TOONING IN
The animation industry is booming in Asia and as the talent pool deepens, more homegrown hits are expected to emerge.
Big-budget American studio productions and old Japanese favourites tend to come to mind when the talk turns to the artistic and commercial success of the animation industry. Most people will mention Finding Doryy or Doraemon, but only a handful would think of films such as Khan Kluay from Thailand.
That’s mainly because very little animation content is exported from most Asian countries, and even successful productions are often overshadowed by better-known material from Japan or Hollywood.
Just two decades ago, it was hard to find signs of life in the animation industry in Asia outside of Japan. In most other countries, cartoons were not taken seriously as art. Short films such as animation were often marginalised in film-rich countries including Hong Kong, China and India, and there was no academic or training base. Talented young Asians could only dream of working for the likes of Pixar, Walt Disney, DreamWorks or Sony in California because only the most qualified and experienced people would be hired.
But today the fact is that as many as 90% of American television animation productions are estimated to be co-produced in Asia.
“If we talk quality animation, we still think of big names such as Pixar, DreamWorks and Sony which most animators still want to work for, but there are also different branches in Asia. DreamWorks now has Oriental DreamWorks and there are other outsource opportunities to do the actual work in studios all around Asia,” said Marisa Tontaveetong, executive director of ASIFA-South Inc in the US state of Georgia.
ASIFA-South is affiliated with l’Association Internationale du Film d’Animation, a non-profit organisation founded in 1960 in Annecy, France. Today it is an international network of animation artists with chapters in more than 30 countries.
“However, a lot of Asian animators still seek out education and job opportunities abroad if they have the chance due to the limited resources and support for the industry, especially here in Southeast Asia,” Ms. Marisa, citing her own experience working in Thailand before finding jobs at Pixar and now ASIFA.
But Juck Somsaman, the founder and CEO of The Monk Studios, the leading animation studio in Bangkok, takes a different view.
“Many artists are motivated and want to learn more and to push hard to challenge themselves,” he told Asia Focus. “The West represents good opportunities for local talent. They have to work very hard and become very good to be able to find an opportunity in the West.
“It’s not easy to get a job in the US, for example, as it has a very strict visa policy. Canada is easier as it has a high demand for workers in this field.”
Western studios offer better opportunities to Asian animators, certainly in terms of pay and opportunities to build up a portfolio. “They want to be known, to be working on high-profile projects or with well-known companies,” said Mr Juck.
“What saddens me is that if we are looking purely at business potential, the number of followers, and the talent pool that this region has, then the animation industry in Asia should be making a bang that is louder and bigger than the noises the American giants are making but it is not.”
Consequently, the animation industry in Asia is still known mainly as a cheap labour pool for Hollywood. Lack of support from society and governments has led to a brain drain, with many of Asia’s most talented animators now spurring the growth of the industry in North America and Europe instead of contributing at home.
The educational infrastructure is being built up in Asia but there is still a lot of work to be done. Those who do pursue animation as a career will find themselves entering a fast-growing industry worth an estimated US$244 billion in 2015, with annual growth of 5% or more for most related segments.
“Asia in general is booming. The industry, however, is still young. We have more and more young employees out of university joining the field every year. We are also doing more international work here both for TV and theatrical projects,” said Mr Juck.
“University education is getting better, the learning curve for new employees straight out of universities to join a production is getting shorter every year. Ten years ago, it would take someone fresh out of school many months of internal training before they could join a professional production. Nowadays, they are almost ready straight after graduation.”
Ms Marisa agreed that while specialised education was improving, and the quality of animation in most Asean countries was approaching the standards of the US, Europe or Tokyo, the skills base needed to be broadened.
“There are a few colleges that specialise in animation work and teaching the use of software relevant to a degree, such as the popular 3D Maya software or After Effects, while a lot of the study is focused on rounding out the individual to know as many skill sets as possible for the current job market, but they do not really train specialists,” she said.
