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Makeshift Story of Shifting Images: Writing Philippine Animation History through the Proceedings of the Animahenasyon Congress
By Roel Hoang Manipon*
With a competition for young and emerging animators and animated-film makers a substantial part of the second Animahenasyon, an animation festival held from November 12 to 16, 2008, proponent and organizer Animation Council of the Philippines, Inc. (ACPI) was divining and spurring the future of Philippine animation, which is determinedly with intent to foment a body of animation works with Filipino content, to enliven their making and to make them available for the general public. Ultimately, it will lead to the flourishing of a viable Philippine animation industry, which will mean Filipino in its content and crafting.
As of now, Philippine animation as an industry, not categorized under the creative one, largely consists of doing outsourced work from foreign companies, substantially forming the beginnings of Philippine animation. This fact came out in another important part of Animahenasyon, the congress.
While the competition looked to the future, the exhibition and this congress traced the past, the recent past, as Philippine animation can be considered in its infancy, that is, if it means wholly Filipino made, from germination of the idea and development of content to its making and showing.
Given the situation, the accuracy of the term “Philippine animation” can be contestable, and the phrase “animation in the Philippines” is a likelier one to describe the animation activity in the country. The latter refers to animation work done by Filipinos and in the country, which can shift to making animation by Filipinos based on their own ideas, original expressions, to constitute “Philippine animation.” However, for convenience, “Philippine animation” is used to describe all animation activity in the country, and its history seems to include works made by Filipinos with Filipino content as well as work by Filipinos employed by foreign animation producers but themselves not creating and producing their own ideas.
While waiting for the transition or likely the establishment of a sizeable body of Filipino animated works with an industry creating them, ACPI intends to write the history of animation in the Philippines, and the Animahenasyon congress sealed that laudable endeavor.
The congress was held on November 15, 2008, at the School of Design and Arts of the De La Salle University’s College of Saint Benilde, where a course in animation is being taught, and veterans and pioneers in the industry were invited to share their experiences. These included Tito Romero, Nestor Palabrica, Mayo Hernandez, Nelson Caliguia, Grace Dimaranan, Imee Marcos, Pablo Biglang-awa and Jessie Lasaten. Being non-scholars, most of the speakers had not prepared formal papers, instead they had Powerpoint presentations and talked offhand, drawing from memory.
In large part, the history-writing-in-the-process that was the congress gathered experiences in the industry that accepted contracted animation work, bespeaking the substantial portion it occupied in the 30 years or so history of Philippine animation.
Philippine animation as an outsourced industry is said to experience a rise and boom in the 1980s. The Australia-based Burbank Animation established a branch in the country in 1983. This was followed by the formation of the Filipino-owned Optifex International, which became Asian Animation. Fil-Cartoons came about in 1988. Work came from studios in the United States and Europe.
The State of the Sector Report on Philippine Digital Animation done by the Pearl2 Project, funded by the Canadian International Development Agency, said, “These three companies were export oriented and most of their products were done for foreign contracts. They all have done their share in the industry, such as helping train aspiring animators and producing animated films in the country. A number of their alumni have gone on to other animation outfits or projects, enriching the industry’s capabilities.”
In the 1990s, the boom continued, seeing more animation companies and Filipino animators being recognized globally.
Though Philippine animation as an outsourced industry seems to be a large part in animation activity in the country, there were animated works done outside it with Filipino content and with an intention to be an expression, an art.
It is acknowledged that Philippine animation owes its beginning with cartoonists. Prominent of them was Larry Alcala, known for his comic strips featuring the characters Siopawman, Asiong Aksaya and Kalabog and Bosyo, particularly his “Slice of Life.” 1972, he introduced a course in commercial design at the College of Fine Arts of the University of the Philippines, including an animation class in which they produced eight-millimeter film productions of animated cartoons. It is said that Alcala made the first Filipino animated cartoon in 1953—a black-and-white exercise in movement showing a girl jumping rope and a boy playing a yoyo, done on eight-millimeter film.
