A billion dollar industry that had created a buzz throughout the world is Animation. It is the fastest emerging form of media which has a great scope of employment for those who are creative enough to prove their skills in it. From a simple flip book to animated stories, animation involves a lot of work and thorough planning. It is an art that uses various mode of communication in one go. Hence, it is also known as the part of multimedia that merges graphics, text, images, audio or video to create a virtual magic.
Animation derived its name from the Latin word ‘anima’ which means soul and it started with the caveman who used to draw pictures on the rock surface. Though, this form of art was formally introduced by a Frenchman, Paul Roget in 1828. But animation through computer started during seventies and eighties, had greater impact and since then, it is still developing. It can be called as a merger of entertainment and technology.
Whether there are movies or games or cartoons, time and space plays a pivotal role in animation. One has to have lot of creativity, imagination and thorough visualization to achieve success in this field. It is not everybody’s cup of tea and not at all glamorous as it seems to be. Still, it is very exciting which requires complete dedication and interest in this field.
To develop an idea, into a story and giving it technical assistance are the procedures of making an animation. Two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) are the two most commonly used animations. Apart from this other commonly done animations are puppet animation, clay animation, sand animation, vegetable animation etc. Though, 2D and 3D animation can be created digitally, but Two-dimensional images are shallow in their appearance, while three-dimensional images have a feel of depth to them, thus making them look more real.
2 dimensional animation deals more with drawing and framing. It is the base of 3D animation. It mostly requires working on paper, a lot of drawings, and scanning into the computer, then importing them into the software that helps in setting the timing and layers for the scanned sequence of images. Toonz Harlequin, Adobe Flash, CelAction, Anime Studio, Toon Boom Animation, Animaker are some of the software’s used for creating 2D animation characters.
3D animation is more realistic, and there are a series of images or objects created through computers or other digital media. Apart from drawing, composing and character design, it deals with modeling, rendering, texturing and lighting. This can be done by using software programmes and virtual cameras. It has the power to create effects that is not possible with Classical animation. Film, advertising, video and gaming are the fast growing fields for 3D animation and softwares like 3ds Max (Autodesk), Softimage|XSI (Avid), MAYA (Autodesk) etc are used.
There are lot of institutes that provides professional and degree courses in this media and animation. Learners can specialize as a 3D or 2D modeler, Character Designer, special FX Creator, Animator, Games Designer, and Interaction Designer. Apart from this, one can get associated with other related fields like advertising, creating websites etc. So, Media and Animation is one of the glittering career to opt for not only in India but across the world.
