Few animation and F/X providers can afford to keep all their eggs in one basket anymore. Whether their initial focus was on 3D F/X for feature films and TV series, commercial work or service, many shops across Canada have found in the past year’s volatile market that diversification is simply a matter of survival.

Toronto’s Calibre Digital Pictures reports that F/X work has been expectedly slow so far in 2002, but its animation department has grown significantly. Calibre animators are hard at work on the AAC Kids/BBC action comedy series Ace Lightning and the Carnival of Doom, which consists of 26 half-hours about a boy who finds his favorite video game come to life and is swept up as a participant. Calibre is creating CG characters with Alias|Wavefront’s Maya, Side Effects Software’s Houdini and Discreet’s combustion. The shop says more animation projects are in the works.

Montreal’s BIG BANG FX|Animation initially set out to work exclusively in the feature and TV series realms. But, as director of development Paulina Abarca says, the number of productions shooting in Montreal that require extensive F/X work is down dramatically this year. But BIG BANG has found new opportunities in other areas – specifically, in large-format productions.

BIG BANG has worked on six large-format films this year – usually providing animated openers and map sequences – and an animated 3D motion ride for Autostadt, Volkswagen’s German theme park. Other large-format projects include India: Kingdom of the Tiger, produced by Montreal-based Primesco, and Coral Reef Adventure, for MacGillivray Freeman Films.

Abarca likens large-format films to the bonds in one’s investment portfolio.

‘The IMAX theatres in museums are funded by those museums, so they’re not going to go under,’ she says.

This type of animation is rendered at a 4K resolution, and so the shop’s investment in learning to work at these specs has paid off. But for projects aimed at smaller screens, BIG BANG is increasingly doing work on Adobe After Effects and PhotoShop despite owning top-of-the-line systems such as the Discreet inferno. The production time might be slower, but it is ultimately more cost-efficient for clients.

Toronto’s Cuppa Coffee Animation, celebrating its 10th anniversary, is known to many for its commercial output, but it is involved more than ever in long-form work. This includes title sequences for a couple of high-profile copros. For David Cronenberg’s soon-to-be-released psychological drama Spider, Cuppa designed a deliberately paced sequence comprised of shots resembling full-color inkblot tests. Post work was done with After Effects, PhotoShop and Apple Final Cut Pro.

Cuppa also did the opener for I Was a Rat, the BBC/Catalyst Entertainment TV copro about the relationship between a princess and a boy who claims to have once been vermin. The shop designed a set incorporating weathered wooden textures, old type blocks and stop-motion animation. Cuppa shot onto an Abekas Diskus DDR, moving lights by hand. They added paper props and other F/X in post.

The company’s slate of animated series includes season two of Henry’s World for AAC Kids/TV-Loonland and three series sold worldwide through Broadway Video Distributing: Ted’s Bed, Cinema Sue and Gordon Giraffe. Rumors also abound about a $10-million stop-motion preschool series for Disney Channel.

Cuppa will be moving in August to a 50,000-square-foot purpose-built facility in Toronto. It will have 30 digital stop-motion studios (six with motion control), 70 compositing stations, six online edit suites, a cel animation facility and a set, construction and puppet-building department.

Vancouver’s Studio B Productions has stayed true to its original vision of making toons, but has adapted to a new business model as it has grown. The company has put far more emphasis on content creation than service work in recent years, and it is actively on the lookout for copro partners.

Studio B was at the Banff2002 Television Festival drumming up international support for various homebred projects. These include Spot the Cat, a Flash program about a confused cat and his unlikely sidekick; Headcases, about blue-collar brothers joined at the head; Gene, about a dubious scientist looking to invent The Next Big Thing; and Flakes, about cereal cast-offs that commiserate in Breakfastown.

Studio B is also working on Lassie for Classic Media, which recasts the beloved canine as a puppy, and Crime Crackers, about a pooch that happens to be a detective, in development with Pesky Entertainment, Egmont Imagination and YTV. Into the Shadows, in development with Family Channel, is about the scary shared imagination of twins.

Studio B has opened a new Flash studio that facilitates the production process from conception to broadcast. The shop recently won three Leos for Yvon of the Yukon, for which the BBC has commissioned 26 new episodes. Production on seasons three and four begin this summer.

-www.calibredigital.com

-www.bigbanganimation.com

-www.cuppacoffee.com

-www.studiobproductions.com