Animaginative but shy

Hollywood pulsates with a 70-percent increase in the number of animated films being produced, or from an average of 12 films to around 40 annually.

Filipino illustrators may not figure out distinctively on the credit roll, but thanks to business process outsourcing, the Filipino creative touch is imprinted on interesting films such as Amazing Spiderman, Avengers, to name a few.

The sad thing though is that Filipino artists may remain for quite a long time handling post-production works, not exactly drawing Filipino content to showcase to the world. This is because the load of opportunities is on coloring works, and not really presenting original sketches or drawings. The characters are already provided, so after the color touches done by Filipino artists, these would be sent back to overseas studios.

KC Leung of Wacom Asia mentioned, in a recent forum to highlight professional products, that Cebuanos specifically are still homebound despite being highly talented, creative, professional, English-proficient, warm, friendly, and approachable.

In his own opinion, he sees a lack of community among Cebuano digital artists to freely share ideas, concepts, styles and techniques. "I think that this doesn't mean they don't want to share ideas. Unlike the aggressiveness of Davaoeños or those in Luzon to learn by exerting effort to show their works and get mentored, Cebuanos are relatively shy."

"IMHO, they would rather be self entrepreneurs, rather than consolidate with other ideas from other regions to put up a single act," Leung added.

He also observed that the lack to showcase Filipino content may be attributed to most of the artists' house's dependence on the mouse. "If an investor finds out that we still are highly dependent on the mouse - that would instantly give them the impression we can't handle broader work load."

Who would trust to invest money and knowledge on artists struggling to work hours for just a frame of two-dimensional drawing? This is the logic behind that observation.

Imagine working on an illustration: clicking on the mouse, dragging, highlighting - all burning precious hours just to finish a single frame.

Upgrade to professional products like the use of grip pens and a multi-touch input system with wireless freedom, to expand animation landscape, makes all types of designers (graphic, concept, Web, etc.) more on the go. There is also support provided to design engineering and manufacturing industry. That's why Wacom was here recently at the Cebu City Marriott Hotel for the product demo.

Ambidexterity, through a modern working environment with the use of original multi-touch and pen technology, allows for greater quality output as well as comfort to the user via platforms as varied as notebook PCs, slate PCs and e-books. Full use of the hands, which intuitively know what to do, in digital arts, is our future.

The idea is to make every designer appreciate all the more his or her work, that work could be more fun, and that there is an easier way to become socially creative.