Nepal Animated!
By Sandeep Gautam & Sabin Jung Pandey
“The scope of animation in today’s scenario is similar to the demand for
software 10 years ago”—this is what animators and producers believe the
world over. If some economists and market analysts are to be believed,
there are two industries insulated from the current global economic downslide—entertainment and cosmetics. It should come as no surprise then that animation is a multi-billion dollar global business and growing. It has been a while since India hopped on this bandwagon and, as it seems, we have some talent here in Nepal as well. Though we won’t dare call animation an industry in case of Nepal, there are some self-taught, some qualified and some polished professionals doing their bits around to push the business volume up, to convince the local industries, the media, the corporates and the common people about what animation is and what it takes to create a mute character and breathe life into it. If you have watched movies like Shrek or have watched a local ad in which two cheese sticks do the salsa, you know what we are talking about!
How animated is Nepal?
“We are at nascent stage right now,” says Suyogya Tuladhar, CEO, Transcube International Pvt. Ltd., a computer graphics and animation company operating from Kathmandu. “To reach global standards, the scale of business, both in terms of human resource and project volume, should be increased.” Tuladhar, on behalf of his firm, signed a memorandum of understanding with Kiran Joshi, former Disney project supervisor, who runs Pink Slip Productions (a company based in California and is also an executive of KuKri Ventures Inc., an US-based investment company) and with Sanjeev Raj Bhandari, CEO of Mercantile Communications Ltd. to form Incessant Rain Animation Studio Pvt. Ltd. a couple of years ago. This joint initiative, as almost all the local animators recall in unison, seeded the hope for an animation industry in Nepal, with Joshi having worked for what’s called the ‘dream destination’ (the Disney) for all the budding animators across the world.
Talk about animation in the local market and the name ‘Incessant Rain’ is bound to crop up. It is where more than fifty, mostly self-taught, animators remain glued to their computer screens for random work hours, catering to some high-profile clients, including Disney. There are a couple of other animation studios, like Firefly Studios Pvt. Ltd., located at Kupandole, mostly feeding to the local clients like USAID and producers of Chocofun (a chocolate wafer brand). It’s a mini studio with four people on charge, taking care of four different departments. Their most prominent work, the one that has animated characters of famous humour artists Madan Krishna Shrestha and Haribansha Acharya as well as others people from different ethnic communities (pic on the cover of this monthly), informing people about the constituent assembly and human rights in their trademark voices, is being aired on different television channels and very much liked by the viewers. “We guess ours was the first character animation in Nepal,” says Prabhakar Chettri of Firefly, a two-year old company still struggling to find its foothold in the larger share of the market. “We did ‘liquid animation’ in case of Chocofun-the shot that shows the chocolate melting. We have passed through countless adversities. But now the people have come to appreciate our work. Now they have begun to understand what the word ‘animation’ is all about.” This prominence has got them a Sikkim-based client and some local advertising agencies are now knocking on their doors.
Animated work requires a medium and there is nothing better than a television screen. So with the local channels growing in number, there is a lot these animation studios and freelancers can expect. But the persistent trend of treating an animator as just another random sketcher has to go and the market should open up financially as well. “Even though our cost of production is pretty low as compared to other countries the local clients still have hard times realising that animation requires much more than just plain imagination. It’s cost intensive. You can’t place an animated work and a usual television commercial together and compare the cost factor. And that’s the prime reason why we still don’t see a promising prospect in the local market,” explains Suyogya whose firm has been involved in research and development of 2-D and 3-D animation for the last five years. He informs that through Incessant Rain, they will soon be signing an agreement with an Indian animation production house. “That’s how we do it. We did a project for the Indian flick Roadside Romeo, which features our animated characters of Mickey, Minnie and Donald. It was also shown on Disney Channel. We produce standard works.” With alliances grows business and Suyogya says they are planning to expand their workforce base to 150 if their projections are realised.
Prospects and potholes
There are ups and there are downs. And sandwiched between two giant economic powerhouses, we have best of the both worlds. While animation studios are operating as small enterprises in Nepal, the Indian market is brimming with opportunities and just a little spillover do wonders for our local market. According to current estimates, there are more than 200 animation studios, 40 VFX (Virtual Fone Xchange) studios and 35 game development studios in India which are not proving enough for them to handle the traffic of international projects flooding in. The global digital animation industry is poised to grow from the current size of USD 45 billion to a whopping USD 100 billion by the end of 2009 while the Indian market is poised to touch the figure of USD 1.5 billion, according to Nasscom, an association of ICT industry players of India. The growth is largely attributed to the fact that a bulk of international animation assignments is outsourced to India. The volume in the computer games segment alone has been projected at about 3 times that of Hollywood. What all this indicates is that Indians have a tight grip on the global market but are running short of expert hands. And this is where we can step in and have a big pick of the pie. And for that, we need to update and upgrade our workstations, artists, animators and, above all, policies.
