Animation and education has been going hand in hand for years now.Though of course there is scope for lot more. Following this trend, Mumbai based animation studio Bamboonotes, a division of Vrinda services has been developing educational animated content on the home video front for children since it‘s inception in 2002.
With expertise in 2D animation, Bamboonotes has a team of seven artists creating animation for children between the age groups of two to twelve. So far ten products have been released which have received a good market response.
Each title which is for around forty minutes took four months to be completed including conceptualisation, story boarding, characterisation, voice recording, animation and finally composting and editing.
Speaking to Animation Xpress.com, Vrinda Services and Bamboonotes‘ CEO, Hemant Agrawal shared, “With the advent of Multimedia, new horizons in education and entertainment are opening up. Bamboonotes seeks to harness the power of multimedia and Animation to bring about a revolution in the methodology of education. Learning should be not just important; it should be fun as well. We also want to standardise education to some extent so a child in any state and school can get access to the best in modern education techniques through this unique medium.”
Currently Bamboonotes is working on six volumes of a series titled Preschool Basics which teaches rhymes, manners and good habits. Previously Preschool Basics (Nursery) and Preschool Basics (Kindergarten) have been released.
Inculded in the host of titles are also Adventures of Krishna Balaram, Hanuman – the Invincible, Pearls from Panchatantra , Krsna – the Butter Thief , Messages from Mahabharat , Chattrapati Shivaji , Chattrapati Shivaji, and Brainstim (101 Brain teasers and Activities).
The good part about the educational CDs is that they are not aimed at only those children who are well versed with English as some of the titles have been made in Marathi as well and are available in stores such as Landmark, Planet M, and Music World.
Airing his views on the Indian animation industry, Hemant said, “Animation as an industry is all set to grow by leaps and bounds. There are many new kids‘ channels sprouting up and all need local content. The CD market is also robust although dominated by low quality low priced products. The critical factor here is the dearth of talent. There are very few trained 2D animators and students are rushing to 3D animation without a basic back ground in 2D. We desperately need some good animation institutes and until that happens India‘s dream of exponential growth in animation industry will remain a pipe dream.”
Emboldened by the positive feedback, Bamboonotes is standing firm in its ground of providing education to children which goes beyond the blackboard and chalk of the classroom.