3D Animation: Challenges abound but nimble responses position 3D animators for future - Brief Article

Post, Feb, 2002 by Ann Fisher

To be at the right place at the right time seldom is the result of pure luck. Considering that many 3D animators today are wondering where exactly those places are, Lumentik's story is all the more interesting. A Manhattan newcomer, Lumentik (www.lumentik.com), like others interviewed for this article, faces marketplace challenges and their solution -- applying their talent to an overlooked market -- is ingenious for its timing.

Luminetik is working on a 3D animated television pilot for a network titled Dis-Konnected. DisKonnected is a story about a strong female character named "Alex," who has Matrix-type moves. She is a professional thief who works for government agencies and steals data. Her rival is a ninja thief who hides his identity behind his ninja mask. He steals for entirely different reasons. His identity and motivation are revealed throughout the storyline, making you wonder if he is a good guy or bad guy. The story is surrounded by lots of action, as the two thieves are pursued by military intelligence and police. "We chose to pursue 'longform' content creation for various markets. The potential for merchandising and licensing is a good revenue model and the opportunities are endless," says CEO Kevin Cahill. "Shrek, Monsters, Inc. and Jimmy Neutron broke an animation box office record at $788 million dollars. Shrek has also did another $420 million in video sales. In a slow economy, these movies are making great money. Stories are very important combined with some of the top animation talent -- there is a market there."

The studio's animators work mostly with NewTek LightWave 7 and Alias/Wavefront Maya 3 on IBM NT boxes. Their talent is formidable. This new group hails from other major studios: a visual effects supervisor is from Digital Domain, a character animator from Blue Sky, a visual effects artist from LA's Available Light. A satellite office in Santa Monica houses two Pacific Data Images founders, Nick Isyll and Mike Necci. Cahill's background is architectural animation. They've been working together for two years now but only got into commercial work this past fall. Two TV pilots for animated series are being created in LightWave. The studio has created dozens of 3D animations, using Cycore's Cult 3D, for Hewlett Packard's briefing room, a training center for HP products. Lumentik's goal is to create its own material for different markets, such as gaming or television, though it realizes that commercial work will be the only way to fund that.

Referring to the industry climate, Cahill says, "For the last three months it's been really dry. It's been a challenge. But were not jumping in for the major overhead, we're doing it low overhead and building our profile and reputation that way. If one market goes down we can jump to the other and try and have one cover the other Government jobs -- the good thing about that is once you get into their little realm you stay in their graces."

Luminetik is very excited about David Isyomin, the new director of visual effects, who joins the studio from Digital Domain where he worked on the features True Lies, Apollo 13, Chain Reaction, Dante's Peak and Titanic. Isyomin is also credited with working on the Volkswagen Turbonium spot.

GENERALISTS

Phactory Productions Inc. (www.phactorycom), another New York newcomer, decided to meet industry challenges through promotion of its distinctive attributes. Co-founders Damijan Saccio and Scott Sindorf espied that 3D animation niche in 2000 and jumped in with their "smaller is better" philosophy.

"We figured with our technical expertise and, more importantly, ability to design, we'd open a 3D shop given the fact there aren't a lot of shops that specialize solely in 3D in New York City," they said. They've done spots and promos for Coca-Cola, MTV, cable and other networks. About 80 percent of their work is effects, 20 percent character. In addition to their broadcast design backgrounds, both teach at The School of Visual Arts (NYC) and Renssalaer Polytech Institute in Troy, N.Y.

On a local note, Phactory faced other challenges. The southern border of Manhattan's Ground Zero is where they are located and the business was shut for nearly a month following the 9/11 attacks. Luckily neither employees nor the physical facility was hurt, plus the company had decent insurance.

Phactory has no fat in its facility. There are no Digi Beta decks, no Flame suite. They do all the compositing themselves, using Adobe After Effects and Apple Final Cut Pro. Though Web-based servers are SGI 02 machines, servers are Linux-based and AE runs on Macintoshes, it's primarily an NT-based shop with Boxx Technology workstations running Softimage3D and XSI for 3D applications.

A :30 PlayStation 2 game spot promoting Jack and Dexter ran on Cartoon Network prior to Christmas. Phactory designed and animated it for producers Freestyle Collective. It is character animation in a whole new outerspace world. Sindorf notes, "They needed to do it efficiently. Because we're a smaller shop we were able to do a much better job than anything they've been able to get so far and at a reasonable price.