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A GLIMPSE ON PHILIPPINE ANIMATION INDUSTRY
Castañeda, Martin S14 Cordova, Allaine S14
 prince01_prince01@yahoo.com.ph allainecordova@gmail.com
Medina, Marjorie S14 Suarez, Jed S14
madjo_11@yahoo.com jed_b_suarez@yahoo.com
Tanlimco,Kerwin s14
kerwin_tanlimco@yahoo.com
 
College of Computer StudiesBachelor of Science in Information and Communications Technology Management 
ABSRACT
The last years has been marked bydevelopment in ICT specifically in the fieldof computer animation. Alongside of thisdevelopment is the rise of animationindustry in the Philippines particularly beginone of the faster growing type of outsourcedwork. The Philippines has long beenengaging into this industry which can betraced as early as the 1980’s. Having thatestablished reputation and with the presenceof intrinsic creative pool of Filipino talents,the Philippines are one of the stronger Asian players in the global animation industrywhich greatly contributes to the country’seconomic growth. Despite of that fact, thePhilippines still remains as a service provider to other nations and has beenlonging for recognition due to lack of funds,opportunities and marginal technologydevelopment as compared to Asiancompetitors. This paper also seeks to answer the problems which hinder the Philippines to be globally recognized and established in theanimation industry despite of itscompetitiveness
I.
 
INTRODUCTION
Animation deals with the rapid display of sequence images to produce an illusion of movement. Animation along withInformation Technology has evolvedthrough time from the traditional animationinto 2D animation, 3D Computer GeneratedImagery (CGI), 3D CGI and 3D MotionCapture, and later into Virtual Reality.These developments had led and contributedto the country’s growth given the revenuesgenerated and increase in employment rate.Currently, the Philippines is now consideredas one of the top choice of Westerncountries to outsource their work with itscheaper labor and abundant creative talent.However, given the different forms of animation, Filipino animators are inclined in2D animation, a more economical and lessintensive kind, rather than the moreadvanced forms. More so, some talented
 
Filipino animators seek and find better opportunities to foreign organizations giventhe limited opportunities locally. And thecountry is nearing to be left behind in termsof the technological aspect as compared toother Asian competitors. The followingsections discuss the different factors thatcontribute to the current issues that localanimators experience.
II.
 
FUNDING
It has been one of the issues that thePhilippine Animation Industry is lackingfunds to provide the local animators for them to produce their own original Filipinostoryboards. This has been evident whenmore and more countries have beenemploying artists from Vietnam, India, andChina knowing that Philippines is also onethe neighbor countries who has a great poolof diligent and creative animators. This hashappened because they offer cheaper outsourcing services and they are moretechnologically-advanced than Philippines[1]. It has also been in the 1980s that whenthe computers emerged, it has already beenimpossible for the Filipino animators tocompete with other neighbor countries [3].“2D animation in the Philippines even lostits market to these computer imagerytechnologies” says Raul Boncan Jr., owner of CSDA Graphics and Animation Inc.,which is the first animation studio setup inBaguio City. He also added that there were300 Filipino Animation veterans whodropped out of the market when 3D becamethe mainstream form of animation. Manyhave turned to painting but many get back toanimation. Though this is a fact, accordingto TOEI Animation general manager Nestor Palabrica – who is also the president of theAnimation Council of the Philippines, localartists have the capability to do their ownoriginal works but there is no one who can provide them financially. This has been alsoone of the reasons why Filipino local artistsresort to outsourcing their artistic worksinstead. He also said that these animatedfilms or series will have to have bigger investments and they are much expensivethan producing a full-length movie film.However, he noted that when right financer comes around, he is sure that the local artistsare ready and worth the price
III.
 
EXTERNAL OPPOTURNITIES
There are many good animators inmany countries but because of minimalcompensation, lack of technology, proper motivation, and financial difficulties of companies, these animators are attracted togo to other countries. Most of the animatorsof the Philippines are transferring to other country because of different reasons like thecost of production in the Philippines is lowcompared to other countries. Because of that, animators of the Philippines aregrabbing the chance to go outside thePhilippines and work abroad because theywill get higher pay rather than stay and work in the Philippines.“According to Global Sky In the nextfew years, the global game developmentindustry is likewise seen to grow. The USgame development market is projected toreach roughly US $ 15 billion in 2009 whileCanada’s market is seen to increase to US $1.3 billion and Latin America, US $ 832million in the same period. With this
 
expected growth, companies wanting tooutsource their work offshore are seeingPhilippines as a desirable location. With thecountry’s lower cost development comparedto that of North America and Europe, surelyit is a better outsourcing spot. As said by thePresident of LadyLuck Digital, a local gamedevelopment firm, Luis Mañalac, the cost of game development here in the Philippines isonly one-eighth of that in the USA.He mentioned that here in thePhilippines, a team of 10 people workingfull time for two years only costs US $ 262,000 as against to US $ 1.7 million in theUnited States.”Along with many Filipinos who are workingabroad to earn money, there are also Filipinoanimators who are leaving the country because there are greater benefits abroadrather than working here in the country.Also because of the animation companieshere in the countries that are closing becauseof financial problems, Filipino animators areforced to find work abroad to find jobs andthere are many opportunities abroad.As stated by Dennis Ladaw of theManila Times, There was this Filipinonamed Ralph Fernan who worked for Disney’s animation film, “Chicken Little”which nearly grossed about $120 millionduring its opening weekend. Fernan wasresponsible for animating both the titlecharacter and his father. Fernan wasassistant editor of the Hanna-Barbera’sfeature-length cartoon Once Upon A Forest[7], which featured the voice talents of Michael Crawford and Ben Vereen.Sadly, however, the company wascompelled to shut down its Manila studiodue to financial difficulties.As with most of the talented Filipinoanimators, Fernan decided to seek hisfortunes in other countries. There werefewer opportunities for animators in thePhilippines, he explained. While othersfound employment in Australia, Fernan anda few others tried their luck in the UnitedStates. Fernan has so far been the mostfortunate Filipino animator. He found work at Burbank Studios and was animator for thefeatures of Turner Pictures and Warner Brothers. Among his credits are the highlyacclaimed Iron Giant (1999) and StuartLittle 2 [8]. For Disney, Chicken Little wasa major gamble that paid off. It was the firstCGI film, the studio produced on its own.(Pixar produced most of its CGI productions.) The studio first adaptedChicken Little for the screen in 1943 usingtraditional animation. Fernan resides withhis wife and son in Altadena, California.While he’s enjoying his work in Disney, hesaid he hopes the animation industry in thePhilippines would eventually get off theground. “Then perhaps the talent wouldn’thave to migrate to other countries,” he said.[9]
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