Keeping up to speed with today's ultra-new, ultra-cool
technology is a daunting task. We asked four leaders in the field to answer,
"What are the largest challenges you face everyday running a digital
studio/facility?" Representatives from Rhythm & Hues, Fantôme,
Neurones Animation and Pacific Data Images all replied.
Time and time again the experts all agree that the continual push to upgrade
to the newest technology and then integrate it back into the system proves
to be the largest challenge. Oh, yes, and finding incredibly talented people
and keeping them happy and creative also adds a few headaches!
John Hughes, President, Rhythm & Hues Studio
Rhythm and Hues is an animation studio with clients in the television,
commercial, feature film, theme park and video game industries. We do the
Coca Cola Polar Bears and have won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects
for our animation of the talking animals in Babe.
The main challenges I face are keeping everyone focused on being creative,
attracting a steady supply of "A" quality work for the studio,
and building
a working environment that is nurturing and conducive to good work.
Georges Lacroix, President, Fantôme
Fantôme is a digital studio, specializing in 3D computer animation.
The largest challenges that we are confronted with when running the studio
are:
Hiring people who can bring their creativity and a real dedication to the
3D area.
The constant training of staff in order to maintain our high level of quality.
The continual upgrading of software and maintaining the unique production
line for 3D series that we have created.
The constant gathering of information to pass onto our R&D (research
and development) department, regarding the industry's never-ending upgrading
of software and hardware.
And, despite all of that, trying to produce good movies!
Sebastien Dohogne, Gabby Project Leader, Neurones
Animation
Neurones is now one of the biggest 3D/2D companies in Europe. We also have
an animation studio in Korea. The Neurones group is composed of the following
studios:
In Liege, Belgium: Neurones Animation, R&D and real-time 3D animation.
In Luxembourg: 2D productions, pre-production, inking, and post-production.
In Angoulême, France: inking, special effects, scanning, shooting,
compositing, story-boarding and layouts.
In Seoul, Korea: 2D animation
In Longwy, France: inking
We are faced with extremely fast growth, and the communication of information
and the coordination of materials between studios is one of our biggest
challenges. Everybody has to receive the work on time and the instructions
must be as clear as possible, in order to avoid wasting time on phoning,
mailing, emailing and faxing. Our production schedules and budgets are
tight so each production day is a challenge.
In Liege, Belgium, we produce cyberactors which are cartoon-like 3D characters
evolving in real-time. The project is called Gabby and was developed by
the R&D department of Neurones. We have to produce 3D characters for
our customers in a very short time period. Furthermore, these characters
speak in real-time with the public at fairs, events, meetings, etc. on
low-end SGI computers. Therefore, we have to build 3D characters with their
environment with a maximum of 4500 polygons within 2 or 3 weeks. Despite
that, the characters have to be perfect. They have to move well, and we
have to reach at least 15 frames per second for lip synchronization. Each
time, this is a big challenge for the whole 3D team which includes: 2 3D-Animators,
3 modelers, 1 software integrator and 1 tester.
Mark Kirk, Technical Director for Systems, Pacific
Data Images
Managing the technology of Pacific Data
Images is certainly a challenging task for everyone on our team. The last
two years have been a tremendous period of growth at PDI due to both the
expansion of our visual effects/commercial group and the Antz feature
production. So, one of the primary responsibilities is planning and implementing
this growth, with all of its ramifications, while maintaining a robust
environment to support production. For example, the last year has seen
the introduction of over 200 new computer systems to PDI. The timely preparation
and deployment of these systems is critical in itself. However, an important
side-effect of this has been the necessary growth of our network. Expanding
PDI's specialized, high-performance LAN (local area network) in the face
of such rapid growth is a significant design challenge.
The "7 x 24 uptime" nature of production makes implementing growth
and other changes difficult. Planning, preparation, and scheduling are
extremely crucial. When we are afforded the rare opportunity to make some
major change, it must be done quickly and without error. Technology also
requires talented people to manage it. PDI is fortunate to have a superb
systems group, but continued growth fuels the search for additional systems
administrators. The dramatic shortage of skilled systems administrators
makes expanding our staff difficult. All studios are facing this problem.
Everything we do must further our end goal of providing a stable and powerful
environment for the animators. We never want technology to become a bottleneck
for our creativity.