Funbag Animation's Curtis Crawford. (Mark Holleron, Special to the OBJ)

As animated television shows increase in popularity with not only kids, but teens and adults as well, Ottawa's local players are using both their expertise and the latest technology to produce quality Canadian content.

One such business is PIP Animation Studios, founded in 1998 by co-owner Dulcie Clark as an ink, paint and composite facility.

"Now with the ever-changing industry, we've become a full-fledged pre-production, animation and post facility," says Dave Fortier, PIP's director of studio operations. "We're a service company who has worked with all of the local companies and we have a lot of clients in Toronto, Montreal, the States and abroad as well."

PIP is working on Carl Squared, an animated series airing on Teletoon about a slacker teen who accidentally generates his own clone. The company is also working on the fourth season of Caillou, the popular children's show.

Both of these projects are produced using Flash, the software from Macromedia that brought animation to the web. Mr. Fortier says Flash is just one of the latest software programs they are using to keep up with the industry's constant changes.

"The industry itself has changed significantly because in the 80s all of the (animated) material was produced in North America and then it started going overseas," he says. "By the 90s, virtually all material was done overseas, but things have changed now with the ever-dropping prices, smaller budgets and the flexibility of Flash, which can do just about anything and allows the artist to have complete control."

Mr. Fortier says Flash has also reduced the manpower required to complete an animation project.

"Instead of farming it out to 200, 300 or 400 people, we can do the same thing with about 60 people," he says. "It keeps a lot more of the control here, where we're using the same language and in the same time zone, so it's much more cost effective."

While PIP has 80 staff members, it is always on the lookout for new talent, especially classically trained Flash animators. Mr. Fortier says a PIP representative sits on the board of Algonquin College's three-year animation diploma program and many graduates have been hired.

He says another place to find new recruits is at the Ottawa International Animation Festival, which is taking place this week from Wednesday to Sunday.

As the only animation festival in Canada and the largest one in North America, the OIAF attracts production executives, artists, students and animation fans from around the world.

The festival will not only feature premieres of the newest and most innovative animation, but will also provide many business opportunities.

"We hope the festival is especially useful for the local companies in Ottawa and we introduced a new component last year called the Television Animation Conference," says Kelly Neall, managing director of the festival. "It's a more business-oriented component that's especially useful for helping local businesses and animation companies and provides them with really quality networking opportunities."

This year's conference will feature panel and roundtable discussions and a number of social events, such as a new boat cruise, a buffet breakfast and an animator's picnic.

Ms Neall says she has noticed that the animation industry in general had been going through a bit of decline in the past few years, but it seems to be recovering.

"From the amount of sponsor support we've been getting this year and the number of companies coming out, it does seem very hopeful and the industry is looking up," she says.

This year's sponsors of the OIAF include the National Film Board of Canada, Disney Feature Animation, Teletoon, the Cartoon Network, Nelvana and Mercury Filmworks.

Another animation company in Ottawa who is looking to sign a few new deals at this year's festival is Funbag Animation Studios.

"We've optioned the rights to the classic comic Herman and we're preparing to hopefully sign a development deal with Teletoon at the festival," says Curtis Crawford, Funbag's vice-president of corporate affairs.

Funbag also has a development deal with the CBC for an animated action/adventure teen series called The Four, about four kids who are members of a crime scene investigative unit of the RCMP.

Mr. Crawford says these deals show how far Funbag has come since it's early days as an animation service company.

"About 12 to 13 years ago, we worked on contracts and performed the creative services on those projects and then about four or five years into that, we started to develop our own projects," he says. "We came up with a show called Toad Patrol, which we helped finance, produce and we actually own part of it. It still plays on Teletoon."

At this point, Funbag was still pursuing service contracts, while continuing to work on its own shows, such as For Better or Worse and The Mole Sisters.

However, Mr. Crawford says they entered another transitional phase when they moved to digital production a few years ago.

"We looked at the way the industry was moving and how the efficiencies and abilities of the new technology would help us to be more creative in our production," he says. "Now we're currently doing two shows all digitally, called Faireez and Eggs, which are both Australian co-productions that we managed to finance without a Canadian broadcast sale. So, we actually have Canadian content shows that are doing very well internationally – people just love them in Australia – and then we sell them in the Canadian market."

With the success of its own productions, Funbag has really transformed its business.

"As we continue to produce, we're becoming a rights-management company with all of our series that are selling internationally and they all have potential licensing and merchandising deals," he says. "We find that we don't need a huge staff, so we've kept key creative people on contract and that's a very good working situation for us. We only have four full-time and two part-time employees right now."

Mr. Crawford says Funbag's transition to an independent production company hasn't always been an easy road, but the outlook is bright.

"One of the key factors is financing your properties and we've been successful doing that, but it's a tougher business," he says. "We're letting our work stand for us and it's been phenomenally well received, so we're quite excited about the future of the company."

Kristin Harold

kristin.harold@transcontinental.ca