With India emerging as a major hub of this booming new-age industry, global demand for qualified animation professionals is ballooning
WITH THE AGGREGATE revenue of the global animation industry slated to exceed $277 billion (Rs.1,670,586 crore) by 2015, and India emerging as a major hub of this booming new-age industry, global demand for qualified animation professionals is ballooning. Unsurprisingly, several private animation training institutes offering diploma and degree programmes have sprung up countrywide, since the dawn of the new millennium. However, given that the profession is in its infancy and still evolving with advances in media technologies, the great majority of training institutes lack well-developed curriculums, infrastructure, and quality faculty. Which is why once again in the EducationWorld Animation Institutes Rankings 2014, the league table has been restricted to the Top 10 institutes which offer high-quality, full-fledged undergraduate, postgraduate and diploma programmes.

Against this backdrop, an informed respondents sample comprising 246 animation industry professionals, 127 faculty and 107 students have voted the superbly equipped DSK Supinfocom, Pune (estb. 2008) India™s #1 animation institute for the second consecutive year. Also ranked first on all four parameters of excellence ” faculty competence, infrastructure, pedagogic systems, and placements ” DSK Supinfocom is a joint venture of the DSK Group (annual sales revenue: Rs.4,000 crore), a Pune-based heavyweight with interests in real estate, automobiles, education, pharmaceuticals, hospitality and infrastructure, and the France-based Rubika Group (earlier known as Supinfocom), which runs a top-ranked computer graphics university with campuses in Valenciennes and Arles. The Rubika Group is promoted by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Grand Hainaut, a public institution representing industry in northern France.

Spread over a state-of-the-art 20-acre campus in the Pune suburb of Fursungi, DSK offers a five-year degree programme in animation, video games and industrial design to 660 students mentored by 20 full-time faculty. œIt™s gratifying to be ranked #1 for the second year in succession. We dedicate this success to our students and teachers, whose efforts to deliver world-class animation education have been recognised by your informed respondents. Our international joint venture with France™s Rubika Group, a highly-respected name in animation and video games technology, has enabled us to offer an industry-attuned practical curriculum and international trainers. Therefore because our degree is recognised by the French government and DSK graduates are industry-ready, they are promptly snapped up by leading studios in India, as well as in China, the UK and Europe, says Ninad Panse, chief executive officer of DSK Supinfocom.

The second and third spots in the 2014 league table of India™s Top 10 animation institutes have been retained by the Ahmedabad-based National Institute of Design (NID) and Image College of Arts and Technology (ICAT), Chennai. But this year, Reliance AIMS (Animation Infotainment & Media School), Pune has made an impressive debut at #4. Promoted in 2009 by Anil Ambani™s Reliance Entertainment, Reliance AIMS, Pune offers diploma programmes in animation, visual effects and digital film production. Currently, there are 18 Reliance AIMS centres in 13 cities countrywide.

It’s encouraging to receive positive reviews from knowledgeable experts. In Reliance AIMS, we offer a unique case study-based standardised curriculum in the 13 cities where we are operational. Students in all 18 centres are provided studio-simulated study environments and excellent facilities, and graduate with the same learning experience as delivered in our Pune centre. Moreover, as a constituent unit of Reliance Entertainment, our industry interaction quotient is high with several internationally acclaimed animation professionals visiting us   regularly. Our objective is to produce skilled professionals in the field of visual effects and animation film production, says Atul Vohra, chief operating officer of Reliance AIMS.

Further down the league table, the Noida campus of the Birla Institute of Technology (BIT), Mesra, has climbed to #5 while its affiliate campus in Jaipur has retained its #6 position. The Hyderabad-based Annapurna International School of Film and Media has been demoted to #7 this year (#5 in 2013), whereas Whistling Woods, Mumbai (8); MAAC, Andheri, Mumbai (9) and Arena Animation, South Extension, Delhi (10) have all retained their Top 10 rankings.

To read India’s Top 10 animation institutes visit https://www.educationworld.in/rank-animation/2014.html