Much of Asia’s animation production since the 1960s has been tied to foreign interests attracted by stable and inexpensive labor supplies. For nearly forty years, western studios have established and maintained production facilities, first in Japan, then in South Korea and Taiwan, and now also in the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, India, Indonesia and China.
According to a recent study, the economics of the animation industry has made it feasible for Asia to feed the cartoon world, to the extent that today, about 90 per cent of all American television animation is produced in Asia.
The usual procedure is for pre-production to be done in the United States or other European countries, after which, the package is sent to Asia for production. The work is sent back to the US or other headquarter country for post-production. Offshore animation has led to the creating and nurturing of a local industry, as an infrastructure is built up, equipment is put into place and skills are transferred.
An emerging trend in the Asian animation industry is the increasing focus towards production of local animation content for television as well as production of animated movies. A number of Asian animation studios are giving importance to owning and protecting animation content by investing in intellectual property protection mechanisms.
The rapid advancement of computer technology has made computer animation available to the masses. The major animation markets include the United States, Canada, Japan, China, France, Britain, Korea and Germany. The outsourced computer animation production market is increasingly being tapped by North American and European film and television program producers. The major factors behind outsourcing of animation content to the Asia/Pacific region are the availability of trained skills at lower labor rates, the study reveals.