ANIMATION : Pumped and popular; Animation is flying high as advertisers embrace its...

ANIMATION : Pumped and popular; Animation is flying high as advertisers embrace its...
By Hendery, SimonPublication: AdMedia
Date: Friday, February 1 2008

With so many animated ads on the telly at the moment, one animator is happy to confess he gets excited when a good live-action TVC comes on the box.
"These days, dare I say it, if I look at a 35mm shoot I think, ah, that's quite nice," admits Marko Klijn, producer and "ringmaster" at Auckland animation house Cirkus.
"A lot of people and clients do feel that animation is the tool to do their communication," he says.
"It's a flexible way of producing. It's very cost-effective and it stands out from the crowd quite often. In New Zealand there's always been a lot of animation on TV but it almost seems to be dominant now."
Klijn is right. With ad budgets tightening, animation has indeed become an attractive option for those wanting to trim costs. The problem is that while we are still enjoying a wealth of very high quality, innovative and head-turning examples of the craft, the budget focus of some clients means that a lot of cheap and mediocre animation is also making it to air.
The worry for those at the quality end of the industry is that cheap animation will turn clients off, and the pendulum will swing back in favour of live action.
But for now at least, that doesn't appear to be happening. An example of the overall confidence advertisers are exhibiting towards animation was January's announcement that bottled water brand Pump (owned by Coca-Cola Amatil) had committed to rolling out a series of 50 different animated TVCs, produced by Auckland animation shop Yukfoo, as part of a two-year campaign involving a rate card spend valued at $2 million.
"We anticipate stronger market growth over the next two years as the Pump campaign evolves and reinforces the 'drink, think, act' message with the target market," CCA senior brand manager Catherine Woodley said in a statement announcing the campaign.

"There's never been an animated campaign like this that literally evolves or rolls out in the same way as a television series and we think the brand's changing story over the next two years will really capture the imagination of viewers."
While advertiser interest in long campaigns like this is a positive development for animators, another encouraging trend for the industry is the growing number of multi-medium executions involving a web focus.
These campaigns might typically roll out with an animated TVC component, a viral video email showcasing the same animated characters as the TVC, a website featuring an interactive game on the same theme, and even animation adapted for point of sale displays and/or in-store large-screen TV displays.
Brent Chambers, managing director of Auckland-based Flux Animation Studio, says his business' growth is currently coming from the interactive division, and is being pushed along by these "across the board" campaigns.
"We like it because the strength of this company has always been character animation so the larger the campaign, the more you get to develop the characters and the more hope there is that it will be an ongoing thing," he says.
While budgets may be getting tighter and the local animation industry faces strong price competition from low-cost overseas animators, Chambers says there is work to be had for Kiwi animators who keep plugging themselves on the world stage.
"The animation industry [globally] is not all that big. There is a lot of international work out there for a company that can tap into it and maintain the profile. That's the interesting challenge for us," he says.
"It's about spending money and making sure you're recognised out there. And, if needs be, putting some money into a commercial that you know might pick up some awards and making sure it's entered all around the world.
"That's kind of tough - it's expensive for a little New Zealand animation company - but it seems to me it's the best way for New Zealand companies to get out there."

One local visual effects shop that's had a recent lesson on how tough business can be is Oktobor, which looked doomed to closure early last year following the collapse of its sister company, Silverscreen.
A late reprieve arrived with the purchase of the Oktobor business by Omnilab Media Group in March.
"It has been an exciting challenge to refocus the team, look at the market and to rebuild our approach," says Oktobor's head of 3D, Damon Duncan.
"We have made some key appointments and have upgraded and updated some of our systems which has been exciting. With the investment made by Omnilab it has really enabled Oktobor to focus and look at what its key offerings were to the market and in regards to the 3D department that was our strong creative offering.
"We just really love making great-looking images that support a director's or a creative's vision and we have been able to settle into what we do best."
On the broader trends affecting the animation industry, Oktobor gm Patrick McAteer says the shift to online media has a positive impact for the company.
"Oktobor's key point of difference is our overall offering that enables all departments [2D, 3D, Telecine, Motion & Design] to work in conjunction with the digital team on creative campaigns. We have a depth of clients that require some deeper creative thinking and digital solutions to get their message across a range of screens, so it's important that we remain creative and screen agnostic," McAteer says.
"It's important that we understand that it is about more business and that the requirement for the standard 30-second TVC is not under threat, but that it requires more creative to ultimately be more entertaining.
"The challenge is expanding the brief into mobile, web, and other screen formats. So some technology and partnerships are required to build towards this future."
Dylan Coburn, animation director at Wellington's Karactaz, says it's important for an animation house to "find its own identity and what it really wants to do and what sets it apart".
Asked about Karactaz's particular niche, he cites the company's work on the Panasonic Battery Hens commercials featuring animation which was fully computer generated (CG) although, because of the style, many people have assumed it involved claymation.

