Beyond the Conference
But, in the end, it was not the Conference where I really got a look at what China is doing with animation. Yu Lee, the indomitable woman who put the conference together and did her best to keep it on track, realized some of my frustration at not having the opportunity to have more in depth discussions with animation personnel. She quickly arranged for me to visit the digital animation facilities in Beijing and Shanghai

A little bit of home -- McDonald's are everywhere! Photo courtesy of Frank Gladstone.

Beijing is, of course, the bustling capital city of the People's Republic. The Science and Technology Digital Film Studio, located in a large building that houses several floors of film and film training divisions, seems to have a good deal of governmental support and perhaps a bit of bureaucratic counterpoise as well. The studio is well equipped with SGI workstations, various compositing and animation software (including Maya) and an adequate data center and film recorder. The operation is rather compact, broken into two large open plan areas with somewhere around thirty workstation cubicles in one, and a series of interconnected offices in the other. Part of the larger room is also cordoned off as a training area. Work has been pretty methodical at the studio. Their reel showed some good compositing technique, but all out animation was not yet evident.

The studio supervisor, Su Pingbao, was quick to mention that they are getting ready to expand and they are expecting much growth in facilities and capability over the next few years. I showed them some of DreamWorks product. They seemed very impressed and were almost apologetic about what they saw as their own humble efforts. They expressed a great deal of interest in learning more from us.

Using Maya at the Shanghai Film Studio. Photo courtesy of Frank Gladstone.

The following day, we traveled to Shanghai, perhaps the most cosmopolitan city in China. There, we visited the Shanghai Film Studio and were given a tour by the studio president, Zhu Yongde, and the director of operations, Eddie Lee. The Shanghai operation, while also tacitly supported by the government, has taken a very aggressive attitude toward digital production. Beginning in March of 1999, the studio prepared offices, bought and installed equipment (somewhere close to seventy workstations, a data center, film recorder and very extensive motion-capture stage) and software (Maya and Lightwave technologies), trained their crew and began producing 22 episodes of animation for television. Presently, they are in the midst of another series and are producing special effects for commercials and feature films as well. At the time we visited, they had just completed about nine minutes of digital work for a China-produced action-adventure film called Crash Landing. Their reel, especially for a studio so new, is impressive.