“If you look at companies such as Pixar or DreamWorks, they look for specialists in positions. For example, when you have a piece of 3D animation, they might get a specialised rigger, animator, lighter, compositor — people who are the very best at one thing — to carry out the work, while in Asia such as in Thai colleges, we teach people to do a little of everything but not everything especially well. So education does go hand in hand with the types of jobs and opportunities available.”
Apart from Studio Ghibli, Sunrise and a few animation studios in Tokyo, Asian studios are not well known. Few people outside the business know of Toon City in Manila, which has collaborated with big names such as Warner Bros, Universal, Nickelodeon and Walt Disney to produce projects such as Aladdin: The Animated Series, Hercules, Kim Possiblee and Gravity Falls.
“Most studios in Asean do work outsourced from companies in the US, China and Japan but relatively little intellectual property is being created,” said Ms Marisa.
Out of the world’s 50 best animation studios ranked by gamedesigning.org in 2016, only Studio Ghibli made the top five while the rest are dominated by companies in California, London, Tokyo and Europe.
In reality, pre-production including scripts, storyboards and exposure sheets is done in the US or other countries before the package is sent to Asia for computer production including drawing cells, colouring by hand, inking, painting and camera work. The work is then sent back to the headquarters for post-production including editing, colour timing and sound.
Western studios mostly outsource to Japan, South Korea and China, but the animation industry in Southeast Asia is certainly on the rise given its cost competitiveness.
“We have seen a lot of work coming in from the West, starting from simple TV shows and now many other things. Japanese companies are hiring Asean
“Ten years ago, it would take someone fresh out of school many months of internal training before they could join a professional production. Nowadays, they are almost ready straight after graduation” JUCK SOMSAMAN The Monk Studios
studios to do production work. China also has demand for high-quality production,” Mr Juck said.
“Eastern Europe is also doing well in terms of animation because of cost competitiveness but Asia, especially Thailand, is the place to watch in the next three to five years. The artists here are very creative and I have seen some amazing stuff over the years that I’ve been here.”
Working on projects outsourced from the West and Japan has honed the skills of animators in Asean. In China, more and more students are now submitting content they made while studying in the US, Ms Marisa said.
“One of the differences I see is that the animation from abroad seems to be wider in content and addresses bolder issues, which could possibly be a part of social censorship [in Asia],” she said.
But recently, Asian studios have been trying to focus more on developing animation content by investing in intellectual property protection.
GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
In Asia, South Korea is a good place for co-productions because the government is very supportive, partly by providing subsidies. The government in Beijing organises Chinese film festivals that offer large sums of prize money, which is attractive to filmmakers in general.
“Other countries provide government subsidies to attract work and talent,” said Mr Juck. “In some countries the subsidies can be as high as 50-60%. Imagine if that happened in Thailand; we’d get all the best jobs and the best people here. Government support in training is always a good idea. We need more people; what we have is just not enough.”
Ms Marisa said she would definitely keep an eye on China as a very fast-rising top contender in the animation industry in Asia because of the support of the government, though in terms of content there is an element of narrative censorship.
However, “a lot of the Chinese students that get an opportunity to work overseas are still overseas because of better pay and conditions. If they are able to get a visa, usually they would rather stay abroad,” she said.
Social media content and fast-turnaround media are also up-and-coming fields, with more live animated content in real time, or with more usage of motion capture and interactivity.
“Currently animation is still a long process but with the increased integration with the game pipeline, motion-capture software that is more accessible to consumers such as Adobe Character Animator or FacePlus, I can see more live animation coming into play in certain areas as cheaper and faster techniques emerge,” she added.
The other trend is more licensing of animation and translating local animation productions into English, such as what Netflix is doing now. “That might be a good opportunity for local content growth,” she said.
“I see an upward trend over the next five years,” said Mr Juck. “Every company I know is doing well and they are all expanding with bigger and better projects.
“As the local talent pool is getting better, we are seeing bigger projects and productions being done in Thailand. Thai animators are well paid compared to other industries. I am very excited to see what is going to happen here in the next five to 10 years. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”