3D in New York
By Jonathan Stafford • Category: Features 
With all the hoopla Hollywood gets from its 3D work, you would think they invented it. Well I can tell you they didn’t. In fact much of the early 3D development work was done right here in New York.
What we now call 3D graphics was pioneered in the 1970’s at the computer graphics lab of the New York Institute of Technology on Long Island. Many of these researchers were later hired to go west and help start…you guessed it, companies like Pixar and ILM. But it all started in the Northeast.
We keep hearing that California has the movie and effects market and Texas has the gaming market–so what’s being done on the East Coast? Is there a market for 3D in the New York area? The answer is a big yes, and the market is growing fast.
This article will take a look at a cross section of some 3D shops and developers living in New York’s intense commercial market. Some are big name studios, others are smaller shops, but all are doing interesting work that push the envelope in the areas of broadcast, print illustration, advertising, theatrical releases, fine art, and development.
WHO DID WE TALK TO?
Choosing which groups to add to our panel wasn’t easy since there is so much talent in this market. We made sure to speak with most of the top shops we know you always ask about, but we also spoke to some great smaller shops and even some independent artists. After all, it’s this diversity that makes New York so great.
A quick rundown of our panel of interviewees and the companies they work in:
- Curious Pictures is an animation, design and visual effects studio located in Manhattan’s East Village. They have capabilities in live action invisible effects, Stop Motion, Cel Animation, High Design, and a mix of 2D/3D CGI. Curious produces Television Series, Films, commercials, and many diverse types of short and long form visual content. http://www.curiouspictures.com
- Best known for their block-buster animation films “Ice Age” and “Robots”, the Academy Award winning Blue Sky Studios became a wholly owned unit of Fox Filmed Entertainment in 1997. The studio was founded ten years earlier with a mission to pioneer creatively superior photo-realistic, high-resolution, computer-generated character animation for the feature film, television and entertainment industries.
Throughout their history, Blue Sky Studios has maintained a single-minded focus on creating high quality imagery, while upholding the highest production standards. They boast some of the industry’s most creative animation talent, and an innovative proprietary renderer, CGI Studio, which is renowned for its realism. http://www.blueskystudios.com
- Charlex Charlex is a full service digital design and visual effects house that designs and builds primarily commercials, but also music videos, films and everything in between. CHRLX3D is a collection of super talented 3D artists and designers from the worlds of feature film, advertising, games, etc. Their body of work consists of absolute photorealism as well as stylized realizations and experimental imagery.” http://www.charlex.com
- Graphlink is a boutique creative shop that understands the artistic and technological parts of today’s communications. Its print, broadcast and new media services offer a broad range of options. On the creative side it offers design, 3D/2D illustration, animation, and photography. On the technology side its in-house team includes application, multimedia and internet solution developers.
Clients include 3D projects for Miller Beer, Absolut Vodka, Trojan Brand, Merck Pharmaceuticals, Samsung Electronics, EDS, Wella Beauty Products. Graphlink members are also the founders of gfxreview.com. http://www.graphlink.com
- Framestore CFC is one of the world’s leading visual effects and animation studios. They work on feature films, long form TV and commercial projects. CG artists account for a large proportion of the company, as most of their projects require such dominant 3D content. The company’s movie portfolio includes work on such films as “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”,”Troy”. Their New York office is a boutique post production facility that specializes in commercial work. Framestore is applying the experience they have gained in London and bringing those techniques and talent to the NY post production table. http://www.framestore-cfc.com/newyork/index.html
- Viewpoint Perhaps best known for their 3D library which was considered the finest in existence, Viewpoint Corporation is now a provider of high-end technology and applications for creating and delivering cutting edge graphical experiences on the Web and on the desktop. Offering three distinct product lines — Search, Online Advertising and Creative Services — Viewpoint creates 3D, video and rich media content and applications for use on websites, on desktops, for online advertising, and as part of computer products for the consumer such as search tools and photosharing applications. Clients include Toyota, Sony, General Electric, America Online, General Motors, Samsung, Pepsi, CanWest Global, Honda, Microsoft and Hewlett Packard. The founders of the original company were the engineers who created Bryce, the widely well-regarded 3D modeling software. So, it’s best to describe the company as having been created by some of the “creators” of 3D. http://www.viewpoint.com
- Michael Rees is a sculptor using 3d animation and digital manufacturing in his work. This year his work is being exhibited at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, The Decordova Museum in Boston, the MARTa Museum in Germany, and in a public commission late in the year in Kansas City, Missouri.” Referring to himself as a “new media sculpture”, the man and his work were the cover story of SCULPTURE magazine, September 2004. http://www.michaelrees.com
- R/GA is a New York-based interactive advertising agency that focuses on creating optimized, user-centric experiences that sell products, engage customers and build brands across channels, from the Web to broadband/enhanced television and wireless devices. The agency serves as the lead digital partner for Fortune 500 companies and world-class brands such as Avaya, Bank of America, Bed Bath & Beyond, Circuit City, Levi Strauss, Nike, Purina, Subaru, Target and Verizon.
