Industry Overview

Pakistan is f ast becoming the dest ination of choice for a signific ant number of international IT/ITeS companies looking to reloc ate their operat ions offshore. The ready availabilit y of skilled professionals , an appropriate IT infrastr ucture, and affordable rat es for connectivit y result in considerable time and cost-savings for entrepren eurs.

Pakistan's IT industry's global share is estimat ed at U S$2.8 billion. A skilled workforce of 110 ,000 English -speaking IT professionals in th e economy, of which
24,000 are en gaged in exports.

Nearly 1500 companies. Tw o are listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE), 2 o n the National
Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotatio ns (NASDAQ) and 1 on the Dubai International Financial E xchange (DIFX).

Nine STPs offering around 700,000 square feet of IT - enabled office spac e. Seven mult inational companies have 'Develop m ent Centers' in Pakistan. 110 ISO 9001 , 23 CMMi an d 11 ISO 27001 c ertified c ompanies . A strong telecom s ector supports the IT industry's development.

MOBILE, GAMING & ANIMATION INDUSTRY

Mobile, Gamin g & Animat ion Industry Whether it is Babar Ahmed whose M in dstorm Studios created Cricket Revo lution the first PC gam e produced by a Pakistani gaming outfit to sell in ret ail stores internationally an d recently launched the official game of the ICC WorldCu p 2011; brothers Rizwan and Irfan Virk whose GameVie w Studios created the s uccessful Tap franchis e an d was recently ac quired by Japanese social gam ing giant DeNA; Hasan Riz vi whose Pepper.PK made his tory by developin g two top- ranking paid BlackB erry applicat ions at Blac kBerrys AppWorld store; M urad Akhtar who left Stanford and Silicon Valley to form Tintash, dedicated to creatin g innovat ive casual gam es design ed for the iPhone, iPad, and Android platforms; or Umair Javed of TkXeL who prides himself in creat ing not one but two 100% "Made in Pakistan" mobile applications and gamin g companies from a universit y lab in Lahore, Pakistans mobile, gaming, and animation s cene is increasingly a hotbed of a new gen eration of exciting entrepren eurs seeking their fair share in the riches and prosperity of a new age of infotainment, and in the pr ocess makin g a point to the rest of th e world.

With the sunrise of a new year 2012, the animation industry, like other technology based industries, is hop to bring more wizardry. Animation industry is a billion Dollar industry in the world. In Asia,

especially Philippine and Korea are highly preferred countries in animation sector. Now a days India

and Pakistan are growing massively in Asia. Although India is more forward in animation industry and also more expensive then Pakistan industry.On the local front, animation industry in Pakistan may seem be a new expected hotspot of discussion and exploration. Animation is not just the product of Pixar and Walt Disney, now a days they used in television promos and commercials regularly. The industry is found to be around us for long time but not been appreciated. The reason for this is that nearly all the companies when comes too Ad agencies they believe Pakistan is still a country of un-educated people who cant understand the indirect concepts of Ads. There are several animation houses in Pakistan with reputation for providing high quality animation work to large internationally reputed companies. Real example is Pakistans Post Amazer (animated studio) who has already worked on an international project of 3-D animation on the movie Son of Mask. More over Pakistans top class animator Mukeem Khan has also worked on international project of Final Fantasy. Lots of animation and quality post production work has brought Pakistani animated industry at a level where they can easily compete Asian as well as International markets. The animation industry in Pakistan developed swiftly on the potency of high quality institutions whip creative, ingenious, and technically savvy animators. Pakistan is lucky to have training institute like Arena Multimedia which has some high profiled teachers, and many quality students have come out from this institute. Mindstorm Studios, Pepper, TinTash, Tkxel, Systems Ltd. , AniVista subsidiary, Agenci monkhi studios, Numerical studio, apartment complex, Gogi fame, Post Amazers ,GenITeam , Sharp Image and H2O there were only a handful of organizations focused on game or animation development. Explore the animation companies listed by their contents on their portal. Includes the followings span 3D Character Content, Architectural Visualization, TV Commercials, Cartoons, VFX/Asset Development or other specific requirements such as Concept Art/Pre-visualization/Animation, Character design with 3D Sheets or 3DModeling. Last few years media in Pakistan has got a great boom and so the advertising sector too. Pakistan has full potential of fetching precious forex of $1 billion every year through promotion of Animation Industry. The local demand for animation solutions is growing due to the deregulation of media services in Pakistan which has in-turn resulted in an explosion in TV based entertainment. Over 80

TV channels are currently operating in Pakistan, thereby, contributing to the growth of the local animation industry by requiring animation content for advertising, entertainment, children programs etc. For the point of Advertisement, Ding Dong bubble is the famous and first hit of the animated sector. The Ad got famous by the characterization of Cat and Mouse indeed copied from the Tom and Jerry serial but got high perception among childern. Now comes the most famous animated hit by Pakistani animated industry Commander Safeguard, the first animated superhero of Pakistan and the mascot of P&Gs brand Safeguard. Developed by Post Amazers, the hit series started a semirevolution amongst Pakistani kids who just could not get enough of it. After this hit success in Pakistan, series of adapted animated commercial and Ads were created and get exposed to audience. Including HBl Khofia khazana Ad, DinDong bubble Ad, Tiger bubble Ad, Reb bull Ad, Tatra pack Ad, Jam-e-shereen Ad , Ufone Roberry Ad, Chulbuli & Pyari Ad, Jazz Jazbas new animated Ad. Most of the ads are for the confectionery sector of FMCG in Pakistan. But later the concepts were adopted by every sector of industry now the animated Ads become the integral part of advertisement Rush.

