Ra specialises in effects for Fox

By ADAM GIFFORD

Dunedin animation specialist ra productions is proving the merit of the cluster theory of technology investment, building a successful international business in studios just around the corner from Animation Research.

Founder Scott Pearson said that that helped in the hunt for good staff, a process dependent on luck as much as on scouring the Dunedin art school and Otago University's computer science department for talent.

"It's always good to have a lot of people doing the same thing in the same place," he said.

Mr Pearson learned the craft of 3D animation in Germany, when he left his job as a moving lights technician for television to join a fledgling animation company in Cologne.

In partnership with another animator, he set up Head Crash Productions, which produced ads for companies such as Agfa, Volkswagen, Opel, Honda and EMI, as well as doing television animation.

He returned to Dunedin in 1998 and immediately picked up work with the Natural History Unit.

The bulk of ra's business now comes from the unit, once a division of Television New Zealand and now a subsidiary of 20th Century Fox Studios.

"I knew a guy who was editing Twisted Tales, which Natural History was doing for Discovery's Animal Planet channel," Mr Pearson said.

"The producer wanted some special effects so I did a 3D animated bat - which went on to win an Emmy."

As Natural History grew, so did ra productions, and the company now employs seven staff.

"We've concentrated on working for Natural History so our techniques are for high-end television, which are different to what you need for commercials."

As a television design company, ra productions is responsible for branding a series or show, creating the logo and look.

"We design the series of introductory images that accompany the theme music at the beginning of each show.

"These images, which are screened each time the show is aired, are an important part of the show's identity, and give the viewer the flavour of the show," Mr Pearson said.

The company also produces any explanatory graphics and special effects.

Mr Pearson originally built his own workstations, searching out the best hard drives and video cards, but now runs the business on SGI gear.

"Good hardware can double or triple productivity. If you have a good workstation people are working faster."

A key tool is the render wall, a rack of four servers with dual 733MHz Pentium III chips and 512Mb of memory, which churns through all the calculations needed for realistic animation.

The render wall runs both the 3D Max software and Digital Fusion, which is used for compositing or layering 2D shots used for titles and graphics.

"Before the render wall arrived we had to render at night, using a workstation that was needed for other tasks in the day.

"The new rendering suite has meant the difference between waiting a minute instead of an hour for a rendering job to be completed."

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