Still in its infant stages and operating without an office or proper phone number, Toronto’s Bent Animation is starting to make a name for itself – both at home and south of the border. Earning a solid reputation based primarily on word of mouth, the year-old, three-person company has been frantically keeping pace with the demand for animation from a wide range of clients over the past 12 months.

The three players in Bent Animation are animators and cofounders Colin Doncaster (technical director), Kristian Howald (animation director) and Mike DeArruda (executive producer). All three are former employees of Spin Productions where the trio met. Doncaster and Howald had already spoken about branching off and establishing their own company before DeArruda joined Spin as a producer.

‘When I came along and met them at Spin, I started producing a couple of the jobs with them and I found out that they had always wanted to open up their own shop where they could do their own thing,’ says DeArruda. ‘They had their own computer systems at home and were already doing things on their own. They had done something for ytv while working full time and that was kind of the beginning of it.’

The first piece for ytv, an intro for the program Warp, was nominated for a Monitor award. It served as a launching pad for Bent, which was soon hired by software companies like Mindscape and Cosmic Cube to do animation and cut scenes for video games. The company recently wrapped some cut scenes for the newest installment of the Prince of Persia series of games from Mindscape.

Although both still in their 20s, animators Howald and Doncaster have good resumes. Among other duties, Howald teaches the Introduction to Maya course at the Academy of Design. Doncaster has held jobs at Montreal’s Cinar and Vancouver’s Mainframe, working on shows like Beastwars and ReBoot. The demands of Bent recently caused Doncaster to give up his job at Sheridan College where he taught a course in advanced computer animation.

DeArruda started his production career at Rainmaker in Vancouver and moved to Toronto to take a job at Eyes Post. Later, after spending two years at Spin, DeArruda decided he wanted to join Bent and came aboard in April.

‘I have always taken advantage of going places where I can learn more,’ says DeArruda. ‘Anytime I was going through a routine and not learning anymore, I’ve wanted to advance onto the next thing. With these guys [Doncaster and Howald] I certainly felt that I could keep learning.’

DeArruda says he is very content in his new job. ‘It’s the first job I’ve come on to where I’m not thinking, ‘What is going to be my next job?’ ‘ he says.

All three men currently work out of their homes, although DeArruda hints there may be some office space in Bent’s future. DeArruda says working at home gives the three an opportunity to work whenever they are inspired to (which, apparently, is always). The three also schedule meetings to talk about business, the future of Bent and their long-term goals.

DeArruda says one unique quality of the company is that each member of the team encourages the others creatively.

‘If there is dead time, it is not often that you get a boss that says, ‘Hey, if you’ve got nothing to do today, do some writing or do something creative,” says DeArruda. ‘It stimulates a good creative atmosphere.’

It would seem as though the gents of Bent never stop working. In his spare time, Howald has created two new computer plug-ins. The first is a Maya-to-Renderman plug-in that is reportedly still a work-in-progress but nonetheless has sparked the interest of companies in the u.s. The second is a hair plug-in that was recently used in Bent’s new show intro for ytv’s Gamerz and that DeArruda says provides some realistic-looking mops that can be combed and styled.

‘Kris is still doing a full day’s work at Bent and in his spare time he still loves it enough to plug away and find time to keep writing software,’ DeArruda says. ‘These guys, even though we could be working 10- to 14- hour days on a project, will probably still put in another four hours on their own, continuously doing other things.’

Content for the moment to keep commercials as the main thrust of their business (and having recently completed a fully cgi animated spot for intv), commercial elements and video game cut scenes, they have set big goals for the company, says DeArruda.

‘If a project looks good we will take it on, but we would love to get into feature film work,’ says DeArruda. ‘Down the road, Bent would love to do more than just animation.’

After a hectic year in business, DeArruda reports that things are finally starting to slow down at Bent. He says somewhere down the road Bent looks to hire on some other eager young animators, adding that a diploma from a reputable school will not be the only important hiring factor. The top traits that Bent will look for in an employee, says DeArruda, are talent and a genuine love for what they do.