DUBAI: Would it make you proud if I told you that the Venom character in the Spiderman III movie was developed and animated by a Pakistani? How does it feel to know that a Pakistani animator worked on Hollywood blockbusters such as X-Men First Class, The Day After Tomorrow, Mummy, The Incredible Hulk, Land of The Lost, Surfs Up and Ghost Rider? How does it feel to know that the same animator won an Oscar in 2008 for working on the winning sequences of The Golden Compass? Feels great, doesnt it? I felt the elation at a whole different level, as I came to know all this through a white man I met at the JFK airport when I was flying from New York to Chicago before Christmas last year. I felt numb with pride when he told me about the exploits of Meer Zafar Ali, a graduate from FAST Karachi, the man who won that Oscar and accomplished the other animation feats mentioned above. Since that eventful chat, I have been gathering the bits and pieces of one of Pakistans most exciting untold stories. Though still in a nascent state if compared to the international market and even neighbouring India, the Pakistani animation industry nonetheless holds great value in itself. It all started with Commander Safeguard. We should all applaud Post Amazers for pioneering an animation lab test for which they will be remembered for in the history of Pakistani animation. That lab test pushed our advertising industry to come up with more local superheroes, such as Lifebuoy Germ Busters, Dettol Warriors and Milkateers, later giving way to Mr Jeem and Baankay Miyaan. And when you talk about Pakistans animation industry, you simply cannot forget mentioning Asim Fida Khan. The maestro has worked on blockbuster Hollywood flicks such as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, G.I Joe, The Tales of Despereaux and Snow White and the Huntsman. To double down on this fact, I would like to couple it with another amazing accomplishment for Pakistan: the Pakistan-based company Trango Interactive, operated by Shehryar Hydari, has made animations for foreign clients like Audi, Nike, Lexus, UPS, Mazda, Hyundai, Sega AND it has made documentaries for the Discovery Channel. It has also made the animations for all BlackBerry ads in Pakistan. Trango Interactives maiden video game, Sherra Jutt, was made for a Pakistani audience. The game inspired musicians like Haroon Rasheed, ex-member of the Awaz band, to step into the animation and game development industry. Haroons upcoming game, Burka Avenger, is in its last phase of packaging and will be launched soon. Another great mention here is a group of talented guys from Islamabad who operate under the name of We R Play. How gratifying is it to have your game selected for publishing by the people behind world-famous games such as Angry Birds and Cut The Rope? These guys did it. We R Plays latest game, Dream Chaser, was published just a few weeks ago by Chillingo, a premier game publisher that is a sister concern of Electronics Arts (EA) and it is doing pretty well.

Another honourable mention is Mind Storm Studios, the game development company that received world recognition for Cricket Revolution. The game was not only rated as having the best game physics at many award ceremonies worldwide, but also received higher ratings than Electronic Arts conventional cricket game. This later resulted in EA Sports bidding for an acquisition of the game, but Mind Storm Studios rejected the deal. I would also like to tell you that this is the same company that made the official video game for the ICC World Cup 2011. And heres a shout-out to a software house in Karachi, Pi Labs, which developed the official iOS-based game for Garfield the cat a few months ago. The app has performed exceptionally well on the AppStore, given a strong marketing impetus to the official Garfield publisher. Another company that has achieved success in developing mobile games is Agnitus a group of talented individuals who make addictive mobile-based learning games for children. And when Pakistani companies like Caramel Tech Solutions work on foreign projects like Fear Factor, MTV Games and HALFBRICK and collaborate with world giants such as DeNa you can only say that for Pakistanis, the sky is the limit. The writer runs a software company in Dubai and a healthcare startup in New York Not many of you may know this, but the title animation sequence that plays before every episode of Game of Thrones, the worlds most-watched TV series these days, has been produced by Hameed Shaukat, a US-born Pakistani. He won an Emmy for Outstanding Main Title Design for the series in 2011, which he shared with teammates Robert Feng, Kirk Shintani and Angus Wall. Get a load of this: Post Amazers set the bar so high with Commander Safeguard that the same animated series was later adapted by Procter and Gamble in other countries, such as Mexico, China, Philippines and Kenya. It is also worth mentioning that the Milkateers series won many short film and animation awards in Singapore and India. Published in The Express Tribune, May 27th, 2013.
Mir Zafar Ali is an award-winning Pakistani movie visual effects specialist and artist. He played a background role in the team that won the Oscar award for best visual effects in 2007, for the movie The Golden Compass. Venom, Spider Man III,