The Hindu Business Line : ICAT to open London, Dubai campuses

The Image College of Arts, Animation and Technology (ICAT), India's first digital media college, plans to open two new campuses, one at Dubai next month and the other in London in September.

Image Infotainment Ltd, the digital media company that set up this college for animation, visual effects, game design and game development, also plans to open three new campuses in India - in the National Capital Region, Mumbai and Kolkata, by March 2007, Mr K. Kumar, Managing Director of Image Infotainment Ltd, said.

These will be over and above the present campus at Chennai.

A five-member validation team from the University of Wales, UK, is expected at its campus next week, for the final audit. Subject to this audit, the University of Wales will recognise the post-graduate and undergraduate programmes of ICAT and would be providing the degree certificates for these programmes, Mr Kumar said.

The validation process has been on for the past one year.

Driven by new co-production deals and increasing development of intellectual properties in India, Nasscom estimated Indian animation industry to be around $300 billion last year.

Lck of properly qualified and skilled hands has been one of the stumbling blocks, Mr Kumar said.

While the contribution of Indian IT in the global scenario has been significant, the country is still a small player in the $51 billion global animation market.

The new campuses, both in India and abroad, would also propel India into the booming gaming $10 billion global gaming market, Mr Kumar said.

The current Indian gaming market is estimated at around $50 million, with Console gaming contributing $35 million and PC gaming the rest.

Globally, the gaming industry is under increasing pressure to reduce the development time and lower the cost of production.

Due to the criticality of time, major publishers and studios are looking at outsourcing development work, provided the development partner fulfils the quality and reliability conditions. There is great potential for Indian game developers, Nasscom said.

ICAT has recently introduced a three-year undergraduate programme in the disciplines of animation, visual effects, game design and game development.

With 30 students in a batch, 120 students are expected to pass out from the college every year, along with another 120 students in the same disciplines at the post-graduate level. The three new campuses in India and two abroad are also planned to impart skills and training to similar number of students, Mr Kumar said.

The Indian animation industry is expected to grow to $950 million by 2009, while the gaming industry is expected to grow by over 70 per cent CAGR to $300 million in the same year.

`Tom & Jerry' in 3D

An Indian company based in Hyderabad has bagged the contract to convert all Tom and Jerry characters from 2 D to 3 D format.

One year hence, viewers across the world will have access to Tom and Jerry cartoons with 3 dimensional real-life characteristics.

Animation outsourcing to India is becoming a booming business. A 22-minute animation programme made in the US would cost around a million dollars. In India, the cost could be cut down to one-fourth or one-fifth - at $200,000 to $250,000, Mr K Kumar, Managing Director of Image Infotainment, said. India has a large reservoir of creative talent, which when properly trained and equipped could be converted into personnel for creating animation.

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