Computer animators strut their stuff

It created a space shuttle in "Apollo 13" and made a slam-dunking monster out of Charles Barkley for Nike. It's computer animation, and Bay Area companies are setting the pace on this front of the digital revolution.

Four such companies presented their latest work Friday in SF State's Knuth Hall for an ASIFA-SF Bay Area Animation Association presentation, "The State of the Animation Industry."

Computer animation involves manipulating 3-D models to create, among other things, characters, virtual sets and most recently an entire feature film. It's a fast-growing trend in movie making, according to John Wright, president of Viewpoint DataLabs, a 3-D model developer.

Friday's audience, spilling out into the aisles at times, was shown clips from computer-animated movies like "Casper" and sneak previews of "The Simpsons' Halloween Special" and Walt Disney's "Toy Story."

"Toy Story," the first completely computer-animated feature, was pitched by the animation company Pixar to Disney four years ago, according to Technical Director Tom Porter. The project was started in 1993 and finished about six weeks ago, for release later this year.

An old toy's fear of being ignored once a new, shiny one comes along is the story line. Tom Hanks does the voice for the lead, a cowboy who battles to keep his prominence in the toybox and his owner's heart.

Animator Ashley Brannon said Pixar wanted to break the mold with the film.

"We wanted to get away from the type of films Disney has been doing, that type of formula," he said.

David Tart graduated from SF State's School of Creative Arts in 1993, and worked as an animator on the movie. He said the making of computer-animated features won't stop with Disney's film.

"I think there's going to be a lot more films like this made, because they're relatively inexpensive and you don't have to pay the talent, " he said.

The organizer of the event, Marty McNamara, teaches SF State extension courses in computer and live animation. He said many animation students are recruited out of SF State after their first year of upper-division study.

"The schools just can't turn out enough. Most commercial companies need people who can draw. You don't have to take expensive computer labs to be a good animator.

Tim Johnson of Pacific Data Images was the animation director for the 3-D segment of "The Simpsons." He started his discussion with the audience reading cue cards that said, "The computer is Satan." Although computers make some things easier, he said they tempt artists to depend on them for inspiration.

"If you don't have an idea before you sit down at the computer, the computer will suggest to you what you should do, instead of you using the computer to create your idea," he said.

Industrial Light & Magic animators Trish Shultz, Ken King, Miguel Fuertes and Linda Bel showed their work on the movie "Casper." The movie took three years to complete and contained 350 computer graphic shots, said Fuertes.

Shultz said shots with live actors and animation are created by shooting a background plate with the actor and the set. A reference plate is then shot with a model of the animated character. Finally, the character is inserted. It may sound simple, but one minute-long scene took 5 months to complete, not including shooting the live actress.

Animators work with technicians to create the tools for projects. Technicians program specialized computer software, like a ghost-shader used in "Casper" to create his transparent to opaque-white look, said King.

However, most animators don't go completely digital.

"What we're doing a lot of the time is making drawings first of what we want," Fuertes said.

Also included in the forum was Ed Bell, a project director for Colossal Pictures, which created commercials for Starbucks Coffee, Nike, Coke, Levi's, "Tank Girl" and the grisly animated clips in Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers."

Even though the field of animation is booming worldwide, McNamara said depleting funding for the arts in the United States is one reason people are unfamiliar with non-commercial animation work.

"There is an enormous world of animation, wonderful films, that people never see because they're made by independent artists." he said. "Many of those artists get absorbed into the commercial industry. Usually there's a direct correlation between government support and the quality of animation."

[ Golden Gater Online October 24, 1995 ]

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