Changing Roles — Part 1: The Digital Production Artist
The role of the digital production artist is in transition, in ways both subtle and revolutionary, due to a number of business, technological and creative trends. One critical issue is the increasingly international scope of the vfx industry. More studios in Europe and Asia are capable of doing high-quality visual effects, and more cost-conscious U.S. studios are willing to look at companies outside this country for vfx work.
“Europe has some really first-class production companies that can compete with anyone here, and some countries that were not on the map five years ago are producing some fairly significant work,” says Isaac Kerlow, who ran digital production for The Walt Disney Co. for 10 years before leaving to become an independent director for CG-animated projects. While many point to job loss as a key result of this internationalization — and the outsourcing and downsizing associated with it — Kerlow argues that the transformation will be more fundamental. “It’s about rethinking what we do here and where we fit,” he adds, stressing that U.S. artists and companies need to think about these issues now and not wait until the world gets even smaller.
“The challenge is how you work within that [new international reality] and keep the quality of work high,” suggests Richard Kidd, vfx supervisor at L.A.-based Catalyst Media, who has traveled to Taiwan, Cape Town and Toronto in recent weeks for both shooting and post work. “You might not want to live in some third-world country, but you still want to be part of the process.” For U.S.-based companies, that means maintaining relationships with directors and figuring out the best way to fill a critical need — often related to quality control — even when much of the work is done offshore.
“Behind all that we do are the MBAs and the marketing people,” notes Lawrence Huang, currently a lighting sequence supervisor at Omation Studios, working on Steve Oedekerk’s CG-animated The Barnyard, a 2005 Nickelodeon feature film. Huang points out that filmmakers have to be financially responsible to their investors, which means they will seek inexpensive options where possible. “Quality-wise, if they can find [an overseas] studio that can do it the way they want it, they will. It’s just like the car. Now we’ve become a similar kind of product line.”
Just as many car engines continue to be designed in Japan even as parts are sourced from Thailand, a similar situation will occur in film, Huang believes. The most important elements — story, art and character design — will be centered in the U.S., while animation and vfx work will be outsourced. “Some of the images [created abroad] are better than in America,” he insists. “But the story and marketing skills are not mature enough to get it out there worldwide.” While tasks such as digitizing main character models, motion capture, environment modeling and textures, lighting and vfx will increasingly be farmed out, Huang believes the U.S. is at least 10 years ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to the all-important components of story, design and marketing.
While globalization, outsourcing and downsizing will lead to job losses in the short term, many artists view these trends as ultimately a positive for the industry. “I think that the cultures found in L.A. and New York have had a strangle-hold on global media for a long time,” says Bay Raitt, the former creature facial lead at Weta Digital, responsible for building Gollum’s facial system in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. “I think people have abused this situation to make a lot of money and sell poor-quality products to the world, and now we’re seeing some blowback on that. I think people who focus on making a good product in an efficient manner do well, regardless of location.
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