In 1978, Nonoy Marcelo, another noted cartoonist, produced what is now recognized the first Filipino full-length animated film. The 48-minute Tadhana was shown on television at RPN 9 on September 21, 1978.
Aside from the rise of animation studios doing contract work, the 1980s saw the first animated film competition on a national level. In May 1983, the third Manila Short Film Festival held at the University of the Philippines Film Center included an animation category in which Jackie Mendoza (first), Juan Alcazaren (second) and Cynthia Estrada (third) won. In 1988, the second CCP Independent Cinema and Video Competition, organized by the Cultural Center of the Philippines, included an animation category, in which Roxlee and Yeye Calderon won third prize.
On November 21, 1986, Philippine animation had a milestone when Panday, the first Filipino cartoon series on television started airing on RPN 9. It was created by Geirry A. Garccia, based on the komiks series of Carlos Caparas. The series lasted for six months. In the same vein, Garccia also produced Darna and Captain Barbell, both based on Mars Ravelo’s komiks series.
On June 30, 1989, the children show Batibot put out a two-hour television special on conservation and environmental awareness, titled “Sa Paligidligid,” done in animation and aired over IBC 13.
From being a category in film competitions, Philippine animation had a festival of its own. In March 1995, Animagination: The First Filipino Animation Festival was organized by the Alternatibong Samahan ng mga Animator sa Pilipinas (ASAP), in cooperation with the Mowelfund Film Institute, at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. It was an all-Filipino, non-competitive event which featured 49 original works.
Prior to that, Philippine animated shorts were shown internationally when selected shorts were screened at an hour-and-a-half program called “Asian Animation” at the fifth International Animation Festival in Hiroshima, Japan.
In the latter part of 1995, issues concerning the animation industry and the opportunities available around the world were discussed at the Film Animation Festival: The Philippines’ First Major Conference and Film Exhibits in Animation in Makati City, organized by Expovision Trade Services, in cooperation with the department of Trade and Industry and the Philippine Animation Studio.
A second Animagination was held on November 1997 with 112 titles.
On Christmas Day of 1997, Panday television series creator Geirry A. Garccia showed a full-length animated feature, Adarna: The Mythical Bird, at the Metro Manila Film Festival, produced by Guiding Light Production and FLT Films International.
Another full-length animation, Isko: Adventures in Animasia, was released in 1995.
Recent developments include the formation of the Animation Council of the Philippines in 2000. It is a non-stock and non-profit organization made of several studios, schools and organizations with an aim to promote and develop the animation industry in the country. Among other things, it organizes the Animehenasyon festival, which includes exhibits, competitions, master classes and a congress.
In 2008, the full-length Urduja was released as well as Dayo sa Mundo ng Elementalia, the first Filipino full-length digital animation, as an entry to the Metro Manila Film Festival.
The number of animation studios in the Philippines has grown to more than 50 animation companies, most considered as small and medium sized outfits, and despite some setbacks the country is one of the leading sources of animation-related services.
Tito Romero: Wandering to Dayo
Romuald Titus O. Romero, or Tito, is a veteran in the local animation industry
with two decades of experience, particularly in two-dimensional animation production. Having worked with several studios and on several projects, he became a freelance animator for almost eight years. He is presently an in-house director of Cutting Edge Animation, “a small yet progressive Pinoy animation company pioneering in the first paperless 2D animation for TVC and films,” which created Dayo.
His resume says he “produces and delivers on time up to 60 ft. of key drawings a week,” and “directs, designs characters and creates layouts and storyboards for animated segments of TV shows, commercials and short films.”
Romero delivered a narrative recounting his experience in working with different outfits and the making of Dayo. His paper, simply titled “A Paper Tracing the History of Philippine Animation from My Personal Experience as Animator,” reads thus:
“The work I made for Dayo (merging traditional and digital means to create a 2D film; 100 percent Filipino-made full length animated film) would not have materialized if not for my experience the past 2 decades doing simultaneously 2 things: 1) limited animation for TV (subcontract animated series for airing in the West); and 2) animated TV commercials mostly for Philippine viewing and a handful for some Asian countries.
