Sylvain Taillon is a partner and executive producer at TOPIX, Toronto

There has been quite a bit of speculation lately as to the viability of animation companies in a somewhat volatile commercial market.

Animation companies thrive or perish depending on the outcome of a few phone calls a year, as projects typically can take up a lot of resources for a long period of time. You get a few healthy green lights and boom, you’re off to the races. The opposite can be devastating.

As opposed to live-action production companies, which often rely on smaller staff and which can ‘get fat’ only when needed, animation companies are only as good as the artists on their rosters and they typically keep them on their payroll through busy or idle times. And if you happen to be doing CG work, then the added financial burden of leases and software upgrades and support can make for a pretty hefty overhead.

Spending that much money on a monthly basis can be a killer if a shop offers solely one or two very specific approaches to production: if for some reason your style isn’t ‘in’ at any given time, you can be facing a pretty grim picture.

What is the solution? Diversification. It works for a lot of us, but the danger is to go too big, too fast. While it allows you to rely on the individual strengths of various departments to keep the shop busy, an overall slowdown can break the bank. We, for example, have constantly relied on a variety of talent and resources, but always within our means. On the one hand, we can benefit from a wealth of resources when it comes to assessing a given project, while on the other hand, we are less susceptible to suffer greatly from a lull in one of our departments, as other areas often keep us busy and paying the bills.

It is a simple approach, really. Originally, we were interested in beefing up our arsenal of solutions (character animation, effects, design, compositing) just to be better at what we do. The diversification process grew out of our interest in being flexible while building a viable set of solutions to creative problems. Our approach has always revolved around one simple principle: let’s first imagine what we all want to see, then we’ll find a way to get there. We always try and find the right solution or combination of solutions to any creative or technical problem, as opposed to building one big generic solution and fighting to make our client’s challenge fit it.

Also, after 15 years in the biz of animation, design and post-production, we’ve also found that keeping a nimble attitude is often key to survival. We are fortunate enough to have a very compact management team, one that can turn on a dime as the commercial market moves this way and that. We long ago understood that, in a business where trends and fads come and go ever so quickly, the idea of a five-year plan is the most ludicrous notion we could ever have embraced.

So, it is possible in fact to live a healthy corporate life during these interesting times. Strategy, diversification, healthy management and a nimble attitude will take you a long way. But never, ever, lose sight along the way of two very important things: work with talented people and make sure you have fun doing it.

-www.topix.com