Canada is an animated place. We’re filled with characters, stories and gorgeous photo-realistic scenery. As well, the business of animation in Canada is still going strong, and evolving alongside technology and our changing styles and attitudes. Through the animation industry one can see a reflection of our greater culture and way of life.

Hyperbole aside, a number of trends are shaping and guiding today’s industry. Some of Canada’s leading animation and visual effects companies spent some thoughtful moments coming up with what they believe are the most exciting new developments in the business. What styles are in demand? What new technologies are revolutionizing production? And how is the business of animation changing? These questions and more are pondered by the experts as the animation nation goes live in Playback.

At Pascal Blais Productions in Montreal, Howard Huxham, producer and director of development, feels his company has been responsible for starting a trend of its own – animated imax films.

‘I would say that at the time we were producing The Old Man and the Sea [Pascal Blais’ Oscar-winning imax project] we considered the film the first of its kind. Based on the success of some of the work in progress on that film, The Disney Corporation decided to film Fantasia 2000 and pursue imax distribution for it. As well, there are several other producers that have decided to distribute their animation-based films in the imax format,’ Huxham explains.

The move toward making imax animation where, obviously, ‘everything has to be larger,’ has also increased the amount of work in this format for Pascal Blais.

‘The Old Man and The Sea has propelled us forward to be involved in five additional animation-based film productions over the next five years,’ says Huxham.

The demand for animated imax movies has not affected the drop-off in demand for traditional feature and series projects, according to the producer.

‘Some of the big studios that were set up in Canada, notably Disney in Toronto and Vancouver, have been shut down, because within the feature animation world there seems to be a tendency to move away from the high-end quality productions that were really in demand three or four years ago.’

In terms of the current animation style in demand, Huxham explains that it ‘varies by geographic region.’ He goes on to say ‘in Canada and the u.s., computer animation, and to some degree stop motion and other types of visual art animation, seem to be very strong and prevalent. In Mexico and South America, there’s more of a tendency toward traditional cel animation and animation with live action.’

Huxham also notes the drop in demand for animated commercial work has forced producers to ‘get into features, series or animation for the Internet.’

On the business end, Huxham does not think the problems related to Montreal’s embattled Cinar will affect Pascal Blais. ‘They are going to affect production companies that produce through gaining access to public money. They are going to start to feel an impact as the government starts to tighten security a little bit,’ he says.

In fact, Huxham thinks Pascal Blais may indirectly benefit from the controversy. ‘Here, the only impact that we may experience is that some of the people that were gainfully employed at Cinar may start to become available or interested in either our imax or tv commercial productions. And the talent pool locally, if anything, is all of a sudden going to get larger,’ he says.

Huxham also points out that companies with ‘dot-com spin-offs are growing the quickest.’ For him, the Internet is a place ‘that every animator can do what they’ve always wanted to do and not been able to, due to broadcast restrictions.’

At Nelvana in Toronto, Jocelyn Hamilton, supervising producer, points out several trends the animation giant is following.

2D-3D is a hot style at Nelvana right now. 2D-3D, described as ‘a combination with 3D backgrounds and 2D animation’ is ‘definitely going to be new and up and coming,’ Hamilton says. Also, Nelvana is taking the Web-based animation software program Flash and using it to create broadcast elements for television.

Flash, which uses vector-based plotting to create Web-sized [read: small] animations, was not designed for television broadcast. However, Nelvana believes the ‘rough, flat kind of look you would see in the Internet’ will gain popularity on television sets as well.

Of course, the decision to use Flash for a television series reflects the coming convergence and positions Nelvana nicely to ‘have those two things intertwined.’ Bonus: the faster, less complex software makes the show ‘a little bit cheaper to produce’ as well.

In terms of show content, Nelvana is also throwing the industry a big, biting curveball. The company is following the trend to adult primetime animation so popular among audiences. ‘We’ve been broadening our horizons, so to speak,’ Hamilton says.

When Nelvana says it is going primetime, it does not simply mean more shows like Bob and Margaret. In fact, Nelvana is targeting specialty networks with a slate of new shows that are ‘more adult than The Simpsons.’ The Flash show, as it turns out, is called Quads (although rumor has it the show’s name may change to Gimps) and is ‘about a quadriplegic and you’re basically making fun [of him]. But it is based on [cartoonist] John Callahan’s work, and he’s a quadriplegic,’ Hamilton explains. ‘It’s a satire on his life. I mean some of the jokes and politically incorrect things are amazing.’

Another Nelvana show on the make is Gahan Wilson’s Kid. Gahan Wilson is the famous illustrator for Playboy and New Yorker. It’s based on his comic strip Nuts,’ explains Hamilton.

With this move to the ‘opposite end of the spectrum,’ Nelvana is in internal discussions as to whether it wants to release these new edged productions ‘under the same banner [as its children’s programming].’

In terms of trends in the production of animated content, Hamilton points to the new software programs, like Flash, that are ‘changing the way we do things.’

‘We don’t have to do traditional design and then layout and then animation. We can combine all those. So we have to rethink our traditional way of doing production.’

On the business side, Nelvana is moving away from ‘always being the majority coproducer’ on its coproduction projects. ‘We’re starting to be the minority coproducer in some cases so that we can start to pair up with companies that are already doing fantastic things. We’re learning from them,’ Hamilton says.

As for Cinar, Hamilton says it ‘was something we watched, but it [the controversy] was not something that really affected us in any way.’

Hamilton also points to another trend gripping the animation business. Whether prompted by Internet limitations or mankind’s ever-diminishing attention span, the supervising producer thinks animation projects are going to get shorter.

‘Over the years, we’ve gone from half-hour formats to 11-minute formats to seven-minute formats. I think we might start getting down even smaller, even for [traditional] broadcast,’ she says.

In Vancouver, there is a major trend towards animators providing visual effects to large American series productions. At Northwest Imaging & fx, Inferno compositor Joe Farrell says, ‘We’re generally asked for photo-realistic kinds of work.’ Northwest provides visual effects for series such as Stargate SG-1, Andromeda and The Outer Limits.

According to Farrell, ‘character animation is very rare because it requires a massive amount of work. So scriptwriters, for a long time, have probably been turned into thinking that character animation should kind of be avoided. In a series atmosphere there’s no time for that at all.’

Farrell concurs that new software programs have added another few clicks to the top speed at which animation can be produced. ‘With the new programs that come out now, it has enabled us to bypass a whole two weeks of work that we can now do in a day.’

Set extensions have to be the biggest trend right now for the providers of visual effects services. Farrell explains the concept: ‘Down in the studio they’ll build a door and a bit of surrounding wall. But, in fact, the characters need to be standing in front of an all-mighty castle. And we’ll do that later. And what’s getting even more exciting for [our clients] is that they don’t need to lock the camera off [anymore]. They can wander around with a Steadicam and we can track it all in and make it look like perfect 3D. That makes them even more excited.

‘Plus, their budgets have dropped drastically. They still need to give us a substantial amount of money to do it, but it would cost a hell of a lot more for an art director and set builder to build a castle,’ he says.

At Rainmaker Digital Pictures, executive producer Paul Quinn is also providing services for American programs, including Dark Angel, a series from Canadian ex-pat James Cameron. The star of the show is a live woman, but Rainmaker was charged with ‘cyber-scanning her and using [the cyber version of] her in sequences that are difficult to do practically [like stunts],’ Quinn explains.

This technology, the executive producer hypothesizes, will allow you to ‘reproduce actors who have died, like John Wayne.’

For Quinn, the demand for photo-realism is strong in the company’s animation service work. Also, Quinn confirms matte extensions and motion capture are also in high demand.