Jilin province, whose animation business output showed immense growth in 2010, could turn itself into a training and research center for China's animation industry, the head of an animation group there remarked recently.

The output value of Jilin's animation industry was 6.2 billion yuan ($1 billion) in 2010, a 30 percent year-on-year increase, said Yang Zhouxian, executive director and deputy general manager of the Jilin Animation Comic and Games Group.

The group began a 60-million-yuan technology construction project - the Public Technology Platform for Jilin Comics and Animations - in 2010, to help develop the animation business in Jilin.

The first-phase, which involved 10 animation technology centers and 10 animation service centers, has been completed.

At the same time, the Jilin Original Animation Park and the Changchun Zhihe International Animation Industrial Park, in the capital of Jilin, are now ready to accommodate any animation companies that are ready to go.

The Jilin project has put it out ahead in China in the area of advanced equipment, technology, and research, in the field. Its motion-capturing studio is China's most advanced and the parks' companies use the facilities there for free or at a minimal cost.

Yang explained that his ambitious project has got help from the country's animation industry policies which have lead to a surge in both production and revenues.

China produced 385 animated films in 2010, a 28-percent increase from 2009. The industry also earned more than 500 million yuan from exports in 2010, a 60-percent year-on-year increase, according to the State Radio, Film and Television Administration.

Yang is optimistic and it is easy to see why: "China's animation industry is flourishing, but still has a lot of potential. The domestic cartoon market is enormous. You know, China has more than 370 million people below the age of 16, the primary consumer segment."

The project has had some "remarkable achievements" in innovation and professional training, Yang added, and is providing technology services to more than 40 animation companies in and out of Jilin province and training for nearly 1,000 people.

More than 10 cartoons were created through technological support from the project.

Some, such as Shaolin Haibao, appeared on CCTV and the 4-D cartoon, My Fellow Villagers, was acclaimed at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. It has also published more than 150 cartoon books, including the Three Character Classic, The Monkey King Havoc in Heaven, and China's Twelve Zodiac Signs.

To increase their service capacity, the Jilin Animation Comic and Games Group plans to put 180 million yuan into the second phase of the project over the next three to five years. When it is completed, the new public technology project will have an extra 100,000 square meters of space to grow into.

(China Daily 11/16/2011 page15)