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India's animation outsourcing industry continues to thrive as large media conglomerates like Viacom, Walt Disney and Cartoon Network are increasingly sourcing animation from India. Recently, Compact Disc India bagged a $15.7 m contract to provide animation outsourcing services to iMedia Ventures for a movie that is slated to be released in December 2009.
Rising production costs coupled with time-to-market pressures is driving outsourcing. Traditionally, destinations such as Japan, Korea and Taiwan have handled much of Western media's outsourcing requirements. However, these destinations are proving expensive compared to newer entrants like India and China. Cost savings can be anywhere from 30% to 60% of the total costs, underpinned primarily by differences in wages.
Services Offshored to India
In the initial stages, the Indian animation industry provided support services in 2D post-production such as cleaning-up, in-betweening and scanning. These were typically labor-intensive services, with minimal need for domain knowledge or highly specialized skill-sets. However, over the years, the industry has graduated to providing higher-end, skill-based services, especially in 3D animation. The shift from 2D to 3D services has been distinct, and has facilitated better penetration into the global market. The table below lists services offshored to India:
| Segments |
Services |
| 2-D services |
Creative Development (rarely offshored), Shot layout/Storyboarding (rarely offshored), Animatics, Clean-up / inbetweening, Character design, Set/BG Design, Modeling, Rigging, Lighting, Texturing, Shading, Character Animation, Particle Effects, Crowd Animation, Matte Painting, MEL Scripting, Compositing, Rendering |
| 3-D services |
Character Modeling, Sets/ Props Modeling, Match Moving, Rigging, Key Frame Animation, Motion Capture Animation, Texturing, Lighting, Compositing, 3D SFX |
| Visual effects & Digital intermediary |
Wire & Rig removal, Green Matte removal, Digital clean-up, Pre-viz, Digital Film Restoration, Rotoscopy, Titles, Matte Painting & Background, Morphing, Transition Effects, Color Correction / Touch-Ups, Particle Effects, CGI, Compositing, Atmospherics, Digital Opticals, Natural Phenomena, Compositing Multi-layered & Blue-Green shots, On-Set VFX Supervision, Camera Match Moves (CMM) |
| Gaming |
Game asset creation, Character Modeling, Set Design & Modeling, Game Cinematics, Matte Painting, Queing, Games Testing, Gamers help desk, Audio, Texturing |
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Source: ValueNotes Research
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Collaborations - An Accelerating Trend
Collaborative arrangements between Indian companies and overseas producers are gaining popularity rapidly. Such arrangements allow risk diversification and competency sharing. The Indian producers are able to further their capabilities and own part of the intellectual property rights.
| Date |
Producer/s |
Rights |
Feature / Series |
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May 2007
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Skywork Studios & Pacific Gold Entertainment
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VFX & post-production work will be completely handled in India
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Feature film - Blood: A Butcher's Story Tale
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Oct 2006
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Adlabs, Gini & Jony
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Adlabs will outsource the development work to another studio and will manage the distribution, marketing & exhibition of the movie
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Gini & Jony
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Aug 2005
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RichCrest Animation, Lions Gate Entertainment
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Lions Gate will distribute the three films and their derivative works worldwide, except India where RCA will distribute. RCA will produce the entire CGI.
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Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, 2 more films
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June 2006
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UTV, Porchlight Entertainment
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UTV Toons will produce the movie. Both the companies will create the marketing and distribution strategy of the feature and will have an equal and perpetual share in revenues and exploitation of the property.
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Jay Jay's Race Around The World
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June 2006
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UTV, Mike Young Productions
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UTV Toons will have a perpetual 20% share of worldwide revenues and the studio's investment in this co-production is around $1 million
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Cosmic Quantam Ray
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Oct 2006
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Kahani World (US), Virgin Comics (India)
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NA
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Secrets of the Seven Sounds - Based on Ramayana
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Source: ValueNotes Research
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According to NASSCOM, the global animation market was estimated to be around $59 b in 2006 and is expected to grow by 8% per annum to reach $80 b by 2010. Further, the association estimates a 35% growth rate for animation outsourcing to India going forward. Currently, there are over 300 India-based vendors together in the animation and gaming segment. Over the last few years, vendors have developed capabilities to start co-production and have also entered the original content creation space. With traction in collaborative arrangements, lot more action is expected in the animation outsourcing space for 'Destination India'.
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