Many may not remember, ‘Rishi Dai ko Sathi Haru’, but Black Box’s CEO, Suyogya Man Tuladhar guarantees that it was Nepal’s first animation footage. Apparently, it was back in 1986 and his cousin was involved in the internationally funded project. He even remembers the artists manually drawing 24 frames for every second. This meant it took them up to six months to complete a three-minute footage reel. But rather than being horrified by the discovery of this pain staking process, he became fascinated.
Fast-forward 30 years and Tuladhar finds himself smack in the middle of the evolution of the animation industry in our country. He not only played a crucial role in ushering some of Nepal’s first international animation projects, currently, he is also helping educate future Nepali animators. In a conversation with The Week, he shared his views, hopes and insights on our animation industry.
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“If they have a flare for sketching that is a bonus but it’s not a necessity for those looking to get into animation.”
Tuladhar shows a collection of skillfully drawn 3D animation work. It’s been executed with such finesse that he expects this particular student to start getting offers from foreign agencies. However, surprisingly enough, one and a half years ago, she, the student reportedly began taking the animation courses without any prior experience in the art field. Tuladhar’s sole intention of showing the collection was to drive home the point that students from any background can pursue animation.
Apparently in the initial days, his institute was willing to enroll anybody who expressed interest in the field. But since students eventually proved to be rather negligent, these days they do ask of one requirement. And again, as surprising as it may be for some, it’s not art skills but dedication.
“Students learn how to draw lines for the first 10 days. For many those days can be incredibly frustrating and that helps set the tone”
Basically the animation course at Black Box is two years long. It takes 18 months to finish the curriculum and the rest of the six months is spent working on projects. Tuladhar explains that the course focuses on teaching them the tools (programs used) and the techniques for animation as well as how the industry tends to operate.
Further, the reason they claim that anybody can pursue animations is because they make it a point to teach the students from scratch. Starting with lines to the motions of the student’s arm, forearm and wrist, the first few days alone shows just how much of an effort is required from the aspiring artists. Apparently, students have been known to complain about aching muscles in these first few days. Then the focus shifts to geometric shapes and their different perspectives. Once that logic becomes clear as well, they learn how each side of the geometric objects behaves under light. Exercises and assignments on this topic reportedly take almost three grueling months and yet, the course has only just begun. They still have the human anatomy, quadruplets, storytelling, character building and so on to tackle. So no wonder, many students have been known to lose their zeal as they carry on. However, those who do stay put get to watch technology breathe a new lease of life into their ideas.
“Nepal now has a proven track record that we can produce world class CGI content for animation, visual effects (VFX)) and gaming.”
When you are genuinely interested in animation, half the battle is won. Those who complete our courses to become animators are in love with the creative process, the characters as well as the whole concept of creating something out of nothing. It’s not just about making a lot of money. They have immense satisfaction in what they are doing and I doubt there are many professionals who can claim that. Our job is to shape them the way the industry demands it.
This is a line of work where skills matter. Here you won’t get projects only because your rate is lower than your competitions. The quality and standard of the work are of paramount importance. In this regard, compared to 2008 when we started, I can see our artists today have gained immense confidence. It is one of the reasons we have been able to secure projects from the likes of Disney, Nickelodeon, DreamWorks to Twentieth Century Fox. Several of our artists have even secured amazing offers abroad or opened their own independent ventures. It’s really nice to see this. As an industry, we may still have a long way to go but considering that not so long ago, being an animator wasn’t even considered a career option, this is certainly an applause worthy achievement.
“A Hollywood animation film will cost 100 million dollars. I can work on the same movie for 10 million and produce quality content. This is what gives Nepal a competitive edge.”
The reason our animation industry hasn’t been able to grow, produce proper animation movies and, significantly increase the number of employment is because we haven’t been able to grasp the importance of investmenting in this sector. Tuladhar can’t stress enough what a missed opportunity this is.
Other countries have been successfully using this faction to bolster their IT industry. We don’t even have to look far. Tuladhar simply shares the example of India. The state governments in India have put in 100 crores to pitch their companies and their capacity to bring in projects. Hyderabad, Pune, and Maharashtra have their own animation industries.
In fact, Mumbai alone is believed to have 100,000 animators. Their state government took the initiative for training and building the company capacity in every way possible. They apparently even gave free land to build studios because they knew that eventually they would be able to reap benefits. And indeed, with several high profile Hollywood projects like Narnia, Life of Pi, Golden Compass and so on under their belt, animation is a big part of their growing IT sector.
“Students and institutes like us can’t take animation as a mere past time. We have to seriously consider the future.”
Currently, there are 80 students enrolled in Black Box’s animation courses. Tuladhar maintains that the interest among the public has been consistent in the last couple of years so moving forward, he wants to turn the course into a legit degree. As it is, it doesn’t make sense for students to acquire their diploma elsewhere when they want to pursue a career in animation so his immediate future plans include converting the two-year course and institute into a legit degree and college. The goal is to help build skilled manpower. Considering the restricted amount of investment in the animation industry so far, it may be tricky to meet its full potential anytime soon. Nevertheless, having seen the possibilities, he is keen to seize a bigger slice of the worldwide animation project pie.