“I was barely 18 in 1984 when I enrolled in a month-long animation workshop at Optifex International. Thereafter I was hired and sent to Taiwan for further training. Within a year Hanna Barbera tied up with Optifex to do subcontract work for them. They sent expats to train us in production work. We learned a lot from them doing popular shows like The Jetsons, Flintstone Kids, Johnny Quest, etc. For the next 2 decades (well, almost) after Optifex, we did essentially the same thing—that is, animating for different studios that are subcontracting work for foreign companies. In the beginning, learning the ropes was fun. But later on, animating this way where pre-production materials from storyboard, model sheets, key backgrounds, x sheet, audio tracks, etc. were provided by the foreign studios became boring and presented little challenge to me. I wanted to do something original, but there was no opportunity to do so.
“At about the same period, I had the chance to work on a substantial number of animated TV commercials (TVC), among them Dunkin Donuts, Coke (“Red Hot Summer”), Colgate, Nestle Kimy, Milo etc. The work involved not only animating but also included character designing, storyboarding, art direction, and even concept art. This somehow satiated my desire to be more creative in the field of animation. But I wanted to do more than commercials. I dreamt of creating a Filipino animated film from start to finish. The idea of doing a film where the story and setting is Filipino, where characters are speaking in Tagalog excited me.
“It remained a dream for so long. Lahat ng pagkakataong inakala kong matutupad ang pangarap kong ito ay sinunggaban ko. I took the risk of leaving a well-paying job at Philippine Animation Studio, Inc. (PASI) in 1995 to join Star Animation of ABS-CBN that attempted to produce an all-Filipino animated film. Tumulong din ako sa Kwentong Kayumanggi ng Art Farm noong year 2000. Kahit si Kris Aquino ay pinatulan ko! Dinrowing ko siya pati si Eric Quizon sa isang animated segment ng kanilang pelikulang Happy Together (MAQ Productions) noong 2004. In 2005, I designed the 3D characters of ABS-CBN’s teleserye Kampanerang Kuba.
Pero dahil kailangan ko pa ring kumita, I continued taking freelance work from different studios doing subcontract work.
“Then I met Jessie Lasaten again in 2006. Jessie was a colleague from ABS-CBN who set up his own post-production company. He was also a dreamer like me. He dreamt of producing an all-Filipino, all-original full-length animated film. He invited me to help him set up the animation department of Cutting Edge Productions. Finding someone who has the same vision as I have, I took the risk again of joining a company that is big on dreams but lacking in experience.
“Doing Dayo was no easy task nor decision. I knew from the beginning that this venture would not reward me financially. But the opportunity to be creative, to do something from scratch—from pre-production to post-production with no foreign assistance—kept me going.
“We began pre-production work in March 2007. I designed all the characters, did some early concept art, and stood as animation director of the film, not to mention animated key sequences of the film.
“Right from the start, Jessie wanted a paperless animation studio setup. It was something new to me, something unthinkable. For the uninitiated, a paperless 2D animation setup involves drawing directly on the computer monitor using the Cintiq. I had to learn animating in another way using the computer. It was no easy task for someone who had been animating for more than 2 decades using paper and pencil. There was a time I felt like giving up. But I persisted and my effort paid off.
“Using this method that we now coined tra-digital, that is, a merging of traditional and digital 2D animation, made the work easier and faster in the long run. This is not to say there were no problems encountered.
“There were glitches in the system. Minsan ang isang linggong trabahong pinaghirapan ay nawawala at nabubura. We also had to create a new monitoring system to match the computer setup.
“In the end, all our efforts were rewarded. We finished production on time, as scheduled. It is now in post-production stage. It is scheduled to be released on Christmas Day as entry to the Metro Manila Film Festival.
