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Do you know what runs the world of entertainment today? It isn't just interesting real-life stories, but the ability to engage the audience through storytelling. And storytelling oftentimes is brought together by works of visual treat involving VFX and Animation which isn't a surprise. After all, visual effects were always about making imaginations come to life. Since the 70s, the use of CGI for movies like Star Wars have blown the minds of many, and have effectively revolutionised the entertainment industry.

If we look at some of the great works involving VFX such as Avatar, The Matrix, or even the latest movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we can see how far visual effects have come in creating engaging content. Even the great works of animation created by studios like Ghibli has set people's hearts on fire. Animated movies like Spirited Away (won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2002) from Studio Ghibli even prove that animation can be used to tell great stories.

Telling A Story

An interesting storyline is a right tool necessary to draw an audience into a film, but that is not limited to conventional live-action films. Great stories can be told through animation as well. After all, the animation is nothing but another medium to tell a story through, and are much more preferable than live-action films. Animation allows movies to open up and express emotions in a way not really possible in live-action films. And that is a testament to the work of all animators in the industry and the variety of techniques they use to make the characters pop out. Doesn't that sound interesting?

Where animated films drive engagement through their own way of storytelling, Visual Effects enhances movies by adding that necessary magic to fill up the story. We have already been exposed to the magic of VFX in movies like Baahubali, or Lord of the Rings, and have seen how that can boost a story. By using visual effects, filmmaking bypasses technical limitations if done without using it. It does take skilled VFX artists to craft every such enhancement for an entertaining movie experience.>

The global animation market was worth a staggering 259 billion USD. with expected growth to 270 billion by 2020. As it currently stands, the animation and visual effects industry is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 9% during the forecast period of 2021 to 2026. After all, the animation is big for businesses, and the expectations of consumers keep increasing when it comes to the best visual effects and animation in entertainment media. But they are not limited to just being used for movies and series. In fact, almost every industry is trying to use animation as a marketing tool for its consumers. For example, do you remember the Mentos evolution ad with the donkey and the man, it stood out didn't it?

How Do You Fit In?

Think about what animation can do for your own YouTube channel and the engagement you can create with it for your vlogs. You could even solely focus on VFX and animation on your YouTube. After all, many animators and VFX artists have expanded their careers from YouTube itself. Perhaps you could be the next creator in line to do so?

As a career, this industry offers you a lot of options to choose from, which will also help you expand your skills and career over the years. In recent years engaging content through both animation and VFX has driven popularity towards OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+ Hotstar with content like Mighty Little Bheem.

Of course, both animation and VFX is a broad field, and it's good to consider which branch to go for. Most people don't know this but there are many layers to animation, with each animator or visual effects artist specialising in different skills. For instance, VFX comes in three usual forms that include - CGI, Compositing and Motion Capture, and are equally important during production. As a VFX artist, you could be involved in Compositing, Rendering, Roto, and many others. VFX is in much demand these days, and you could be too with any of those specialisations!

There's a lot more to animation as well other than simply 2D and 3D. The field of animation itself offers you the chance to pick up skills for any of these roles - Animator, Rigging Artist, Texture Artist, 3D/ 2D Animator, Rendering Artist, Image Editor, Lightning Artist, Key Frame Animator. Just think of all the possibilities as an animator!

Piqued your interest? If you even look at the last few decades of the Indian animation & VFX industry, you will see that it has outgrown itself from simply providing services for outsourced projects to having its own studios, telling Indian stories. Currently, India has over 320 animation studios, while VFX studios have a count of above 55. In the coming few years the number of studios and their size will only keep on increasing. And you can join in, whether it is for artistic reasons, or for a successful and expansive career in the industry. With so many new stories to tell for the global audience, the animation and visual effects industry is ready for you, are you?