More on Indian Outsourcing More on Indian Outsourcing

Harvey Deneroff, who runs the invaluable industry news site Deneroff.com, points out another recent article on Indian outsourcing from THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS. It’s a different studio, but essentially the same story as yesterday’s news item: Color Chips India Limited has signed production deals with BKN Kids (Germany) and Benj Production (France), and they’re looking to add 800 animators to their staff within the next 12 months.

These major hiring binges by Indian studios beg the question: Is the overseas animation industry truly experiencing such rapid growth or are these simply animation jobs being transferred from South Korea to the cheaper Indian studios? Are studios in other Asian countries in a slump because of this rise in Indian animation? I’m not familiar enough with the overseas animation industry to offer any valuable insights into the situation, but it strikes me as noteworthy that Indian studios are hiring animators by the hundreds.

The other issue is, of course, the quality of the animation. The vast majority of Indian animation I’ve seen over the past few years has been cringe-worthy, and it’ll be quite a few more years before their industry matures to the quality of some of the more animation-experienced Asian countries. Of course, by that time, shameless Western producers will have found other countries who will produce animation even cheaper than India, thus ensuring that TV animation will always look (for the most part) like sh*t. One other interesting bit worth noting is that Indian studios are now doing Flash animation as well. Eddie Mort and Lili Chin, creators of MUCHA LUCHA!, recently posted a PHOTO of their Indian animation crew at Jadoo.

Amid Amidi

Amid Amidi is Cartoon Brew's Publisher and Editor-at-large.

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