Kochi: The Kerala-based Toonz Group having its campus at Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram and celebrating two decades of its existence is set to enlarge its global footprint with foray into Africa, Jamaica, Spain, Ireland and the Isle of Man with the Toonz Academy for Animation, Gaming and Graphics.
The group having focus in animations is also launching the ‘Super Kids Junior’ and ‘Super Kids’ Projects for KG and lower primary students respectively to impart basic lessons in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) which will be targeted at the populace in English speaking countries. It will be run on the OTT platform. While the Academy project is being rolled out for 1 million dollars with national governments as collaborators, the second project will have a spent of 5 million dollars.
“The Toonz Acadmey has already enrolled 300 candidates at its facility at Technopark. The Diploma course is having duration of 12 month course period and three month training. The basic qualification is Plus Two and the course is having a curated content. It skills in animation, gaming, graphics and speical effects,” said P Jayakumar, CEO, Toonz Group, in an interaction. He said that already the course is also run in collaboration with Vellore Institute of Techn-ology in Amaravati campus in Andhra Pradesh.
Jayakumar said that the wide belief that animation is software is a myth. “Animation is acting. A good animator has to be good at acting. Software is the tool to enhance the acting skills,” he said. “The global entertainment market goes through a continual evolution, egged on by advances in technology and software, changes in kids’ consumption behaviour and changes in social trends, and globalisation.Traditional television still has a large role in the kids and family entertainment industry, however, the digital viewing market has exploded over the past years,” Jayakumar said.
He said that more & more foreign companies are now outsourcing the animation production work to India due to the quality work done here and also the cost savings for them which in turn create a lot of jobs here.
