The following text appeared in an advertising supplement to Playback:

It is a fact, Canada has the best animation and effects training programs in the world. Today there are training programs across the country, from the high school level to advanced CGI and special effects courses. With worldwide demand for creative talent in animation and effects, these training grounds for digital innovation are launching careers even before graduation. Producing the hot talent and the brilliant stars, like Sheridan Animation grad and 1997 Academy Award nominee, James Strauss, the Silicon Graphics platform is installed on each campus as one of the tools for digital artists to mold their creative visions and blaze their own particularly bright futures. While training on Silicon Graphics has helped graduates find jobs all over the world, today’s most exciting development is with the demand for talent within the Canadian entertainment industry. Students are hired to showcase their talent right here.

Silicon Graphics recognizes this evolution in the Canadian industry and is partnering with educational institutions across Canada to ensure that the Canadian entertainment enterprise is nurtured for continued growth. Talking with any Canadian effects or animation house, it is obvious that the demand for talent far exceeds supply. Greg Fitzgerald, Silicon Graphics Canada Digital Media Sales Representative, explains the company’s commitment to fostering homegrown talent: ‘What the Canadian industry is doing, rather than relying on a low dollar, is differentiating itself with talent. For Silicon Graphics Canada to grow, we need the Canadian market to grow, and it is our philosophy to partner with schools to ensure that there is the kind of talent to set the Canadian industry apart. Providing students with a hands-on environment with the latest and most marketable tools is a far-sighted vision. One that is great for the Canadian film, video and interactive industry and excellent for Canadian students.’

‘To us it is bigger than students buying SGI systems after they graduate, it is about being a market innovator. We take a leadership role in the unique markets that we serve. On one end, we generate profits from working in this field, but we have to reinvest back into the community for it to grow. Because of the talent here, the Canadian industry will grow. Even more interesting, Hollywood is coming here for our expertise. A great example is Disney opening up a studio in Toronto. It used to be that Canadians would go to the States. But, that’s changed. They have come to seek Canadian talent.’

Understanding this demand for talent and having created a successful training program for unemployed individuals in multimedia production, J’el and David Burke of the Applied Multimedia Training Centres (AMTC) in Winnipeg and Calgary, have expanded their school’s curriculum to include a digital program for professional 3D animation and effects on Silicon Graphics workstations. J’el Burke considers this new curriculum to be artist-centered and is selecting candidates that have strengths in areas particularly unique to animation: a strong understanding of lighting, scene composition, and 3D working space.

As they screen participants, to enter into an intensive eight month program with a new line of Silicon Graphics O2’s with 16 machines in the Calgary training facility and the 12 in the Winnipeg facility, J’el Burke knows that part of creating a centre for excellence in animation and effects is to collaborate with the hardware and the industry to be. ‘Working with the platform and creating dialogue and context by working with effects and animation to create the standards necessary for training in this industry.’ As they gear up for their first year, AMTC says they will be producing craftspeople able to use Alias Power Animator, Alias Composer and Softimage Software on the Silicon Graphics platform.

The Bell Centre for Creative Communication in downtown Toronto boasts the world’s largest single educational installation of Silicon Graphics workstations. Behind the doors there are over 140 workstations equipped with multiple animation packages: Alias, Houdini, and Softimage. During the 8-month intensive program in computer Animation and Effects, students are given 24-hour access, 7 days a week, to their own Silicon Graphics systems in which to create. The program is at capacity and has more applications for enrollment from all over the world than they are able to accommodate. The Digital Animation program, graduating the second group of students this spring and about to start its third intake of students has a solid reputation and places over 70% of graduates in industry positions.

Edward Squires, Program Coordinator for the Digital Animation Program and also a part- time instructor, believes that delivering relevant curriculum on the Silicon Graphics platform is easy and intuitive for his students. ‘Teaching Introduction to Silicon Graphics to someone that hasn’t used the platform before becomes simple. We can easily navigate around using the graphical interface and the shell interface. In an intensive program, it d’esn’t take long to be up and running, learning to use the platform with the software available on it and starting to do projects’ In an intensive program, the ease of the platform allows students to get into their projects and begin creating, faster, for the first time.

One of the focuses of the Bell Centre’s Digital Animation program is training by part-time instructors or full-time industry professionals. This is a focus on real world insight into the creative process using the tools and techniques to succeed in the marketplace. Working on the Silicon Graphics platform is a marriage between the technical demands of the industry and the creativity of the artist. According to Squires, the Digital Animation program is: ‘ultimately about digital art, it is not about programming. Rather, at the Bell Centre we are trying to create the perfect marriage between the strong 3D architecture of the SGI platform and the digital artist. That bond showcases both the use of the platform and artistry.’

Algonquin College spent two years planning and building their new state-of-art Media Centre housing all the creative media programs at the college: multimedia, advertising, performing arts and television broadcasting. For the move into the new facilities, the television broadcasting program upgraded all their camera and audio equipment and entered into a partnership with Silicon Graphics installing 25 Indy platforms, 4 Indigo 2 platforms, an Onyx reality engine and a Challenge server. The Silicon Graphics stations are equipped with all the latest software.

This is the second year of operation for the Media Centre and the equipment, and Michel Barrate, Program Coordinator for the Television Broadcasting Program, is seeing results. ‘We’ve created a professional leading-edge environment for our students. We’ve trained them in a multitude of graphics software, 3D animation software, and non-linear editing systems on the Indigo 2. The tools will always change, but the introduction of the Silicon Graphics workstations is giving us the edge because now we can teach our students how to tell broadcast stories with leading-edge tools. I have 8 students that have already gained employment. Three of the students were hired by Headline Sports, a Toronto based cable network launching in early May.’