To achieve that effect, Karactaz developed a "digital claymation" look which allowed it to produce a stop-motion look, with the freedom of CG.
"That's where I want us to go - in a direction that feels more like a hand-made craft than something that's digital and very computer," he says.
"A lot digital artists don't really respect the traditional crafts much and they just go ahead and think you can do everything in CG, but I'm much more interested in bringing those two together."
Glen Hunwick, founder and director at Melbourne-based clay and stop-motion animation company Glen Art Productions, is also upbeat about the future of the traditional animation craft.
"If you'd asked me two or three years ago I'd probably have hesitated but now I know it's absolutely starting to fascinate people again because it is so human," Hunwick says.
"Advertisers are always looking for alternatives and to the new generation of creatives, who have been brought up, basically, with CG. They're starting to look at these other [traditional] techniques and think 'that's really cool'."
He says while the concept of claymation may still scare some people, because of a perception that it is a time-consuming pro-
cess, that has now changed. Today the industry incorporates new techniques, such as digital video recording, which has greatly sped up the production process.
3D, 2D, real-time, character, environment animation and motion graphics specialist companies

Animagrafx +61 3 9510 8015 www.animagrafx.com.au
Animal Logic +61 2 9383 4800 www.animallogic.com
Animation Research/Taylormade Media 03 479 9750 www.arl.co.nz
Another Planet 04 973 2217 www.anotherplanet.co.nz
Blackbird Digital 025 866 512 www.blackbird.co.nz
Brand/Spank 09 361 1168 www.brandspank.com
Chrometoaster 04 472 0570 www.chrometoaster.com
Cirkus 09 486 0865 www.cirkus.co.nz
Cobalt VFX 04 385 4020 www.cobaltvfx.co.nz
Digipost 09 630 1770 www.digipost.co.nz
Flux Animation Studio 09 360 6003 www.fluxmedia.co.nz
Fuzzy Realms 07 824 8333 www.fuzzyrealms.com
Glen Art Productions +61 3 9428 3080 www.glenart.com.au
Gobo Box +61 2 9380 9449 www.gobobox.com
Huhu Studios 09 425 0472 www.huhustudios.com
Images & Sound 09 309 8026 www.imagesandsound.co.nz
Inkspot Digital 09 483 3360 www.inkspotdigital.com
Kaleidoscope 3D 09 379 5566 www.kaleidoscope.co.nz
Kangoo Animation 09 373 4496 www.kangoo.co.nz
Karactaz Ltd 04 381 3030 www.karactaz.com
La Luna Studios 09 974 2282 www.lalunastudios.co.nz
Media Design School 09 303 0402 www.mediadesign.school.co.nz
Liquid Animation +61 7 3363 5300 www.liquidanimation.com
Oktobor 09 306 6616 www.oktobor.com
Orly Productions 03 366 2047 www.orly.co.nz
RESN 04 385 0705 www.resn.co.nz
Sauce 04 472 2654 www.sauce.co.nz
Softshell Animations 04 801 5799 www.softshell.co.nz
Sticky Pictures 04 802 5511 www.stickypictures.co.nz
Teaspoon Films 04 383 9092 www.teaspoonfilms.co.nz
The Cartel 09 361 3739 www.thecartel.co.nz
Virtual Spectator ddi 09 913 6899 www.virtualspectator.com
Yukfoo Animation 09 360 0361 www.yukfoo.net
Zippitoons 04 801 6166 www.zippitoons.com

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