Oh, to be a young, talented storyboardist. The world would be your oyster (or any shellfish you’d prefer). There’s the opportunity for travel, the money, the upward mobility. You wouldn’t be a cog in the wheel of production, you’d be a star.

Okay, perhaps not a star. But you’d definitely be a hot commodity.

Talk to animation producers about what kind of talent they’re usually screaming for, and a good storyboardist is likely to top the list. A good director is also elusive when you need one, as is a layout artist, but in general there’s a cry for help in nearly every area of pre- and post-production.

So how does it feel to be constantly sought after?

Demand for their talent allowed location and background designer Dave Merrett and the character designing Sullivan brothers, Troy and Todd, to set up shop in Orillia, Ont., far from the epicenter. The trio worked at Ottawa’s Funbag Animation Studios for a year and a half before making the move.

Needless to say, all are turning down work. The best thing for them about being in demand is the company they get to keep – they don’t have to work with anyone they don’t like.

‘Last year, before the season started, we had a few calls from people we’d worked with in the past,’ says Merrett. ‘Some we had to turn down because we were already committed, but others we didn’t choose to work with because of their working habits. The worse thing you can do is spend six months working on some garbage.’

What constitutes a good project for them these days is one which they enjoy stylistically and on which they’re given a lot of creative leeway. If a project doesn’t have that, they aren’t worried. Something else is right around the corner.

‘I know that after this show is done, there’ll be another one right there,’ says Merrett. ‘Before, you could never tell in the busy season if there’d be work beyond that, but now we expect to have work lined up to Christmas and beyond.’

Storyboard artist Rob Walton is working on Ace Ventura, Pet Detective through a freelance deal with Nelvana, a gig he expects to last through the summer. The demand for his skills also puts him in a position to be picky about the work he takes on.

‘I do turn down stuff,’ says Walton. ‘I gravitate towards projects that I find particularly interesting and will utilize my strengths. I haven’t taken any shows for awhile which I feel would be a waste of my talent.’

While he can wrangle more creative control on the projects he chooses, Walton believes there’s a deficit of originality in the industry overall.

‘For commercial tv, nothing gets developed without a licensed toy line or film tie-in. That means I either publish my own comic books and get out of the industry altogether, or I move into a position where I’m controlling the story editing and directing. As much creative input as we have, there’s still a lot of potential that doesn’t even get to the page. We don’t bother. There’s no point.’

Dan Smith started at Nelvana in 1981 as an animator. He drew storyboards and directed until 1985 when, tiring of the layoff cycle, he tried his hand at writing. He was working exclusively at Nelvana until about a year and a half ago when he struck out on his own.

Right now he’s finishing a second season of The Mask for cbs and gearing up on a property he developed with Steve Purcell, creator of the comic book Sam and Max, Freelance Police. Fox wants to pick up the series, so Smith will be writing that in the fall. Between then and now, he’ll be writing three after-school specials for cbs.

‘Lately, I’ve had to turn down a lot of work. Not a bad situation to be in, if you think about it.’

These days, Smith gets to be a lot more selective about the projects he takes on, although he sees the work in general as getting funnier.

‘It’s getting back to more of a Warner Bros. style of humor, which is great. I mean, I started out writing The Care Bears. Now everybody wants to be the next Animaniacs or Tiny Toons, so I get asked to make it really funny and wild.’

In Vancouver, Studio B Procutions’ Blair Peters – in his own right a director many producers would love to get – can see nothing but good coming from laying more control in the hands of the talent.

‘Because they can demand it, the people working on the shows are having their say on the development now, whereas before they would just get handed a show bible and a schedule. The more creative people and production people bash heads with the producers and executive producers, the closer we might be to getting reasonable schedules. We have to get the networks picking up shows earlier or we’re going to have crap on tv like in the ’70s.’

There’s no doubt that a boom time for animation means producers are more willing to give a little extra rope to the talent, but is it safe to assume this is the way it’s going to be?

Not in everyone’s opinion. A word to the wise from one producer: ‘It’s a fickle and cyclical business. Hot today is not tomorrow.’