Rewind 2022: AVGC will thrive stronger with virtual production and metaverse

Authored by CB Arun Kumar, Academic Director, EDGE Metaversity.

The Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, and Comics (AVGC) industry is currently thriving in India witnessing one of the world's fastest growth rates. According to the KPMG 2021 report, the number of gamers in India has risen to over 400 million from 250 million in 2018-19. This incredible growth has created massive opportunities as new sources of value in the AVGC Industry have been unlocked.

2022 for the AVGC sector 

The AVGC sector is making significant progress, already contributing significantly to India's multi-trillion dollar economy. The sector saw immense growth with technological adoption as is, but it witnessed steep uptake with the onset of the pandemic.

There has been a rapid evolution in the tools and technologies used to create content in the AVGC sector, with many companies developing new software and hardware to streamline the production process and improve the quality of the final product. These tools will likely continue to evolve in the coming years as companies seek to create more sophisticated and immersive content.

Streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube have become popular destinations for watching gaming content, with many streamers building large followings by broadcasting their gameplay and offering commentary. This trend is likely to continue as streaming platforms provide a convenient way for gamers to share their experiences and connect with others.

Another trend in the space is combining AR, VR, and AI. The Metaverse is a profoundly immersive virtual space with high-quality 3D interactive virtual environments such as offices, schools, and clubs that make online life look and feel like a AAA Game in high settings, bringing about sweeping changes in our digital existence. The Metaverse shapes and designs virtual environments and populates digital avatars of real selves that will work and play in the virtual world. In game design and visual effects, the world-building process is currently typical, where extensive and realistic environments are created.

Expectations in 2023 for the AVGC sector

An emerging trend that has exploded recently is virtual production. Films and entertainment shows as recent as ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’, ‘The Mandalorian’, ‘Westworld’, and ‘The Midnight Sky’ have used it effectively to create more visually immersive experiences. In fact, ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ and ‘The Midnight Sky’ are recent examples of films that have made use of real-time technology, which is the cornerstone of virtual production. Processes that would typically happen sequentially and separately can now happen simultaneously thanks to Unreal Engine, the most open and sophisticated real-time 3D creation software available today. International animation technology like Unreal Engine will provide the next generation of animators—neo-digital multimedia artists who aren't afraid to push boundaries, unleash new ideas and do things as they've never been done before—with a complete set of development tools.

In addition, addressing the skill gap in the AVGC sector is pertinent. We can effectively train our youth in tomorrow's creative technologies and bridge the current skill gap in the AVGC sector. In that case, India can become a force to be reckoned with in the International Digital Content Creation space, surpassing countries like China and powering another revolution, similar to the IT revolution of the 1990s, which helped power India's current dominance in the world. It is estimated that if India can capture a 20-25% share of the global VFX and animation market by 2025, it will be able to generate 75,000-120000 jobs by 2025.