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| Toonz in “In the Black” magazine, December 2005 issue, Australia |
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| Magazine – IN THE BLACK December 2005 Issue Page 27 Article by Kylie Northover Title Animated discussion Most jobs require employees to engage in some form of teamwork, but few rely as heavily on collaboration – often between hundreds of people working on different sides of the globe – as the animation industry. Animated series such as The Simpsons, or animated feature films, are often the result of a massive team working to the creative vision of just a few. Ensuring the originator’s vision remains intact often requires adherence to strict guidelines. For a designer or animator this often means that technical skills are valued above creative input, at least at the beginning of a career. With the current trend for sophisticated computer-generated effects, animation no longer means merely cartoons. Animation and associated techniques are also used for special effects in non-animated films and television productions. Although still a very young industry, it’s one in which Australians are highly regarded. It’s also one that involves working to someone else’s vision, often on just one aspect of a whole project. Sydney and Adelaide-based outfit Rising Sun Pictures (RSP) is one of Australia’s leading visual effects companies, having created effects for blockbusters such as Lord of the Rings, The Last Samurai and Batman Begins. Rising Sun is currently working on the much-anticipated live action version of Charlotte’s Web being produced by Paramount Pictures. Charlotte’s Web is a major project in which Rising Sun’s digital effects will play an integral role. But, like many in the competitive industry, RSP had to work up to that involvement through sub-contract work that relied less on creative input and more on deadline-driven output. 'It’s taken a few years, but we’ve moved from the point of being sent small sequence work to consulting all the way through production and even providing on-set supervision while the films are being shot,' says James Whitlam, Rising Sun’s head of production. 'Like everyone else, to survive between films we did a lot of commercial work, multimedia and music videos,' Whitlam adds. 'We then began getting called to help out in the final stages of international film productions, often referred to as ‘911 work’ because it’s often emergency work that needs to be turned around quickly. We built our business around the fact that we had a good delivery pipeline and we got a reputation for hitting the brief under pressure. This helped us to quickly leapfrog into being brought on at the beginning of shows to aid in the design as well as the delivery of visual effects.' A lucky break allowed RSP to provide visual effects for the 2000 feature film Red Planet, and from then on, Whitlam says, the company gained a good reputation. 'This industry is so small,' Whitlam explains. 'Even in LA, people think it’s a monolithic blockbuster-creating giant, but it’s really a very small group of people making the decisions as to where the work will land. The whole business is relationship based. We’ve worked hard on a few key projects, people have stuck their necks on the line for us and our team has got some great results. We’ve built a momentum to the point where word of mouth is doing the rest.' It is an industry in which having patience is as important as the ability to work as part of a team. 'We started with discrete shots in local films and then moved on to doing sequence work for some of the US films that were shooting out here,' Whitlam explains. 'And then eventually the opportunities to take leading roles on bigger films presented themselves. 'Now we are doing effects that are integral to the story. In the case of Charlotte’s Web, we’re working on a major character in the film, and it opens up a whole new arena. We have to interpret the director’s vision and direct our animators as you would actors. We’re taking that next step up to actively participate in the telling of the story.' Unlike other creative fields, animators need to first be able to realise someone else’s creative vision to prove themselves. 'What we aim to excel at is the interpretation of someone else’s concept,' Whitlam says. In this game – particularly with digital visual effects – it can also sometimes pay to have your work go unnoticed. 'When we worked on The Last Samurai, we had the job of enhancing a large fight scene between ninjas and samurai,' Whitlam says. 'Our work was invisible; the whole job was to make it look like there weren’t any visual effects in there. You know you’re doing a job well when nobody comments on how bad or how good the effects were!'. Many of the larger, mostly US-based companies outsource much of their work – such as backgrounds – to countries where the overheads and the wages are lower, bringing down the costs involved in multi-million dollar projects. 