BEIJING - Zhang Heng doesn't think it's burdensome to work overtime. He enjoys the time in his office every night when his colleagues have left.

"It's only when the whole office has turned quiet that am I able to concentrate on my creative work," he said.

As an animation director, Zhang is responsible for a series of tasks related to the development and production of animated cartoons. Among his works, the Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf series may be the most popular. Its fourth film, Mission Incredible: Adventures on the Dragon's Trail, was released nationwide on Jan 12.

Zhang showed his love for painting in childhood and has persisted in pursuing his dreams. He has worked for Guangzhou-based Creative Power Entertaining since 2003, when he graduated from vocational school with a major in computer software engineering.

Flurry of training growth

The boom in the animation industry boosted the demand for talented people, which in turn led to a boom in training options. Increased enrollment at animation institutes and training centers propelled academic institutes and private centers to speed the establishment of related disciplines or courses.

The number of colleges that set up undergraduate animation majors surged from eight in 2001 to 286 in 2010, according to the government report on China Animation Education Development. The total would be much higher if private training schools were included.

Communication University of China, which founded its animation school in 2001, has one of the oldest Chinese institutes of animation, digital media art and game design.

"The number of applicants reaches 3,000 to 4,000 every year, but we only admit 80 as undergraduates," said Gao Weihua, director of the animation department.

She said the employment rate for graduates reaches nearly 99 percent every year, with most of the jobs at animation production companies, television stations and advertising agencies.

"About 10 percent of our graduates choose to develop their own business from scratch, and some of them are doing well," Gao said.

The quality of training varies widely, however, which means job placement does too.

Zhao Junying, who teaches at an animation school in Shenyang, Liaoning province, said many schools lack the necessary equipment and some teachers don't provide sufficiently detailed information.

Zhao also said some students are not patient enough to finish a term, assuming - wrongly - that their skills are good enough to get them a job offer.

"Despite the prosperous development of animation education during these years, there exists a problem I would refer to as an imbalance of professional skills," Gao said.

But animation companies and studios maintain a voracious appetite for talented employees.

"We've been suffering a shortage of talent all the time, not just after our Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf series became popular," said Wu Dun, public relations director of Creative Power Entertaining.

"The animation graduates we employ are not qualified to begin work immediately," said Zheng Fei, marketing director and assistant to the CEO of Xing Xing Digital Corp, an animation and special effects company in Beijing. "They all have to spend some time on an internship or in our training bases before officially taking up their jobs."

Xing Xing has hired foreign animation masters to offer regular training to its employees.

Learning, working hard

Zhang Heng spent five years moving from a basic animator to an animation director, and he said he studied all along the way. He works hard to absorb new information and ideas from work, from professional lectures and exhibitions, and from children.

"I think that the talented people our company needs are those with a combination of basic aesthetic knowledge, a well-developed understanding of cartoons and a strong devotion to the industry," Zhang said.

For those who entered the industry anticipating big money, the road ahead is not smooth and they might not make it to the point of getting munificent salaries.

"The monthly pay of animation employees varies between 2,000 yuan and 20,000 yuan based on their skills and experience," Zheng from Xing Xing said.

And the production process of animated cartoons and films is rather boring. Zhang said practitioners have to make great efforts before claiming achievements, but love for the work will be the biggest impetus.