A world of might, mystic, magic and dragons and another of a familiar monkey God as a Child saving the earthlings. What unfolded was even more fascinating; the making of these epics- welcome to the world of animation.

Toonz Academy’s Hyderabad centre in association with Toonz Animation organized a daylong workshop that laid bare the nuts and bolts of what goes behind creating an animation. ‘Return of Hanuman’ a co production from Toonz, which was a huge success in India and ‘Dragonlance’, another co production with Paramount Studio’s, which topped the DVD charts in Amazon were chosen as the workshop case studies. A contrasting, but equally enchanting concepts, one in 2D and the other in 3D, what more could have been perfect for a comparison. ‘ Basically 2D and 3D goes through three stages where the first stage and the last stage, i.e. Pre Production and Production are almost the same. It is in the production stage that 3D makes things simpler compared to 2D’ says Vinod A.S., a 3D expert from Toonz.

‘2D animation requires hours of intense concentration and a perfect sense of motion. It is a very long and exhaustive process’ says Dino Cordero, Dean of the Toonz Academy.  ‘ A Disney classic could take up to 3-4 years to come out, and as such the cost of production and quality would be high. Hanuman on the other hand was done in less than 12 months on a comparatively lesser budget. But 3D animation has made things far easy’ adds Dino.

In 3D animation, once the basic character/s are designed, it could be used again and again in different scenes where as in 2D animation a separate drawing of the character in 12-24 frames is required for a second of animation. So what did this workshop aim at? ‘ We always speak of talent crunch as a deterrent in animation and one main reason for it is the lack of awareness regarding animation. We aim at familiarizing the younger generation on what animation is all about and how one can develop it as a career option’ says Mr. Rohit, Centre Head of Toonz Academy, Hyderabad.