VFX in Eastern Europe — Is It a Threat?
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The entire world seems to have gotten caught up in the excitement and market opportunities that advancing trends in vfx represent. With rapidly spreading high-speed Internet now blanketing much of the world, vfx represents an unusual economic opportunity for depressed and developing regions. Although there is tremendous activity all over the globe, I’m focusing on Central and Eastern Europe. Over the past few years, I’ve been working with fmx, the Digital Content and Visual FX conference held annually in Stuttgart, Germany. This has given me an opportunity to chat with a number studio people from these parts of the world and I’ve been impressed. Read on and you’ll discover a little bit about what they offer.
I’ve talked with a wide range of vfx in Eastern Europe and I could understand both their enthusiasm and frustration. Some would like to get work from Hollywood and others would not, but all want to bring in enough work to keep their people busy. All seem to have a passion about the work. The successful ones have built beautiful facilities, installed state-of-the-art high-speed Internet and use all the computer power and software you’d expect in a western studio. Others do the best they can, relying on superior artistic talent and sometimes bootleg software. It is early, but conditions are improving and vfx sparks are flaring in places you may not have heard of. Fortunately, all of the houses in this report and most houses in general speak fair to excellent English. I’m pleased to share with you some of what’s going on and the thoughts and feelings of our colleagues in Central and Eastern Europe.
My first big lesson was about the difference between Central and Eastern Europe. Here’s how Martin Hudak of OREO in Slovakia explains it:
“If you divide Europe into two pieces (Western and Eastern), Slovakia belongs to Eastern. But really, our market is more Central Europe, in which I must include Czech Republic, Germany, Austria and Poland, which are countries next to us (except Germany), geographically in the western part of Europe.
”When I buy the software localized to Slovakia, I will get CE version (Central Europe), fonts and so on... ” Not completely clear on the exact definition, I went to Wikipedia and found “The understanding of the concept of Central Europe varies considerably from nation to nation.” So I use the term loosely here.
What I Found
I was curious exactly what kinds of vfx these places were doing and I found a wide range. I discovered relatively high quality work in 3D digital character design and all sorts of other interesting vfx.
Sometimes a little short on fancy equipment and software, some houses rely on their artistry in compositing and pure 3D. So far they’re not doing a lot of the really advanced fluid sim (such as ILM and Scanline create with their proprietary software), and in-house R&D is fairly rare. Much of the in-house development seems to be in the realms of project management and video communications. However, some houses have developed sophisticated plug-ins for Adobe, Autodesk and Softimage applications. They have time and distance delivery obstacles similar to houses in New Zealand and Australia. Both seem to have found workable solutions. The spread of high-speed Internet is certainly providing opportunity.
Vfx People of Eastern Europe — And Their Houses Mindaugas Jokûbaitis, ceo, DAMI DIGITAL, Kaunas, Lithuania Jokûbaitis is their fearless leader. He says their work comes in mainly from local companies and Europe in general. ”However, we are striving to develop more of an international market. We particularly like computer graphics integration with the real-world. We’re currently working on a car crash sequence. Some of our vfx team members are also involved in game development as well.” The key at DAMI seems to be that the workers are flexible, honing multiple talents the company can leverage to stay afloat and grow.
In general, the smaller houses service fairly local areas while some of the larger ones have a global market area reaching from Japan to the U.S. and beyond. I think it’s important to get a feel for these people and their situations.
You can tell from their excellent web graphics that DAMI DIGITAL has a flare for design. They bill themselves as a digital design company with a broad range of services. Able to produce everything from reasonably sophisticated film vfx to game animations, they often create a film’s posters and web site. Among their repertory are 3D previs, architectural visualization, TV commercials, Flash advertisement and videography.
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