“Some people may comment that this work pales in comparison in many aspects with foreign-made, big- budgeted, established studio-produced animated features. But given the limited time, resources, and experience, I am happy with what we did, because my dream was finally fulfilled.
“May this modest attempt at original Filipino animation pave the way for other artists to dream bigger dreams for Philippine animation.”
Nestor Palabrica: Beginning of Animation Subcontracting and Toei
Nestor Palabrica’s experience is unlike Romero’s because he is confined to one studio, Toei Animation, and thus he has not much stories to tell. He said he had not been hopping from one job to another. “Natural ang rigodon sa animation,” he said. His first foray into animation work started with Toei and continues until today. Pablarica is Toei’s general manager and ACPI’s vice president.
His picture-heavy PowerPoint presentation he called “Toei Animation Phils., Inc. in the Philippine Animation Setting” traced the start of animation outsourcing job in the country and gave a brief history of the Japanese-based animation company Toei in the Philippines. He also talked about the start of ACPI.
According to Palabrica, the establishment of a branch in the Philippines of the Australian animation company Burbank Studios in1983 started the outsourced animation jobs. After Burbank, Optifex International was established in 1984.
Both studios were near to each other and often lured each other’s animators. This cannibalization led to their demise in 1988.
It was around this time that Toei Animation appeared in the picture.
Engineering Equipment, Inc. (EEI), known for building the MRT, is originally into construction business, but ventured into animation because their marketing manager in Tokyo, Mr. De Guzman, learned from Mr. Tsuda of M. Tsuda & Co., who learned from Mr. Yamamoto of PASCO who learned from Mr. Yoshioka of Toei about Toei’s plans of outsourcing jobs. At that time, Toei was experiencing manpower problems. EEI sent a team to Japan about a possible project. Toei was considering three countries, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines, and has established studios at those countries at almost the same time.
After singing an agreement, EEI sent three persons to undergo animation and production training at the Toei Animation Studio in Tokyo, Japan on September 1986. Palabrica, a mechanical engineer, was made to join the team to observe animation production. The other two were JB dela Peña and Prose Del Prado.
On November 17, 1986, EEI started a trace-and-paint operation at the EEI Technology Center in Ugong, Pasig City, with 25 persons. At that time, animation work was classified under the petroleum industry by the Board of Investments because they were using acrylic paint in their production.
After a while, the animation section of EEI expanded operation and trained people in in-betweening (assistant animation), background painting, composing/camera works and special effects until it almost completed the whole process.
In 1990, the animation section was removed from the Pasig City office because their work had become a nuisance to the management and other workers. EEI-Toei transferred its operations to West Avenue, Quezon City, where it rented three houses.
Impressed by the work done by EEI-Toei, Toei in Japan decided to go in 1992 into a joint venture agreement with EEI Corp. In 1998, EEI realized that animation was not in conjunction with their main line of work and decided to sell its share to Toei, keeping only a ten percent share. EEI-Toei Animation Corp. became a subsidiary of Toei Animation Co., Ltd. In 2000, EEI-Toei became a 100 percent subsidiary of Toei Animation and was then called Toei Animation Philippines, Inc. (TAPI). In 2001, TAPI transferred from West Avenue to CyberOne Building, Eastwood City Cyberpark, Libis, Quezon City.
By that time, TAPI was using computers to do animation work. It actually started with digital trace and paint in 1997. In 2000, it shifted from traditional to digital in-betweening. In 2004, 3D computer generation was started. On November 2006, TAPI celebrated its 20th anniversary.
TAPI is now the oldest studio in the Philippines with a portfolio that includes cartoon series Sailor Moon, Dragonball Z and Slam Dunk, and with about 200 regular employees and100 freelancers from its start of 25. It produces 16 television cartoon series a month and two full-length animated movies a year.
