Animation: the big picture

THE roll call of films featuring the work of Australian animators gets more impressive by the year.

Simon Robson

THE roll call of films featuring the work of Australian animators gets more impressive by the year.

While the penguins in Happy Feet and the old man in Harvie Krumpet are perhaps some of our best-known animation exports, our artistic talent is also being recognised in areas such as digital games and children's television. On the back of such success, the stocks of Australian studios such as Animal Logic, Dr D and Rising Sun Pictures continue to soar.

So, too, do the job prospects of Australian animators who can work in diverse areas, including film, television, commercials, cartoons and games.

Suzanne Ryan is chief executive of SLR Productions, an Emmy Award-winning children's entertainment company based in Sydney that is known for its animation. She says demand for creative artists in this space means they are being snapped up before even finishing their courses.

"Yes, it is booming," Ryan says, adding that the industry is not an overnight success story. Animation and computer-generated imagery expertise has been built up in Australia over many years.

"So there's always going to be a time when you are [in the] limelight," she says. "We're very experienced in this country and people recognise that worldwide, and as each year and each new film or each new release happens in television or feature, there is more of a focus on Australia."

Markets such as the US and Europe are traditional strongholds for animation, but Ryan believes there is increasing scope for Australian artists on the back of strong government support for the film and TV sector, and high levels of industry training.

"On top of that there's a price point where we can compete with the rest of the world," she says.

Ryan says animation offers a diverse range of career opportunities, including art, colour styling, character development, writing, storyboard art, music, sound design, film editing and production management.

"You've also got the real grunt end of post-production and the people who are grading the film or adding special effects. All of those processes still require people to draw by hand and pencil."

Then there are the directors, who are "visual storytellers".

"They're the people with the big-picture vision who are seeing it from the start to the end," Ryan says.

Lachlan Creagh, founder of Lach-Land Creative Studios, is an animator who for many years focused on work for the computer games industry. He has created concepts and illustrations for games in PC, Xbox and PlayStation formats, and produced animation for commercials and theme parks.

With greater access to advanced animation software tools, he believes it is opening up the sector to more and more people. At the same time, some roles are becoming increasingly specialised. Whereas he once may have worked on modelling, texturing, animation and drawing during a single project, Creagh notes that he recently read a job advertisement for an artist whose role involved grooming the digital fur of some animated characters.

"So that's an extreme end of a specialisation," he says.

That concentration is also occurring in the games area courtesy of formats such as Facebook and the iPad, with specific games being developed for them.

"It's a bit of a gold rush sort of thing. You either find the catchy, gimmicky game thing that floats at the top of the list [or it fails]."

For people wanting to break into the industry, Creagh says skill and talent remains the ultimate differentiator. While there are many colleges and schools teaching animation, he urges students to observe the world and create their own art.

A raft of animation courses across the country offer tuition in popular areas such as 3-D animation, computer graphic animation, cartoon animation and flash animation.

At SLR Productions, Ryan has made her name through projects such as picture-book turned preschool show Guess How Much I Love You and acclaimed animation series The DaVincibles.

For her, the job is a creative process of bringing things to life.

"You get immersed in a world where it seems like it's real, but you know it's all drawn, it's fantastical, and there's something magical about that," she says. "I think that to me is what I really love about it."

Ryan warns budding animators, though, that it is a demanding artistic role.

"It's a lot of hard work. Don't forget, for television [you have to do] 24 drawings a second."

There are clearly career opportunities for hard-working and talented young artists with an interest in animation, according to Ryan. "Jobs sometimes come through word of mouth, or it's about having a certain skill that's required at a certain time. So it's all about timing, but you're only as good as the last job you did."

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Case study
GRAPHIC TALE OF ANIMATOR WHO FOUND HIS CALLING
SIMON Robson took a meandering path on the journey to becoming an animator.

Formerly a guitarist with dreams of chart success who also studied French and political science, the England-raised activist and artisan admits to lacking career direction as a younger man.

"I was on a fast road to nowhere," says Robson, now creative director of Sydney-based company Engine, which is known for its work on television commercials, broadcast graphics and visual effects.

Switching from music to programming and then computer-based work while in London in the mid-1990s, Robson decided to enrol in a digital media course. "I just decided almost on the spur of the moment to do something different."

He quickly discovered a passion for animation, especially sequential graphics, which are used in formats such as movies, television, advertising and commercials, and encompass everything from computer games and 3-D modelling to special effects and Flash animation.

"For me it was the chance to make graphics move," he says. "It brought graphic design to life."

Robson combines his work with a long-term passion for political activism. It has not always been easy: he recalls his early days as a novice designer working on a project that encouraged people to smoke.

"As a junior designer I was trying to solve all the problems of how to make this animation work as opposed to thinking, 'Oh my god, what I've done is really bad morally."

Later, working with greater freedom as a freelancer and then with commercial animation companies, Robson has collaborated on projects such as The Coalition of the Willing (an animated environmental film which has won critical acclaim), What Barry Says (a short film in response to the US invasion of Iraq, combining 2-D and 3-D animation with a motion-typographic aesthetic, that won best animation at the Brooklyn International Film Festival); and Taking Liberties, a BAFTA-nominated project he worked on with acclaimed British documentary-maker Chris Atkins that addresses the decline of civil liberties in Britain.

He says his role has switched from pure animation to an overseeing role in which he is responsible for design, concept development, storyboarding and pitching of projects.

For those wanting to succeed in animation, Robson has no doubt that enthusiasm is the key requirement.

"Be very passionate about it. Don't do it if you think it's a cool thing and you have no real interest in it. Don't do it if you think it's going to make you a lot of money."
Cameron Cooper