Kubsch hopes that Lucasfilm Animation Singapore will benefit from the talent coming out of local schools. Singapore has put a lot of money into animation programs at universities to kick-start the animation industry.

BR: What about games?

CK: Games aren’t in the plan right now, but we’re certainly considering them.

BR: You mentioned that you were training people using assets for the television show. Where did they get the assets?

CK: The look is being done in California and some of the architecture. The people in Singapore will build the models. It’s a stylized universe. We’re using the live-action assets as reference, but the animated show has a very different look.

BR: What software tools will you be using?

CK: We’ll start small with off-the-shelf tools and complement with others as needed. We’re confirming Maya and evaluating others. We don’t have any other firm choices yet.

BR: Are you using Zeno? [The pipeline used by LucasArts and Industrial Light & Magic at Lucas’ Letterman Digital Arts Center in San Francisco’s Presidio.]

CK: It’s possible, but it’s not confirmed. It will depend on project needs. We don’t require all the tools ILM requires.

BR: What about the infrastructure?

CK: It’s very much like the Presidio; it’s under [cto] Cliff Plumer’s guidance working with IT in Singapore. It’s all tied in — we, hopefully, have one big pipe between the Bay Area and Singapore and can pipe all the stuff back and forth. We have our own render farm, but the render farms are connected, so we could render in California. It’s the same configuration — almost a mirror infrastructure of the Presidio.

The first project for Lucasfilm Animation Singapore will be the TV series Clone Wars, scheduled for 2007. The original series appeared on Cartoon Network (above). Courtesy of Cartoon Network.

BR: Do you plan to use the new previsualization and layout tools being developed under Plumer’s guidance?

CK: Making the previs/layout tool is high on the agenda and we hope to be using it soon. The front end can be so time consuming, especially for action-heavy animated projects — there are an enormous number of storyboards. And then, when you translate the storyboards to 3D, often stuff doesn’t work so you have to redo. So, if you could start in 3D space and get the same quality out of the animatics that you do with storyboards, you’re ahead of the game. It’s an exciting prospect.

BR: How long have you been in Singapore?

CK: I started coming here a week at a time in the spring and have been here full time since August. I’m living here now to get the studio up and running and our staff trained and working and ready for the TV show.

BR: And then?

CK: We shall see. It’s a tremendous opportunity. That’s why I’m here.

Barbara Robertson is an award-winning journalist who has covered visual effects and computer animation for 15 years. She also co-founded the dog photography website dogpixandflix.com. Her most recent travel essay appears in the new Travelers Tales anthology The Thong Also Rises.