Palabrica on the Origin of ACPI
In the late 1980s, there were several studios existing in the Philippines, and there were disputes among them. Chief among the problems was the piracy of artists/animators because according to Palabrica they are expensive assets with companies investing for three to six months training. To cut cost, new studios lured artists/animators from established studios. In Toei’s case, they didn’t practice pirating other employees and their strategy was to train people as fast as they lose them. At that time, the animation industry was booming and many studios kept cropping up. As much as new studios were born, old ones died. This was because of the constant cannibalization of manpower.
In December 8, 1988, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) through its Bureau of Trade and Export Promotions (BTEP) started creating a technical working committee for the Philippine animation industry with the purpose of developing the industry and luring more foreign outsourced work. This was spearheaded by Cezar Cueto, Ma. Cristina Bondoc, Teresita Oyson and Leticia Corpuz. One aim was to create an association, which did not saw realization because the studios were not willing to devote enough time.
However, in January 12, 1989, the Animation Producer’s Association of the Philippines (Animatia Philippines) was established with a set of officers that included Jose Jaime Curameng of Asianimation as president, Dick Trofeo of Cinema 1635 as vice president, Josephine Atienza of Philippine Children’s Television as secretary; and Nestor Palabrica of ITCA-EEI-Toei as treasurer. The board of directors was composed of Curameng, Chichi Lagos of Burbank, Trofeo, Palabrica, Anthony Lo of John Gregory and Co., Rodolfo Velasco of Mowelfund Film Institute, Atienza, Jess Alfuerto of Uni-Ads Marketing, and Fruto Corre of the UP Film Center.
But Animatia Philippines existed only for several months and petered out of existence because, according to Palabrica, there were “lack of funds to support its activities” and “lack of commitment from the studio owners/representatives.”
After that, there were few attempts to set up an association with new players in the industry but these were not fully realized. Although there were no formal association formed after Animatia Philippines, studios agreed to stop the practice of getting each other’s employees, realizing that it is detrimental to the industry.
On January 12, 2000, the Animation Council of the Philippines, Inc. (ACPI) was formed through the initiative of DTI Undersecretary Nelly Favis-Villafuerte, and the aims were “to develop and promote the animation industry as a major player in the global market,” and to “facilitate interaction with and availing of assistance from the government.”
The DTI called for a sector’s consultation meeting, which was attended by Norman Dela Cruz of NGC Animation, Grace Dimaranan of Top Peg Animation and Creative Studio, Inc., Elvira Medina of Studio Zoo, Adin Villanueva of M.A.C.R.O. Marketing, Joy Bacon of Animasia, Inc., Freddie Coles of Form Toonworks, Wayne Dearing of Top Draw Animation, Inc., Stella Reyes of Top Draw Animation, Inc., Palabrica, Antonio Pornobi of EEI-TOEI Animation, Amor Cudilla of Toontime Animation Studio, Benny Quilatan of Q-Motion Animation Corp., Ricardo Borja of Q-Motion Animation, Nelson Udaundo of New Dawn Studios, Babs Montalban of Imaginasia, Inc., and Mina Caliguia of Living Room Animation Studios, Inc.
After the meeting, there was an election for the officers, which included Elvira Y. Medina, president; Palabrica, vice president; Grace Dimaranan, secretary; and Norman dela Cruz, treasurer.
The first major activity of ACPI is Animexplosion 2000, a fund-raising, fan-based event sponsored by AXN held at the Megatrade Hall of SM Megamall in Mandaluyong City. About 12,000 paying participants attended the event. The very first major Cosplay competition was also held during this event. The event became successful, making Filipinos aware of animation. Because of lack of sponsors, Animexplosion was again held after a few years, in 2005, but it was not as successful as the first one.
In 2004, the Pearl2 Project of the Canadian International Development Agency financed the creation of the executive director’s office of ACPI. Now, an independent entity and not a studio owner manages ACPI. ACPI’s executive directors included Joy Bacon and Avic Ilagan. On the other hand, the presidents of ACPI include Elvira Medina (2000-2001), Nestor Palabrica (2001-2003), Stella Reyes (2003-2004), Marlyn Montano (2004-2007) and Marie Grace Dimaranan (2007-2009).
