Animation Sensation
Introducing - for those of you who don’t have young kids or grandkids - Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber, stars of Veggie Tales.
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supervisor Remington Scott (Spider-Man 2 and 3, Lord of the Rings: Two Towers); production manager Chris DiGiovanni (The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, Horton Hears a Who), and art director Jon Lomberg (illustrator for Carl Sagan, Contact).
Having high-caliber talent like the HAS team is especially gratifying to Georja Skinner, administrator of state DBEDT Creative Industries Division.
Skinner says, “Hawaii Animation Studios has helped create a critical mass of digital and new media opportunities for students coming out of high school and college. It also has helped us solidify all of the smaller boutique businesses here to do collaborative work in animation, effects and digital media.
“I would like to see the sector continue to grow. The number of jobs grew 16 percent between 2002 and 2008. More than 6,600 people are employed in this sector. Evolving digital technology is an opportunity for the independent artistic and technology communities to partner and compete effectively in markets that have traditionally been dominated by large and highly capitalized firms with proprietary distribution systems.”
Hawaii’s venture into digital media isn’t entirely new, of course.
We can claim video game creative geniuses like UH grad Henk Rogers (Tetris) and Square’s Hironobu Sakaguchi (Final Fantasy) who found inspiration for their highly profitable ventures in Hawaii.
UH’s Academy for Creative Media currently has eight student interns and two grads working at HAS. Kapiolani Community College’s New Media Arts program has seven graduates employed full time at HAS. KCC is working with HAS on a curriculum for a third-year certificate in animation to augment an existing program. In addition, work is being done at KCC to mimic the HAS workstation set up so students are even better prepared to step into professional roles.
As Chris Lee, founder of UH’s Academy for Creative Media, puts it, “These kids are living their dream ... Creative intellectual property requires only that we harness the natural skills of students.
The University of Hawaii is prepared for this opportunity with its ACM initiative, as are public schools like Waianae High School that now has more than 100 students studying 2D and 3D animation.
“Digital production complements our tropical setting by allowing our kids to work on computers that are not bound by location so that, for example, our graduates working at Hawaii Animation Studios can execute Veggie Tales that begins its creative process in Tennessee but is now executed here in Hawaii.”
OK, so we’ve broadened your view of the world and the niche that Hawaii can fill in it through film animation. Now what?
So if you or your child aspires to a profession in the digital arts, particularly CGI, cheer on the folks at Hawaii Animation Studios. Get to know them, do some research on what the profession entails, get proper training at our schools, and most importantly, as HAS CEO Krech urges, “Never lose your passion for it.”
Passion gets you in the door.
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