The advent of digital animation coincided with Iiberalisation of the Indian economy, opening up the country’s assets to animation producers and investors. India offered the benefits of lower production costs, strong creative and technical skills, and a large population of people fluent in English. Contract work for foreign companies has helped production studios in India build the domestic animation market resulting in a spate of commercials, TV shows, educational videos and even feature films (e.g. Sinbad, Alibaba, Pandavas etc). Studios are stretching their technology, incorporating 2D and 3D animation, computer-generated special effects, and live action in their productions.

Larger studios throughout the world are increasingly relying on India’s talent and resources; however in terms of the quality of the work done, Indian companies have still not graduated into the big league because of problems such as a shortage of talent.

One of animation industry’s largest computer animation production companies, Pentamedia Graphics, is based in India. The other leading animation houses in India include Color Chips, Compudyne Winfosystems, Crest Animation Studios, Jadoo Works, Toonzanimation India and UTV Toons.

There is a considerable increase in 2D and 3D animation outsourcing to India with the industry employing about 31,000 people in 2004 The Indian animation industry is growing at about 35% with the growth driven by animation outsourcing from North America and Europe There are about 50 animation studios in India, located in cities such as Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore India has one of the lowest labour rates, which makes it an attractive destination for animation outsourcing. The cost of outsourcing one hour of animation work to India is about US$ 60,000

The source: 3D World (text) + Digital Vector (statistics)