Animation family movies like “Tangled” or “How to Train a Dragon” have also been rendered into the minds of modern-day families.[break]
Nepal is not lagging behind, either. Animators from Nepal are capable of modeling international quality of animations and yet there is a hesitation in embracing this new technology.
Although the impossible is possible through CGI (Computer Generated Imagery), the costs for implementing these animations studios are extremely high. While professional Hollywood movies have high-end technology like Motion Capture Devices and Render Farms, Nepali animators are still working with key-frame animation. However, animation studios have also started blooming all across Kathmandu, along with world-class AutoDesk, an animation software developing company, authorized institutions and instructors.
“I think animations are still a very new concept in Nepal and it’ll take some time to be generally accepted,” says Ashish Basukala, Senior Trainer at Maya Animation Academy, also an authorized Autodesk Trainer. “Businessmen are still very worried about investing in a technology they aren’t quite knowledgeable about,” he informs.
Apart from the costs, these animation studios also require a lot of varied manpower. During an animating pipeline, the preproduction phase requires skilled concept artists and digital painters to conceptualize and digitally paint characters. The modeling phase requires many 3D artists to model these characters and environments into life, shaping and texturing. These professional artists require high-end computers to work on, which again, brings up the costs of setting up a studio. India has very high-end animation studios that support a large group of animators but Nepal still lags behind in this aspect.
“Indian animation studios work on Hollywood projects and can handle huge chunks of these projects. Nepali animation studios do receive projects from these Indian studios as third parties. But since we don’t have the infrastructure and technology to support it, we end up animating only a few frames of these animations, like a 15-minute scene,” adds Ashish.
There also doesn’t seem to be large projects like animation TV series or movies coming up from Kathmandu. Animation jobs are limited to short advertisements or social service messages. Even the advertisement market is very saturated with these media agencies that work with one individual regarding animation. Many architectural projects, like building forecast modeling, are sent to Indian studios.
“There’s no visibility for Nepali animators,” says Anand Mukhia, CEO at Lucid Animations. “There are world-class animators and animation studios here. Lucid has worked for many animation projects professionally and yet people don’t trust us. People think sending projects to India will yield better results but that’s not necessarily true. We need visibility and trust. Sending projects to an individual freelance artist might get things done but there won’t be the quality that a studio, with many professional artists, provides,” he adds.
Nepali animation industry is growing with highly skilled professional artists, but the market still seems to be working on export basis. Nepali animators find themselves working primarily on projects oversees. There doesn’t seem to be any projects taking root in Nepal apart from small advertisements. This forces Nepali animators to look for jobs abroad, in India, in the United States, because of greater visibility of their skills and better pay. Animations are done cheaper in India and Nepal and that seems to be one of the main reasons these companies overseas send projects here.
“We need to create more awareness through animations expos or festivals so that more people will know about the quality of animation artists here. The young generations of film makers have started embracing animations and I think this shows the changing mentality of young people. Although Nepal is still behind on animation projects, I’m sure the young generation is more willing to invest in newer technology. The future does look bright,” says Anand.
Although many Hollywood projects are being animated in India, a small chunk of that does come to Nepal as well. As since Nepali animators do show amazing skills as animators, local projects such as short films are being sent to international festivals. Recently, Maya Animation Academy declared two winners for its annual “1 Film 3D” animation contest with the winners bagging a Rs 500,000 cash prize. The prize for next year’s contest has been raised to Rs one million, nudging Nepali animators further.
“If we had financial support and an animation studio with 500-600 animators, we would be able to tackle international projects,” says Ashish. “We need good equipment, good animators and local projects to drive the animation industry forward,” he adds.
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