'What has been a real boom for us over in the US is that a lot of US companies are so big and well established and employ so many people that you end up as what’s termed a ‘specialist model’, where people perform one function of the entire spectrum of visual effects and become very good at that one function,' Whitlam says. 'We offer a more generalist, cross-skilled, team-based model, which is where our clients save money.' For many years now, American TV and film companies have been outsourcing animation work to South Korea and the Philippines, but now India is predicted to be the new outsourcing hub. Although many animated films and TV programs still use traditional animation, which begins with hand-sketched images on paper, the success of movies such as Shrek and Toy Story have meant many productions are increasingly being digitally animated, produced entirely on computers. This is a boon for India, given the country’s wealth of expertise in software and computer skills. India has a history of animation dating to the 60s, but it was mainly relegated to public service advertisements. The commercial potential began to be explored in the 1990s, when the outsourcing boom picked up. One of India’s rapidly growing studios, Toonz Animation India, founded just six years ago, is at the forefront of this boom, taking on outsourced work from companies based abroad. Toonz began life as a traditional animation studio, but has since embraced 3D technology. 'We believe in strengthening our cross-functional skill sets,' Toonz CEO P. Jayakumar says. 'We have created a system where all the production hassles involved in a long-distance client relationship can be resolved. Toonz has worked with clients in the US, UK, France, Canada, Israel, Japan and Korea, among others. Since Indian artists are familiar with both western and eastern forms of storytelling, projects rarely encounter a hitch.' But there’s still the complication of working on a project created – and creatively dictated – on the other side of the world. With most of their contract productions, Toonz Animation’s clients present works where most of the pre-production work (script and story boards) has been completed, and then animation, backgrounds and post-production are completed in India. 'In addition to those types of work-for-hire projects, we also engage in co-production deals,' Jayakumar explains. 'This allows us to put our creative inputs at the pre-production stage. We are also creating our own library of original films and TV series and a couple of such projects have already hit the production floor.' Jayakumar is also keen to stress that their outsourcing work is not seen as a production-line scenario. 'Unlike the method of outsourcing used in other industries, particularly call centres, a normal outsourced animation project can involve a fair amount of creativity for the artists working on it,' he says. Toonz may be bringing in outsourced work but, unlike other Asian companies before it, Jayakumar says it is working towards original animation as well, an area that he believes is growing in India. 'We were the first to pioneer original animation programming in India and we intend to carry that forward,' he says. 'But right now, co-production and work-for-hire projects bring in a large chunk of our revenues.' The audience for animation is picking up, as evidenced by the surge of television channels such as Disney, Nickelodeon, Animax and Pogo setting up shop in India. Given the popularity of high-tech animated films, it seems that outsourcing will remain an integral part of the animation industry, at least for the larger companies. But smaller companies such as Rising Sun are not deterred. 'There is a vast amount of talent building in regions such as India,' Rising Sun’s Whitlam says. 'However, the kind of work being outsourced to companies like Rising Sun means we are not in direct competition. We will continue to handcraft visual effects for our clients and provide an intimate experience from design all the way to delivery of characters and whatever other amazing visual effects challenges the storytellers can concoct.' What businesses can learn from animators Excellence is rewarded 'We built our business around the fact that we had a good delivery pipeline, and we got a reputation for hitting the brief under pressure.' James Whitlam. Pick your lowest hanging fruit 'We were the first to pioneer original animation programming in India and we intend to carry that forward. But right now, co-production and work-for-hire projects bring in a large chunk of our revenues.' P. Jayakumar. Building relationships can create opportunities 'We’ve worked hard on a few key projects, people have stuck their necks on the line for us and our team has got some great results. We’ve built a momentum to the point where word of mouth is doing the rest.' James Whitlam. Cross-cultural understanding is crucial in a global marketplace Since Indian artists are familiar with both western and eastern forms of storytelling, projects rarely encounter a hitch.' P. Jayakumar. Reference: December 2005, volume 75:11, p. 26 |
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