Global outsourcing for vfx and CG animation is growing as more studios around the world look for cost-effective production options, especially in regions where governmental support is strong.

Global outsourcing for vfx and CG animation is growing as more studios around the world look for cost-effective production options and as the number of viable overseas studios increases, especially in regions where governmental support is strong.

Almost all western TV, film and commercial production companies, large and small, are now at least looking at doing bits and pieces of their vfx and CG work offshore. “Large studios such as EA and DreamWorks are now aggressively looking at global outsourcing being a significant part of their model in a large way,” explains Jai Natarajan, a Mumbai-based consultant to Indian animation and gaming start-ups and a former technical director at Industrial Light & Magic. “Their projects lend legitimacy to an industry and [create] a talent pool in a given country.”

Offshore outsourcing is taking hold even in industry sectors where it might not seem immediately obvious. Producers of TV commercials, for example, are sending vfx work overseas, according to Frank Foster, an animation producer specializing in offshore work and one of the founders of ImageWorks. For these companies, outsourcing is proving an efficient way to do business, even with the layers of clients and need for quick turnarounds that occur in the commercial sector.

One of the companies Foster works with, Tigar Hare Studios, has gone offshore to outsource modeling, and sometimes texture painting and rigging, for commercial clients such as Mattel; finishing is done in L.A. The studio also has completed 40 to 50 seconds of vfx, including animation, overseas for the live-action TV series NCIS. “We’re still able to keep up with changes and the delivery times of an episodic TV schedule,” Foster reports.

Offshore outsourcing is growing in the gaming industry as well. “There’s always been a lot of external development in the gaming industry,” says Evan Hirsch, a freelance CG supervisor and consultant who has worked at EA and several CG/vfx studios. “You don’t call it outsourcing, you call it third-party development, but it’s nothing new. The new dimension is going overseas for third-party development, as the cost issue has been throwing the industry into disarray.”

Meanwhile, global outsourcing has become an important tool in CG animation production for film, video and television too. “The trends for CGI will be similar to the trends for traditional animation,” adds Foster. “It will start with the types of productions with the most labor and the lowest budgets.” Offshore production is already established as a means of producing 3D TV series and is starting to be used for direct-to-video features; eventually it will become widely utilized for low-budget CG-animated theatrical films, too.

Jai Natarajan, a Mumbai-based consultant to Indian animation and gaming start-ups, reports that large studios such as EA and DreamWorks are now aggressively looking at global outsourcing as a significant part of their model.

Difficult Choices
Many regions are positioning themselves as outsourcing destinations, but not all are created equal, nor are the individual studios within them. “Many more countries are becoming players in the industry, out of Eastern Europe and South America, for example,” suggests Natarajan. “There is more talent, but also more confusion over whom to partner with and how to reliably do business in so many countries.”

A growing number of governments are providing incentives for companies to get into the vfx/CGI business, which has led to industries springing up in a diverse set of regions, including mainland China, South and North Korea, Eastern Europe, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines, India, Quebec, Vietnam and the Isle of Man.

Bill Schultz, partner at Mike Young Prods./Taffy Ent., points out, however, that CGI is not just about technology and subsidies, it is also about art, talent and experience in vfx or animation pipelines. “Anyone with a computer can put out footage,” Schultz insists. “Just because you have machines, subsidies and students graduating from college, doesn’t mean you can do a good CGI TV show. It’s like a tennis player that has all the latest equipment but can’t swing a racket. The problem is, governments see CGI as equivalent to technology, and everyone wants to develop a technology incubator. Technology equals stepping out of the third world.”

Each region has its own unique characteristics. In Latin America, for example, Studio C, a 60-employee vfx house in Guatemala, is one of few shops capable of providing outsourcing work; it focuses on servicing U.S. companies. Founded by Carlos Arguello, who has worked at PDI and Cinesite, Studio C has provided vfx work, in association with Hammerhead Prods., for The Chronicles of Riddick and The Ring Two>, and is currently working on The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The studio also is developing a university for animation and vfx training in Guatemala.

Arguello points to the one-hour time difference and proximity to L.A. (a four-and-a-half hour flight away) as benefits of looking to Latin America. He also cites a talented workforce that has studied architecture, engineering and design and is eager to translate those skills to vfx. Crews, which tend to be younger than in the U.S., are well versed in the Internet and many artists have studied animation online. Despite these advantages, however, clients need to be sold on this emerging market as an outsourcing destination. “It is an education process,” admits Arguello.