profession courses, the monetary investment is quite a big bump on the path to higher education.

The same goes for animation courses. So before you write out that cheque to an animation institute, you should do your homework and understand the scope of the degree, and what it means for your future profession as an animator. You can’t afford to just blindly invest in a future; you need to know your prospects before you do!


So (assuming you’ve done the needful and researched the pros and cons of a degree from Animation Institutes In Delhi/ across India/ abroad), let’s take a quick look at what it takes to be a professional animator, and how to get there.

To begin with, as exciting as a career in animation may seem, it’s definitely no piece of cake. On the contrary, it’s quite a bit of hard work! Long hours, sleepless nights, a fast-paced environment, every-developing technology, and looming deadlines… These are just some of the things you’ll need to live and breathe when you’re in the world of animation! But of course, if you’re passionate, dedicated, and hard set on getting into the field, then it’s yours for the taking!

Once you’ve got a degree from an animation institute, you need to get down to business and make your demo reel. A demo reel exhibits your talents and capabilities when it comes to all facets of animation –so make sure it successfully displays all. When animation agencies are looking for new animators to join the ranks, the first thing they’re going to look at is your demo reel. So be sure to stun them!

You also need to have a good and realistic knowledge of the animation pipeline. Understand the various kinds of positions available in the industry. Knowledge is power so make sure you have all the necessary technical abilities to break into the animation industry.

The art of animation is truly beautiful. Breathing life into the inanimate, is there anything more magical than that? So if you have what it takes, then go make all our worlds a little more magical!

Tuesday, 3 March 2015

Animated Films - A Late Entrant to the Oscars

So here’s the somewhat unbelievable truth about the Academy Awards and animated films –there wasn't even a permanent category for animated movies till the year 2001! So imagine globally beloved ‘Lion King’ not having won an Oscar for best animation, or even, best film (sure, they won Oscars for music, but that’s just not the same as ‘Best Picture’)! If there had been a category for the best animated film in 1994 –or if animated films could compete with feature films for the Best Film altogether- then Lion King would have definitely bagged both those awards, eh?


But that’s the somewhat unfortunate tale of animated feature films at the Oscars. The Academy was rather hesitant about creating an exclusive award for animated films sooner because they asserted that there just weren't enough productions to compete for an award each year at all. But with the advent of technology and animated films growing not only in popularity but also in number, the Academy had no option but to introduce a brand new category for the Best Animated Feature in the year 2001. And thus in 2001 commenced the short history of animated films at the Oscars.


Yet, the new category of best animated feature did not come without a set of rules and regulations. For instance, the Academy defined an animated feature film as one with a running time of at least 40 minutes in which the characters’ performances are created using frame-by-frame techniques, a significant number of the major characters are animated, and animation absolutely must figure in no less than 75% of the running time. Moreover, they also included a rule that stated that the award would not be presented in a year with less than 8 eligible films in the running.

Now since the year 2001, a series of absolutely stunning films have won the Oscar. With the animation industry growing at a rapid rate, if you've been inspired to enter the field of animation, then there are a number of animation studios and Animation Institutes In Delhi that could offer you the education you need. With no scarcity of animation studios and Animation Institutes In Delhi and across the country, there’s nothing stopping you from living your dream –not even the Academy!