The year was 1937. The entertainment world was abuzz with the news.
Walt Disney Productions, home of Mickey Mouse, released the film that became the template, the gold standard for animated movies later on: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was a rather condensed version of possibly the most iconic of the Grimms Brothers fairy tales, a perfect melding of material and platform, with the magical backdrop a perfect vehicle for anthropomorphic animals.
The deeply-sanitized, abridged version of the fairy tale ran only 83 minutes, but it was 83 minutes of unprecedented animation glory. Technology has of course has made younger generation jaded to the idea of 2D animation of mere drawings and sketches coming alive, especially with the advent of motion capture, and chroma key.
From Snow White, to Sleeping Beauty, to the adult themed-cartoons of Studio Ghibli, to Avatar, and now the MCU pictures, the evolution of animation has created a billion-dollar industry that has spawned millions of jobs for the creatively-inclined.
And there seems to be no turning back.
ANIMATION: DEDICATION TO THE CRAFT
“Animation is the process of making things move,” Holysoft, Managing Director of Holysoft Philippines, tells DNX.
There are also different kinds of animation.
She disabuses the notion that animation is just cartoons, or 2D images being made to move. It could be anything, she says, that includes, motion graphics, for corporate identities, for movies, for educational purposes.
“There are different kinds of animation, and there are a lot of industries that people can actually join when you talk of animation alone,” Jinky said.
Technology, she says, has made it easy for people to hone their craft.
But, she cautions, the tech is only as good as how you use it.
“Technology can enhance what is already there; you cannot learn this through technology, but technology can [sharpen] skills that are already there,” she explains.
People have the mistaken notion that it is easy, she observes, but it is not.
“The tech will not teach you, you have to learn the skills by yourself,” she says.
ANIMATION AS A LUCRATIVE BUSINESS
Potentials are limitless, and with technology growing as we speak, animation’s potential for growth is boundless.
“As technology advances, animation also adapts,” Animator / VFX Artist Earl Genesis Sagayno tells DNX.
Unlike, say, the business of backyard photographers – which is joined by virtually every person with a camera – animation’s potential for growth and its malleability to adopt novelty, and adapt to changes has made the industry a very promising one in terms of employment.
“There are a lot of [career opportunities] here,” Earl says, adding, “I am encouraging them to enter the industry. The opportunities are limitless. If they see themselves as animators, I encourage them to join now.”