The systems administrator, Blaine Agnew, responsible for the Silicon Graphics installation at the Algonquin College Media Centre has watched how the introduction of the Silicon Graphics tools is transforming the traditional Broadcast program. ‘Initially, Algonquin College asked for editing suites. What they got was special effects and animation systems that also do non-linear editing. This added a dimension that they didn’t expect to be seeing, where absolutely spectacular effects were being integrated into their broadcast program. Now all the broadcast students get trained on SGI in terms of basic usage for broadcast graphics. They get to use high end animation software like Alias Power Animator, Alias Wavefront, Softimage 3D and Softimage’s compositing software, Eddy.’

At Stephen Leacock Collegiate within the Scarborough Board of Education, the technology program, already recognized as providing a stream of well-trained communications technology students into the work force and post secondary education, has been creating the groundwork for the completely digital program. According to Howard Gross, the Technical Director of Technological Studies at the collegiate, ‘the perfect partnership with SGI and Stephen Leacock Collegiate took place with the introduction of 18 O2 workstations that will be networked in a partnership with Shaw Cable and their high speed network.’

Howard Gross explains how the program, in a vocational technical school, has evolved over the twenty years they’ve been delivering broadcast and communication technology studies: ‘We received a grant in 1990 and we invested that money in building a broad-based production facility which was in essence a move toward digital technology. So when SGI found us, we were already doing what their machines were capable of doing. Only their machines do it better and faster.’

In addition to enhancing the broadcast program, Gross sees the introduction of Silicon Graphics O2’s as a way to infuse the entire curriculum with vitality. ‘What we were trying to do is move the traditional analog broadcast training skills into a digital platform, put it on the desktop and share it at high speeds. One of the objectives of my program is to treat technology and it’s tools, as just that, tools. We are working so that they can be plugged into any curriculum across the curriculum. This could be documenting and archiving history from the Internet or bringing science concepts to life with 3D animation.’

‘As the kids start to come to the program and the program starts to gain more presence, the industry realizes we have the ability to get kids started. Our kids feed the industry and become the developers and the artists of this new world.’ Gross has a long list of graduates working in front of the camera and behind. Most prominent is actor, Mike Meyers. There are even more graduates working in the operations field: editors, line-up producers, camera-people, directors, locations managers in the broadcast and film production industry.

With a co-operative work placement component, Stephen Leacock Collegiate also places students in the production community for real-world experience. Nordin Rahhali joined Waveform Digital almost two years ago as a computer animator from his cooperative experience. Other examples include: students working at the Metro Toronto Police Video Production Unit, a production coordinator for CBC Newsworld, camera operators at CFTO, and line-up editors at CityTV. For the most part, graduates go on to post-secondary education and then find themselves working in the media production world with solid skills laid through the framework of the program Gross anticipates more success with the introduction of the Silicon Graphics workstations: ‘I expect it will be what we were doing before, only better. We can continue to train students and stay close to the edge which can be a difficult thing with today’s education dollars.’

When thinking of quality animation training, Sheridan College is the first to come to mind. Today, due to its stellar reputation, a Sheridan trained animator will be courted by key players in U.S. and the Canadian film and television industry before their final project is transferred to Betacam. Robin King, Program Director at Sheridan College recognizes Silicon Graphics as a platform for the creative vision of the animator. Because Sheridan is committed to providing their students with skills that fit into the marketplace, they train on Silicon Graphics while developing the skills and sensitivity unique to the the art of animation.

It is the training of the artist that most inspires Robin King. The programs’ focus is to nurture the animator, who that breathes life into characters by being able to draw, observe, analyze, synthesize, develop movement, and develop personally. Recently, Sheridan’s reputation has been reconfirmed with the nomination of James Strauss, Sheridan Animation Grad, 1992, for a 1997 Academy Award in Visual Effects for his work as Character Animation Director on the movie, Dragonheart. With a team of animators, 11 of which were also Sheridan students, Strauss directed the creation of a 18ft by 43ft dragon, the first ever digitally created, photorealistic character to play a star in a feature film role.

Robin King points out that James Strauss is not the first graduate from Sheridan to be nominated for an Academy Award. Steve Williams was nominated for The Mask in 1992, and John Minnis won an Academy Award for his short film, The Charade in 1985. Robin King believes that the fantastical character, based on Sean Connery, that James Strauss created for Dragonheart is evidence of the artistry and excellence coming out of Sheridan’s program. ‘In the case of the dragon, it is a really complex creature that must react and fly in a way that is believable and in a way that is also a fantasy. This is a pretty complicated thing to do. They shone when they brought that level of characterization to the dragon by bringing characterization and motion dynamics together. To do that you must have a really good group of people that are dedicated to the work of animation as a subject. These animators are driven by a desire to push the hardware and the software, to produce an animation quality that exceeds everyone’s expectations.’

James Strauss believes in three things: the power of the Silicon Graphics hardware, the power of the software tools, but most importantly the art of the animator that shines through each and every frame. ‘The level of technology that we have today, especially with the SGI, allows artists to utilize computing power without having to think technically about what they are doing. That’s really what’s happened in the last few years – more and more artists are using a machine that normally only a programmer could control. What we see today is very fine art. You tell the computer what you want and it will think really hard for you. It will answer the questions: if the light is coming in here,then what’s the skin going to look like? What is the shadow going to look like? What’s the shading going to be like? But, all the heart of it comes from deep inside each animator. In Dragonheart, although across the arc of the film we created a consistent performance with Sean Connery as a reference, I can see in each animation a bit of each artist.’