Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/4522
November 2009 34 mitted five shots and ended up with three in the film." And, it gave all the partici- pants a chance to show their work to "Hollywood," even if they lived in Russia or Venezu- ela. All the animators now have listings on IMDB, for example. It's unlikely that crowd- sourced animation will ever re- place the well-honed pipelines at such studios as Pixar, Blue Sky, PDI/DreamWorks, and Sony Pictures Animation, but those studios might learn a lesson from the process, discover talent otherwise difficult to spot, and embrace the global energy and enthusiasm this kind of project can inspire. Shaking up the sta- tus quo scares some people, but it motivates others. "It's hard to break into animation," Landau says. "Part of the purpose of this project is to facilitate that for people. Most of the people [with shots in 'Live Music'] are starting their careers. ree have gotten jobs at more established animation studios already, and another got a job at a visual effects studio based on the shot he submit- ted for 'Live Music.' So, that's why I keep doing this." "We're in a golden age of animation," Landau adds. "I felt that when we launched Sony Pictures Animation. What inspires me now is that people can run Maya on their laptops in Kazakhstan and submit full CG animations." And, Landau can help show their artistry to the world. n Barbara Robertson is an award-winning writer and a contributing editor for Computer Graphics World. She can be reached at BarbaraRR@comcast.net. When potential animators downloaded a story reel, such as those illustrated here, they received 3D assets, an anima- tion test, and Maya PLE. They submitted playblasts. n n n n Animation