Quote (that I completely agree with):
“Production standards are generally lower in India, and many moviemakers still won’t send creative work thousands of miles (kilometers) away.”
good luck 
“outsourcing”… We don’t learn, don’t we?
Maybe, but the more experience they get the better they will become.
There’s nothing inherently better about work done in more expensive countries. Ultimately the only difference is they are more expensive. Language can be a barrier but with everyone growing up in the internet age it will matter less and less as time goes by.
Sadly all of these comments above are true.
I have spent a good bit of time all around the world in my life during my time in the Corps and would always strive to learn the language of the host country when visiting.
I know there is not a direct correlation, but somehow it feels connected … it amazes me that all over the world the countries that strive to improve their communications skills with us continue to increase their market share while we are striving to distance ourselves from our own language through ridiculous guilt-ridden, self-punishing political correctness.
One example was a few years ago a leading US college banned the use of the word “banana” on campus for fear that some might be offended. What blather. Well, we reap what we sow …
I posted the link not as a comment on the other countries. I say good for them for doing what they are doing. That’s really the “American Way”, to create something just as good or better for a lower price. It’s what made us great. It should just be a wake up call for Americans that we can’t just assume that those jobs will always be there, that only manufacturing jobs are being sent overseas, and that we can sit on our asses and coast through life. We need to do what our Grandparents did after WWII…work our asses off, create the best we can possibly create, and set the bar for everyone else. The term “Cadillac” used to be used to describe the best of something. They called the WWII fighter planes the “Cadillac of the skies”. Has Honda taken that throne away from us? This country is made up of people from every corner of the world and that’s what makes it great. We need to stop hyphenated ourselves as African-Americans, Italian-Americans, etc. and just be American. We’re all just trying to pay our bills, give our kids a happy life, and have enough money left over to buy a cold six-pack, our kids some ice cream, and maybe go on a little vacation with our loved ones once in a while. We’re really not all that different from each other. If we all just stopped fighting, stopped trying to keep up with the Jones’s next door, and focussed on doing the best in our work and personal lives think of how great American could be again. We let the greedy run our corporations and government for too long and look where that got us. What happened to that 60’s generation that was going to be different and change the world? We need to get back on track.
Ok, rant over…
Wow - great to see another creative with my mindset:). I was quite the oddity in college as I went to college after my Marine Corps career and was twice the age of my peers for the most part so my philosophical approach to life in general much different to say the least.
I agree about our grandparents … although it is my parents as I am a bit older and my father served in WWII rather and my grand parents served in WWI.
I believe the part of the problem does stem from this “PC” movement.
When we moved away from being a melting pot where all cultures from all over the world came here and blended into a unique culture that had roots all over the world we lost our edge. We are no longer a melting pot, but rather a multicultural society which is oxymoron for sure as no multicultural society has ever survived for long … if they do not blend there will always be one that dominates the others.
A modern example of this is what is occurring in Europe where the people that are coming to those countries are not joining a culture and adding to it, but rather demanding that the culture conform to their desires … Europe will not exist as we know it for much longer … their birth rate will not sustain it. Our own birthrate is teetering on the brink as the birth rate of those demanding we change to accommodate them is far outdistancing ours and history has proven that with a birthrate below a certain level a society will NOT survive.
It seems that it does not matter if we win everyone around us to our way of thinking because if they outdistance our birthrate it is all a mute point over the long haul:(. The birthrate issue is more serious than most will admit as that is what has determined the direction of cultures throughout history.
I cannot say “rant over”, but rather “rant paused” …
It’s all good and healthy.
and for those that don’t like it - they can go move their overvalued ass to India if they want some of the action. 
First of all, I agree that the competition is healthy for the industry and for the consumer in general. Totally.
I am just saddened by the move of our culture in general that has led us to where we find ourselves today.
Outsourcing belongs to no-one.
It is just a cost-cutting measure and nothing else.
These days even products from China have started to overshadow Indian market, but this does not mean that we go and start complaining.
There are several jobs which are being outsourced to China and other locations from India.
