The Growth of VFX and Animation in India

Visual effects and Animation in recent decades has come into its own as a robust and lucrative creative industry within the larger worlds of film, television, and gaming. The industry capitalized on advances in technology to take visual storytelling to another level. The emergence of online streaming services has also increased the demand for CG content creation for movies and series, and the Indian market has benefited and surfed this trend.

Indian animation companies have especially benefited from the global giants of animation like Walt Disney, Sony, and Warner Brothers, since they are outsourcing animation characters and special effects to Indian firms. With the increasing demands in outsourcing, various animation companies have emerged across India. Animation companies are forming animation hubs in major cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Trivandrum, and Hyderabad.
Indian companies integrate their passion for art with new sophisticated technologies that produce world class designs that go shoulder to shoulder with the designs from most famous animation companies from all around the world. The most modern animation companies own high-tech studio with the right ambiance to produce artworks, strengthened by eminent engineers and backed by the state-of-the-art equipment. Dedicated companies offer a full range of services from designing, story board, 2D animation, 3D animation, medical animation and giving animation to logos, demos, viral videos, portraits, banner ads, etc.

What Helped in The Swift Growth?
The development of new 3D animation software and technologies has driven the rapid growth of new tactics for 3D content creation. Autodesk 3dsmax, Autodesk Maya, Motion Builder, Adobe Premiere, etc. are some examples of 3D animation software. The 3D animation market growth is influenced mainly by favourable regulations by the Government, by multi-industrial applications, 3D character merchandise and by blooming entertainment industry. Apart from all these, the low cost compatible hardware and availability of comparatively cheaper internet connectivity have led to the proliferation of the free software downloads.
The animation industry in India typically has three business models, namely Content Production, Outsourced Animation and Collaborative Animation Services. ‘Chhota Bheem’ is one example for content production in India that reaps grand revenue and circulates over popular kids channels. The market has also been categorized into Plug-in-software, Packaged software and Software Development Kits (SDK). With less time, the animation software market has exhibited a very high growth rate with the help of animation computers and stereoscopic imaging software. The motion capturing (Mocap) systems, video cards and GPU strengthens the hardware segment.

Top 5 Indian Movies You Will Remember For VFX Work.

India has become the pioneer of best VFX training in recent years and seen a massive rate of growth as well. Amidst all this populous growth, we need to take a look back and recall some of the best Indian movies which no one is going to forget.

1. Bahubali

Baahubali has become a household name in discussing VFX in India. Every single VFX course in Kerala covers a certain portion to discuss and help students explain how visual effects work. It took over 3000 shots and five months to complete the entire post-production. The actors committed to this franchise and took no other projects during this duration.

Baahubali’s precision to make period drama look so authentic and unreal got all the viewers riled up. People couldn’t help but want more. The second part of the film was equally well received. It is still among the highest grossing films in this nation. While I am sure most of you reading this have watched the film in Hindi, it was originally shot in Telegu and then translated to Tamil, Hindi and other regional languages.

The fact that a regional film could stir up such global audiences is the ultimate proof that it has crossed all boundaries. It is no longer the delicacy which we only get to enjoy in superhero films of the west. The limits have been shattered and Baahubali is the living evidence of the same.

2. Fan

Just like most of you, we were also wondering how Shah Rukh Khan pulled off a double role by looking completely different in Fan. It bagged the best film with VFX effects at IIFA that opened doors for many others to use technology.

The VFX division of Shah Rukh’s own production house Red Chillies was behind the animation and visual effects generated to make Fan. Watch this video to know how they reduced SRK’s body, nose, height to make him leaner and younger

3. Dhoom 3

Aamir Khan played a double role in Dhoom 3 and that was beautifully shot with accuracy. Almost all the action and growing up scenes were shot with extensive help from the visual effects department. And it screamed precision.

4. Padmaavat

Earlier known as Padmavati, the Deepika Padukone starrer faced a lot of controversies before it saw a finally release date on January 25th. Complying with the request of Rajput Karni Sena, who pointed out that Rani Padmini did not dance and flaunt her mid-riff, filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali came out with a plan. Instead of shooting the song all over again, the movie went under edit, one final time and had a sanskaari mid-riff in place.

In portions, where Deepika’s exposed waist can be seen has now been covered using a saffron cloth, but it’s actually VFX. Mind you, it’s saffron.

5. M S Dhoni- The untold Story

Working on these shots was India’s leading VFX studio Prime Focus. After the work carried in The Flying Jatt, it was welcoming to see that Prime Focus has managed to deliver a commendable work on this biopic. Crowd multiplication, face replacements especially during close-ups in actual cricket match moments, the DI, all have been well executed.

Still Growing….
The VFX industry is estimated to be nearer to 50 billion. It is expected to have a significant growth by the year 2020, up to Rs.87.1 billion. The film and television space play a vital role in boosting the industry. With the emergence of newer gadgets, the gaming industry has also boomed beyond boundaries. Still, more improved growth rate is expected in the next couple of years. Sophisticated techniques along with creative expression have paved strong basement for the foreseen growth. Now, the animation industry has entered into an important growth phase. India is now one among the most sought-after destinations for providing animation and content services.
3D techniques acted as a backbone to develop the innovative 4D technology. This new technology is widely used in feature films as well as in other animation projects. The most popularly used animation and artistic application is the 4D Cinema. Disney, Sony, Pixar and IMAX are examples of studios that have created and promoted cartoons using this technology. The key players in the animation industry include Newtek Inc., Autodesk Inc., Smith Micro Software, Inc., Credo Interactive Inc., Electric Rain Inc., Strata, Electric Image Inc., Toon Boom Animation Inc., Side Effects Software Inc., and Maxon Computer GmbH. Without any doubt, we can see Indian 3D animation industry attaining higher position in the global market.

Animation & VFX education in India

The animation training scenario in India has been using a combination of traditional 2D and 3D techniques within their curriculum. Predominantly the 3D work revolved around Autodesk Maya. But during the last few years, more and more quality live-action/CGI movies like The Jungle Book, Black Panther, and CGI movies like The Lion King started coming to India for the CGI- and VFX-related work, and the demand for specialized software for modeling, texturing, Lighting, and crowd stimulation has increased. A lot of schools have started introducing ZBrush, Mari, Substance Painter, Miarmy, and Golaem in their curriculum. The combination of these software tools is also highly in demand with the gaming industry.

Pixeltoonz Academy is one of the top animation schools in India, dedicated to honing the skills of students with a passion for animation. Pixeltoonz has a pool of experienced faculty members who have brought out the best potential in students and made them competent to be the best in the job market. The Academy can proudly say that most of its alumni are now well placed in some of the best places of work all over the world.

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