In 2007, ACPI mounted the first Animahenasyon with Ricky Orellana as festival director.
Mayo and Lo Hernandez’s Journey
Mario “Mayo” Hernandez and his brother Angelo, or Lo, run an animation design and production company online called Hernandezbros.com. Lo handles the design while Mayo focuses on the business, finance, management and other aspects.
Mayo’s talk focused on his journey in animation, starting when they were kids. They fell in love in love with animation when they were kids, about six or seven. In the late 1950s, their grandmother would take them to neighborhood third-run theater to watch movies. In between the regular features, animated shorts were shown. In the late 1960s, when they had a television, they watched cartoons during weekends. Their love for animation grew into a desire to actually making one.
In 1971, they attended an animation class, a very rare occurrence, at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila. The class consisted mostly of lectures, but the students got to make their own production as culmination of the class. They got their hands on a 16-millimeter camera with single-frame exposure shutter, and were asked to make a plug for a television commercial. They decided to do an animation, and it was their first taste of actually doing a piece of animation. Mayo said that during those times, aspiring animators were having difficulties because of scarcity of material on animation. The brothers learned on their own, imbibing all they could and reading any materials on animation they could find. They were also into graphic novels.
From 1975 to 1981, they went into advertising. Mayo had been with advertising agencies as copywriter, creative director, and then as director for television commercials. During this time, they learned film video production by observing the makings of commercials.
Incidentally, in 1981, a project came their way. It was their first animation project, a ten-second promo for a video production. For two years, they captured the video animation market. From 1981 to 1990, the Hernandezes earned their living catering to a niche market, making animation for commercials. At that time, Mayo said there was no animation industry to speak of.
In 1985, the Hernandezes set up Animagic Animation and Visual Effects, serving the animation the animation needs of the advertising industry. They were into for five years until they closed it because of financial crises. They went back to directing and refused to join what they call “animation factory outfits,” which were flourishing at that time, although Lo was involved with Optifex.
In 1995, he and Angelo were involved in the production of a full-length animation. They were able to subcontract the “entire visual deign and line animation package.” The American company took care of the script, voice, music and post-production but everything else was done by their company with the assistance of other persons and studios. The straight-to-video movie was made from 1995 to 1998 and was released in 2000.
Nelson Caliguia’s Pioneering Work
Presently creative director of Artfarm and teacher, Nelson Caliguia is a veteran of the animation boom of the 1980s. He said it started when the Mowelfund Film Institute held the first animation seminar-workshop, in which 12 persons attended. These 12 went on to work in the animation industry and became pioneers.
In 1984, Caliguia started working for film director Chito Roño’s Optifex, one of the only two animation studios that time. The other one is Burbank, for which Caliguia also worked almost simultaneously with Optifex in 1985. At that time, these studios were doing the cartoon series that were frequently shown on local television like Scooby Doo, Captain Planet, Flash Gordon, etc.
In Optifex, he was imbued with the vision of doing original Filipino animation. With Roño, they created “Buknoy,” based on Jose Rizal’s moth and flame story. At that time, Caliguia said the idea of creating an original Filipino content animation was a novel one.
Caliguia went on to work for Fil Cartoons in 1988 and eventually setting up Living Room Production. He made his famous animation work, “Mokmok.” His wife Mina set up a school called Artfarm to train students for animation. After that he made “Kuwentong Kayumanggi” in 2002. Currently, he is involved with Imee Marcos’s Creative Media and Film Society of the Philippines (CreaM) doing several animation projects, teaching animation and crusading for animation with original Filipino content.
The Learnings of Grace Dimaranan
President of the Animation Council of the Philippines and managing director of Top Peg Animation Studio, Grace Dimaranan presented her experience in animation and a glimpse of how is it working inside an animation studio through her PowerPoint presentation titled “The Animated Experience (A Journey to an Animated Life ).”
