A still from Shrek: Drawn to perfection

Guess how many frames need to be hand-drawn to create a second of animation? 24.

?There is, thus, a great need for trained personnel in this field,? says S. Sridhar of Color Chips India, one of the leading animation studios in the country based in Hyderabad. Color Chips is setting up a traditional 2D animation studio in the city. Partnering it in this venture is Citytech Corporation, a software development and IT consulting firm.

The studio will start with a one-year course dealing with all aspects of animation on offer, along with a three-month course on 2D animation and two courses on the background and digital aspects of animation, each spanning two months.

The one-year course will cost ?around Rs 75,000-80,000? and will have no age or educational qualification bar.

?According to an Anderson report, animation will grow into a $2 billion industry in India with employment opportunities for three lakh professionals,? says Sridhar. ?And the sooner we start the training process, the faster we will be equipped to meet those needs.?

Color Chip is set to open four more training institutes in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Nagpur in the next six months. ?We expect each of the studios to break even at the end of the first year itself, and from the second year onwards, they will act as our production partner,? explained Sridhar.

The five-year-old company is currently working with Germany?s BKN Productions for 24 episodes of a 2D film created in the Japanese ?anime? style called Legend of the Dragon. ?The film will be aired on BBC in March next year and it?s a first for any Indian company to work on such a big-scale project,? added Sridhar.