Denis Deegan (extreme left) of Toonz Webel Academy explains animation concepts to the audience as a student prepares his sketches at an animation seminar on Saturday. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Some were there to show what they have learned. Others to know how to begin the learning process. Yet others were simply intrigued by the concept and came to find out what it was all about. Animation, the magic word, united them all.

A seminar on animation, organised by Toonz Webel Academy, saw a packed house at Rabindra Sadan on Saturday morning. Youngsters with dreams of making it big in the new medium, parents to judge whether it was a viable career option for their children and middle-aged 9-to-5ers wondering if it was too late to start.

This was not about boring lectures and cursory question-and-answer rounds. Instead, the animation process ? from the drawing board to broadcast ? was explained by an expert, with emphasis on crowd involvement.

Right at the beginning, the audience tossed up ideas, on which Toonz students worked away furiously for the rest of the seminar. Presentations were made on the current crop of students at the academy, as dean Denis Deegan (an Irishman with work experience around the world) explained various aspects of animation. Later, the ideas transformed into animation were shown to an amazed audience.

?The idea is to increase awareness that various opportunities are opening up in animation and a career can be made of it,? explained Srimati Mukherjee, project leader of Toonz Webel Academy.

Toonz?s first batch of 52 will complete the one-year diploma course in December, and Saturday?s gathering also helped to hunt for prospective students for the next batch.

The advantage here, according to Mukherjee, is the availability of skilled manpower, which can be utilised to create quality animation professionals, something the country still lacks.

When the current batch completes the course, their animation films will be shown to production houses across the country as part of the recruitment process.

Apart from the one-year diploma, Toonz also conducts a three-month foundation course and a six-month programme for working professionals.

Students demonstrated the importance of acting in animation by staging short pieces. Dean Deegan got into the act, too, with his portrayal of a gorilla that drew a huge applause from the crowd.

The number of questions Deegan had to face from eager members of the audience attested to the success of the effort. ?Do I need to know all aspects of animation or only those I would be specialising in?? asked a software student, ?I don?t have the time for a full-time course but I?m very interested. What do I do?? asked a working professional. ?Will you be teaching software like Maya?? was yet another query.

The only complaint in the end was the duration. ?We should have had a whole-day event, where we could have shown live animation,? wished Deegan.