Glamorous jobs in feature-length animated films have dried up for recently graduated

animation students, but there still is a lot of work available for neophytes in the industry. Studios producing tv series, commercials and computer games are employing many of the current crop of young animators. Deborah Fallows, head recruiter for Nelvana, estimates that while the studio’s cgi department will likely increase from 26 to 36 people this year, ‘when you look at games producers, they might increase their staff by 40 this year.’

Her words are echoed by Gerry Paquette, coordinator of the Digital Animation Program at Ottawa’s

Algonquin College. An animator who has taught and worked in both digital and traditional formats,

Paquette encourages his students to try out both styles because ‘[students’] options are greater. They can

go to gaming companies or Web site designers.’ He counts Artech, a local gaming company, as one of his students’ current key employers. On the West Coast, Tom Zuber, head instructor of the Vancouver Film School’s 3D department, and even Martin Rose, program coordinator of the more traditionally-based animation section at the Emily Carr School of Art and Design, regularly see graduates move on to work at the area’s main game creators, such as Radical Entertainment.

It isn’t only gaming companies that will benefit from what promises to be the largest group of animators ever to graduate from colleges in this country. Television series animation producers like Mainframe, Cinar and Nelvana employ recruiters who look at the portfolios and demo reels of graduates from schools as varied in their approach as the personal, ‘auteur’-oriented Concordia College to the industry-centered Capilano College. Ken Beaulieu, studio administrator at Cinar, expects to hire at least five young animators this year, while Nelvana’s Fallows observes that ‘at one given time, we’ll have 12 series in operation. The plan is to add one junior designer per year per crew.’ Paula Fellbaum, Mainframe’s key recruiter, offers no numbers for new employees, but points out that her company has grown in less than a decade ‘from six people to over 250.’ With international coproductions in place, all of Canada’s ‘big three’ studios can reasonably expect growth in their market over the next year.

Gifted graduates, the top 10% from Sheridan College, for example, are in a seller’s market. Don Spencer, one of the partners in Funbag Animation, says that this current group of animation graduates ‘were more aloof. . . .Usually, this time of the year, I’m inundated with calls from students wanting to send me their portfolios. This year, I’m having to chase them.’ The Ottawa-based firm recently opened branches in Halifax and North Sydney.

Sheridan’s director of alliances and research, Robin King, estimates that 96% of the school’s graduates find jobs in the industry. While no animation college can compare in history or international reputation with Sheridan, other institutions are confident their students will claim employment in the marketplace. Gerry Paquette believes that Algonquin is so successful in placing its students because the region’s companies have a vested interest in hiring native Ottawans. ‘By training the local community,’ he observes, ‘people have tended to stay or, at least, come back.’ Three thousand miles away, Martin Rose reflects the confidence that many colleges and studios in Vancouver feel when he observes that ‘the employment situation has been really good.’

Animation colleges, even the arts-oriented ones like Rose’s Emily Carr and Concordia, pride themselves on their placement of graduates in the marketplace. The Vancouver Film School’s approach is one of precision and practicality. ‘From day one, when they start the course, students have to start thinking about a demo reel. They know that they need something strong that they can show the studios when they’re finished,’ explains vfs’s Tom Zuber. ‘Students have mentorship programs with studio people. Those people will guide them along on what they want to see in a demo reel. The result? The majority are getting hired, many before they finish their courses.’

Although most students at the best colleges are being hired by the industry, studio professionals and key instructors are not sanguine about the future. Stephen Price, formerly a producer at TOPIX/Mad Dog and now with development company Red Giant, both located in Toronto, points out that since the digital boom of the early ’90s, ‘many schools [that] had never had animation programs before suddenly found that they could make a whole lot of money by putting in a bunch of computers and hiring some animators to teach other animators some basic software skills. . . .That kind of school doesn’t sit well with a lot of people.’ Capilano College’s head instructor, Don Perro, clearly agrees, adding that ‘private schools seem to serve the student’s desire [to be animators], while [publicly funded] schools serve the studios’ needs.’

Animation colleges have responded by creating more digitally-based programs, either as parallel curricula or as extra-year supplements to existing classical courses. The rhetoric in all of these programs is the same. From Tom Zuber to Robin King and, in studios, from Deborah Fallows to Paula Fellbaum, the most important element, even for computer animators, is the ability to draw. Gerry Paquette, who teaches Algonquin’s digital course, is adamant. ‘Drawing is the most important thing. Computers are just the tool. I’m not training people to push buttons. I’m taking people and showing them how to be creative on the machinery, regardless of what software they’re working on. There’s a whole aesthetic to 3D design.’

Head instructors across the country, from Angela Garofolo at New Brunswick’s Miramichi College to Don Perro in Vancouver, emphasize draftsmanship, creative motion drawing and storytelling skills, while keeping students abreast of the latest technological advances. It’s a difficult balancing act. As usual, Sheridan College is attempting to come to grips with the situation. Robin King freely admits that, ‘at Sheridan, we’re examining our program in light of how the industry is changing. We get industry feedback on a regular basis.’ One of King’s respondents is Nelvana’s Fallows, who observes that ‘the animation industry has exploded over the past couple of years. Now, we have computer animation and classical animation. One of the key issues under discussion at Sheridan is: how can we integrate the two?’

While Sheridan and main players in the industry struggle with that question, other issues have also arisen. New, edgy graphic-oriented studios are dissatisfied with the kinds of people who are graduating from animation colleges. Adam Shaheen, who has taken his company, Toronto-based Cuppa Coffee Animation, from two employees to 47 in less than 10 years, cites Sheridan and the rest of the major animation colleges in Canada for their refusal to place animation into a larger context of popular culture. ‘Animation is a hugely broad beast. It’s not just Disney. There are people who want to specialize in stop-motion or model animation. . . .Our freelancers come from very different backgrounds – theatre sets to photography to media arts to graphic design.’

The more classically based Productions Pascal Blais is also unhappy with the way colleges are training the next generation of animators. Pascal Blais, whose Montreal-based company produces fully animated commercial spots for clients as diverse as Hydro-Quebec and Honey Nut Cheerios, feels the schools are training ‘people for the industry, for series tv work. They teach how to do layout, how to do posing. That’s really not what we’re looking for. . . .We need highly skilled, multitalented people. We’re looking for people with directorial talent.’

Once again, Sheridan, which is still the Harvard and m.i.t. of animation colleges, is responding to these critiques. An optional fourth year has been added to the college’s curriculum. Ellen Besen, the coordinator of the post-graduate animation filmmaking program, is looking for recent graduates and professionals who want to spend a year making a personal film. ‘The model,’ she says, ‘ is the [National] Film Board in the ’70s, when experimental animators rubbed shoulders with classically trained professionals.’

Sheridan and Besen will be scanning applicants who have an animation degree but want to improve their storytelling skills, professionals who feel the need to make something artistic and arts graduates with drawing ability who want to enter the field and have an interesting idea for a film. ‘This applicant category is riskier,’ she admits, ‘but they might come up with a totally new approach.’ The aim of the course is to produce ‘directors with vision and an ability to tell great stories.’