Arts to Animation.

 

A former arts student is making his mark on the New Zealand fi lm scene.
by Amanda Strong.

 

Over the past few years the New Zealand fi lm industry has taken the world by storm, proving Kiwi charm and ingenu- ity can outclass anything in Hollywood.

 

Kiwi actors are defi nitely a force to be reckoned with - who can forget Keisha Castle-Hughes proudly striding the red car- pet? Even more impressive is what goes on behind the scenes, where people bring these fi lms to life. At places like Weta Workshop and Weta Digital they use cunning fi lm tech- niques and computer technology to create people and places almost out of thin air.

 

Most people are quite happy to sit back and enjoy the show, but some want to get in on the action. Twenty-fi ve-year-old Anthony McIndoe is one person who wasn't content just to watch - so he got involved by becoming an anima- tor. He now works for Weta Workshop, creat- ing 3D characters using a computer package called Maya.

 

"Maya enables you to create 3D anima- tion. It is pretty standard industry software - there are others, but I think it's the most popular one." Anthony studied art and graphic design at Auckland Grammar School and says he got into computing there as well, but didn't have much interest in other subjects.

 

"I still took maths and science - I don't know why. I should have focused more on arts, because I always wanted to be in more like the humanities area." When he left school he kept up his inter- est in the arts, studying fi lm at university. "I spent three years at Auckland uni doing a Bachelor of Arts, then decided to go back for another two years and do a Master's."

 

After all this study, Anthony still wasn't sure which direction his career was heading. "I was tossing up between an academic kind of career at university, but I decided that I wanted to be creating stuff rather than studying other people's creations."

 

So Anthony enrolled at Media Design School in Auckland to learn the basics of 3D animation, in particular how to use industry software such as Maya.

 

Anthony says the course built on the computer skills he had already learnt through years of playing computer games. "The part I enjoyed the most was the fi nal project: you had 12 weeks to build your own stuff from what you had learnt."It was good fun: you could build your character from scratch, design him, create him on the computer and animate him." Soon after he finished the course, Anthony landed a job at Weta Workshop and is currently designing facial expressions for the characters in an animated series.

 

"I'm doing a TV series for Weta Productions called Jane and the Dragon. I was kind of lucky to get my job, especially having no experience before I started, so I don't know how it happened! There is heaps of competition. I think Weta get about a thousand reels a week of people sending in their work." Anthony says a career in animation involves "a lot of sacrifice. It is long hours: standard for us is 50-60 hours a week, so if you can't spend ten hours a day in front of a computer screen then that is definitely something to think about."

 

But for Anthony, the creative element of his job is really rewarding. "It is kind of a buzz creating something that will be going out to so many people - knowing that people are going to see things as you see them when they watch your work."

 

King Kong: from the ground up

 

London-born Adrian Bell is another young Weta worker, who's now working on King Kong, at Weta Digital, the sister company to Weta Workshop.

 

Adrian came to New Zealand last year, having already fi nished a degree in Media Lab Arts - an experimental subject that allowed him to play with all the newest technology. The part of his degree he enjoyed the most was designing his own computer program. "At that point I decided that really was the area that I wanted to go into: research and development."

 

So when he came to New Zealand, Adrian did a creative technology course at Media Design School in Auckland. When he gradu- ated, he found work with Weta as a terrain modeller. Adrian uses his computer to create the backgrounds we will see in King Kong. "Terrain covers the broad spectrum of cliffs, mountains and landscapes. It is used essentially as reference for the animators because they need to know where the ground is so dinosaurs and things don't end up floating in mid-air."

 

Adrian's work contract will end in November, but he would like to keep working for Weta. "I'm hoping that now I've worked there in this non-glamorous position then they may invite me back later." In the future Adrian wants to get into research and development - coming up with new ways to create visual effects.

 

"On a technical level that is where I would like to go; where I am at Weta at the moment is just another rung on the ladder." Adrian loves his job, but says he sometimes feels like a "tiny cog" in a large machine. And because his role is very specialised, it can be a little repetitive doing the same thing day after day.

 

"You've got to be passionate enough about the industry to want to live it and breathe it." Even though there is stiff competition for jobs, Adrian says now is a good time to get involved in the industry. "Weta is the largest company I've worked for. At the moment, just on King Kong, I believe we have at least 450 people working on the special effects alone - so it's big." He says the special effects industry is growing fast, and is likely to keep growing. "That's certainly one area I see the industry going in, is up." Those who succeed in this fast-paced industry tend to be those with the best expe-rience - so tertiary study may not be the best option for everyone.

 

"You could just do a short course then jump straight into an entry-level position. For me, it was good to do extra study, because it helped me narrow my focus. But if you already know what you want to do, it may be best just to dive right in."

 

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