But what about Malaysia

Let's just say that you would have to look real hard to find local companies that specialise in 3D animation. One of the few notable ventures was "Tyco," touted as the first local "virtual pop group" (see In.Tech, Nov 14, 2000).

"Voiced" by local pop-rap group KRU, Tyco's relatively successful self-titled debut is among the country's top-selling local albums according to the RIM charts.

While 3D animation is pretty widespread in TV commercials and corporate presentations, we're still waiting for our first locally-developed computer game. (Yes, there are some folks working on this).

So don't count on seeing a fully 3D movie character like the much-debated (should we kill him now.... or later?) Jar-Jar Binks of The Phantom Menace any time soon; the way things stand, it'll be quite an achievement just to see Malaysian animated series completed this year.

Locals not good enough?

The number of local companies specialising in 3D animation techniques is still small. This is understandable since there are limited opportunities in the Malaysian market.

But according to some, Malaysian companies themselves seem generally reluctant to actually hire or use Malaysian 3D animation companies, simply because they believe locals are simply not good enough.

"I think that some local clients think Malaysians are not good enough (for 3D animation jobs). They feel that you have to get overseas companies if you want 'better standards," said Alain Zaugg, managing director of Optidigit Sdn Bhd (www.optidigit.com).

Calling itself "a digital post-production studio," the Kuala Lumpur-based company has done 3D animation work on films, documentaries, websites and music videos.

"The only way we can change this perception is to get more international clients," he said – at least this would help promote the idea that local animators are as competent as, if not better than, their foreign counterparts.

Optidigit seems to be doing just that. Other than producing advertisements and corporate videos, it has also created a "virtual supermodel" named Webbie Tookay (www.illusion2K.com), "who" was used by Elite Models in New York fashion shows last year.

More economical here

Cyberjaya-based Persistence of Vision Sdn Bhd (www.povfx.com), or POV for short, is in the midst of producing several episodes of the first season of 3D animated series Stevie Stardust for Stardust Entertainment Production of Germany.

POV's other notable project is the creation of the virtual hostess "Myra" for the Astro TV programme Domain Myra, a half-hour show on gadgates, websites and "cyber-culture".

"We are very competitive, as it's only half the cost here if we were to produce a single episode (of a 3D animated series), compared to what animation houses in North America would charge," said Steve Bristow, executive director of Fat Lizard Sdn Bhd (www.fatlizard.com), another animation outfit that produces advertisements.

Getting foreign customers can also help make a difference between profitability and loss.

At least that is what Frames Production Sdn Bhd's managing director Pierre Nayagam seems to think so.

He said that 70% of his company's projects now come from abroad.

"Before our overseas clients came in, Frames (www.frames.com.my) was just concentrating on survival," he added.

Lack of talent?

It used to be difficult to hire 3D animators, at least until several years back. These days, may colleges offer a wide variety of multimedia courses.

Details on the popularity of tertiary arts and design courses with a focus on 3D animations are sketchy at best, but the companies agree that finding fresh graduates has become easier now.

But some in the local 3D animation industry seem to think that finding talented and hardworking graduates is a different kettle of fish altogether.

Goh Aun Hoe, animation director for Silver Ant Sdn Bhd, felt that "talented 3D animators are still hard to come by."

"It is getting harder and harder to find good graduates with enough potential and a good attitude nowadays," lamented Goh, who also lectures part-time at The One Academy of Communication Design.

According to Moon K. Chan, managing director VHQ Post (M) Sdn Bhd (www.vhq.com.my), many graduates seem content to learn just what is being taught in their courses.

"Instead of just doing their homework, they should do more to experiment and explore new animation techniques," he advised.

Seamus Tan, the digital animation department head of The One Academy, said his school is doing its best to maintain its standards.

"Our syllabus is updated every semester. We also keep in close contact with the people working in the 3D animation industry so that our students are exposed the latest techniques," he said.

More economical here

Cyberjaya-based Persistence of Vision Sdn Bhd (www.povfx.com), or POV for short, is in the midst of producing several episodes of the first season of 3D animated series Stevie Stardust for Stardust Entertainment Production of Germany.

POV's other notable project is the creation of the virtual hostess "Myra" for the Astro TV programme Domain Myra, a half-hour show on gadgates, websites and "cyber-culture".

"We are very competitive, as it's only half the cost here if we were to produce a single episode (of a 3D animated series), compared to what animation houses in North America would charge," said Steve Bristow, executive director of Fat Lizard Sdn Bhd (www.fatlizard.com), another animation outfit that produces advertisements.

Getting foreign customers can also help make a difference between profitability and loss.

At least that is what Frames Production Sdn Bhd's managing director Pierre Nayagam seems to think so.

He said that 70% of his company's projects now come from abroad.

"Before our overseas clients came in, Frames (www.frames.com.my) was just concentrating on survival," he added.