When she graduated from the University of Santo Tomas with a degree in commercial arts, Dimaranan worked in an advertising production house, Animation Production Center, owned by Alfredo Kasilag, which made commercials and ads for print. From 1984 to 1985, she worked as an all-around artist, doing design, storyboards, layouts and cell animation shooting for video, castings etc.
When Optifex International opened, Dimaranan applied for a position and was trained as an assistant animator. She felt fortunate because at that time they were trained by foreign directors coming from Canada and United Kingdom. She was trained by Claude Chiasson. She worked with checkers Cathy Peza, Emy Ponce and Zaldy Zuno, and met expats like Roger Chiasson, Dino Athanassiou and Glen Kennedy. Working from 1985 to 1987, she got her first experience in TV series animation, working on shows like Scooby Doo, The Jetsons, Snorkels and Captain Caveman.
When FilCartoons opened in 1988, Dimaranan joined the new studio as assistant animator. She was trained as an animator and passed the examinations, the only female in the batch. Because of the schedule of the work, women rarely work in animation. Dimaranan reached level-one animator status, and after two years was promoted to retakes director. She was only 22 at that time. She eventually became animation supervisor for Level 3 and Level 4 animators. In FilCartoons, they handled mostly Hanna Barbera shows like Police Academy, Fantastic Max, Smurfs, and Dreamstone.
She was trained by Adam Khulman, Ralph Fernan, Raul Mimay, Nary Jamlig and directors Phil Robinson, Chris Haige, Chris Cuddington, John Rice and Paul Stibal. She considers Jerry Smith to be the most influential person at that time.
Dimaranan said her stint in FilCartoons have been a big learning experience. Here, she learned “the nature of full animation production, to level the skills of animators/artists, to communicate with expats and to communicate with people, valuable animation techniques and skills from the directors, that skills and commitment to do quality output is very important, the value of deadline, and to understand the role of production management.”
She left FilCartoons in 1992 and moved to S.T.E.C Production, a Japanese animation subcontracting company owned by Shoji Kumabe. She was made department head and animation trainer. She learned “Japanese animation production process, which is very different from Western production; management of production costs; to enhance my skills in training; and the discipline of time management and Japanese working habits.” She worked on shows like Zorro and Sailor Moon.
In 1993, she went on to Moving Images International, owned by Jim Costello, as Level 1 animator and animation trainer. Here she worked with directors Dino Athanassiou, Paul Stibal, Ronnie Samala and William Sy. Their projects included Treasure Island, Dreamstone, Monstermania, and Bimble’s Bucket. Here her training skills in two-dimensional professional animation were enhanced.
At the age of 22, she realized she had too much money she didn’t know what to do with it. She had her own home and car. She decided to train out-of-school youths and other artists every Saturday and summer, sort of putting purpose in her life. Many of those she trained went on to become animators.
Moving Images closed in 1995, and Toon City opened.
As CUIB and animation trainer, Dimaranan was one of the pioneer animators in Toon City. She worked and collaborated with Collin Baker, Richard Pimm, Robert Clark and directors like Romy Garcia, Dante Clemente, Nowell Villano and Luis Dimaranan, who would become her husband.
They worked on shows like Bonkers, Hercules TV series, 101 Dalmatians, Recess, and Winnie the Pooh. She learned the quality and techniques in animation for feature film productions.
During her time in Toon City, she and her husband were running on tight schedules because they were also planning to put up a studio of their own.
In 1996, they opened Top Peg Animation and Creative Studio, Inc. with Nowell Villano, Allan Abelardo, Chito Bernardo and Ronald Noriesta. The directors were Alstaire Sarthou and Luis Dimaranan.
“We shared one vision and one goal: to be an independent Filipino animation studio and to produce Pinoy content,” she said.
