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ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 5.9 - DECEMBER 2000
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LEAF Roundup 2000
Digital Media World Day two saw an imaginative marketing gimmick that caused momentary consternation, when scruffy-looking youths appeared outside the conference hall, parading about with banners, protesting the cloning of furniture. On closer inspection, the campaigners were distributing flyers for 3D-model supplier ReplicaNation. "They told us to look earnest," said one anonymous banner holder. Three young ladies in latex bodysuits also provided a splash of color, strolling the convention floor for Xenturi, a new multi-media authoring platform due to be released in January 2001 by Nick Stedman's AuthorCo in Bristol, England. Another eye-catching attraction was the availability of beer in lieu of mineral water as a trading post refreshment.
A rank of recruitment booths lined the back wall of the upper floor at the convention hall, marking the festival's "recruitment village." Digital Domain, Cinesite (Europe), Mill Film, Passion Pictures and Pepper's Ghost Productions, a British broadcast TV and online media animation company, were in evidence. Cara Speller, 3D producer for Passion Pictures -- runner-up in the LEAF short film category with its 3D comedy Hot Spot -- said her main aim at LEAF was recruiting for Passion Pictures' new TV series. "We have 26 episodes of 3D animation, so this is a big push for us," she said. "We're looking for people across the board: animators, compositors, technical directors, production staff. Talent is a bit thin on the ground, probably because a lot of people have gone to the States, but a lot of people have seen 'Hot Spot,' so we've had a pretty good response." Noreen Irwin, director of operations for Cinesite (Europe), also acknowledged the migration of talent, though she hoped to address the issue. "At the moment we're really suffering in that we're having a lot of homegrown talent peaking in their career and after their training we lose them to the States," Irwin said. "Cinesite is bringing a lot more production back into the U.K., so I think it's important to try to communicate that to students and experienced operators in the U.K. and Europe. We want them to realize that they don't have to go to the States to work on the best productions." Irwin also emphasized Cinesite's affiliation with third-level education centers to help foster indigenous talent.
A few booths down, Mill Film reps were luring prospective employees with a video loop of Gladiator and their recent commercial output unspooling overhead. A long list of work-in-progress titles and upcoming projects stood testament to the opportunities available (Hannibal, Tomb Raider, Pluto Nash and more). Farther up the row, Laurence Plotkin, director of human resources and recruitment for Digital Domain, commented on the need for California VFX facilities to be on the lookout for new and emerging talent. "We're continually getting different projects that require different skillsets, and much of the time our artists gain experience internally then move onto different roles, so we need to bring people in to replace those positions," he said. "I've been at LEAF for the last three years and I always enjoy coming here, meeting students and seeing the level of achievement in the work and education in the U.K. I don't get a lot of independent solicitation from Europe, because people have to change their life to pursue that kind of opportunity, and only a certain sort of person would be capable or willing to do that." The DD booth attracted shader writers, software developers and systems engineers. "I've also met some good animators that may not have access to the kind of resources that we generally see in the States," Plotkin added. "By coming to LEAF we help to share information with them in what we're looking for."
Future Animators Westminster's M.S. in computer animation, was offering literature advertising the school's sponsorship by Softimage XSI. Ben Morgan and friends from Bournemouth were evangelizing a range of courses from B.A. (Honors) in computer visualization and animation though to an M.S. in computer animation and made mention that they had been entertaining Cinesite, Digital Domain and Sony Pictures Imageworks as candidates for guest lecturer appearances. ILM's Tim McLaughlin and Aardman Animations' Mark Brierley (animator on Passion Pictures' Hot Spot) are among recent speakers at Bournemouth. "Mark works mostly one-to-one with our students in tutorial sessions, giving advice on animation techniques, but he also does some fantastic lectures on how to animate," Morgan said. Morgan also said he had more than 200 requests for Bournemouth show-reels after the event.
Digital Media World opened up its doors to student visitors on the afternoon of its final day. As fleets of young visitors poured off a bus, VFXPro stopped to glean a student perspective at the convention entrance. "For future animators I believe these shows are very important," said 19-year old Robert Farrell from the University of Hertfordshire. "We've come here looking around for some new programs for Macs and Lightwave, because we're doing a course in digital modeling and animation using those tools and we want to see what's developing in the marketplace." Clearly, Farrell and his fellow students already had an eye to their professional future, and were all extremely conscious of the digital media revolution unfolding around them. "I want to get into games, but my second option would probably be film and special effects," Farrell said. "Britain is turning out a lot of games developers now because I think a lot of the kids around our age grew up with computer games. So I think young people are going to veer more to games creation and they'll want to see something of their own ideas out on the platforms. If it comes to having to get more qualifications to get to do that, then yeah, I'll go get the qualifications. Speaking personally, I just want to get out there and start using the tools." Joe Fordham is editor of VFXPro.com, a fellow Creative Planet community Web site, and on-line news resource for the visual effects community affiliated with the Visual Effects Society.
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