A dream that needs care

It has to be either willpower or passion for their country, that drove them to completed a 17-minute production, as the company does not have any strong financial support. We always enjoy viewing a finished product, but can never realize the incalculable efforts and processes that takes place behind the scene, specially in the case of animation.

Using skilled artists from the Institute of Fine Arts, Dhaka University and latest 2D/3D animation software such as USAnimation and ToonBoom, along with TAB, CorelDraw, CorelPaint, Photoshop and LiteWave, Ether Media managed to complete the animated cartoon, which required a lot of financial involvement.

"Due to scarce availability of the original software in Bangladesh, we had to go through quite a lot to acquire the registered versions of these tools," said Mostaque Nannoo, CEO, Ether Media. The whole process of using such original versions may as well give the disbursement-checks a high-rise.

Greenfield Toons, the animation wing of Decode (BD) has already proved that we are capable of producing international standard 3D and 2D animation and earn huge amount of foreign currency, by producing animated series for a Canadian company.

While 'Meena', the first ever Bengali 2D animation, which grabbed a lot of attention in its time, was developed in the United States, such local 2D productions sure upholds everyone's hope on the future of the local animation sector and its expansion.

Ether Media hopes on building a common trend on working towards the growth of the prospective animation industry of the country. "If we are successful in making fine productions, and with the right notch of financial backup, we expect that a lot of other local studios will start on the trail," said Nannoo.

Local sponsors always find their ways to finance audiovisual productions such as drama serials, magazine and talk shows, but are reluctant to comprehend the aspect of cartoon productions and its involvement in the development of an animation industry in the country's peripherals. Nanoo referred to enhancing local skills in animation by diversifying their work-orientations, possibly some outsourced jobs from the international grounds. With some skilled production, Nannoo hopes on finding the sponsors' attention. "Animation could be the next big thing for the country," he said.

"Proper channeling of the ICT sector endeavors can lead to its establishment as one of the largest source of revenue collection towards an expanding and growing economy", stated Azimuddin Ahmed, president, BCS Computer City, while speaking at the premier. Ahmed also mentioned the efforts of Bangladesh Association of Software Information and Services (Basis) towards nurturing such a potential animation industry.

Mentioning how the Bureau of Data Processing Systems Ltd, Bangalore (BDPS), and another individual software specialist from Osaka, Japan, have helped Ether Media with the development work. Dipok Kumar Biswas, technical head from Ether Media informed that BDPS technicians came to Dhaka and assisted them for a month.

The company has already booked thirteen series-slots in ATN Bangla, hoping on taking it to twenty-six slots eventually. The first part of the series, Chira Muri'r Golpo, has already been aired on April 4 in ATN Bangla, the second of the series, Panta Buree, is scheduled to be aired on April 11 at 3:30 pm.

"Hopefully by then we might get some response from the local sponsors," hopes Biswas, mentioning that it will be the only driving force behind continuing the sequences series. "Finance has become a major issue for the survival of the series," he said.

"We may hope that more private channels will come forward in promotion of such animation attempts, thus providing another ingredient towards the correct establishment of such an industry," said Saiful Bari, the chief advisor to the channel ATN Bangla, while complimenting Ether Media on producing such a series that is based on local fairytale.

Promoting such projects, financially or any other way may route a new growth in the ICT industry for a promising animation sector. Sponsors, advertisers, media can play a huge role in shaping such a promising sector that can become another added strength toward the growth of the country as a whole.