IT all starts with doodles. Drawing on the margins of notebooks or on freshly painted walls has brought a number of creative Filipinos to paths usually taken by artists.

The digital age, however, has brought doodling to a mass scale and has helped fill up the pockets of these artists-to-be with real cash.

So claims First Academy of Computer Arts (FACA) executive Maria Alyssa Ciel Luy, who said it doesn’t take an expert in computers or drawing to acquire the skills for a career in digital arts.

“We have had students as young as 15 and as old as 68,” said Luy, who owns 5 percent of FACA’s total shares.

Luy spoke to the BusinessMirror just as reports have emerged that several blockbuster cartoon flicks have utilized Filipino talents—like Pixar Studio’s Ricky Nierva—in their productions.

“Digital arts is not recognized as a big industry because natabunan ito ng demand in nursing and call centers,” Luy said at the conference room of the eight-year-old school in Makati City.

FACA is one of three schools in the country that offer skills-training courses in computer arts—art created, displayed and shared using computers and media equipment. The other schools are the Philippine Center for Creative Imaging, which specializes on Apple and Canon technologies; and, the Computer Arts and Technological College, in Legazpi City.

While a few of FACA’s 30 graduates a month take courses merely to pursue a hobby, most are there to develop a serious career in digital arts. “We aim to make our students highly employable and as needed by the industry,” Luy said.

Three years ago, Luy pointed out digital artists accounted for just 1 percent of industry demand for professionals. That’s why, she said, the school owners shaped the course to be career-specific or based on career outputs, e.g., graphic design, especially photo manipulation.

“Any company that needs marketing material and focused on the Internet is a potential employer. Likewise, these are also business opportunities that digital artists can build on after learning the ropes,” she said.

While there’s no industry standard, a Web page designer can receive P10,000 minimum for three pages. Some can charge up to P30,000 per page. In terms of animation, many charge per frame, Luy said.

Likewise, contracts for layout of books or magazines run in hundreds of thousands of pesos, she said.

Luy said the school has a 90-percent batting average in terms of employability of its graduates. “Now, most realize there’s money in having this skill or engaging in their hobby or passion.”

THE potential is far and wide, especially in animation, according to online marketing research firm Research & Markets (R&M).

“The economics of the industry made it feasible for Asia to feed the cartoon world, to the extent that today about 90 percent of all American television animation is produced in Asia,” a report from R&M said.

According to R&M, this has been the product of nearly five decades of trade cycles involving Asia’s animation producers exporting outside the region. “Much of Asia’s animation production since the 1960s has been tied to foreign interests attracted by stable and inexpensive labor supplies,” it said.

“For nearly 40 years, Western studios have established and maintained production facilities, first in Japan, then in South Korea and Taiwan, and now also in the Philippines.”

Other facilities in the region are in Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, India, Indonesia and China, the company added.

The United States and European market remains the major buyers of computer arts entertainment products in the world. The usual procedure is for preproduction (i.e., preparing the script, storyboard, and exposure sheets) to be done in the US or other countries, after which the package is sent to Asia for production—drawing cels, coloring by hand, inking, painting and camera work. The work is then sent back for postproduction—film editing, color timing and sound.

Ironically the same offshoring industry that Luy said pushed the digital arts sector to the background is also its main impetus for development. Sending jobs related to animation offshore “has led to the creating and nurturing of a local industry, as an infrastructure is built up, equipment is put into place, and skills are transferred,” the R&M report said.

“An emerging trend in the Asian animation industry is the increasing focus toward production of local animation content for television as well as production of animated movies.”

Animated

HOWEVER, there remains an exodus of digital artists with the strong pull of Singapore, Dubai and China, Luy admitted.

Even if there’s an outsourcing industry, she said, the lack of a mature local animation industry forces the option of working overseas on many talented Filipino artists.

For example, she said, a minimum wage equivalent to P100,000 can be expected by an artist working in Dubai.

“Yung local demand, wala pa pero andito ang mga artists natin. Likewise, the rate of employment in neighboring countries is almost absent so the logical move would be outside Southeast Asia,” she said.

Still, the demand has been steady enough for schools like FACA to remain in operation.

Last year was a good year for Faca as its income from tuition increased by 165 percent to P3.4 million from just nearly P1.3 million in 2007, according to the school’s financial report to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

However, the school’s net loss also increased by 113 percent to nearly P1.3 million from just P0.607 million in 2007.

The increase can be attributed to a proportional hike in the school’s expenses last year (cost of services, depreciation and amortization, taxes and licenses) by 148 percent to nearly P4.8 million last year from just nearly P2 million in 2007.

The expenses, based on the school’s report to the SEC, are also substantial since the company uses licensed software and equipment.

Such a move could be considered wise since, according to R&M, an increasing number of Asian animation studios are giving importance to owning and protecting animation content by investing in intellectual property protection mechanisms.

FACA’s tuition, hence, is relatively higher for courses that run at a minimum of 20 hours and a maximum of 76 hours.

Professional fees to professors form the bulk of the school’s operating expenses at P2.24 million in 2008 from just under P1 million in the previous year.

Luy said FACA also strictly maintains a small class and a ratio of one teacher to eight students.

So if your son or daughter has been doodling, let him or her be. They may be the future animators of a struggling industry of creative Filipinos.