Hurts the industry

Chan said he was "apprehensive" about the current state of the local 3D animation industry.

"It is getting common for fresh graduates to set up their own tow or three-men companies to offer '3D animation' work for corporate clients at extremely low prices," he said. "This happens because many small companies are not willing to pay."

"This hurts the industry," he claimed, sine the quality of work produced usually does not reflect the "best we have to offer."

"One has to go through years of hardwork" before setting up his or her own company.

"You have to eat and breathe animation, since exposure (to various techniques) is crucial; the key really is research and development," he said.

R&D is not just about pouring money into infrastructure, hardware and software, which Malaysians do very well, he said, but rather ensuring that "the manpower pool is the best we can train."

Young prodigy

Still, this does not mean you have to complete your studies and work for years and years before finally getting some recognition.

Exceptions do occur – just check out 20 year-old Tan Jin Ho's personal work, A Malaysian Friday (see accompanying story).

Chan said he was very impressed by the texturing generated by Tan, a student of the Limkokwing Institute of Creative Technology.

Stressing repeatedly on the need for budding local animators to "specialise" in distinct area (such as modelling, texturing, and movement), he said that "if there was a need for the same sort of texturing work," he'd pay any amount Tan asks for.

"There's no one else in the country doing it," said Chan.

Animation was "a very disciplined process," and the industry has to continue to look after itself, which was why Postam (the Association of Post-Production & Animation Companies) was set up.

Postam (www.postam.gov.my) is supposed to be the consultative body for post-production and animation companies in Malaysia, and currently has more than 20 members.

Chan is also chairman the association. One of them main reasons it was formed was because these companies needed an effective industry representation.

"It was easier to hold dialogues with the Government. Besides, we also act as a 'guardian' of ethics and professionalism for the industry," he added.

This boy's going places

Take one look at Tan Jin Ho, who prefers to be called "Tajino," and you would most probably mistake him as another one of those thousands of college student busy studying and partying.

Well, the 20 year-old has manage to created quite a name for himself – this student of the Limkokwing Institute of Creative Technology could very well be one of Malaysia's most creative and industrious talents.

The proof is in the pudding, they say – just grab a taste of the fully 3D animated short he created, A Malaysian Friday (www.amalaysianfriday.cjb.net).

And yes, he did it all by himself .... after all, only George Lucas can afford an Industrial Light and Magic budget.

The full details of the software tools he used for A Malaysian Friday can be found on www.cgchannel.com/interview_tajino.php.

The 3D clip is approximately three minutes and 24 seconds long, and illustrates a typical morning in a kampun house. Tajino actually got the inspiration for the project from his grandfather's house in Permatang Pauh, in Penang.

Taking three months to plan and another three of actual production, A Malaysian Friday came about because Tajino wanted to do "something nice and surreal."

"I was inspired by TV shows and movies such as Seaquest DSV, Babylon 5 and Lost In Space," he said.

He used the Li htWave [6] software, learning through books (his main reference source was Inside Li htWave [6] by Dan Ablan) and online discussion groups.

Tajino started honing his 3D animation skills on the AutoCAD design software, and only started using 3D animation software, his first being 3D studio for DOS, seven years ago.'

Some of his earlier 3D animation work won the Silver Award in the Malaysian Video Awards 2000 competition and the grand prize in the Futurist Car Design Competition in 1995.

And yes, he also won the In.Tech & The One Academy Digital Art and Design Award in 1999.

Tajino's work even caught the eye of Ahmad Balfakih, managing director of Click Grafix Sdn Bhd, who immediately gave him a free copy of Li htWave [6], which retails at approximately RM10,000.

Click Grafix is a local distributor for animation software and post-production tools such as Li htWave, Aura, Vid et, Video Toaster NT 2.0 and Inspire 3D.

When asked on his future aspirations, Tajino exclaimed, "I want to work in film industry."

Stressing that he undertook the A Malaysian Friday project mainly because of his passion, Tajino added: "It's not about the money, as I'd rather do something I feel very strongly about."

Only through passion would one go far with 3D animation, he said, and Tajino encourages other aspirating 3D animators to explore and try out as many different tools as possible.- CHEE YIH YANG

Oscar nod to animation talents

I'd like to thank Tom Hanks for voicing me, John Lasseter and the guys at Pixar for creating me, my agent, Buzz, Jessie, Mr Potato Head and the rest of the team – it was great working with you guys."

That won't happen this year, but we could be hearing Oscar acceptance speeches like this, perhaps complemented by computer-animated tears, in years to come.

For the first time in 20 years, a new Academy award has been created: Best Animated Feature.

It will be probably come into effect in 2002, for films more than 70 minutes' length that are "primarily animated."

Up until now, only animated short films – of which Creature Comforts and The Wrong Trousers are outstanding examples – could expect Academy recognition. But the new award means next year's crop of full-length animations are, for the first time, true Oscar, contenders

Animators have been campaigning for years for Oscar recognition, but also harbour reservations about the award.

