Toronto-based Elliott Animation has leapt into the next dimension in animation, opening 3D division Krislin Elliott Digital. ked is currently at work on Sitting Ducks, a collaboration with Los Angeles’s Creative Capers and The Krislin Company for Universal Pictures Visual Programming and Sitting Ducks Productions.

The 13-episode, half-hour series is based on characters from Windsor, Ont.-born Michael Bedard’s popular airbrushed paintings, posters and books. The show tells the story of a duck named Bill who forms a friendship with an alligator named Aldo, although such fraternizing is frowned upon in their respective home towns on either side of Central Pond.

Under Bedard’s supervision, ked is trying to carry the aesthetic of the originals into the 3D realm, in a style described as ‘California fantasy deco.’

George Elliott, Sitting Ducks’ creative project director and artist/animator/director/creative head of Elliott Animation and ked, adds the program has a ‘sitcom kind of feel, like Seinfeld for kids.’

l.a. native Elliott’s 2D-animation career in Toronto dates back to 1984. Starting as a freelancer for various North American animation companies, he established a successful home studio in Brampton, Ont. by the late ’80s. In 1997, he formed Pictor Entertainment in Toronto with a staff of 15, a number that would expand up to 100 full-time and freelance animators depending on the project. Along the way he has amassed more than 300 screen credits on direct-to-video features, cd-rom games, commercials and tv series including Land Before Time V and VI, An American Tail III, Ferngully II, All Dogs Go to Heaven, The Secret of nimh II, The Roswell Conspiracies and Bob and Margaret.

This year, Pictor Entertainment spun off Elliott Animation for 2D and Flash productions. Elliott already had the 3D crossover in mind.

‘[He] saw some 3D work that excited him,’ explains producer/ writer Brian Irving, a partner at Elliott Animation and ked. ‘He felt encouraged by some of the traditional 2D ‘acting’ you see in films like Toy Story, where you basically have 2D artists working in 3D.’

Elliott’s 2D work for u.s. clients got him an introduction with Krislin Company head Walt Kubiak, a veteran producer/director/animator whose credits include supervising producer on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Smurfs. Established in 1992, Kubiak’s company has provided directing and preproduction services on more than 300 animated tv episodes.

‘I let him know I was interested in getting involved in 3D,’ Elliott recalls. ‘He gave us a chance to do a test and break into the business. On the basis of our tests we landed the contract and here we are.’ [Kubiak is also a partner at ked.]

ked will have a final crew size of 64, consisting of traditional 3D animators as well as 2D animators who have moved over to 3D. The company is also training its own 2D artists in the ways of the 3D technology. Elliott sees the two crafts as ‘surprisingly similar.’

‘We’re sticking to traditional animation principles and the 2D pipeline in terms of production, so it’s really not that different,’ he explains. ‘The main [change] is that we don’t have to draw the character over and over again – it’s always on model. 3D is more like claymation than anything else, and now with the different rendering tools you can mimic the look of claymation in the computer.’

ked has assembled some notable 3D artists, including: Paul Hunt, a Canuck whose work has taken him from ilm in California to the feature The Frighteners in New Zealand; Lon Molnar, who contributed to the films The Cell and Jason x at toybox; Brian Foster, a Walt Disney and Nelvana vet; and Peter Lepeniottis, whose credits include Disney’s Dinosaurs and Toy Story 2.

Elliott sees Walt Disney Animation Canada’s closing of its Toronto studio last spring as a mixed blessing.

‘On a small scale, yes, we picked up a couple of artists from them, but any time an animation studio shuts down in Toronto I don’t really consider that a good thing for business on a large scale,’ he says. ‘We’re always hoping the studios will survive.’

While some Canadian shops cite a dearth of qualified 3D animators, Elliott believes his company has an advantage.

‘Being a 2D shop we have a lot of highly experienced artists,’ he says. ‘The main requirement for getting into 3D is learning the software, so once they’re up to speed, all their 2D skills transfer.’

Discreet software

ked has 48 boxes in its studio, all running 3dsmax4 – code name ‘Magma’ – the next release of 3D Studio Max animation software from Montreal-headquartered Discreet. Eight of those boxes also run Discreet’s Combustion, which ked is using on Sitting Ducks for compositing and technical directing [lighting and render setting]. ked’s one editing terminal is equipped with Discreet’s Edit.

ked has a close relationship with Discreet, to the extent where it is a beta site for Magma, which will ship in January or February 2001.

‘[Discreet] has really made substantial gains in the quality of the animation controls,’ Elliott observes. ‘They are much more user-friendly and have more tools animators are looking for – tools found in high-end software packages.’

According to Elliott, Magma initially had a few shortcomings.

‘One of the things we had issue with was its animation keyer,’ he says. ‘So Discreet put some programmers on it and created a new animation keyer in about a week’s time, and it’s a very sweet addition to the package. [Discreet] wants to know everything about how their software is performing in a production environment, and from our point of view, it’s nice to feel we’re going to have some impact on the software’s development.’

Meanwhile, all of ked’s staff is currently dedicated to Sitting Ducks, which is slated to air worldwide in September 2001. Elliott Animation’s 2D artists have recently finished service contracts for Phoenix Animation/ Catalyst Entertainment and Nelvana and they are producing an experimental 10-part Internet series called The Contract for l.a.-based Urban Entertainment. The company is also poised to make the leap into content creation.

‘We’re hoping to go that way,’ Elliott says. ‘We’re developing our own original ideas, but we haven’t pitched anything yet. Obviously that’s the Holy Grail for any growing studio, and that’s definitely where we want to be.’ *

-www.krislincompany.com