Trio to launch CGI shop guru

By Dusitn Dinoff
May 29, 2000
Page 38

Toronto animator Chuck Gammage has entered into a partnership with former TOPIX/Mad Dog producer Anne Deslauriers and animator Frank Falcone to launch guru Animation Studio, specializing in computer-generated animation.

At guru, Deslauriers, Falcone and Gammage will collaborate on a number of commercial and proprietary projects, combining Gammage's traditional character animation with Falcone's abilities behind a computer console. The final product, they predict, will be something special and relatively new to the Canadian animation sector.

"A lot of companies tend to do more service production work after a while," says Falcone. "guru is about creating ideas to attract projects, whether they are commercial or long-form - wherever people need ideas."

With the deal in the works for the last six months, the green light officially started blinking when Deslauriers left t/md a few weeks back. She says the guru offices, although not a division of Chuck Gammage Animation, will be located close to the Gammage studio which is on Adelaide Street in downtown Toronto.

Gammage says he is very confident about his decision to move into cg animation and the partners he has taken on.

"People know the kind of work that I've done, so they know if I am going to get involved with someone it will be with the best people around," says Gammage. "This is something different we are doing and I think our studio [Chuck Gammage Animation] can bring something to this as well, because we have been doing animation for so long and people know we can do a good job."

Gammage, who recently finished work on two Trix ads through Saatchi & Saatchi New York and a Kellogg's Frosted Flakes theater spot (featuring Tony the Tiger) out of Leo Burnett in Chicago, admits he knows very little about manning a computer, but he knows what he likes. He admires Nelvana's Rolie Polie Olie and hopes guru can churn out the same quality of work.

The three partners agree, however, one thing they intend to do through guru is show clients, producers and the entire viewing world that cg doesn't have to look like computer-generated imagery.

"What happens with computer-generated animation is people get a preconceived notion of what cg looks like," says Deslauriers. "They think of round, shiny objects, but computer animation doesn't have to look like that. It can look like anything you want it to look like. It can even look like television animation."

Although the thrust of Gammage's current production is in the commercial field, he hopes branch out into longer formats with guru. "Most animators want to work on something longer than 30 seconds," he admits.

He also hopes to convince clients to experiment with different styles of animation.

"Something I would like to do is put together a package of different designers to send out with the reel to help inspire agencies to think of different styles of animation," says Gammage. "It is always the same thing, all the time, and it would be nice to show people that you can do other things. You don't have to stick to the Disney look. Not that you have to forget about that, but let's try some other stuff."