At one point, I had become pretty chummy and well connected with various clients and ad agencies, and the opportunity arose for me to direct and produce a couple of television commercials with out the "studio" being involved. No receptionist, no 'PR' guy, no cleaning crew, no huge electrical bills or rental for a fancy space, no lawyers, no "producer" no financial "managers," no fancy boardroom furniture necessary. In fact, I animated one television commercial using a peg bar taped to a window on an old-fashioned wooden window frame, held up on my knees over an incandescent lamp. This was a pretty good arrangement actually, seeing as how it was as cold as hell in my Montreal apartment, and the lamp kept me warmer than the cranky old heating system could.

What was most intriguing to me about that directing and producing experience, was the fact that making an animated commercial wasn't nearly as expensive as every one made it out to be. What was expensive was all the overhead and the various costs of running a studio, not to mention all the schmoozing and long high-class lunches, drinks, etc. that the studio hotshots loved to indulge in. But for me to find enough paper, the right drawing tools, some cels and cel paint (easily concocted from common latex house paint and dyes), some leftover dope sheets, maybe a couple of animators or assistants to help me and, finally, an Oxberry camera stand to shoot the thing on, well, it didn't cost very much at all!

After everyone was paid and went home, I found myself with quite a lot of leftover cash from the original budget of these films. A great deal actually, and I was stunned at how easy it was. Thankfully, I didn't get any big ideas and start up my own animation company at the time, although it was tempting. But, alas, I am not a businessman by any stretch of the imagination, and, even if I was, I would probably have just ended up with the fancy building, the fancy entrance, the receptionist, the 'PR' guy, the producers, the accountants, all the overhead and accompanying headaches and ulcers as well.

So I learned a very valuable lesson. The same lesson I had learned scratching on unexposed film stock back in my school daze. Animation doesn't have to be expensive! Ah, I can hear my beloved colleagues now, sighing as they read this. Chuckling at my naïveté, my charming misunderstanding of how the animation business really works. But don't worry friends, I worked on Disney's Tarzan and a half dozen other Disney films too, remember? Believe me, I know how the money goes, and where it goes too! Feature film after feature film, I have watched awestruck, as countless millions upon millions of dollars went the way of the dodo bird. And in the television animation business, good Lord, how well they spend money! All the marketing, and the, and the... damn, it boggles the mind. Animation is BIG BUSINESS, after all.

And then there's the Bill Plymptons of the world. Food for thought. And legions of animators all around the globe making captivating animated films on shoestring budgets.

Yes, it is possible, and it always has been possible to make beautiful films for very little money. And now, maybe more than ever.

We all know the digital breakthroughs of the past two decades have brought us to the point where an animation artist can make a pretty amazing and sophisticated film on little more than a single laptop computer. If said artist prefers to draw on paper, cheap scanners and free composting shareware can make your classical animation projects spring to life.

Once the initial expense of the computing power is out of the way, (and even that is getting pretty damned cheap), the only real cost is time, food and then, of course, the post-production costs. But if one wants to distribute their work on the Internet, the existing computer can take care of the whole post-production shebang! Sound, editing, formatting, all of it is a click away... piece of cake!

Shots from Gilland's recent homemade animated short.

A year ago, I was still profoundly allergic to Macromedia's Flash program. Just the mere mention of it had me breaking out in fits of itchy discomfort, images of frightfully bad and tasteless Flash animation viewed on the Internet dancing in my head like really disturbing nightmares. But, go figure. Recently, I have put together a couple of my own little animation shorts, combining hand-drawn animation with Flash's ass-backwards and awkward animation capabilities. Complete with soundtracks created entirely at home, digitally, with sound quality that would embarrass a full-blown sound recording studio from the eighties. I am far from being a computer savvy guy! Sure, I get by, I poke and prod, and I find my way. It is fun, it is a challenge and it is really exciting.

And now I have finally returned to where I started, when I was drawing directly on film back in the seventies. I can create animation quickly, spontaneously, on the fly and see the results quickly, with sound, and you know what? It's magic! Just like it was then. And I haven't even scratched the surface. I've got a couple of digital cameras, lots of paper, I still have my trusty animation table, drafting equipment and a wide assortment of capable software. Hell, for my son's history project back last June, we threw together a miniature movie set and a couple of clay characters, and shot a short stop-motion film, using a mini DV camera, and some free software for capturing frames at 24 frames a second, instantly converted to a QuickTime movie. Hot damn! It was SO easy. And it looked good too. Amazing!

All this to say, homespun animation is back, it never really left and now it is better than ever. Hey, if you want to get a job in a really big studio, and play with the big shots, have at it. Be my guest. It's all good. It's fun too, but remember, at least half of the money spent producing a $100 million cartoon is not spent on actually making a cartoon. It is devoured by countless people who supposedly facilitate the making of cartoons, or something like that. (I feign ignorance, heh, heh!) Billions of dollars on through the ages, spent by people who don't actually "make" animated films, but are somehow inexorably drawn to its allure, or maybe, its money? Whatever.

The bottom line is, if you love to make animated films, make them! Make them whether that pie in the sky studio loves your portfolio and hires you or not. Make them because you can. Make them simply because you love animation, not because you're shooting for a big house and a cushy retirement fund. Just make them!

It's fun, it's easy! It's ANIMATION!

In his 30-year animation career, Joseph Gilland has worked with studios as diverse as Walt Disney Feature Animation and the National Film Board of Canada. He has worked on all styles of animation, experimental films, television series, commercials, theatrical feature films, stop motion, title sequences, live-action films and documentaries. He is writing a passionate book about the art of animation.