“Nepali animation sector currently stands at the same elevation where the Indian stood 10 years ago,” says Karun Thapa, President of Computer Graphics Association of Nepal and a veteran in the Nepali animation field. “We had a kind of start in 1992 but the local market couldn’t sustain its growth. Clients would ask for good qualities at bad prices. The Indians started up during the same period but look at them now and look at where we are. It feels like we are running backwards.” Thapa isn’t alone to nurse such feelings. Most self-taught animators of his generation have witnessed wild fluctuations in the local market while the market next door grew in leaps and bounds. Niraj Thapalia, Managing Director of Wire Visual Arts, another small animation unit, with clients like Prisma Advertising Agency, Business Advantage, AD Media and Trikon Advertising has similar observation. “There were times when I used to charge up to 5,000 rupees per second when dealing for an animated clip. There wasn’t much competition. But with the new entrants coming in, who have made animation almost a desktop business, the price range has been squeezed thin,” he says. “Now it’s more about compromising or sacrificing.”
With the animation firms in the west outsourcing their projects to developing countries both to reduce costs and enhance quality, we do stand a chance and that must be why it has caught the attention of some individual investors and corporate houses. Our sources reveal that a few animation studios are going to start up soon with hefty investments. But Indra Lal Balami, Managing Director of Maya Animation Academy, the authorised training centre of Autodesk in Nepal, says that the market looks uncertain at present. “Most of the local studios are sustaining on the local market, thus compromising on their outputs. In financial terms, it’s not worth it. What amount 10 percent of an international project can generate is more than 90 percent of our domestic charging,” he says. Neeraj echoes similar woes. “Clients must have creative approaches when it comes to creative works. They need to understand how much effort goes into producing an animation work. Then only will they be able to differentiate between the good and the bad and that way quality artists will receive what they actually deserve,” he adds. “If we are provided with the required budget, we can definitely deliver standard output.”
Can we be service providers?
Incessant Rain is on its drive to bring together small animation studios and independent animators so as to create the manpower pool to undertake bulk international projects. “I take pride to say that the level of output that we produce here at Incessant Rain is at par with international standard. But the business volume is quite low, below one percent of the Indian size,” says Deepesh Maskey, Project Supervisor at Incessant Rain who used to work for animation studios like Prana, Quest and Tata Elxsi in India. “Indians are strong in 2-D, which probably started there during ‘80s. The 3-D phenomenon started as late as 1995 and it is strongly backed by 2-D, which is the precursor of any animation project. What I see in Nepal is that starters are focused more on 3-D, which is not an end in itself. We need an equal amount of 2-D experts to be efficient in catering to international clients.”
The Indian animation industry is supplemented by scores of fine art colleges and animation schools producing the entire set of experts required in the business. But it’s different in our case. Maya Animation Academy at Jamal, an authorized training centre of Autodesk, a US-based animation academy, is probably the only place where students can check in and opt for professional courses in 3-D animation and visual effects. “We have around 200 students including the pass outs. We have been doing our best to find them job placements. Some of our students are working for Incessant Rain,” informs Prabish Bahadur Nakarmi, Manager of the Academy. When they started out, people thought animation was all about flash and web designing but that’s changing now. “Ours is an intensive course beginning right from pre-production phase, passing on to production and finally to post-production. It involves several nuggets of 3-D animation like modelling, rendering, texturing, lining, positioning, sound and compositing followed by editing,” adds Balami. “We have enrolment growth rate of 10 percent each semester, which indicates thgat youngsters are really looking forward to building their career in animation.” Maya has its own small production house catering mostly to the domestic clients. But they have also tried out their hands in a couple of small-scale international ventures, including an architectural project for China’s Homeland Town Planning.
A loophole in developed market is an opportunity for developing countries like ours in terms of business, jobs and revenue. “Animation can be a great contributor to the government revenue if it does its bit to develop animation as a full-fledged industry in Nepal. If we succeed to get our hands on some USD 5-million project, which is not as ambitious as it may sound, it can be a great supplement for the economy,” Nakarmi stresses further. While a small project requires a couple of animators all jumbled up into the same work together, a big project, like a complete motion picture, demands optimum creative strength and dedication of hundreds of full time animators. There are already around 30,000 animation companies around the world out of which 70 percent have an annual turnover of USD 1 million. Some studies indicate that around 40,000 professionals were needed in India in 2008. And this number is bound to increase in 2009 with more and more western production houses opening their franchises in India. So how can we benefit from this? The answer is simple: we can be service providers for them!
