While Polygon Pictures is not a household name internationally, it is a company which has been in existence for over two decades now.  It has also amassed a significant body of work over the years, including original content such as Rocky and Hopper, digital penguins who starred in their own series of commercials.  Their popularity in Japan is akin to that of the M&M stars or the Coca-cola Polar Bears in the US.  Sales from related merchandise have amassed around US$ 140 million to date.  Not bad for a couple of plucky penguins from Japan.

Polygon Pictures also has a history with SIGGRAPH, having had several of their short films featured during various SIGGRAPH conferences.  SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group for GRAPHics) for those who are wondering is like the Mecca for computer graphics artists, professionals and enthusiasts.  You simply must attend one conference at least once in your career.

Possibly the best known example of work from Polygon Pictures here in the Philippines is the opening sequence of the anime, “Ghost in the Shell: Innocence.”  They are also collaborating with Nickelodeon on creating new shows for a more global market.  It would not be too farfetched for me to call Polygon Pictures the “Pixar of Japan.”

And so with such a company in hand, and having been educated in both Japan and the United States, Mr. Shiota gave a unique perspective on the state of Asia’s animation industry.

He spoke of his experiences with working with both Asian and western talent and ideas.  His words echoed the spirit of the conference:  that Asia, as a whole, need not play second fiddle to Hollywood; that Asian countries have much to contribute to the movie industry, and in the realm of visual storytelling.

He reminded us that, in the end, everyone of us in the industry, and those who plan on entering the industry, are storytellers, and it is our duty to tell the right kind of stories, the right way.  He also believes that we Asians have our own unique stories to tell.

However he does make a valid point, but Mr. Shiota quickly quantified his stand.  As part of the jury for Prix Ars Electronica during the 2003, 2004 and 2005 festivals, as well as the 2004 and 2005 SIGGRAPH festivals, he has seen various works from all over, and his comment is that typically, the works from Asian countries tend to be, well, Asian.

I agree with him completely on this one.    We both believe that to be accepted everywhere else in the world, the stories we have to tell are universal stories, stories everyone can relate to.  Not that Asian stories are bad or inferior; far from it.  But to paraphrase Mr. Shiota, instead of simply telling our stories, we should strive to tell universal stories, as only we can.

He also emphasized the importance standardizing our production values.  This is true because Hollywood and the companies in Europe and Australia have gotten a head start, and have already set the bar.  To compete with the work from the West we need to strive to--at the very least--match their quality of work.

The bar has to be raised, and the Polygon Pictures president found the CG OVERDRIVE conference timely in that it brought so many representatives from the many Oriental countries.  It also served as a meeting of the minds, as a venue for trading ideas and sharing experiences. 

And this is timely in that these things are important and necessary, and have to be done now, and he was not calling for certain countries to up the quality, but for ALL the countries to improve themselves, and share their lessons learned, so that Asia as a whole can be elevated and be truly competitive.  Certainly some countries will lead the way, but we all have to capable and competent to succeed as a continent of Computer Graphics.

He told a story of how Japan has roughly twenty-thousand people doing work related to animation, be it traditionally hand-drawn anime or computer graphics.  Of that number, eighteen thousand have been in the industry for the past ten years or more.

This means that in the past ten years, there have only been two thousand new artists.  Why?  Because they earn an average of nine thousand US dollars (US$ 9,000) a year.

While that may seem large to us, remember that in Japan a bottle of water can cost as much as US$ 1.50.  Convert that and it comes to Php78.00, for a small 250 ml bottle of H2O.  So basically the artist works for two hours and he can afford to buy a bottle of water.

This is applicable here as well, and in many other oriental countries where artists are often seen as factory workers, mere steps in a production line.  Robert Chang, another speaker at the forum, later mentioned that companies in the Orient want things done yesterday.  Obviously these are conditions that are not conducive to creativity, something that is essential to becoming the best storytellers we can be.

This stand is something that I believe all artists share, so I believe that for us at least it was more of a reminder for us to hone our computer and storytelling skills even further.  I would have wanted people from management to hear Mr. Shiota’s talk, so that they’d understand that when we artists say something along those lines, we have good reasons.

With a rousing round of applause, the key note ended, and the conference was officially in full swing.