Joel Kuwahara, producer of WB's Mucha Lucha, would like to see television animation revitalized with more independent projects instead of remakes of older properties. Photo credit: James Ng.

Driving along the highway through Burbank, California, if you don’t blink, you might glimpse the heavenward spire of an overgrown sorcerer’s hat. This Fantasia-inspired architectural curiosity sits perfectly at home on the Walt Disney Feature Animation studio lot, and it is where Mr. Roy Disney himself sets up office everyday. It also happened to be the venue for a special industry event on August 17, 2002, sponsored by the New Media Council of the Producer’s Guild of America. The focus of the day’s seminar? Something unassumingly titled, “Producing Animation in the 21st Century.”

Naturally, one hundred years ago, it would have been impossible for animating entrepreneurs to imagine how the medium would look today -- or, for that matter, the cultural context in which it would be created and commercialized. So, it is with a similar sanguine myopia that we squint toward the next one hundred years, and continue in the great animation tradition for imagining the impossible.

The four-hour panel discussion was expertly hosted and moderated by Catherine Winder, noted co-author of Producing Animation (Focal Press, 2001). Winder has served as a creative executive with Fox Animation, helping to oversee the establishment of Blue Sky Studio’s feature development. Winder was also the founding producer of HBO Animation and its acclaimed animated series Todd McFarlane’s Spawn; as well as the producer of Peter Chung’s Aeon Flux for MTV.

An Introduction to Many Aspects
The day’s event was intended, in part, to explore the breadth of animation currently being produced. With this in mind, the panel was introduced, and asked to give their seasoned insight on "their" present-day niche within the industry.

Lori Forte, producer of Ice Age, feels that humor is one of the most important traits an animation producer can possess. Photo credit: Sam Urdank. © 2002 Twentieth Century Fox. All rights reserved.

Don Hahn, whose distinguished career with Walt Disney Studios began in 1976 on Pete’s Dragon, has helped to produce such films as Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, among others. Hahn spoke briefly on the increasing overlap, and blurring, of live-action and animated filmmaking. The techniques for one kind of filmmaking almost inevitably benefit the other: whether in terms of using live-action editing styles, camera movements and other “visual language” in animated stories; or using storyboards, animatics, digital effects and set construction in live-action. Almost every major movie that we see today incorporates, in some fashion, an animated complement or make-over.

Lori Forte, who also began her career with Disney, was the producer behind Fox Animation’s Ice Age, shepherding the project from script to screen. Forte gave her perspective and experience on what it means to bring a story idea all the way from development through delivery. Unlike other mediums (e.g., television or even live-action features), the process for crafting an animated story can sometimes be downright glacial, which suits her just fine. From a creative standpoint, being able to mold and hone a story over the several years of its production is not only challenging, but rewarding.

John Walker, formerly an associate producer with Warner Bros. on The Iron Giant and Osmosis Jones, is currently a producer with Pixar, working on Brad Bird’s new action-adventure comedy The Incredibles. Walker offered an overview for how traditional 2D skills and processes are translating into the increasingly favorable and ‘sexy’ medium of 3D animation. In contrast to the typically rigid, linear planning associated with 2D films, 3D animation allows for a bit more freedom and flexibility. Whereas 2D animation involves only designing environments that the camera will see, 3D building, texturing and lighting generally requires much more attention to the tiniest possible details of a shot. In some respects this is good, because one can essentially then shoot “coverage” for their scene. Yet, in trying to streamline the 3D process, some of the 2D sensibility for shot planning is coming into play, such that a team can scale back on the amount of global detail that its modelers and texture artists need to create.