Animator/director Steve Hillman, cofounder of Toronto’s Optical Assembly, is branching out and starting a new production facility, Exhibita, where he assumes the title of director. Starting in July, Hillman’s commercial production, special effects and production design ventures will operate out of one place under a new name. The move comes as a result of a booming business in different areas, and not just the commercial and service work that Hillman is known for. Under the new roof, Hillman will still concentrate on advertising work, as well as the other short film and entertainment-based animation he has become fond of creating in the past few years.

Hillman is a self-taught animator, with several types of animation, including pixelation, traditionally drawn, stop-motion and clay animation, in his portfolio. He spent three years learning the animation craft by way of experiments with his girlfriend’s vcr, equipped with flying erase-heads and a black-and-white surveillance camera, and was hired by Toronto’s Cuppa Coffee Animation for his efforts. After having the ‘hey, I can do this too’ epiphany, Hillman left Cuppa Coffee and started his own venture, Optical Assembly, four years ago.

‘I took $4,000 and started Optical Assembly on a shoestring budget and just started doing the same kind of work with the same kind of philosophy,’ says Hillman. He also says that each year, his clientele doubles from the year prior, and his $4,000 investment turned itself into a $500,000 profit in 1998.

Under the Exhibita banner, a name he used solely for his animated shorts up to now, Hillman has nearly completed his latest short, which he hopes will bring him international exposure. Titled Animal Magnetism, the piece is based on the heralded incident in which Fabio, the professional celebrity, was hit in the face by a bird while riding a new roller coaster. Hillman takes a bit of artistic freedom with the end of the story.

‘The bird goes right into Fabio’s face, and ends up taking his head off and using it for a nest,’ says Hillman. As it turns out, Fabio’s head is still alive and is not very pleased with its fate. ‘Animal Magnetism will probably play itself out to be eight minutes, but we are also cutting it down to a two-minute version and sending it out to broadcasters that can include it in their programming.’

On the commercial side, Hillman has just completed two spots for the latest Rogers vip campaign, with Philippe Garneau and Michael Wurstlin of Garneau Wurstlin Philp.

The new Exhibita facility, officially open for business after July 1, is located on Richmond St. W. in Toronto, and will have a shooting studio, a drawing room and two After Effects suites. Hillman brings with him three animators and an administrative staff of two as a base to help achieve his goals for Exhibita.

‘It’s kind of funny because, in a way, Exhibita is fragmented in [that] it does commercial work and then animation that is just plain entertainment,’ says Hillman. ‘I guess that is basically the goal – to be able to do commercial work, as well as pure entertainment without any corporate agenda.’