Founded in 1977, R/GA has a deep history in television and film production that includes pioneering Computer-Assisted Filmmaking, creating opening titles and promotions for feature films such as “Superman” and “Alien”, and effects work on movies like Woody Allen’s Zelig and “The World According to Garp”. They have involved in the production of over 4,000 commercials, including the famous Gene Kelly/Paula Abdul dancing spot for Diet Coke. R/GA has offices in New York, Los Angeles, a Mid-Atlantic office, and is opening soon in London. http://www.rga.com
- Joe Zeff Zeff creates digital artwork for magazines, newspapers and corporate clients worldwide. Having held staff positions at major newspapers and magazines, he brings an editorial background to his illustration work. His work appears frequently on magazine covers and book jackets, where there’s a need to make a statement that is thoughtful, quickly understood, and memorable. He also specializes in information graphics that explain how things work. http://www.joezeff.com
- Bruck3D Corporation is a design studio offering brand sensitive strategic solutions to three dimensional marketing opportunities for trade shows, architectural interiors, showrooms, museums, themed environments and retail fixtures. They offer a comprehensive suite of products including initial concept sketches, photorealistic digital renderings, mounted high-resolution prints, and fly-through animations. http://www.bruck3d.com
- David Lubell lives and works from his home/studio, an 1850’s farmhouse in the mountains of upstate New York. He attended New York University and studied film and TV in the late sixties. He has been making commercials and animated shorts ever since, as well as producing animation for children’s television, corporate and advertising. His work has been featured on “Animals, Animals, Animals,” the Peabody Award winning “Make A Wish”, Nickelodeon, and “Nick at Nite.” He won a Clio for “Space,” an ID created for Nickelodeon, and numerous other media awards.
Before the digital age Lubell produced animation traditionally using acetate, cel paints and an Oxberry animation stand. Today, for 2D animation, each cel is hand drawn using a Wacom digitizer tablet and appropriate applications. For 3D animation, he uses LightWave, a high-end modeling and rendering application. http://www.davidlubellanimation.com
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A NEW INDUSTRY
The desktop CG industry is still scarcely a decade old — this is young for any industry. Many of the practitioners we spoke with were involved in the early days and helped to make CG what it is today. How did they evolve into this field, what had they been doing before?
Though each group came into 3D from a different direction, there is a common thread throughout: 3D was a natural transition from what they had been doing.
“Much of the work we do here at Charlex is in advertising. In the past we were limited to practical setups [Ed. note: “practicals” refer to real life riggings] which were somewhat locked after being shot’ says James Fisher, the lighting supervisor at Charlex. “3D doesn’t present the same limitations so it was a natural choice to make the transition. 3D has opened a lot of doors for us.”
Lewis Kofsky from Curious echoes this. “We started as a true 3D shop — i.e. Stop motion animation. We still have a full shop and stage equipped with two motion control cameras. New 3D tools surely give us more possibilities and they allow us to do things faster with higher quality. However, a lot of traditional non-digital techniques are still necessary and preferable. We frequently shoot elements or physically model things that we could also do digitally. We like to draw on the best of all worlds. We have a full toolbox.”
In contrast to the large animation shops, talented independent animator David Lubell represents much of the classic “an artist and his craft” style of life. Located outside of the big city and working from his 150 year old farmhouse home and studio in upstate New York, David began his career as a traditional cel animator.
“I came from 2D hand drawn animation and converted my knowledge, first to 2d programs, and then to 3D programs. Having spent 4 years at NY Institute of Technology in 1985-89, I was introduced to 3D technology early on. As the software became available for the desktop I incorporated it into my work. Today I have more computing power on my desktop than what was available in all of NYIT back then!”
