Entertainment

Thriving local animation scene draws an optimistic picture of industry's future

06:59 PM CDT on Monday, June 12, 2006

By CHRIS VOGNAR / The Dallas Morning News

PLANO – "This could be Hollywood."

The words sound more hopeful than convincing, and the man who speaks them, Vince Sidwell, seems to know it. As he gives the closing remarks for the fifth annual Industry Giants forum at Collin County Community College's Spring Creek Campus on Saturday, Mr. Sidwell is caught up in the moment.

Warner Bros. Pictures

About 100 local workers helped on The Ant Bully, which features the voices of Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts and Nicolas Cage.

For this is definitely not Hollywood. It's a gathering of animators and game designers hosted by CCCC and the animation organization A Bunch of Short Guys. But as president of the organization – the biggest short guy, if you will – Mr. Sidwell, a boisterous professor of animation at the University of Texas A&M-Commerce (Universities Center at Dallas), has reason to feel a bit giddy.

That's because the Dallas animation scene is thriving and still rising.

DNA Productions, which started with two guys in a small Lakewood apartment in 1987, will see its second feature, The Ant Bully, released by Warner Bros. July 28. (The first, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, snagged a 2001 Oscar nomination.) Reel FX has taken on everything from promotions for Ice Age 2 and Robots to Pepsi ads. Janimation is responsible for visual effects in the Spy Kids movies and animated shorts at the Mavericks games, among other work. The Art Institute of Dallas, which provided many of the 250 people who worked on The Ant Bully, churns out animation and gaming professionals at a Roadrunner-like clip.

So this may not be Hollywood. But right now, it's pretty good to be Dallas.

"You look around and see that this is an industry that doesn't have to be in Hollywood," says Mr. Sidwell. "We have several studios here, and we have a lot of potential. It's all about harnessing it and making sure our potential doesn't leave, and continuing to train and make sure everyone is up to par."

Dallas has many animation lights, but DNA, led by John Davis and Keith Alcorn, shines brightest.

A bearded man with a ponytail, Mr. Davis was the featured attraction at this year's Industry Giants gathering. He was also the only presenter with a major Hollywood feature to showcase, even if it wasn't made in Hollywood.

The clips he showed Saturday were impressive on many levels. The test sequences showed how early character sketches evolve into the fully textured computer-generated images that audiences will see when the movie opens. And the finished scenes combined eye-popping detail with engaging storytelling.

Based on a children's book brought to DNA by co-producer Tom Hanks, The Ant Bully weaves a lesson about bullying into a fantasy adventure story. Young Lukas, a bespectacled target of neighborhood bullies, takes out his frustrations on the ant colony in his yard (a water hose attack is depicted as an insect catastrophe of biblical proportions). But the ants, voiced by actors including Oscar winners Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts and Nicolas Cage, have their revenge. They shrink Lukas down to their size and show him what it's like to scurry for survival and work as a team underground.

Mr. Davis knows all about teamwork. About 100 of the 250 Bully workers were culled from the Dallas area; others came from as far away as Canada, Asia and South America.

But the work was done here, and that suits Mr. Davis fine.

"It's nice being at arm's length from the studio," Mr. Davis said after his presentation. "The studio is way out there. We're here. They never came out the entire time we were in production. That's good. It means they're happy and they trust us. There are no surprise visits. We're in our little creative cocoon here."

Or, perhaps, a creative anthill.

Mr. Davis and Mr. Sidwell see Dallas' bustling animation scene as a byproduct of multiple circumstances.

The gaming scene, represented over the weekend by Microsoft Game Studios' Scott Peterson, is hugely popular in Dallas and Austin. Institutions such as the Art Institute of Dallas and CCCC's Applied Graphic Design Technology Department provide a steady stream of talent. And Dallas' live-action film industry, though hardly dormant, has struggled to keep up with out-of-state locations that offer the advantage of tax incentives for prospective movie companies.

"There's probably a lot more animation going on than live action at this point, in terms of people who are here on a consistent basis doing it," says Mr. Davis.

Mr. Sidwell saw the light while living in LA at the start of the decade. He saw an infrastructure of animation networking and opportunities, qualities he thought could be applied to Dallas' already fertile talent base. So he got together with some fellow animation professionals and started A Bunch of Short Guys. (The name stems from a crew that worked on a short film that was never completed; the guys aren't all that short.)

In Los Angeles, Mr. Sidwell learned of Ed Hooks, an author who teaches classes on acting for animation. The Short Guys invited Mr. Hooks to Dallas to teach a master class; from there, Industry Giants was born.

Mr. Hooks, a jovial, pudgy man who addresses latecomers with a spirited "Hi there" or "Hey," taught this year's master class last Friday. His sessions aren't about voice acting, they're about the range and depth of gesture, motion and emotion needed to make you care about animated characters.

He brings students onstage to work on value responses ("every character that you animate – every person in this room – has a different set of values"). He talks about the importance of empathy, status transactions (two women enact a master-slave relationship, one towering, the other cowering ) and other tools of the animator's trade.

"Acting has almost nothing to do with words," he told the class as he showed the famous clip of Marlon Brando, hands at the sides of his head, begging for Stella's forgiveness in A Streetcar Named Desire.

Mr. Sidwell finishes his closing remarks and encourages attendees to gather for beers at a local drinking establishment. He is clearly excited by the weekend's events and the sense of community on display.

"There's so much good work going down, and so many talented people that float between the studios here," he says.

Mr. Davis, having spent much of the last few months in the world of ants, is also pleased. He has many friends here. He just hasn't been able to see them in a while.

Animation is fun. It also takes a lot of hard work.

"I really wanted to come and do this to get connected with the community again," he says. "I feel like an ostrich a lot of the time, with my head in a hole working and working and working. Then I come out and say, 'What's going on? Oh, I know you. I haven't seen you in years.' "

E-mail cvognar@dallasnews.com