The only reason is COST and nothing else. Businesses will go ahead with the one who can provide them good service at lowest cost possible. small_orange_diamond
Don’t forget, that “cost” also includes the price of environmental standards and labor. China can dump whatever amount of mercury into the water (just as an example) or pay their workers slave wages and make them work long hours with no benefits. U.S. companies should be ashamed of themselves for choosing money over human rights and the environment. I also don’t think it’s right that companies like Google and Yahoo are filtering things from these countries, like liberty, democracy, and anything else they deem appropriate. We should tell them to get screwed.
I have yet to speak to a company that is happy with cheap outsourcing. Its not only language, but work ethics, poor experience, training and difficulties chasing up legal issues when things go south. The consensus seems to be you need to dedicate staff to be on location, which jacks up the price.
One problem with India, and its hardly their fault, is that its not a games playing culture- so its hard to say things like ‘oh, remember the look of Speedball2’- they wont have seen it- very few people have consoles now in comparison to the west or other parts of asia. Over the years this will change, and improve.
Another interesting comment on director said to me - and I havent confirmed this myself, was that he found there are cultural barriers to animation styles. He said emotive gestures are not seen in indian films outside the dance numbers- they tend to keep very stiff and still - although good for screen presence- its not good for building a western fluid gestural animation style. He had to really train artists to animate this way with acting classes. Interesting thoughts- anyone had experience of this?
I myself am happy, I get a lot of work from games companies needing substandard outsourced stuff fixed up. (if you need this done, by the way, my sites www.daveking.com.au ) 
Oh, the other thing is the negative impact on full time staff at your studio.
It can be demoralising to artists to have to deal with shoddy outsourced stuff. Good artists end up just cleaning up crud, get bored and move on.
Its hard enough finding good experienced artists now, in a few years outsourcing may have kicked out the bottom rungs of the ladder for western artists trying to break in. This would have a ripple effect over the years.
This not a new development, animation companies have always outsourced beginning in the 80’s. But really as the tools for the individual get stronger I believe we will see a lot more independent animations happening soon, so things may get very different on the animation front. I hope.
Amen on the tools front. Fortunately we have independent developers like Pixelogic upping the stakes.
It worries me how little dev is going into making our major tools slick and easy to use. The better they are, the more we can get done and the cheaper it is to do things.
I think you underestimate the amount of work being put into those tools. The market is small and the profits have to be allocated wisely. I am actually surprised how much development takes place. It’s usually beyond compensation what I see.
Constant OS changes, market shifts, fierce competition, massive amounts of illegal copies, together with a very finite client base are putting a lot of pressure onto the tool smith in this business.
Lemo
Gotta disagree with you there- if you examine the development curve of the applications tools over the last ten years to their modern releases, then compare it to speed of development for several of the new tools coming onto the market - you can see tools dev has taken a massive nosedive. Many new features are just sneaking features from other apps slowly into the pipe.
Especially once you take into consideration applications drawing in externally developed plug-ins as ‘new features’.
Now take Zbrush releases - each add a wide range of developed tools that make artists lives easier in fresh ways. How inspired was posing, for example?
Soon alot more CGI work will be done in china and india. When ever companies can do it cheaper they will.
Well all slaves on this planet to work like bitch to just be ****ed up the ass and ****ed off, if someone can do it cheaper for close to same quality they will do it.
Since most of our **** is made in china why not cg work ???
Well, before you shoot yourself, consider this. Sure, plastics is one thing- but infotech and creative skills are another.
A country gets lots of money making cheap ****e. They invest in better training, plus experience makes for a skilled workforce. The economy rises, people start demanding better working conditions and luxury items. Costs rise, and internal markets open up- meaning india would start making CG for india, as well. Which means opportunities in the west.
In a country will poor human rights standards (as it is with some CG companies ), such as china, really skilled people tend to jump ship as soon as they can and head west. This puts them into the western price bracket and scrapes the cream off that countries skill base.
Its a bit like watching a lava lamp really.
The most important thing right now is to keep ahead of the game.
Third world countries will stay 3rd world aslong as America is around to keep it that way.
The U.S are the death of the world and their greed will cause it to get worse.
In all realistic perspective, would could live just fine without America, but would could never live without China or India creating essential things that keep us living day to day.