Film, animation company embraces digital media

For 17 years Colossal Pictures, the independent animation and effects production studio founded by Drew Takahashi and Gary Gutierrez, has generated award-winning commercials, music videos, titles and effects, short- and long-form video and film projects as well as independent programming. The San Francisco-based company produces everything from classic cel animation to photo- and stop-motion, motion control, clay animation and computer animation to stage- and location-based live action.

Its impressive client roster includes BBDO Worldwide Advertising, Nike, Levi Strauss & Co., Nabisco, Bell Atlantic, Xerox, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo International, The Disney Channel, PBS, Saturday Night Live, Nickelodeon, HBO, Tri-Star Pictures, MTV, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures and Capitol Records.

MOVING CREATIVE EXPERTISE IN-HOUSE

In part, Colossal’s success can be attributed to its powerful alliances with Pixar, creators of Tin Toy, the first computer-animated film to win an Oscar; Koninck Studios of London, which is world-famous for its stop-motion and puppet animation; and Big Pictures, a programming subsidiary.

But now the company has decided to bring more of the creative expertise in-house. Colossal Pictures has announced its plans to develop a digital media division that will produce interactive media titles and computer-generated imagery for video and film.

To head the new division, Colossal has hired Brad deGraf, a pioneer in computer-generated 3D effects. DeGraf, who cofounded deGraf/Warhman, is known as the creator of the first computer-generated character, Mike the Talking Head (who made his debut at Siggraph in 1988) and as the first person to use computer animation in theme park attractions.

He was also named as part of the creative freelance team behind Scott Billups’s new digital production studio Sand Box Productions (which we covered in a recent issue). DeGraf, however, will not be working with the Sand Box team; he has signed an exclusive contract with Colossal after more than a year of negotiations.

“This is an evolutionary step for Colossal, not a revolutionary one,” says deGraf. “We are going to incrementally add [technology] to the creative process that has already been going on. In terms of digital production studios, we expect to leapfrog a lot of the competition. It’s a lot easier to add the digital part into the equation, as opposed to the production part.”

A SERIOUS INVESTMENT IN ‘RED, PURPLE AND WHITE ONES’

To do so, the company is making “a serious investment” in digital technology. Already, deGraf and the management team at Colossal have brought a suite of Silicon Graphic workstations and Macintosh computers in house, or as Takahashi prefers to identify them, “a bunch of red, purple and white ones.”

In his role as liaison between creative design and technical execution, deGraf will be directly involved with three new groups within Colossal Pictures, including an interactive software publishing unit; an in-house computer graphics department; and the Digital Laboratory, a proposed beta-site joint venture between Colossal Pictures and Western Images, where the two companies can experiment with new digital video technology on loan from computer hardware and software vendors.

Although Colossal is unwilling at this point to tip its hat on interactive digital media projects that are now under way within the company, deGraf did say that as the delivery mechanisms for interactive CD-ROM and interactive TV become viable, “Colossal will be there with original interactive content.”

3D CHARACTERS AND DIGITAL BACKLOTS

DeGraf and a team of Colossal Pictures animators, directors and artists are developing what he calls “3D characters” and “digital backlots,” computer-generated characters and locations that can be combined to create a “virtual world” or as components of a scene that may also include live action.

To date these cartoon characters and sets have been used for linear narratives, including Peter Gabriel’s music video “Steam,” now appearing on MTV; a “virtual reality” commercial for Planter Lifesavers’ Bubble Yum Gum, airing in the southern United States; and Liquid Television, MTV’s Emmy-award winning series that is produced by Colossal’s Big Pictures.

Janice Maloney