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Outsourcing Artist Services in the Philippines
October 24, 2006


The Development of the Animation Industry

Since the beginnings of time, human beings have tried to capture a sense of motion in their art. From the eight-legged boar in the Altamira caves of Northern Spain to paintings alongside the remains of long-dead pharaohs, this quest for capturing motion has been a common theme throughout many of mankind's artistic endeavors.

True animation cannot be achieved without first understanding a fundamental principle of the human eye: the persistence of vision. This was first demonstrated in 1828 by Frenchman, Paul Roget, who invented the thaumatrope. It was a disc with a string or peg attached to both sides. One side of the disc showed a bird, the other an empty cage. When the disc was twirled, the bird appeared in the cage. This proved that the eye retains images when it is exposed to a series of pictures, one at a time.

In the early twenties, the popularity of the animated cartoon was on the decline, and movie exhibitors were looking elsewhere for alternative entertainment media. The public was tired of the old formula of stringing sight gags together without including a story line or any character development. The notion of Winsor McCay’s dinosaur coming to life on the screen was astonishing and of all the early animations, Felix the Cat developed the strongest screen personality, but failed to develop any further, relying on crude visual tricks to entertain the audience as opposed to developing a stronger screen persona.

At this time, many of the animations were based on primitive gags and violence, which is still true of cartoons today. One character would beat another mercilessly, only to have his victim instantly recover and return the favor. Perhaps the hero would swing his sword and reduce the villain to baloney slices, only to have him reappear as if magically rejoined.

A big change came over the industry in the mid twenties: commercialization. Big studios took over the smaller cottage industries and set standards for animation. Animators were given quotas on the number of drawings they had to produce a day. And at the present, with the use of computer and animation equipment, cartoons now had manufactured more in inexpensive quantity and quality.

Even in the Philippines, the animation industry is expected to grow in a rapid pace. Marilyn Montano, president of the Animation Council of the Philippines, says the Philippine animation industry hopes to sustain a 20 percent growth in total revenues over the next five years. The Philippine animation industry is currently a $40 million business, while the global outsourcing artist services in the Philippines is valued at $72 billion, she adds.

The BPAP-BOI-CICT projections indicate that the animation industry will generate 7,000 new jobs in 2006. In 2005, about 4,500 jobs were generated from outsourcing artist services in the Philippines. (TMCnet news)

Offshoring, Inc has a large team of outstanding premium animators, writers, graphic designers, programmers, media managers, quality assurance representatives, data entry clerks and contact center agents among others. These professionals brag of years of advanced degrees and practical training in the workforce. Offshoring, Inc, an American owned staff leasing company based in the Philippines, allows international businesses to achieve significant bottom-line savings by providing a sound business case with a full understanding of the effort and planning it takes for clients to be a success.

Offshoring, Inc has a surplus of high skilled, qualified professionals who have undergone rigorous recruitment processes. After an initial consultation with the clients concerning their needs, the company recruits, hires, and maintains highly skilled staff dedicated exclusively to their business operations. The clients exercise remote control over the development of the product and/or service from start to finish while Offshoring, Inc defines and confirms compliance to regulations and best practices of all employees. Offshoring, Inc puts in topmost priority the security of the clients' intellectual property and trade secrets so that IP theft or fraud should never be a problem.

With the advancing technology, animation seems to possess something more subtle, more ineffable, something that seems to go beneath the skin. And it’s more than a little bit creepy. Andy Wood likes to call it soul transference. The animation’s soul shows through. This is a technique Filipino animators have sharpened according to very satisfied international companies outsourcing artist services in the Philippines.

You look and you wonder: Is it the eyes? Is it the wrinkles around the eyes? Or is it the tiny movements around the mouth? Something. Whatever it is, it could usher in radical change in the making of entertainment. A tool to reinvigorate the movies.

The breakneck pace of technology combined with the epic ambitions of directors has, up to now, taken movies to places undreamed of in the past: the resinking of the “Titanic”; war in space between armies of droids; a love story between a dinosaur-sized ape and a human-sized woman.

But if animation can do what it can nowadays, the door may open wider still, to vast, uncharted territories. To some who make the movies, the possibilities may seem disturbing; to others, exciting: Why not bring back Sean Connery, circa 1971, as James Bond? Or let George Clooney star in a movie with his aunt, Rosemary; say, a repurposed “White Christmas” of 1954? Maybe we can have the actual Truman Capote on-screen, performed by an unseen actor, in the next movie version of his life.

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