Crest Communications, one of the leaders in 3D animation in India, has big plans up its sleeve. It is constantly looking to set benchmarks in this arena. One of the major projects it is making compares favourably with the Disney Pixar hit Finding Nemo. In addition, the company is currently negotiating with European and Canadian companies for contracts worth several millions of dollars.
Indiantelevision.com's correspondent Ashwin Pinto met Crest's international business head A K Madhavan who spoke about the company’s projects, why it is shifting out of the Indian market and why 2D animation is restricted in scope.
What major projects are you working on currently? The story deals with Piggley Winks, a spunky eight-year-old pig and his friends Dannan the Duck and Ferny the Bull on Raloo Farm in Ireland. All the while, Wiley the Sheep offers wild and woolly advice to his all-too-sheepish flock. The opening and closing of each show features Piggley as a granddad, recounting tales of childhood shenanigans as entertaining life lessons to his three, city-dwelling young grandpigs. |
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Anything else? While staying true to the basic story of Moses and the Israelites wandering in the desert, this Exodus tale offers a kid's perspective on why God set out clear rules for us to live by. Each commandment is translated to a real-life situation. Right now, production is on for five DTH videos for a series called New Testament. We are also doing multiple 3D television series and have installed 100 graphics machines for the same. By March, we would have added another 100. The purchase orders have been placed. Our aim is to deliver three television series every month by June. |
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Which international studios does Crest have agreements with for outsourcing of animation content and what are the contracts worth? Crest has more than $ four million contracts right now and are negotiating for another $15-20 million worth of contracts. So far Rich Crest has produced six full-length animated feature films and over 60 half-hour animation projects for various studios, including its own Animated Hero Classics series. This enjoyed a two-year run on HBO in the US. We are also working with the European and Canadian markets. Animation is primarily from these three spaces. I don’t think that any Indian company is delivering the kind of contracts we are doing. |
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What is the revenue growth of Crest and to what percentage does the international business contribute to it? |
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How many of your shows are on Indian television at present? This will air in Singapore first and come to India later. We are not doing any live action content for Indian television channels right now. Crest started off as a production and post-production company concentrating on the Indian market. But later our focus started to shift more towards children’s programming. Currently, a revenue model for children’s content in India does not exist. Therefore, we are not talking to any of the Indian broadcasters. |
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What breakthroughs has Crest made in the area of 3D animation in the recent past? The XSI software’s integrated use of the mental ray-rendering engine allowed us to achieve rich and photo realistic images. The mental ray renderer is the most important feature in XSI. We took advantage of the intuitive and user-friendly interface. The XSI environment also provided major productivity benefits to the workflow, such as allowing for fewer keystrokes and more alternatives than any other software. Its highly sophisticated texturing and rendering capabilities allowed our team to create a lifelike and precise look of the characters. Our shows are setting standards, benchmarks and raising the bar of 3D animation in the television space. Our client is very happy and the viewership of the Jakers! series is steadily growing. In my opinion it is one of the best 3D animated shows that Asia has delivered to the US market. |
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What are the main challenges facing the growth of 3D animation in India? Another challenge will be train and motivate them by giving them exciting projects to work on. The technical side is there. In terms of the infrastructure like delivery platforms India, is ready. |
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What is the cost of making a half-hour film that fuses 2D with 3D animation? The cost also depends on the quality of the graphics being used and the voice talent. For instance, Piggley Winks has an American sheep voiced by veteran comedian actor Mel Brooks. His is a branded voice. For Kids' Ten Commandments there is a rich pool of television stars lending their voices. |
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How far away are you from producing a film like 'Finding Nemo'? This series is going to outperform what we have already done. In fact, I can safely say, India is ready to do a sequel to Finding Nemo. The story is all about a few submarines. It is a preschool series. Animation on water is very difficult to create and render. It calls in for a huge computing power. The lighting effect underwater is very complex to create on the computer. This is yet another example of us setting benchmarks for television. The cost of each half hour episode is in excess of $ two million and will start airing next year. The coral reefs, the fishes were all created right here in Mumbai. |
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Some insight on the latest state-of-the-art-equipment you use... What we are using today in our studio is state-of-the-art whether it is networking solutions, storage, switches. We are using almost on the same day the technology that has been leased in the US. The transport of software is very easy. |
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Is there still scope for innovation in the 2D animation segment for you and the industry as a whole? However, there is no sense in going beyond a point because the other Asian markets have been delivering it for the past two decades. Beyond a point, you cannot increase the returns on investment. |
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In India, what is the scope for content that mixes live action with animation like what was seen in the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit? However, this will eventually happen. A lot of television commercials feature animation. The markets are moving in that direction. On television the mix of live action with animation is already happening. Star’s Khulja Sim Sim has an animated character talking to the host of the programme. |
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Are you planning to significantly increase your activity on special effects soon? Currently, we are talking to quite a few Indian film producers. I am referring to action films, which are shot on blue screens. Here the sets are entirely created using computer graphics. We are also talking to overseas independent producers. |
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How is India faring in outsourcing compared to Singapore, China, and Taiwan? The skill sets that we have in computer graphics and imaging are comparable and cost effective. |
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You are planning to increase the number of computer graphic workstations from 120 to about 300 by the end of next year. How are you faring as far as funds are concerned? |
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How many additions has Crest made to its workforce in the last few months? What purpose will they serve? We are looking for people with an art background who are creative. Then we will train them on computer graphics software. They will be working on 3D projects as animators, compositors, texturing artistes, lighting effects artistes, special effects artistes. |