 Image Infotainment Ltd, one of India's premier digital media companies, announced the launch of India's first digital media college - Image College of Arts, Animation and Technology (ICAT) in Chennai on June 28. Tamil Nadu IT secretary
Vivek Harinarain digitally unveiled the college's emblem.
Speaking on the occasion, Vivek Harinarain said the state offered the best in the animation and special effects industry, on a par with the best in the world, and every effort should be made to promote this segment of the industry. He said the ICAT organisers should think in terms of setting up a major digital media institute on Old
Mamallapuram Road so as to benefit the IT sector and make the IT corridor complete.
 Madhusudhanan, national award winner for visual effects for Hindi film 'Abhay'
(Aalavandhan in Tamil) and one of the visual effects producers who worked in Hollywood's computer graphics blockbuster
'Lord of the Rings' which won several
Oscars this year for best visual effects, said such a college was necessary to produce animation specialists badly required by the film industry. The rising demand for high-quality professionals trained in the "right technologies" is currently the industry's biggest challenge and ICAT is a positive step, he said, adding that excellent employment opportuntiies awaited its products.
ICAT, located in Santhome, Chennai, is promoted and managed by Image Infotainment Ltd. The Institute of Multimedia Arts and Graphic Effects (Image) has been actively engaged in multimedia training since 1996 from which nearly 10,000 students have passed out so far, said K Kumar, chief executive officer of the college.
 ICAT is a speciality digital media college established to serve the unique demands of the digital media industry. He added that India is strongly positioning itself as a significant provider of digital media production services and already the animation production by Indian producers is expected to touch $ 1.5 billion by 2005.
ICAT currently offers full-time postgraduate programmes in 3D animation, visual effects and game development with an intake of 30 students per session and two sessions (day and evening) in a day. Each programme consists of 1450 hours of training on an intensive curriculum especially designed with the right mix of basic art skill and IT competency and formulated by a team of intemational and Indian academicians and professionals, said V Natarajan, chief academic officer of
ICAT.
The curriculum covers basic art skills, graphic designing, storyboarding, scriptwriting, cinematography, direction and other electives. Complete programme details are available at
www.icat.ac.in
 To attract the best candidates for the programme, admission to the programme is through an entrance test to be followed by a personal interview. The entry level requirement for 3D animation and visual effects is graduates with 50 per cent aggregate and B.E., M.C.A, M.Sc (with maths and physics) graduates for game development, Natarajan added.
ICAT's guest lecturer/visiting faculty for this year include professors from leading academic institution such as IIT, Film and TV Institute, College of Arts, Loyola College (VisCom), Maryland University (US), Liverpool University (UK) and prominent professionals from film, television, advertising, gaming, visual effects and the animation industry.
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