Stories
Sets lie empty, crews have been sent home and actors wait in limbo until they can return to their jobs. Film and television producers all over the world were forced to down tools due to the Covid-19 lockdown. Except for one sector.
Animators continue to work through the pandemic, producing stories and content. The nature of the work makes it much more feasible to do remotely. Whether the animators are working on a hand-drawn or computer-generated animation, it can all be done in one location. Some studios, such as Jam Media, are even providing equipment to use at home and dealing with broadband issues animators might have so that work can continue.
This has made animation a useful resource for businesses who want to release a creative advertisement campaign during this crisis. This was not lost on An Post who contacted Treehouse Republic, a Dublin animation company recently voted as one of the top 25 up and coming animation studios worldwide.
It has produced a range of comedy action content for kids, as well as providing development, pre-production and production services. It focuses on 2D animation and provides services in the integration of 2D, 3D and live-action content.
One of their most recent projects was an advertisement for An Post based on their print campaign for staying connected during these unprecedented times. The 40-second advertisement was created completely remotely and shows how An Post can keep people connected by providing free postcards to every house in Ireland.
“We got contacted by JWT Folk, who is an agency here in Dublin. They have the account for An Post and they wanted to get an animated ad out because they needed to get something really quickly together because it’s Covid-19-related,” says Treehouse Republic chief executive Dale Robinson.
Lockdown is “not really the end of the world for most of the animators” and most own laptops and can connect with people through Zoom and Google to keep the workflow going, according to Robinson.
“The industry is made up of people mostly who are introverts anyway and like to be on their own,” he says.
“I know that’s kind of general stereotype, but it’s true,” he says through a laugh.
The An Post video took around a week and a half to create. “If lockdown wasn’t in place it would have taken a lot longer. We would have put in a lot more time into different aspects of it,” says Robinson.
In this situation, many people were working on the project at once. Normally there would be one person on character design, for example, who could take their time with that element of the animation before moving onto the next step. This created some problems with things being changed towards the end which had already been animated. These were minor issues though that did not slow the project down, says Robinson.
Treehouse Republic currently employs 16 people and five staff worked remotely on the An Post advertisement. The amount of people working on one animation such as this depends on scheduling. The more time the studio is given, the more people with specific skills can get involved.
“We pride ourselves on being able to work within any budget and any timeframe. So, if you came to us and said I need an ad done by tomorrow, we would just throw everyone at it and get it done,” says Robinson.
Although the lockdown is new, working remotely is not actually out of the ordinary for animators such as those at Treehouse Republic. Those working in the studio are often collaborating with artists they have never met before who are based in different countries.
However, there is one struggle brought about by lockdown for animators, and it seems universal for everyone who is currently working from home.
“The hard part of it is working at home with my family and my kids butting in all the time,” says Robinson jokingly.
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Treehouse Republic primarily creates animations for television, specifically targeted to children from pre-school age to 11.
The studio is currently developing a television series for children called Atom Town in collaboration with another Irish animation studio called Turnip & Duck, which it hopes to finance this year. Treehouse Republic is doing the animation for the series while Turnip & Duck is writing the story.
Animation accounts for 50 per cent of all production spending in Ireland, according to recent figures from Screen Ireland. These figures are based on the number of productions that qualified for Section 481 tax relief, which provides a 32 per cent tax credit for film, television and animations. This tax relief was given to 39 animated projects in 2019, with a total production value of €372 million, out of 124 eligible across TV, film and animation last year. By comparison, 10 animation projects received tax relief with a total production value of €57 million in 2018.
“The figures on spending in 2019 once again highlight the amazing growth of the animation industry in Ireland over the past five years,” said Animation Ireland Chief Executive Ronan McCabe in a recent statement.
To put these figures into context, in 2014, animation projects that received Section 481 support were valued at €85 million, which represented 20 per cent of the total. In five years, this has grown more than four-fold.
The animation sector directly employs more than 2,000 people and Animation Ireland now has 33 member studios.
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Treehouse Republic is also in the middle of production on a TV series called Hungry Bear Tales, which is a co-production with a Czech animation studio called Bionaut. Bionaut originated the show and Treehouse Republic came on board as a partner.
Hungry Bear Tales is a 26-episode series. The first 13 episodes will air on RTÉjr and Czech TV in the middle of 2020 and the next 13 episodes will be delivered at the end of this year or early next 2021.
“We went into production on that the week before lockdown officially started. We were just starting training. We normally do a couple of weeks training, get the animators ready in the style of the animation and stuff, and they want us to use a software that we never used before. So, the training will have to be done remotely, which was really a big pain this time around because normally you’d be in a room where questions flow back and forth,” says Robinson.
As animators continue to work on stories and projects, the live film industry is earmarked to recommence production in Phase 3 (June 29) of the government’s five-stage roadmap to re-opening the economy. However, a wide number of challenging key practical issues remain to be addressed including insurance, health and safety protocols and travel restrictions, according to Screen Ireland.