But there remains workforce hitch. “Scores of Nepali animators are working abroad because the domestic industry isn’t mature enough to offer them space, financially and in terms of recognition,” shares Ajnab, a founding member of Incessant Rain. “And a few animators who are exceptionally talented and working here are not at all convinced about the prospects in the domestic market. When I was in Incessant Rain, we were approached by the production team of an upcoming movie of James Cameroon, ‘Avatar’, for its visual effects. But we had to decline the offer due to shortage of the required workforce. To undertake international projects, we need to have expert manpower.”
Open the lid
“I have a friend in Switzerland who collects orders for animation works from Europe and passes them to Russia. What he thinks is that Indian market is almost saturated now. He is searching newer places to get the jobs done and Nepal could be one potential destination. He has been insisting me to show him our credentials in animation but I haven’t been able to hand him what he wants. We haven’t been able to promote our market,” says Karun Thapa. “There are a few reasons behind all this. First, the market is in disorder. Second, we Nepalis don’t have the habit of keeping our portfolios. And the third, and the most important, is that we can’t work in teams. These elements are eating into our scope and productivity.” Upon closer inspection, animation in Nepal doesn’t appear to be an organised sector. Animators who work meticulously to deliver quality output and don’t believe in compromising with costs are railed upon by clients who want all the compromises on the same. “Though animation is a large scale business, it’s limited to television promos, music videos and movie titles here,” says Deepesh Maskey. “But I believe that in terms of remuneration, there will always be a huge difference between a developed and a developing market.” Out of many hurdles here, Maskey thinks finding the required hardware (like graphic cards) in the local market is more pressing. “It is not that we don’t have institutions that teach us art works. What we lack is field awareness,” he adds.
What is Animation?
In simple words, animation is an art of
giving life and realism to computer-
generated graphics. It is completely a computer-based art. It encompasses the integration of certain macro rules; the synchronization of complete multi-media where graphics, sound and motion are integrated. In fact the word ‘animation’ is derived from the phrase ‘giving life’. It was limited to 2-D form for long through which cartoon characters like Tom and Jerry had evolved. That was the era of cartoons but the scene has undergone a massive makeover since then, with the onslaught of epoch making characters like Spider Man, Lion King and Shrek. The 3-D animation, which evolved through years, has made its presence felt not sparing a single moviegoer. “It is an art of creating a virtual world,” says Indra Lal Balami. “It’s the power of thought, the idea, which is boundless.”
Ideas are expensive and so is the world of animation. Nepal stands too far in case of the technologies used in the west. “They use motion-capturing device, which is unaffordable for us,” Balami adds. He says that looking at the pace with which this whole industry is growing and the level of creativity that animators are employing in their works the world over, a dynamic simulation world is in the making, which would completely change the way we look at things. “I foresee a world led by simulators. We can’t deny the prospect of turning imagination into reality in a matter of minutes, or even seconds. The coming generations may not have to do anything else than coming out with innovative ideas,” he adds.
The 3-D Computer Animation Process
The 3-D animation involves a series of steps where various activities are performed. Generally, computer animation starts with pre-production phase followed by production and then post production phase.
Pre-production is a planning stage where non-visual tasks are done. Overall planning of the management including human resource allocation and budgeting is done in this stage. Besides that, storyboarding, scripting, developing visual look of the project is also done in the pre-production stage. Completion of this stage enables a raw man to understand the concept and how the whole work is going to be managed.
The 3-D animation’s production stage involves series of standard steps like modelling, rigging and rendering of the characters. Firstly, characters, environment and objects are modelled (given shape and size) through the use of various tools. Then, motion of the characters and objects are captured through various techniques and then digitised which is called rigging. In rendering process, the entire animated model is given a visual representation with the use of simulated camera. In the entire process, lighting and shading of the scenes are also performed.
Once this process is completed, the post-production techniques are applied to the model before it is recorded. With post-production techniques, the computer generated graphics and images are composited. Composition is a technique where different scenes or computer generated graphics and images are compiled or mixed together. After the entire animation process completes, it is usually recorded in a video tape or a film. However there are many ways to implement each of these tasks and the order of execution may vary depending upon various factors and the above discussed process is simply a summary of animation, it is not a detailed description of the entire animation process.