Jim Bruck, founder of Bruck3D has been designing and creating industrial installations for 25 years. “Before founding my own company, I saw the potential of 3D computer technology to enhance the creative output of our designers. I began advocating the change-over from traditional “board” skills to CAD tools, often against opposition from company management. Gradually, the tremendous productivity gains of CAD became apparent. I often found myself in the role of instructor and tutor to whole staffs of designers and interns, assisting them in the process of replacing drafting tools and markers with keyboards and mice.
“Before CAD, revisions often required a designer to start over with a fresh piece of vellum; and additional perspective views necessitated re-plotting and re-rendering from scratch. With CAD, revisions were a snap. Added views were a simple matter of setting up a new camera and adjusting the lights.”
While 3D has been the natural next step for all those interviewed here, most agree the reason for actually taking that step was largely one of efficiency. In the commercial world it is continually important to increase productivity and bring down the costs. But this was not the motivating force for everyone.
Sculptor Michael Rees had very different motivations. Unlike the other commercial artists of this group, the traditional world of the fine art sculptor is about as far away from digital tools as one can hope to get. It is a hands on and messy lifestyle compared to the cold cathode rays of our cyber world. So what on earth brought Michael to these toolsets?
“I’d been practicing sculpture since 1979; experimenting in all kinds of materials and processes. Through education and practice, I’ve been primed as a conceptual artist. So it was a kind of an epiphany the day I realized that computer modeling was a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) process where what I build in virtual space could be realized physically. It was also at that time that the class of automatic fabricators — rapid prototypers — became available.
“There was certainly a period of adjustment, but my practice has matured since then and the tools have become increasingly transparent, though not without struggling through all of the machinations of 3D.”
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THE OBVIOUS ADVANTAGE
While those of us in this niche of the CG industry appreciate how much 3D can accomplish, many outside our community have found the learning curve and transition from 2D a bit overwhelming.
Once panelist put it this way, “While 2D digital tools provided a fabulous evolutionary next step beyond non-digital tools, their main benefit is efficiency. 3D is a different story, these tools really are revolutionary.”
We asked the panel if they had any concrete examples of where 3D tools made a demonstrable difference compared to how they once produced work.
Ernest Rowe of R/GA told us that “our clients often give us the option of either shooting product photography or creating 3D models. It can become very expensive to photograph all the elements in the traditional way, and sometimes even impossible.
“A good example is an interactive demo we created for Avaya that walks consumers through their mobile communications technology. It takes place in the car, traveling along an extruding red path. This would have been difficult, expensive and time consuming to shoot traditionally. However, it was fairly simple to purchase the model of the car and animate the model in 3D. We also achieved camera angles that would have been difficult to get in a real world setting.”
The folks at Viewpoint have a similar story to tell. But as often happens with them, their artistic and development teams take things to a new level. “General Electric came to us and asked if we could take raw CAD data, as well as various other formats, and create a full motion, interactive, photorealistic presentation of a new aircraft engine that did not yet exist in reality. The clock was ticking for the project ? we were told we had just over two weeks to create the content. The results can be seen on GE’s website [here].”
Lance Evans, the creative director over at Graphlink Studios likes to highlight another aspect of using 3D tools in their work. “Versatility is increasingly important in all areas of design and production. Experienced clients expect our designs to work in as broad a range of applications as possible. 3D tools allow us to meet that expectation, and exceed it like never before.
“I have a favorite story,” continues Lance “of a large project we did for the Miller Brewing Company a while back. We were producing animations and art for their “Caps Race” campaign, and knew that the art would be needed for a wide range of uses?from broadcast resolution animations, to billboards reproduced across multi-story brick buildings. Using 3D we devised a way to create the entire work in an object resolution-independent environment. This allowed us to scale any of the work we did for the client up or down without resorting to resizing pixels in Photoshop. The quality was excellent and we produced animations, art for ads, and building sized billboards?all from the same files!”
Working on weekly or even daily publications can provide the artist with daunting challenges, as Joe Zeff will attest. “Flexibility is the name of the game for an editorial artist. Making changes in response to breaking news, trying different perspectives, or when an art director wakes up on the wrong side of the bed. 3D delivers that flexibility for me. In the past, I’d build Photoshop illustrations with dozens of layers, requiring gigabytes of RAM. Some changes could be made easily, and others would require starting over.”
In terms of 3D’s sheer capability enhancements, a number of our panel extended our question. “Not only is 3D more powerful than our traditional tools, the 3D of today can’t be thought of in the same terms as 3D of 5 years ago” was a common statement.