"It's a double-edged sword," says Dave Sproxton, managing director and co-founder of Britian's Aardman Animations, producers of last year's Chicken Run.

"It's a sign that animation is back on the agenda, and should mean we see more players in the field, But it could also relegate animated films to their own little ghetto, so they stand against each other and don't interfere with the 'real' pictures."

In critical and box-office terms, animation is already giving "real" pictures a run for their money. Toy Story 2 was one of the top-grossing films worldwide last year, as well as a critical triumph; while Chicken Run and Dinosaur both took more than US$100mil (RM380mil) in the United States.

One-horse race

But despite matching live-action films in the marketplace, animation has never come close at the Oscars. Animators often spend years crafting their product, only to see Phil Collins or Tims Rice walk off with an Oscar for best song.

Only one animated feature has ever received a best picture nomination: Disney's Beauty and the Beast in 1991. It, too, won only the music categories.

Since about 1960, Disney has been the only studio regularly producing feature-length animation so, until recently, any Oscar would have been a one-horse race.

Disney is the only studio have received real Academy recognition for its features. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs received an honorary award in 1939 for having "pioneered a great new entertainment field," and three years later, Fantasia received another.

Disney's dominance once destroyed competition in the past, but its recent renaissance has had the opposite effect.

Once the Mouse House bounced back with hits such as Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and particularly The Lion King – which took more than US$760mil (RM2.9bil) worldwide – Disney's colossal revenues prompted other Hollywood studios to take another stab at the genre.

Most have mimicked Disney's family-musical formula but few have consistently made it click. Fox put its weight behind Disney defector Don Bluth, whose Phoenix studio found sporadic success with Anastasia and An American Tail.

However, last year's sci-fi epic Titan AE failed to recoup much of its US$80mil (RM304mil) budget, sending Fox Animation into untimely closure.

Warner Bros, still productive in TV animation, has experienced similar difficulty when apeing the Disney formula (Quest for Camelot, The King and I), but found critical success with original work (The Iron Giant).

DreamWorks has fared better with The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado and Antz, while TV tie-ins such as Rugrats, Pokemon and South Park have also performed well at feature length.

Special criteria

"We've spent three or four years debating this award, but we had to wait until the industry was big enough to make in worthwhile," say John Pavlik of the Academy.

"That time is judged to have come, though the rules have been carefully calibrated to ensure competition." The best animation feature Oscar will only be given if eight or more eligible films are released in a year, and it will required a minimum of 16 releases to secure five nominees.

The average number of US-produce animated features over the past decade, including the year 2000, has been seven.

What the Oscar will hopefully encourage is variety, giving a financial boost to riskier projects and small or foreign players, as it has with live-action features.

Japan, for example, has a fully fledged animation industry, producing everything from apocalyptic sci-fi adventures such as Akira and Ghost in the Shell, to contemporary character dramas such as Perfect Blue and offbeat fantasies such as the widely acclaimed Princess Mononoke (the highest-grossing picture in Japan apart from Titantic).

Many of these have gone on to find niche in Western video markets (Mononoke even had a limited US theatrical release), but their technical sophistication and mature themes could have made them strong contenders for Oscar success.

With a US$240 (RM912mil) Hollywood deal to their name, Aardman Animation is living proof of the difference on Oscar can make to a smaller player.

"We can't deny that the three Oscars Nick (Park) won from the Wallace and Gromit film helped pave the way to our deal with DreamWorks," say Dave Sproxton. Its forthcoming reworking of the tortoise and the hare fable could be a contender for the first award in 2002.

Real or animated?

Whatever the effects on the industry, there could be more problematic repercussions from the new Oscar stemming from the tricky term "primarily animated."

With computer-generated images (CGI) increasingly blended into live-action films, the dividing line between the genres is likely to become more and more indeterminate.

Take a movie such as Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. Real characters and virtual ones populate a combination of CGI and live sets. What percentage of the film is animated? How much such a percentage be determined?

By drawing a firm line between the two, the Academy might be laying the ground for future legal dispute and bitter statistical warfare on a par with the US presidential elections.

Producer Dennis Edwards, at Warner Animation, has already faced this problem. His latest project, Osmosis Jones (directed by the Farrelly brothers), about the struggle against the cold virus inside a human body, mixes animation with live action and is set for release this summer.

"I think our film meets the requirements and it doesn't, but I'm sure it's going to get more difficult now that CGI is so widely used.

"To me, the film-making world is already a multimedia event. You take the best of all these worlds, live action, CGI, traditional hand-drawn animation, and combine them to make a new art form. I believed that's the future."

"That's definitely one of the wickets that's still sticky," say the Academy's John Pavlik.

"The original proposal has detailed guidelines about the way the competition will work, but the rules about what constitutes 'primarily animated' haven't been written yet." - Guardian News Service