On these basis, different tasks are allocated and assigned to different persons and teams according to their area of skill. If need arises, portion of the work is even sub-contracted. Animation outputs like feature movies, commercials, cartoons are never produced by few artists. There are thousands of artists involved in the making of a sophisticated and benchmark output. Different teams are formed for executing different portion of the script or say scenes. An animation output, especially an animation movie involves following segments:
Pre-Production, Production and Post-Production
Advertising
Graphic Designing
Character Animation
Environment Designing
Composition
Creative Visualisation
Effect Specialization
Character Modelling
Texturing/Shading
Lighting
Character Rigging
Editing
Architectural Pre-Visualization
Game Asset Development
“We have huge prospects in animation”
Kiran Joshi, a former project supervisor of Disney, the most prominent name in the animation field and also the founding member of Incessant Rain, also runs Pink Slip Productions, a company based in California and is also an executive of KuKri Ventures Inc., an US-based investment company. He shared with us his views on Nepali animation scene. Excerpts from an online interview:
What are the prospects of animation sector in Nepal?
The prospects of animation sector in Nepal are huge. I am not saying this from purely an outsourcing model but from reviving the culture and heritage and mythology of the country. Nepal has to offer many great folktales and the prospect of telling these stories to the western world in an animated context is fantastic.
Can you dwell a little into its economic impact—in case of employment generation and formation of a new industry altogether?
Animation is a fast-emerging high-paying career option. To become an animator, you need intensive training in 2-D or 3-D animation. You can specialize in creating animated characters, creating two/three dimensional shapes, special visual effects, video game programming and so on. The basic requirement is that you must have excellent creative and artistic abilities but also be comfortable with rapidly changing technology.
On the employment side, there are many opportunities such as TV animation, film animation, digital post-production, advertising, gaming, visual effects etc.
For Nepal, animation can be a huge contributor in terms of employment. But it’s going to take many years. The talent pool in the country is quite scarce. We need to invest and nurture our artists before we can compete globally.
How has been the response of the clients for the projects developed in Nepal in terms of quality and punctuality?
So far, our studio’s work has been received extremely well. In fact, even the artists at Disney have a hard time believing that the work was produced in Nepal. It is far superior to any work produced in India or China. We are very selective in the type of work we take on because we are building the studio’s portfolio. There are two mantras in animation: quality and deadlines. If either one of them is not met, there is no second chance.
Your firm is the frontrunner in the animation field in Nepal. Can you briefly let us know how you people started out and a little about the global trends?
We started very small with 12 artists and grew from there. We look for excellence and passion in our artists. Most of them are great artists individually but animation production is a very collaborative effort. So they needed to work in a team just like a symphony orchestra. Initially, they spend a lot of time training and doing test production work. Then we launched a production specific training program and started recruiting the best. We were also able to attract some Nepali artists who had been working in production studios abroad.
The rapid advancement of technology has made computer animation available to the masses and the animation industry is one of the fastest growing industries. The demand for animated entertainment has expanded with the increase in broadcasting hours by cable and satellite TV along with the growing popularity of the Internet. In the past, animation series were aimed at children aged nine and below. In recent years however, TV stations have been producing animation series for teenagers, adults and the whole family.
As far as the global trends are concerned, animation work will follow countries that can produce great quality work at a low cost.
But just outsourcing of cheap work from abroad could lead to a mushrooming of unscrupulous animation companies which are after money and not creating real talent and therefore hurt the prospects of the industry itself in the long run. Anyone with any domain knowledge in animation knows how hard it is to create quality animation work.
What do you see as opportunities and challenges?
The biggest opportunity is to tap into the great stories Nepal has to offer and translate them into universally appealing stories. The challenge to this is to take these stories and make it globally acceptable. This means we need to nurture our local creative teams with proven talent from within our circle of Hollywood artists. This requires significant investment in terms of infrastructure and artists in US. Depending on just the outsourcing work will not be viable in the long run. There will always be another company that will be able to do the job cheaper than you.
Can you tell us some major projects that Incessant Rain undertook or is currently pursuing?
Just recently, Incessant Rain completed an animation piece for Disney which introduced Mickey, Minnie and Donald to Southeast Asia with an authentic local theme. It was broadcasted all over south-east Asia.
Currently, we are producing two animation pieces both of which are based on Nepali context. We are also in the process of developing animated feature film.
In India, the government supported its software industry, marketed its animation industry and strengthened its BPO sector. The outcome has been an exponential growth in all these sectors. But ours remains elusive of the opportunities knocking on its doors. The much hyped Banepa IT Park has gone down the drain and the service industry is reeling under severe power cuts. The only good that the government has done, as Balami points out, is the launch of ADSL internet. “It has facilitated even independent animators to bid for foreign projects and execute them staying home. It has also created a platform for international exposure.” Nakarmi adds that the government needs to look into issues like cyber laws and copyright laws to ensure security to all the companies engaged in outsourcing business including animation. “In absence of such laws, the self-proclaimed animators can play around with the work of the deserving ones, thus distorting the entire market,” he explains.