“Although software development is not in the frenzied accelerated stage of a decade ago, most professional applications are making significant refinements and enhancements on a regular basis” said Lance Evans. “The recent Maya upgrade is perhaps a classic example. While there may not have been that many headline features, anyone that uses it on a regular basis will appreciate all of the under-the-hood and workflow refinements it has. The result is each year we find ourselves being able to do new things?that is exciting.”
David Hulin of Framestore CFC/NY highlighted this same experience and spoke about how it has affected his shop’s ability to offer more, for less:
“Advances in the software, as well as increased performance from hardware allow us to employ techniques on commercials that, a year ago, would have only been possible with feature film budgets and schedules. We recently completed a spot for GMC where all of the car shots were fully CG. We were using HDRI lighting, and rendering floating point passes using Maya to Mental Ray.
“In conjunction with many Framestore CFC tools and plug ins, the realism of the car was increased by specific ray tracing techniques available in new versions of Maya. Without our current render farm we would have been unable to process it within the allotted time.”
For Sculptor Rees, well, he is just in a very unique world of his own, solving problems most of us never come across. His tools allow him to do this in some interesting ways.
“I was able to grab a dozen frames from an animation I had worked on last summer, and print them as foot tall sculptures and choose the best amongst them. [Ed. note: Mr. Rees is using the word “print” to mean sending a file for 3-dimensional output.] I then tweaked that piece in 3d until it stood upon the ground just right. At that point I sent the file to a 5 Axis CNC company. They carved all the foam and assembled the sculpture 12′ tall, then sent it to the fiberglasser where they coat it in fiberglass and spray a metallic luminore paint on the surface. We have to gently carve into the details of the piece at the fiberglasser to restate features.
“Finally, it was delivered to the museum. The process from chosen model to museum delivery took 5 weeks. That is an extraordinary short turn around compared to older processes, but very normal using digital tools.”
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SO WHAT ARE YOU USING?
These answers begged a question we would have asked anyway: What tools do these shops and individual artists use to create their 3D magic? While some of the answers were to be expected, other were a surprise.
Over at Blue Sky Studios, director Chris Wedge and team work with a proprietary software package. “At the heart of our Blue Sky system is the proprietary software package called CGI Studio, often simply called Studio by those who work with it on a daily basis. Studio is primarily a powerful programming language and renderer, designed specifically to describe, manipulate, and visualize 3D elements.
“Another reason our images look so good is that we don’t subdivide our curved surfaces into polygonal facets as many other software programs do. All of our surfaces are parametric patches including our sub-division surfaces which we render directly by solving the ray intersection with the patch. This keeps memory demands down, and avoids approximations that typically create shadow artifacts and difficulties with edge quality.”
On the tail-end of this process is Blue Sky’s 500-plus node renderfarm, and any of the additional 150 workstations that may be idle. For a great overview of how this stellar studio works go to http://www.blueskystudios.com/content/process.php This section of their site reads like a small book with 15 chapters on topics like rigging, modeling, layout, etc.
At Charlex, a lot of industry standard tools are in use. “The major packages we use are Maya, Mental Ray, Shake, Digital Fusion, Houdini, Realflow, Photoshop and Rush. Maya is our workhorse. It is used to do modeling, rigging, animation, texturing and lighting setups. Mental Ray is used for all of our rendering” says Bill Watral, Charlex Lead Effects Technical Director. “Effects work is spread between Maya, Houdini, and Realflow. Compositing is done in Shake and Digital Fusion. Photoshop is used for texture painting. We use Rush to manage our render farm which consists of more than 250 processors.
“In addition to these off-the-shelf tools we have also added many new features to Maya for specific jobs. For example, for a recent Folger’s job we connected Maya to an open source dynamics engine. This allowed us to do what Maya’s rigid dynamics could not achieve, 6000 CG coffee beans shaking in a tray and forming a coffee cup out of dark and light beans.”
Curious Pictures also uses industry standards. “We are a Maya house with seats of XSI, Soft and Max for smaller jobs or tasks. We always look for off the shelf solutions and then add our own scripting to extend or tie things together. We generally look for tools with a large user base so we can rise with everyone else.
“Recently we have directly contacted developers and have worked with them to fund development of their tools to meet our specific needs. This is a great approach that combines the advantages of custom features for our needs that give us an edge without the overhead of maintaining [the development of] these tools in the long run.
