Wow, if you thought the previous two posts were long…
There was a lot crammed into this event, which I believe was billed as a panel discussion but really was more of a presentation about the founding of a particular animation studio. Some of my notes got a bit jumbled, as the information was coming fast and furious, but I think I’ve gotten the meat of it down in this post.

The studio in question is currently called Lightstream Animation. Until recently it was known as Blu Arc, but, as I also discovered when working at various dot coms, legally unique names are a bit of a pain to come up with so Lightstream it is. The trailer they showed at Siggraph, called The Fourth Magi, was their first finished piece. Their logo (which I believe was designed by the Bay area favorite Michael Schwab) was so new that you could smell the printer ink on the business cards.

I was totally enthralled by the story these guys had to tell. The story started at ILM, where the key members of the Lightstream team worked for many, many years. They started meeting as friends for Friday lunches, just to talk things over and give each other support. As time passed, they started to realize two things: one, that they already had gathered a mini-pipeline of artists with many different skill sets; and two, that while they loved working at ILM they wanted to opportunity to tell stories they felt strongly about.

They put together a business plan for their dream studio, drawn on a napkin of course, and laid out their goals:

• To create great stories
• To build a company with a healthy culture for artists
• To produce quality work

Then, when they all felt they were kinda, sorta, mostly ready, they all gave notice and left ILM to strike out on their own. Rob Coleman, Jamy Wheless, and John Helms told their tale with a lot of humor and candor, and here are some of the nuggets o’ wisdom they shared:

• Timing and chemistry are important! Pay attention and be open to opportunities as they arise.
• Your trust in your co-workers is key. On a small team everyone must have each others’ backs.
• When you are in a big company you HAVE to be a specialist. However, always be aware of what is going on in your field because you never know when you may be in a situation where you have to become a generalist again. Starting your own studio will definitely mean that you will have to pinch hit in a different role.
• As a manager, be aware of the hidden talents and true passions of your employees so you can draw upon them later. Your artists will appreciate your interest and the opportunity to stretch their wings. You get a much needed character sculpt from an existing hire without having to go out and interview a bunch of sculptors. Win-win.
• Pick a work space that is open and has a lot of potential for interaction.
• Pick a hardware platform that will be cost efficient and easy to manage with limited technical support. For Lightstream, this meant buying Macs instead of the more traditional unix boxes. Macs are easy to care for, can run any operating system as needed, and come with rockin’ giant monitors. (OK, so they didn’t really say that last part about the monitors, but it’s true!)
• Using commercial software will save you time and money IF you build a good relationship with your vendors.
• There will be a lot of small fires. Don’t get trapped in them- always keep one eye on your long term goals so the large problems don’t fester.

They shared that the inspiration for the look of the Magi project came from Orientalist paintings, the dusty look of Gladiator, and the dark realism of Blade Runner. The pre-production art and matte paintings were beautiful. They also showed an animation test for one of the main characters, and then ended with the full length trailer. It was an extremely impressive piece of work given the small team they had.

Thanks so much to the gentlemen of Lightstream for this presentation. I attended it with my former co-worker Mike Jutan, and we were so excited as we left the hall; I really felt like we had seen something special and learned a lot about how to produce great work outside of a large studio.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 21st, 2008 at 2:48 am and is filed under Siggraph 08, animation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.