Picasso Animation College, Lucknow

THERE was this family which adopted a mouse as their second son, and the mouse was good friends with them all much to the consternation of the family cat… Remember the movie `Stuart Little’, wherein the protagonist, a little mouse Stuart Little, enacts all the human qualities. Credit for all this goes to the animation team. Welcome to the world of film animation – a world where reality meets imagination, where dinosaurs walk across silver screens. This is a world of special effects, unbelievable graphics and exotic technologies that mesh and converge to create unbelievable real and virtual experiences. It’s a world that beckons creative minds to unleash their power; and it’s calling you!
The word animation is derived from a Latin word anima, meaning soul i.e. when life breathes into characters. Then who can forget Walt Disney for the creation of his cartoons especially the Mickey Mouse! In the present sense Animation means linking the series of drawings and simulating their movements together. It is a rapid display of 2D or 3D images to create an illusion of motion. It is an art form in which inanimate objects are brought into life by sequencing the drawn images. In other words animation is making of movies, games or cartoons by moving the drawings or models of animals or people with the help of computers or other electronic means. Animation is emerging a special form of media now days. Animation is growing into a multi-billion dollar industry generating a great scope of employment.
The Indian animation market, fairly “static” until a few years ago, is suddenly waking up to a host of global opportunities that promise a lot of “action” for the country’s leading design specialists. North American film and television programme producers (that boast worldwide networks) are finding it viable to sub- contract animation production activities to independent studios overseas. The demand for animation production services from international animation studios is thus spurred in large part due to India’s lower costs of animation production and technical manpower to meet 2-D and 3-D animation requirements.
Career Prospects
Indian animation industry though a late starter is on the threshold of a boom period and so has a great career potential. India has great mythological stories and characters, good artists and technicians. Numerous job opportunities are available in India as well as abroad in the exciting field of animation. It opens the door to film industries such as Hollywood, which is the world of special effects and imagery for films. Specialized computer knowledge and skills are essential for various jobs in the field of animation. It is a booming industry with wide job openings and one can work on full length animation movies or any other related fields like television, advertising industry etc. An Animated feature film, which offers considerable employment prospects, is a combined talented effort of a wide variety of artists.
Remuneration
The training institutes help the candidates in their placements. After finishing the in-house training in some leading animation production studio, you can be a junior animator and can start earning between Rs.12000 to Rs.14000. A senior animator with an experience of 3 to 5 years can take home a sum of Rs.25000 to Rs.35000. But if you have a portfolio of some good and outstanding animation work you would even be able to earn more than Rs 50000 to Rs 60000.