Thursday, March 09, 2006
Current State of Dallas Film Animation
My friend Keith Lango just made a post in his blog about the current goings on at DNA Productions here in Dallas. For the last week or so the rumors have been swirling about what was happening, and what would become of the 200+ people that are finishing up on Ant Bully. "How many would be let go, would it be ALL of them...surely not?" Sadly, that is what happened. In addition to Keith, I have quite a few friends over there who are now looking for their next gig. Some will probably be making their way over to Reel FX, the rest will be on their way to Cali, NY, or Canada. I wish them all well. It's a shame it had to come to that.
It is bad enough that all those talented folks are now looking for work, but is also a huge kick in the head in what it does to the Dallas film/animation market. For years it has been tough to get talented, quality artists to move to Dallas. Some don't like the weather. Some don't like the area. Some don't like the bible belt. Some don't like the "Texas pride". All those things can be overlooked if you have a market that supports a bunch of artists and bunch of projects. The only way to do that is to have more than a couple of studios working on feature quality films and projects. When people refer to the "film" animation studios in Dallas, they usually mention DNA, Reel FX, and Janimation. (there are other CG shops in Dallas...but typically they are post houses made up of about 5-10 people)
These 3 studios all started roughly the same time, and roughly the same way. They were commercial shops run by a small crew with a couple of founders who grew the companies through sweat and determination. Slowly but surely the places started doing better and better projects, eventually getting some notice from Hollywood and taking on even bigger projects. When Jimmy Neutron hit at DNA in 2000-2001, Dallas really started gaining momentum as a viable place for animation professionals to come work on cool stuff, raise a family, and settle down. Reel FX had some stuff in the works, as did Janimation. Almost all the local colleges and universities started looking into "getting an animation dept". Local user groups and animation guilds were being formed. These things pointed to a future of work for more local artists, more opportunity for talented professionals around the country to come and have options, and a decent little farm system in these schools and user groups for the studios to pick from and "grow".
Over the last 5-6 years the Dallas area has been on a steady climb up. These things were coming to fruition with DNA having 200+ employees, Reel FX now at 120+, and Janimation hovering around 50. All 3 working on some cool stuff. Unfortunately, with this latest blow to DNA...it appears Dallas has taken a step back. When 200+ CG artists are out looking for work (in a market that can't support it), that isn't good for anybody. The vast majority of those folks will have to move away. Not only are you losing some top quality talent that would be a part of building the Dallas market even more, but then it makes it hard on the other studios from that point on to attract more talent. Folks from LA, SanFran, or NY will have a tougher time justifying moving their families half-way across the US when there is only one other studio (doing film stuff) they could hop to should something happen. That's a big chance to take, and to most not worth it. Frankly, most would rather stay in LA and hop from studio to studio for the rest of their career. They don't have to move a lot, and they have access to big studios, small studios, and every kind of CG shop in between. It's not unheard of for some animators to rack up 15-20 feature film credits on their resume in as little as 5 years while hopping around LA. It's tough to compete with that kind of market if you're Dallas.
The other huge reason for Dallas needing multiple studios doing features is what it can do for the salaries of the artists in the area. Feature budgets usually pay feature salaries (which was the case at DNA). And having competition is good for an area when all the studios are vying for the same talent pool to work on their films. But what happens when there are more qualified animators than positions to fill? Unfortunately, it's simple supply and demand.
With all that said, I am hopeful that DNA can get their next feature greenlit sooner rather than later for the sake of the artists left and the area. I also hope that one or two more local CG houses can begin to grow and flourish. The Dallas film industry needs that to happen in a bad way. It may take a couple of years for it to get there, but wouldn't it be cool if it did? Here's hoping.
One thing I haven't mentioned thus far in this post is the local games industry. Though I consider the film and games industries to be separate right now...there is no question that Dallas has one of the best game industries around. Dallas currently boasts the likes of Ensemble Studios, id Software, 3D Realms, Ritual Entertainment, Terminal Reality, TKO Software, Paradigm Entertainment, and Gearbox Software to name a few. That's pretty stout. All these places are working on some cool games. I think it is safe to say the Dallas game market is healthy and thriving.
And as most know, the game play and cinematics for these games are getting more movie like. And with the next generation of games coming to HD, I look for these game cinematics to surpass many of movies already at the box office. So aside from what is going on with the Dallas film industry, this is a cool time to be in games in Dallas.
