Doug Morris is executive producer and partner at Soho, a Toronto-based studio that provides CG animation, type design and digital FX for broadcast design and commercial clients.

MY colleague Tony Cleave, Soho’s creative director and head of broadcast design, doesn’t hesitate when asked to rank the relative importance of the input variables driving a Canadian broadcast design studio. What tops the list? It’s not hardware, not software, but ‘wetware’ – the organic matter between one’s ears. All the technology in the world won’t get you to first base if you can’t intellectually grasp the client’s vision and define it in graphic form on the screen. Tony maintains that it is critically important that this process not be tethered to existing technologies or the ‘filter du jour.’

The broadcast client doesn’t really care about the technical path the designer takes. Clients are concerned with the destination – the visual solution to the brand-identity problem.

I agree with Tony’s philosophy and also firmly believe in the ‘total service’ approach. Soho’s competitors in broadcast design are either boutique firms that subcontract a significant portion of the actual production process or giant international design firms. But by offering full service and a full range of equipment and software, Soho is able to more strictly control the process, time lines and costs, which are critical in jobs of any significant size.

That said, every artist needs his or her tools. That should include access to an extensive array of systems, which at best would include Discreet Inferno, Quantel Henry V8 and Infinity, Alias|Wavefront Maya, eyeon Software Digital Fusion, Adobe After Effects, Right Hemisphere Deep Paint, etc. And if off-the-shelf software doesn’t provide the look needed to meet the client’s expectations and fulfill the concepts that have been defined, in-house programmers should be available to modify and extend the capabilities to deliver the desired effect.

Despite the growing functionality of less expensive systems, we find that the high-end gear really performs for us, especially when we are under strict time constraints.

Henry and Inferno offer tremendously responsive effects editing and compositing capabilities, and it is our Maya animation seats that produce the best animation at speeds that assist the creative process. Creative people like to try new techniques and are constantly tweaking the look; the high-end systems ensure that the creative process flows freely and that in the end the client gets the best possible product.

This past summer, Soho’s broadcast design team produced on-air designs for Vision TV, Leafs TV, Raptors NBA TV and Country Canada, as well as a specialized package for The Documentary Channel. All these projects delivered within a few weeks of each other, and Henry and Inferno certainly helped achieve the efficient coordination of design, animation, compositing and final packaging. Our creative won each of these jobs and the gear allowed us to keep the process fluid and the jobs moving toward delivery.

The state of software and hardware is constantly in flux in our industry. We are constantly upgrading or buying new programs and adding features that help keep us on the leading edge. Our goal is to have our designers create without technical limitations. Concepts should never be subjugated to technology.

-www.26soho.com