Having honed their skills on a variety of genres of projects from commercials to all manner of long-form service work, and having worked all over the geographical and stylistic map, Canadian animation companies are flourishing.

Many animation shops are now expanding in size and capacity, taking on new forms of work and high-profile jobs, with many stepping up to the production plate as independent producers. Herewith, a sampling of some of Canada’s new cartoon coconspirators.

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This year, two Toronto animation shops – The Animation House and Lightbox Studios – are marking 15 years in the game. Here they discuss the technological and creative evolution of the genre and their respective futures in commercial and long-form animation.

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It all started with Bugs Bunny and the Roadrunner, Daffy Duck and Wyle E. Coyote.

One kid who grew up idolizing these characters went beyond the typical toonathon stupor to write to the creators – Chuck Jones and many others – who worked for Warner Bros.

The aspiring young animator – Greg Duffell – eventually established his own studio in Toronto. Lightbox Studios, set up with his partner Mary Young in 1983, produces mainly commercials, and recent spotwork includes animating Zellers’ mascot, ‘Zeddy Bear.’

Prior to a career in ad-animation, Duffell had a long-form apprenticeship. His first big break came 25 years ago, when Richard Williams invited him to train at his London, Eng.-based studio. At 17, Duffell left the country before achieving his high school diploma to join the ‘breakthrough work’ at Richard Williams Animation.

Working on Williams’ full-length animated film, Duffell had the opportunity to rub pencils with animators from Britain and North America. When Duffell suspected that Williams’ project would possibly never be released, he decided to go back to Toronto. Incidentally, Williams’ film was finally released – two years ago. It was titled Arabian Night and then renamed The Thief and the Cobbler for release on video.

In the early ’80s, with numerous (Canadian and American) freelance projects behind him, Duffell and Young began to slowly set up the animation studio. At first, being both new and young, it was tough to attract clients. Their break finally came when ad agency Leo Burnett (of Tony the Tiger and Keebler Elves fame) decided to go with Lightbox on its Rice Krispies account.

Over the years, Lightbox became known as a company which did live-action/animation combinations. ‘That was when it was a difficult process,’ says Duffell, ‘very technical. The optical printers were time-consuming. Just to get a character matted took days. Now it’s easy, the footage is ready in minutes.’

Fifteen years ago, a 30-second animated spot took six to eight weeks to produce, with about 20 animators working on the project, which required a $20,000 to $60,000 budget.

With today’s technology, a 30 is produced by no more than five animators and the time required depends on the complexity of the work. However, Duffell says a 30-second animated spot will cost studios more to produce because the demand for animators has gone up. Duffell pins it on the release and success of The Little Mermaid, which reinspired the idea of animated films and led to the popularity of the animator.

During the period of 1983 to 1987, the wide use of film opticals in animation was coming to an end. The early ’90s saw the emergence of new animation techniques. This posed a problem for Duffell, Young and Lightbox.

What technology should a company invest in? Almost automatically, one would think digital animation. However, in the early ’90s, Duffell found that many ad agencies were wary of computer animation, envisioning angular, boxy figures.

Up until three years ago, separate cels were still being hand-drawn and some agencies still wanted animation shot on film. There wasn’t just one way to ‘proverbially skin a cat,’ as Duffell puts it. Now the traditional hand-painted era is gone. ‘The commercial medium is electronic.’

Where does Lightbox fit in with the digital trend? A stark ‘I don’t know,’ is the answer. The company, Duffell explains, is in ‘a long transition state’ in which it hasdrastically downsized its operation. The studio no longer employs a permanent staff. Each project is met with a tailor-made team of animators.

This is quite a change from the younger years of Lightbox’s existence. 1986-88 saw an increase in work in the animation industry. Lightbox handled 30 to 40 projects a year. Duffell was working at an unbelievably frantic pace which he insists he would not do again. Lightbox now handles 15 to 20 projects a year. Duffell is unfazed by the current reduced volume, pointing out that it’s cyclical, and rather enjoys not ‘being stressed to the limit.’

When asked whether Lightbox is arming itself for the millennium with the tech tools necessary, Duffell replies, ‘I don’t see technology as the future. I see technology as a means to an end. Without ideas, technology is useless. In this day and age, anybody can buy those tools. What I have to hope for [is] whatever ideas, whatever concepts I have, are superior. I don’t intend to lose my way.’

In between commercial projects, Duffell does a variety of freelance work. At one point, Duffell had the opportunity to do some animation work on The Hunchback of Notre Dame with the team at Disney, but before agreeing to the project, he pondered what he would really like to do. Turns out he’s still a huge Warner Bros. fan.

Duffell got in touch with Chuck Jones. In 1994, he spent the year in l.a. working at the Warner Bros. Studios on Another Froggy Evening, which was, for reasons unknown to Duffell, never released, and Superior Duck, released in September of 1996. It is quite fitting that Duffell, who had once written to his animator-hero as a boy, had the opportunity to help Jones create the last two cartoons of his career.

Although the adoption of digital animation technology has given the founders of Lightbox something to think about as it celebrates its fifteenth birthday this year, the studio’s foundation remains rooted in its creator’s philosophy, and that revolves around a love of animation that falls somewhere between addiction and religion.

Linda Gagatsis is a second-year media writing student in the Radio and Television Arts program at Ryerson Polytechnic University, Toronto.

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*Also in this report:

Post/SFX showcase:

Collideascope injects hip B2

Gajdecki: body parts R us B4

Big Bang graduates from Dog’s World to Lost World B4

Lost Boy’s extraterrestrial experience B6

Spin in the series race B7

Animation shops to watch:

Bardel gets Dreamworks nod B10

Dynomight’s Net direction B11

Sargent York kids’ 3-pack B12

Canuck evolves from studio flicks to in-house picks B13

Red Giant spawns series B14

Canadian prodcos plotting boffo toonflick projects B15

Animation House, Lightbox both hit 15 B16, B21

B.C. post shops winning more of the U.S. visual effects B18