As a passionate enthusiast of Animation, I often come across this funniest question- “Oh, so you are ‘doing’ Multimedia?”! The question is baffling indeed. Not because it’s a wrong question, also because it shows the lack of awareness in India.
Earlier, passion was strongly attached to drawing and animation was looked upon more as an art. But these days, with loads of institutions starting up Animation as a means of money-making, the concept of Animation has become job-oriented. Most of these institutions promise a ‘100% job guarantee’ with an attractive ambience of classroom setup. But sadly, the main thing remains untouched… which I would like to touch up here.
Back to the beginning, the answer is, certainly, “NO”. This follows an array of queries. And the very 1st question to come is, “What is Animation?” ; “What is Multimedia then?”
To put it simply, Animation is the process of giving life to still pictures-both hand-drawn & computer generated. Multimedia is the term a group of software to help the process faster.
Software can enhance the speed of making animated movies but that’s not the skill set of creating animation or animated movies we can say this is Multimedia Application but this is no way MULTIMEDIA.Multimedia uses computers to present text, audio, video, animation, interactive features, and still images in various ways and combinations made possible through the advancement of technology.
The basic of Animation is drawing. Are you passionate about drawing? If yes, then Animation is for you. Animation has always been there with us. But Multimedia is a newer addition. Then the question is, if Multimedia was not there before, how did Animation work then? There were the light-box, magic lantern, zoetrope & flip-book. Sounds like jargons? Well,
- a basic light-box is a simple wooden box with a glass-lid and a bulb fitted inside the box. Remember the box you used in your geography class for practical works? Yeah? Then you got it. J
- a magic lantern is nothing but a modern day Projector. An oil-painting, a simple lens & a candle or lantern were used.
- A zoetrope is an object with several pictures that followed a certain storyline.
- a flip-book is just a bunch of papers with continuous drawing of an object or a situation in such a way so that when the papers are flipped at once, the pictures give the impression of a moving image. Very few of us are here who have not tried this in our school days.
In general animation is of two types.
1. 2D animation which can be classical/ traditional or CG
2. 3D animation which is pure CG
The earlier animation shows of Disney were all done in using classical animation (You may say 2D ). Multimedia was not there, so will you say that’s not animation ? Well then you are a fool dear 
. Disney used the good old technique of creating continuous images using lightbox and manual color mode and after a couple of years they took help of computers to do animated movies where in we will see the inputs of Steve Jobs.
How to do a simple Animation using Multimedia Application or Software ?
Take the example of a walk-cycle. Take a software and start drawing each movement related to a complete walk. Each drawing/sketch is called a frame.
Our brain can retain 24 frames per second. The advantage of Multimedia software is that we don’t have to draw all the 24 frames. Only key-frames work. We can create a walk-cycle, may be, in 8 frames, may be in 12 or may be in 16 depending on the type of walk we want to do. These frames are then taken to a Multimedia software to give In Betweens (IB) or effects or to combine with a background.
For an example :
Writing a detailed explanation of FAQs about a walk-cycle is tempting. But to do justice to our current discussion, let’s look at The Indian situation of Animation & the global influence.
In India, indigenous animation works are less popular in the entertainment sector. The misconception about Animation & multimedia has worsen the situation. Well, by the word ‘misconception’ I mean the bulk of pulp software training institutes who don’t offer character creation/ BG/ Traditional Animation process but confidently claim that they give full-fledged training in Animation. But in reality what they teach is how to use software and the tools which, in fact, any one can learn on his own.. you just need internet connection but to know the tricks and techniques of REAL animation or graphic design you need guidance . As its associated with a job-prospect view, the quality of most fresher animators are poor. These people look upon animation as a ‘factory-work’ which brings money. As a result, India is becoming a major attraction for outsourcing. The country’s English speaking & able workforce, low cost production are being used to outsource. Thus, we aren’t the audience & we don’t get feedback. We are only given projects & payments. Thus, in spite of having a huge infrastructure, we don’t own enough stories due to the brain-drain.
Schools & courses for animation are now appearing everywhere in India. People go to these schools. Learn a few software & are certified to call themselves Animators. But this actually is affecting the Animation Industry severely.
The gen-y is loving animated works and to cater to their tastes, more original works need to be produced in India. For that, you need to love animation.
