Hi-tech, old-school both alive in Oz

Australian animation has potential to take off

By MICHAELA BOLAND

'Mary and Max'

SYDNEY -- It might have been curtains for the Oz animation industry when Disney shuttered its Sydney cel animation studio in 2006 after 18 years, setting 250 artisans adrift.

Flying Bark Prods. (then called Yoram Gross) continued producing its series of uniquely Australian kidvids, such as the series "Dot and the Kangaroo," but the future for large-scale animation in Oz hadn't yet been defined.

Companies such as Rising Sun Pictures and Animal Logic (AL) were ramping up as digital-effects facilities for the film and television commercial sectors, and a young clay animator in Melbourne, Adam Elliot, was absorbed producing 16mm short films single-handedly about various members of his family.

The outlook changed when Elliot achieved the unimaginable, beating Pixar, Disney and Blue Sky to an Oscar for his short "Harvie Krumpet." A few years later, AL helped produce another Oscar winner, teaming with director George Miller to make "Happy Feet" for Warner Bros.

Suddenly Australia had genuine potential to become an animation hub.

Elliot is now in production in Melbourne on his debut feature, "Mary & Max," and AL's ambition to become a bona fide studio, rather than a mere effects vendor, was realized recently when it announced Zack Snyder was helming its first pic, "Guardians of Ga'Hoole" for Warner.

"Australia has a rich history of animation," says AL topper Zareh Nalbandian. "The legacy Disney left was a great talent pool of artists who have quickly adapted to the CG world."

Whereas "Happy Feet" was created using a combination of motion-capture and keyframe animation, "Guardians of Ga'Hoole" returns to a more traditional keyframe technique. "We have a very naturalistic film with a high level of detail in the environment and characters," he says.

The story, centered around a colony of owls, features Tasmanian thylacines, birds and landscapes. Translating that vision to screen, AL already employs 50-60 animators plus designers, modelers, and setup and character riggers.

Production of Icon's "Mary & Max" (in which Toni Collette will voice Mary, an 8-year-old girl who corresponds with an old Jewish pen pal, Max, in New York) couldn't be more different.

The modest stop-motion effort shoots on digital still cameras, with mirrors used to reflect cotton wool into the lens to suggest smoke and steam, dripping lube down wires for rain and drops of glue on the ends of wires to simulate tears.

According to producer Melanie Coombs, Elliot was always nervous about collaborating with other artists, but partnering with the likes of Tony Lawrence, Dik Jarman and Darren Burgess in a tiny team of just six full-time animators has made the job easier.

"We've been able to create a system with enough checks and balances where Adam still feels in control," she says.