Animation, the Pinoy way

MANILA, Philippines - After being exposed to the Making of Beauty and the Beast and so many other behind-the-scenes glimpses into Disney and Pixar’s animated films, one begins to wonder if our local animators stand a chance of competing for viewership in the international scene.

“Local animators are faced with the challenge of trying to make quality animation on a shoestring budget,” says Benedict Carandang of Tuldok, Inc.

And yet, it is short of a miracle that Pinoy animators are able to produce work that is at par with that of international giants.

Take for example, Tuldok’s latest baby — the 40-minute animated film entitled Pasintabi. The background 3D images of a typical Pinoy house and the magical world of the nuno offers viewers a surreal peek into what happens when Filipino folklore meets digital and artistic wizardry.

Believe it or not, the entire film was done without the use of what Carandang refers to as the “industry standard” of the animator’s best friend — Wacom Cintiq. Averaging about P100,000, the model boasts “pen-on-screen performance that closely replicates the experience of working with traditional brushes and markers and offers all the benefits of a digital workflow.”

Ramon del Prado of Tuldok does his work

Due to budget constraints, most of today’s young and new Pinoy animators opt to work with just any tablet PC. “It is a laptop that converts into a digital drawing board,” animator Ramon Del Prado says as he shows us his HP tx2500. The tablet PC was initially marketed towards businessmen but artists found that it worked just as well for animation.

Twenty-eight-year-old Del Prado is a self-taught animation filmmaker. In 2005 he co-founded Tuldok Animation Studios with Carandang and two others. One of the founders has already been “pirated” by Yahoo, he mentions during the interview.

“Pinoy animators are hired not just for their talents, but for their resourcefulness. They (the foreign employers) know that we are able to accomplish the same things with less than a fraction of the budgets that the big studios have.

“Take for example that most animators who are starting out cannot even afford the tablet PC. They use a tablet like the Wacom Graphire (or its more updated version Wacom Bamboo) to do the job,” adds Del Prado.

The “tablet” simply replaces the mouse and can be attached to any laptop or PC. Instead of working directly on the screen, the animator “sketches” onto a mouse-pad-like surface.

Taking away the convenience of sketching directly on the screen, working with a tablet takes some getting used to but Del Prado says many young animators are quite adept at using this cheaper gadget. With a price range of P3,500 to P6,000, it is the preferred tool of those who are struggling to make their mark in the local animation industry.

Tuldok members use tablets and work on their animated films by breaking up into teams.

Each animator does his job at home, many of them working on the project on a part-time basis. Then, for a scheduled two or three weeks at a time, the animators are “holed-up” in a team-members’ house together with the background artists, the character designers, the music team, the voice talents and the post-production team.

The process is a tedious one. Without a studio and with many part-timers as integral members of the team, the production of Pasintabi took three years.

“It is worth the wait,” enthuses Leanna Beltran, the manager of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology’s (CICT) Creative Content Development Project.

The CICT funds projects that harness the Filipinos unique creativity and translates that into content that is distinctly Pinoy.

“Often we know of animation only in terms of the characters that are developed by foreign companies. When you see Pasintabi, you will be amazed at how rich our local folklore and mythology is,” Beltran adds. “On top of this, the way this team pulled it off, with all the logistical challenges, can be credited purely to each team member’s intense dedication to the craft and their genius.”

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Pasintabi will be launched by CICT next month together with an interactive educational game and an instructional video on producing animation. The launch, dubbed “Unboxed!,” is being made possible with support from Smart Communications, DCinema, Inc. and Arrays Technology, flipbook @digizines.com, PLDT SME Nation and C2.