Animation ‘xpress presents ‘Recruitments’ the seventh in a 12 part series.. on The Importance of Industry based training in animation. The views expressed throughout the series are the Author’s.
Animation ‘xpress may or may not subscribe to the same.
Recruitments
Methods prevalent in the industry are dominated by word of mouth and friendly contacts. Few recruitment agencies specialise in animation placements since this
is still a relatively new field. Training institutes still lack serious credibility among the industry and as a result formal ties with animation houses to take on the ‘qualified animators’ they produce are more or less non-existent.
At present it is pretty much dependent on the individual drive and stamina of the artist to seek out his chosen place of work. Poaching becomes very common especially when a studio lands a project that it finds too big to handle on its current strength. Often such recruitments are for short project-based durations. Smaller units that cannot afford high overheads now prefer free-lance animators and artists.
The main drawback to recruitment is the limited number of qualified animators. Most companies are of the opinion that it is not the lack of talent or skills rather the sheer lack of numbers that bothers them. Most people who have been in the industry for over 10 years have their own businesses to run. Artists with experience between 5 to 10 years are gainfully employed by the larger houses and this leaves a relatively young and inexperienced pool of talent for the remaining companies to choose from.
This divide is growing constantly as fresh inputs into the industry are dismally short on fundamental knowledge. Companies are facing and will face the problem of recruiting senior staff members. There is a shortfall in technically qualified people. Companies that depend on traditional animation as their main source of revenue are more likely to face a shortage of pre-production and production staff. Those that are aiming to enter the 3d character animation field will find animators with little or no traditional animation experience. Multimedia programming companies too will face a problem of technical qualifications in their new recruits. The industry being fragmented and pressed for resources cannot support a large pool of trainees while they gain valuable experience.
Be it setting up his own animation and sfx studio in 1995 or providing insights and project reports to help re structure organisations and animation training schools, independent animation producer and TASI India founding member/spokesman Ranjit Singh’s 15 yr old stint in the animation Industry is marked with many highlights.
In 2001, Ranjit resigned from the company he founded and has since been working as an independent animation producer, director and consultant. He is currently writing the first of a series of books on animation for beginners.
An animator and modeler himself, Ranjit is very passionate about animation. He wants the new breed of animators to avoid the struggle of his formative years and in this endeavor he is forever available for advice to students and animators alike. He can be reached at phanspal@vsnl.net
Coupled with this is the fact that animation is a very specialised field. Not enough importance has been given towards industry relevant training in India and as a result today we find a shortage of skilled people that can be absorbed into the industry and those that become useful to a company from day one.
In a nutshell we are sitting on a disaster waiting to happen. One player can undo the years of hard work by a few companies to get India onto the animation world map by over committing and being unable to deliver due to manpower inadequacies. It is high time we wake up and look at ground realities and work for the future.
End of Part 7
Part 8 of the series entitled ‘Essentials of an Animation training course’ shall appear in the next issue of Animation Express.