“It also makes sure that these features are put to the test by a large user base and will work in real production. Many shops that live on proprietary tools have an advantage for six months and then the work plays and everyone else catches up. What the outside world does not see are the huge costs and headaches associated with this type of development. We are trying to find a sustainable happy medium.”
Graphlink’s approach is also a bit of a hybrid. “We are a smaller shop, but we still employ multiple packages and develop our own tools in-house. For our animation and rendering work we have standardized on two packages, each with distinct advantages. The first is Maya. Our other package is Electricimage which can load huge scene datasets and still render good looking frames faster than other systems.
“General modeling is done in Maya, but there will always be a place for specialized tools. We have long relied on auto-des-sys’ Form-Z for modeling sets and industrial items. In contrast, we are beginning to work Silo into our pipeline for organic and character projects. The tools developed in-house help make everything run smoother.
“All of our compositing work is done in After Effects. After mucking about with 3D we enjoy AE’s straightforward approach in post.”
R/GA shares some of the same philosophy. “We use MAYA and After Effects. These two desktop applications, powered by talented artists, give us high-end 3D solutions that agencies of our size and focus didn’t have just a few years ago. Some still don’t.”
“We mainly use Maya, Photoshop and Shake, all of which are enhanced by in house tools, plug ins and scripts etc.” says Framestore’s Dave Hulin. “We have a R&D team in London that develops software for our CG pipeline. Also, some CG artists have programming knowledge that allow scripts to be created to make lengthy processes viable and complicated tasks simply repeated. Such a quantity of project specific development provides a wealth of knowledge that can be shared between departments.”
While Maya is the common thread for shops, Lightwave is a favorite choice of many independents. On our panel David Lubell prefers Lightwave for his animation work, while Joe Zeff uses it for his illustration projects.
Joe Zeff: “My toolset includes NewTek’s LightWave 3D, Worley’s FPrime and Luxology’s Modo. LightWave is my main program. FPrime is a life-changing plug-in that allows real-time render previews. Modo is an emerging competitor to LightWave with very intuitive modeling tools.”
As we may have expected, Michael Rees’ choice of tools is quite different than the others on the panel. The fine art sculptor uses a unique range of tools.
“I use standard software for production but love to futz around with unusual stuff for inspiration,” says Michael Rees. “Teddy (http://www-ui.is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~takeo/teddy/teddy.htm) is a weird piece of software that suggests some interesting ways to make 3d form from gesture. I also love N-Gen, a program that seems to have disappeared for the moment. It is a graphic design tool that was a kind of a kaleidiscopic automatic designer. It mimicked all kinds of styles of design incredibly well. I collect 3D modelers. I love to see how the same tools and concepts are implemented across different programs. I mean I love the spirit of Wings 3d.
“Some collaborators and I have created a little program that uses text input to construct 3d models. We call it the sculptural user interface and hope to make it available for free sometime in the future, when it’s more stable. Typing makes form and form is culled from alphabets made in 3d programs. Users can make their own alphabets and control the way they are joined together and scaled up and down.”
At the more CAD oriented Bruck3D, they use tools that suit their brand of needs. “For scenic design and modeling we primarily use Form-Z by auto-des-sys. This software is particularly suited to spline based modeling for about 95% of our needs.
“When a highly organic shape is called for we use Cinema4Dxl whose hypernurbs tools are particularly effective. Beyond these tools, we use Adobe Photoshop and After Effects as well as Final Cut Pro. We overwhelmingly favor Macintosh over PCs as platforms for the kind of work we do.”
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THE NEW YORK CONNECTION
No matter the type of work or choice of tools, each of our 3D shops agree on location. They all chose the NY/metro area as home base. This is particularly interesting since today’s technology allows much greater freedom of location than ever before.
While still in NY, independent animator David Lubell is the country standout in our group, working from his country cottage upstate, taking full advantage of technology. “I enjoy a country setting and find it possible to work from this beautiful location. All the back and forth in a production can be sent/received for immediate review via the internet.”
Strangely enough, the folks at the other end of our panel’s spectrum feel the same way about their lifestyle as well. NY based Blue Sky Studios is not in the city, but instead nestled into a more relaxed building in the suburbs.
“Blue Sky has always been on the East Coast.” says Chris Wedge. “The business has evolved to the point where we only have one client, and our projects take years to complete. Our location, for these reasons, is less important than it would be if we were still in the service business. The only real requirement is that we be near an airport. Or a landing strip. Or a place where pontoon boats can land.”
