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ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 5.12 - MARCH 2001
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Standing at the Crossroads
Later that day we visited Pipangaï and were given a tour of the building. We saw all the usual trappings of such institutions, with many young islanders busy working on current projects. SGI computers were everywhere, and there was a focused yet relaxed atmosphere, a feel of quiet confidence. That evening, Georges Lacroix was given "carte blanche" to create and present a screening of his choice. Georges is a formidable figure in French animation. He's been a visible player in much of French media from illustration to art direction. He was artistic director at L'Express, a French magazine, from 1973 to 1980 and created Fantôme, an animation studio specializing in digital 3D images. (Fantôme was later purchased by Neurones, now Neuroplanet, only to be cannibalized so it seems.) Georges had his hand in many award-winning animation movies, with Fables Géométriques and Insektors being the better known examples. His present focus seems to be mostly on organizing international conferences dealing with new technologies pertaining to the art of animation. He's done work for the Annecy animation festival amongst others. He also teaches directing at the Angoulême Cartoons National Centre (Centre National de la Bande Dessinée d'Angoulême) and at Réunion's ILOI. The evening was an opportunity to see one man's selection of many animated pieces reflecting his experience, his tastes and giving us a glimpse of what makes him tick. Georges put together a long programme, which included the works of Tex Avery, Tim Burton, Michaël Dudok de Wit, Yuri Norstein (that Hedgehog in the Fog poetic masterpiece), a collection of Pixar shorts (Geri's Game, For the Birds, etc.) and much more.
He also decided to show samples of the ILOI's recent interns' work. This was, for me, a bit of an eye opener as it showed that, technically, these kids had nothing about which to envy their North American counterparts. However, I could not help notice (and I was not the only one) that there was one big factor absent in all the pieces we saw: no trace or sense of what the French call "le terroir." It is hard to translate, but it is something like, "a taste of the local/native soil." There was no presence of the Indian Ocean in general and of Réunion in particular. This, of course, reflects yet another personal opinion, but I wonder if "globalization" isn't having a homogenizing effect on places even as far away as Réunion. These short animated films could indeed have been made anywhere! The New Technologies Eric Bessone and Pierre Maréchal of Sensable Technologies (http://www.3d-touch.com/) demonstrated FreeForm (http://www.3d-touch.com/FreeForm/index.htm), which through its touch sensitive arm/tool makes it possible to model virtual clay in real-time, while receiving tactile feedback from the work via the tool. This makes it possible to work on virtual clay through both visual and tactile senses, with almost no learning curve (if one is already familiar with clay/foam modeling). Quite a trip! One can even enter the clay piece and work on it from the inside. A selection of keyboard commands makes it a breeze to change the size of the tool tip and more. This was a hit with many people; they just had to have their hands on it.
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