Bangkok SimplyCG'ers UNITE!

Yep! I'm gonna give myself a great big group hug!

Ok, maybe not, but I will post a couple of links for those that may be interested in what's happening over here. On a personal level it's all going rather well. I think the Thai animation industry is still growing, still experiencing some growing pains, but we get the occaisonal spurt of decent output.

http://www.khankluay-themovie.com/ is a good example of the latest. Released last year it's Thailand's first 3D full length. It's not going to wow people with fantastic animation (though it does have moments) but it looks great and is a nicely told tale. It is a world apart from everything else I've seen here, and having experienced the Sunday morning kids cartoons that get aired I was pleasently surprised at the quality of this film. Part 2 is currently in production, and I worry that this may be one of the growing pains that Thailand will experience. I know we live in the age of syndicated sequels, but what I fear most is that it's just trying to ride on the success of the original (the TV series has been made already, btw) and it's going to fall flat, killing off Thai 3D features entirely.

Since the CG industry is fairly small I've got to know a number of people that worked on Khan Kluay - a few I now work with at The Monk. Here's an interview from Thaianimator that may give you a better idea of what's happening here. (Oh, the fact that a Thai animation forum exists is a recent thing and shows that there is progression and growth!)

http://thaianimator.com/animate/?q=node/33

And a good friend and mentor, Mark was interviewed by the site recently too. He has a real insight on the state of play here, having taught animation in Thailand. Sadly he's just too busy to teach full time but the little snippets I get from him are pure gold!

http://www.thaianimator.com/animate/?q=node/80

As for our studio... well watch this space! We only opened our doors at the start of the year and have grown considerably since then. It's been sooo much fun and I'm really happy to part of it right now. I think this place will be one of the studio's that help to steer the industry in these balmy waters of it's infancy (wow that was quite poetic!). My boss has a real eye for quality and, while it may sound strange, he has a really relaxed kind of focus to the job in hand. Having worked as a shot supervisor at R&H for over 10 years he's had a lot of experience on some of the major flicks. So he's now returned to his home country and want's to invest that experience and knowledge in to local talent here.

So yeah... We're busy, very busy (Possibly why I haven't really posted anything more than a few one liners for a while), currently on a job that's gonna keep us quite hectic till the end of the year. I can't say much more than that unfortunately, but there's a heck of a lot of animation to do! (Send your applications and portfolios!!! )

And that's Thailand folks!

Oh yeah... we do eat bugs here!

hey what's the capitol of thailand?

Bognor Regis

I could tell you more... but I'd have to kill you

Oh alright - I'll tell you but I'm just about to hit the road and head to work (to do some more super special secret stuff) so it'll be brief.

Just around two years ago I started working in a small company that was on pre-production of a full length feature film. By that time the film Khan Kluay (the link I posted earlier) was way into production but still over a year off. Now, when I first started I was told that we were around 18 months away from the film's release date.

I worked and learned a heck of a lot over the 18 months that I was there (My first day at the studio was my first day of Maya). The studio grew and I grew with it, ultimately being promoted to Character TD. But while that sounds impressive it's also an indication of some of the problems the studio faced (and still faces), namely a lack of production experienced staff. Now, I left there at the start of the year and the production is still ongoing and, as far as I know, there is still quite a ways to go. Out of respect to the studio I can't be more specific about it, and sadly I can't show any of the animations I did there

But all the negative things aside I did have a great time there - it was a great place to work, with very talented artists and I thank the boss for giving me the opportunity. I left because I had to, but it was the right time for me to test the water at other places and I'm very glad I did.

So yeah, on to other things, and hopefully I'll be doing stuff with a quicker turn around time now - so you guys can see it. We hope to be doing feature film work so I still have to be a little secretive and vague - but watch out for some links some time soon.