A number of our panel’s shops are native to the area. “New York City is and always will be a busy hub of business and commercial traffic.” says Lead Animator Tony Tabtong. “Charlex has been based here in the city since it was founded. Being centralized means not having to travel as much; getting tapes delivered is only a bike messenger away; and with many great colleges nearby, your potential talent pool is right here.
“There is something to be said about working in New York as opposed to the west coast. Things move fast in the commercial world; airdates need to be met before they are even decided upon. We have all heard the adage, ?movies get done on the west coast and commercials get done on the east.’ This may be due in part because, well…New York is crowded, and real estate can bankrupt you. Movies require space and hundreds of employees. Commercials don’t.
“Had we moved to the west coast things would be different, of course. We’d probably not be able to have the same throughput of work because people are more spread out there. Many people need to drive everywhere and the weather is way too nice to work all the time. There is an invisible ‘vibe’ associated with both coasts which would probably make a very good study. But, whether it’s the intense ethic of New York or the Hollywood attitude of the West, the job still needs to get done.”
Chris Wedge also appreciates the difference between the two coasts and the advantages of being on this one: “We are 3000 miles from Los Angeles, where our parent company and the rest of the movie business is. Directors and producers do a fair amount of commuting to Los Angeles, but the crew stays put. Usually?especially during production?the studio executives come to us. Most of our travel during those periods is for voice recording.
“This distance from Los Angeles gives Blue Sky a degree of autonomy, and, I believe, contributes to the unique look of our movies.”
Curious Pictures is another native NY company, and they have some definite feelings about it: “We are in downtown Manhattan?east village to be more precise.” says Lewis Kofsky. “Some might say that this is the center of the world. Many of us walk to work. New York is full of creative talent and inspiration. We can cross pollinate with everything else going on here.
“Our artistic community is vibrant. In a California studio everyone gets in their car at the end of the day and drives a few hours in every direction. In NY we are all close and the other studios are also nearby.
“There is a lot of work coming out of LA, but every year it becomes much easier to produce and collaborate remotely. Many of us have made conscious decisions to be on the right coast and the result is a talented excited crew that is producing amazing work.”
Viewpoint is a longtime NY based firm as well. “Our company is headquartered in NY for a number of reasons: outstanding personnel resources that had been largely untapped, a concentration of clients and potential clients in one small geographic area (Manhattan Island), the concentration of online advertising industry decision-makers, and the region’s strategic geographic position between the West Coast and Europe.
“We have not been hindered at all by being located in NY. However, to compete effectively we have had to open and maintain offices and support personnel nearest our largest clients who are outside of NY. We have personnel in Cleveland, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles.”
For editorial artist Joe Zeff, “New York is the publishing capital of the world, and most of my clients work within a short commute from my New Jersey studio. I operated my business out of Manhattan for several years and made tremendous contacts. Within a block of my studio were Newsweek and Esquire, two of my biggest clients. Within 10 blocks were most of the world’s most powerful magazines and publishing houses. I could easily stop in for a quick meeting or an impromptu lunch.
“Eventually I outgrew my space and relocated my studio to a larger suite of offices a few blocks from my home in Montclair, New Jersey?only a 25-minute train ride from Manhattan. Most of my work is delivered over high-speed internet, so in reality I could work anywhere. But the stimulation of the New York area would be impossible to replicate. And the time difference between here and San Francisco gives me the flexibility to sleep in when I’m working for West Coast clients.”
Graphlink’s Lance Evans feels much the same way. “I am a native New Yorker, so it was never a matter of moving here to open a company; it was only a question of if I would ever want to move it elsewhere. When we were predominantly a design and illustration shop many years ago we thought about northern California?southern Cal was never an option, I burn far too easily.
“But as our advertising and publishing client list grew, we realized there would be no duplicating it anywhere else in the world. All the companies we want to work with are here.”
Framestore CFC is the newcomer to the New York scene. Originally from London, they only recently opened their NY shop.
“We had already been doing work in London for NY clients for some time. Even though there have been many technological advances facilitating successful remote working, there is still no substitute for working with Directors and Agency face to face. Not only is communication a lot more straightforward, but it also creates opportunities for better relationships to develop. Another thing, the work we do in NY proves that you no longer have to go to the west coast to get excellent CG.”
