Friday, October 03, 2008

At Imagi

Hulett's never-ending tour of animation studios took him to Imagi, where he held a lunch for new members, followed by a walk through the busy halls of the company.

I got to see some clips from Astro Boy, and it looks pretty damn good. Astro isn't in stereo, but a lead said to me: "I think the stereoscopic thing is a gimmick that won't last." (We'll find out if he's right or Jeffrey Katzenberg is right in three or four years.) One of the artists working on it told me:

"I've seen the reels a week or so ago, and the story's really shaped up. We've got five animators here working on it, the rest of the crew in Hong Kong. We're releasing it next October."

Other pictures in work at Imagi: Tusker, which migrated over from DreamWorks, and Gatchaman, which is still deep in story work.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yay outsourcing!

Steve Hulett said...

Technically, Imagi, Hong Kong is outsourcing to Imagi, Sherman Oaks.

Anonymous said...

Yes, Imagi is a Chinese company that is "outsourcing" jobs to the U.S.

Alex Dudley said...

What a twist!

Anonymous said...

In a way, yes. We're seeing the emergence of a global economy in which countries will be sourced for their respective strengths (in terms of resources vs. cost benefit) by international corporations.

The U.S. will remain a vital hub in that scenario, and we will (and are) find(ing) ourselves on the disbursing and receiving ends of the equation.

Kevin Geiger
http://tinyurl.com/3secq6

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