Ramisa Rahman Shitu & Ayman Ulfath: Animation, what is animation? Animation is a visual presentation of any project you want to put on the table. It is the motion in arts. It could be a moving image or pop-up graphic content. Nowadays, everyone is relying on animation, because real-life advertisement can put you in many hassles. Preparing a stage, hiring actors are way too costly. That’s where animation emerges. Animation is a way to tell stories; it really evokes the emotion you want to show it to your audience. Animation are highly used for making contents for companies, creating advertisement just using cartoons, presenting info-graphic and many more. All sort of firms and studios are hiring animators to get their job done. Not only that, the biggest use of animation is undoubtedly the entertainment sector. Animation is all over the place, TV, Entertainment, Commercials, etc.

Before the development of cinematography, the history of animation started. The motion in art is not new. Even it is the oldest way of expressing different emotions. Surprisingly, people are using sequential images since the ancient years which are considered as animation. But the continuous development of technology affected the way of animating arts or putting motions in art.

The Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius (c. 99 BCE – c. 55 BCE) wrote in his poem De Rerum Natura a few lines that come close to the basic principles of animation: "...when the first image perishes and a second is then produced in another position, the former seems to have altered its pose. Of course, this must be supposed to take place very swiftly: so great is their velocity, so great the store of particles in any single moment of sensation, to enable the supply to come up."

In present era, there are various types of animations around. Each of the types has different uses in different sections. For example the micro animations are small animations generally used in websites. Animated GIFs are another way to grab people’s attention.

Now, the 2D animation can be used in advertising, info-graphic work, simple carton animation etc. In 3D animation works, different teams work here like: rigging, texturing, look development team, modeling, clothing animator, match move and tracking team, layout department, composition team and much more.

Animation is always used to make a thing more interesting & entertaining. Whether it is a movie or advertisement, animation always adds life to them. We all know about Pixar, Walt Disney, Studio Ghibli etc who are always creating animated wonders. We also know about Marvel movies like Captain America, Thor, Avengers etc. Those movies are using animation from the beginning to make them more appealing among viewers.

Not only these, companies and brands like Vodafone, 7up, Nestle, Cadbury, Mc Donald’s, Starbucks etc are also using animated advertisements for their marketing campaigns. The target audience of animation is no longer limited to kids only.

Beside the interesting side the animation also plays an opposite side which reflects the cons of this sector. Based on the overall condition of our country the cons can be-

• Visual-effect industry is lagging behind in Bangladesh while India and other countries are building a huge sector with a lot of potentials.
• 3D animation work can be too much costly. For instance, in “Batman vs Superman” movie, the budget only for visual effects was around 42 million U.S. dollars. And this budget was only for 500 shots out of around 1500 shots of that movie. On the other hand, in our country, the overall movie budget will hardly exceed 1 million U.S. dollars.
• Even though there’s a huge possibility when it comes to make animation main career, there are insufficient IT Institutions and guidelines in Bangladesh. Because of that, expected candidates are not getting their opportunities to become an animator and many talents are quitting. Besides, many talents are leaving country to seek opportunities.
• In our country, there is no proper workflow in animation industry. One people has to perform a lot of task together, in result, the workflow slows down a lot.
• We don’t have enough guideline for new learner. So, in spite of their enthusiasm, they cannot fulfill their dream in this sector.
• Most of the people in our society do not have any proper knowledge regarding this animation sector. They may think, this sector has no future in our country.
• Lack of family support. Due to lack of family support many talented artists cannot pursue their dreams and passions.
• Buying computer components for heavy and smooth work and course fee for learning under any training institution is also a problem.
• We don’t have enough manpower to establish a huge animation industry like other countries.
• Unfortunately, we have got small market, small job opportunity and little scope regarding this sector.

Gladly, talented artists are emerging every year. We can see this increasing number in social medias more clearly. Learning opportunities are increasing as many small institutions are providing trainings but with higher fees. “Tomorrow”, an animated short film was released in 2019 directed by Mohammad Shihab Uddin with the help of Cycore studios. The main purpose of the film was to explain the climate change crisis to children. Animation is cheaper in many ways than the typical cinematography or video graphs. Creating particular character and adding preferred expressions is different than casting actors and taking several shots. Also, different costumes, make-up, changing location, transportation etc costs a lot. Investing in this sector will help us to create a domestic and as well as international demand of the creative individuals. International offers and clients will also approach us if we can create that environment with skilled people and advanced technology or ideas. Although, many skilled freelancers are doing a great job in this field but we need a solid base and polished individuals in our country.

To create a better platform for this sector, we should establish more IT Institutions and provide genuine guidelines to the candidates who want to become animator and can serve for the well-being of our country. Government should allocate fund to establish the animation industry as a part of entertainment or technology sector. Our film industry and entertainment sector also should consider about applying VFX and 3D animation in their work which will help to introduce our country to outer world. More educational institutions need to be established which will provide relevant educational certificates regarding this sector. Paid internship, flexible work environment, appreciation from workplace and family is also needed for personal development of animators.

Authors: Ramisa Rahman Shitu  and Ayman Ulfath both are the Students of 5th semester  of Department of Marketing  at Jahangirnagar University