My friend Keith Lango just made a post in his blog about the current goings on at DNA Productions here in Dallas. For the last week or so the rumors have been swirling about what was happening, and what would become of the 200+ people that are finishing up on Ant Bully. "How many would be let go, would it be ALL of them...surely not?" Sadly, that is what happened. In addition to Keith, I have quite a few friends over there who are now looking for their next gig. Some will probably be making their way over to Reel FX, the rest will be on their way to Cali, NY, or Canada. I wish them all well. It's a shame it had to come to that.
It is bad enough that all those talented folks are now looking for work, but is also a huge kick in the head in what it does to the Dallas film/animation market. For years it has been tough to get talented, quality artists to move to Dallas. Some don't like the weather. Some don't like the area. Some don't like the bible belt. Some don't like the "Texas pride". All those things can be overlooked if you have a market that supports a bunch of artists and bunch of projects. The only way to do that is to have more than a couple of studios working on feature quality films and projects. When people refer to the "film" animation studios in Dallas, they usually mention DNA, Reel FX, and Janimation. (there are other CG shops in Dallas...but typically they are post houses made up of about 5-10 people)
These 3 studios all started roughly the same time, and roughly the same way. They were commercial shops run by a small crew with a couple of founders who grew the companies through sweat and determination. Slowly but surely the places started doing better and better projects, eventually getting some notice from Hollywood and taking on even bigger projects. When Jimmy Neutron hit at DNA in 2000-2001, Dallas really started gaining momentum as a viable place for animation professionals to come work on cool stuff, raise a family, and settle down. Reel FX had some stuff in the works, as did Janimation. Almost all the local colleges and universities started looking into "getting an animation dept". Local user groups and animation guilds were being formed. These things pointed to a future of work for more local artists, more opportunity for talented professionals around the country to come and have options, and a decent little farm system in these schools and user groups for the studios to pick from and "grow".
Over the last 5-6 years the Dallas area has been on a steady climb up. These things were coming to fruition with DNA having 200+ employees, Reel FX now at 120+, and Janimation hovering around 50. All 3 working on some cool stuff. Unfortunately, with this latest blow to DNA...it appears Dallas has taken a step back. When 200+ CG artists are out looking for work (in a market that can't support it), that isn't good for anybody. The vast majority of those folks will have to move away. Not only are you losing some top quality talent that would be a part of building the Dallas market even more, but then it makes it hard on the other studios from that point on to attract more talent. Folks from LA, SanFran, or NY will have a tougher time justifying moving their families half-way across the US when there is only one other studio (doing film stuff) they could hop to should something happen. That's a big chance to take, and to most not worth it. Frankly, most would rather stay in LA and hop from studio to studio for the rest of their career. They don't have to move a lot, and they have access to big studios, small studios, and every kind of CG shop in between. It's not unheard of for some animators to rack up 15-20 feature film credits on their resume in as little as 5 years while hopping around LA. It's tough to compete with that kind of market if you're Dallas.
The other huge reason for Dallas needing multiple studios doing features is what it can do for the salaries of the artists in the area. Feature budgets usually pay feature salaries (which was the case at DNA). And having competition is good for an area when all the studios are vying for the same talent pool to work on their films. But what happens when there are more qualified animators than positions to fill? Unfortunately, it's simple supply and demand.
With all that said, I am hopeful that DNA can get their next feature greenlit sooner rather than later for the sake of the artists left and the area. I also hope that one or two more local CG houses can begin to grow and flourish. The Dallas film industry needs that to happen in a bad way. It may take a couple of years for it to get there, but wouldn't it be cool if it did? Here's hoping.
One thing I haven't mentioned thus far in this post is the local games industry. Though I consider the film and games industries to be separate right now...there is no question that Dallas has one of the best game industries around. Dallas currently boasts the likes of Ensemble Studios, id Software, 3D Realms, Ritual Entertainment, Terminal Reality, TKO Software, Paradigm Entertainment, and Gearbox Software to name a few. That's pretty stout. All these places are working on some cool games. I think it is safe to say the Dallas game market is healthy and thriving.
And as most know, the game play and cinematics for these games are getting more movie like. And with the next generation of games coming to HD, I look for these game cinematics to surpass many of movies already at the box office. So aside from what is going on with the Dallas film industry, this is a cool time to be in games in Dallas.
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