Michael Rees is also a relative newcomer. For him, NY being the center of the fine art world made it a no-brainer. “I love New York because of all the intelligence here. Minds are teeming and steaming and scheming all over the place. (I’m originally from Missouri) At the same time, this is the center of fine art in the world, my profession. That might be shifting but not quite yet. I love the tradition of art in New York. I love being able to use these tools in the lineage of conceptual art. I do think you can do art anywhere; it’s the quality of life that keeps you in a place.”
One concern on moving shops to NY, especially bigger shops, was the issue of staffing. This is something Blue Sky has given thought to, but for a variety of reasons, never had a problem with. Chris Wedge explains:
“Recruiting is a double edged sword. We have found many transplanted New Yorkers that have been looking for a reason to move home from L.A. We have young people that just want to live in New York. We have people raising families in the wider, opener spaces of Westchester. And then we have some irascible people that wouldn’t be happy anywhere. Some folks are worried that there is not enough work in New York and feel safer on the west coast where there are more options. Some people would rather work in Texas where the cost of living is cheaper and there are better Bar-B-Que options. Everyone’s story is different.”
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NEW YORK: THE INTERNATIONAL HUB
New York, and Manhattan specifically, is often considered America’s greatest link to the rest of the world, especially European business. This connotation probably comes from it being a major world port, and while this has no direct impact on the 3D business model, it does help create a certain mystique that attracts business from Paris, as well as Kansas City.
We wondered if being in the city, or the NY region helped our panel internationally.
For the Viewpoint Corporation, being based in Manhattan has helped to launch their new international marketing campaigns. “The marketplace for 3D content abroad has just started to become attractive for us, with growth especially in the aerospace industry. In that industry, our New York address has helped differentiate us from our west coast competitors, whose clients abroad often think of as ?expensive providers of multi-million dollar movie production 3D.’
“Our Manhattan address has also helped us with foreign clients since it is a city associated with the ?best of the best’ in media and is almost always one direct flight away from their headquarters.”
For Curious Pictures, the answer to this question was a resounding “Yes” said Lewis. “NYC is a much easier destination for many international clients. LA is removed from a lot of the world and NYC is definitely a hub. There is also a lot that you get just by being in NYC. The texture of the street life and the concentration of culture serve as inspiration for a lot of the work.”
Graphlink has seen the difference as well. “We are not a large international company, and yet we are contacted a number of times each year by potential clients from all over the world. They obviously associate NYC firms with a certain level of expertise.” said Lance.
“There is little doubt our presence on the internet has played a major role in this happening. After all, when I need a supplier I no longer pick up the yellow pages, I search Google. So do people in other parts of the country and the world. And if you discover a supplier of creative media services located in the art and media capital of the world, then it’s natural to consider working with them.”
FINAL FRAMES
We asked our panelists for some final thoughts?on any of the subjects we covered.
Michael Rees: “Working with computers to make art is very interesting stuff. I feel like I’m getting closer to working with light, energy and consciousness rather than material. The sculpture ends up being the spent material of that interaction between light and consciousness. Computer manufacture is the most excellent and faithful assistant. Its a great time to be working this way.”
Viewpoint: “3D at last has come of age. Advertisers, Fortune 500 corporations, marketers and consumers hunger for it once they taste what it can do for them. With New York’s rich resources of talent and potential business, it’s reputation for excellence and its strategic geography?bridging California and Europe? the future appears very bright.”
Curious Pictures: “With the growth of overseas CG studios I think we are going to see a rise in production in NYC. Similar to the Cel world where design teams work in Manhattan backed up by overseas muscle, I think we will see more of that in CGI and VFX.”
Bruck3D: “Weak creative can never be replaced by technical finesse. With the powerful visual tools at our disposal, we designers need to be ever self-critical of our work to avoid being deceived into accepting less than our best.”
Joe Zeff: “I think a New York address adds credibility, and I believe it helped me considerably when I was building my business.”
Graphlink: “I recall the 90’s, when advertising creative was done here in NY, and then with a few exceptions, actual production was sent out to the coast. I said then that things would change. I knew it was only a matter of time before NYC had it all, as it now does.”
Blue Sky Studios: “If you build it they will come.”
What we have learned from this is that the New York 3D community is thriving and producing some of the richest content and broadest range of applications for these new tools. The studios and creatives working in this part of the world are pushing the envelope of what can be done in 3D. Far from being second-class to Hollywood or any other city, the Northeast is an oasis for creativity and innovation.
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