“We trained our artists into our own style of discipline and animation techniques—CUIB, animation, layout, storyboarding, production design,” she added.
Dimaranan utilized all the skills she learned in her ten years working for animation studios, and her skills in production management, training and finance/business management. They started with subcontracting works. In 2003, they started doing their own shows. They produced 13 episodes of Tutubi Patrol, the first all Filipino children’s animated series, which won an Anak TV Seal award. Currently, they are doing 13 episodes of the Jobert Animation series, another animation production with Filipino content.
Aside from these, they are also doing shows for their clients in the United States, Italy and France.
“For the United States, we provide pre-production designs, storyboards and commercials. We provide 2D animation and BG design for a game and Web site. For France, we provide card designs, 2D animation for a short series, and marketing presentations for an ad agency. For Italy, we provide X-sheet slugging/soundreading, boards, layout and animation for a 26-episode TV series. We do animated book series. Locally, we provide 2D animation key drawings to an upcoming Pinoy short animated film to be released in 2009,” Dimaranan related.
Also, they conduct professional animation trainings, and form partnerships and training for local outsourcing.
“The extensive trainings and experience from other companies or studios helped me a lot in what we have established today at Top Peg Animation Studio,” she concluded.
For other animators, aspiring and established, she gave these pieces of advice, drawn from her experience: “Learn from mistakes and work on improving it for better results. There is always room to learn. Be flexible and open to new styles of animation and the latest trends in the industry. Participate in government meetings, forums and conferences for industry information opened doors for collaborations and partnerships. It also helped me understand the vision, direction of each government agency. I listen and observe both the business and creative side of the industry. There is always an opportunity to connect the two worlds then produce viable jobs out of it.”
Dimaranan also overall learned “the importance of giving back to the community and helping the academe to produce better graduates; the value of getting work that you can handle to produce better results; the value of creating Filipino content to leave as a legacy to our people; the value of artists and their creative ideas however crazy it is; and the value of support and commitment in an industry/association that will provide the venue for more content and industry information like ACPI, BPA/P, CICT, CITEM and DTI.”
Imee Marcos’s Destiny of Philippine Animation
Politician Imee Marcos has been involved in arts and culture since the term of her father, the late Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos. She got involved with animation because of her being a children’s show host for Kulit Bulilit and Kaluskos Musmos, and her association with cartoonist Nonoy Marcelo. Marcelo made a documentary about Marcos, with Imee interviewing. They wanted to make one portion in animation, an episode in Marcos’s life where in the young Marcos fell into Batac River. The work won an award in New York.
They also handled the teaching material for Kabataang Barangay. Veering away from the usual style, they created a comics and an animation feature Tadhana, which tells about the history of the Philippines. Tadhana became the first Filipino full-length animation. They also made Lam-ang, based on the Ilocano epic Biag ni Lam-ang.
After that, she went on to work for Experimental Cinema of the Philippines. They gave animation classes through Mowelfund.
Imee went into politics, and upon leaving she helped establish Creative Media and Film Society of the Philippines (CreaM) with intent to create original Filipino content in media, including animation. They also aim that the animation will also be suitable for the international market.
Crea> is currently doing Fly Aswang, an animation feature deeply influenced by anime; Ligtas Likas, an environmental project experimenting with flash; and Pintakasi, experimental full-length animation feature.
Imee envisions Philippine animation as not only doing outsourced projects but doing its own projects with original content, marketable abroad.
Pablo Biglang-awa on Technology
Film editor, visual effects artist and filmmaker Pablo Biglang-awa spoke about the intervention of technology and its price in filmmaking including animation and filmmaker Mike de Leon, couched in his experience through his years in the industry.
Jessie Lasaten on Dayo
Capping the congress, Jessie Lasaten, executive producer of Dayo sa Mundo ng Elementalia, gave a brief background on the animated movie and a trailer. Being the first digital Filipino full-length work, Dayo showed how far Philippine animation has gone and augured the coming years, which hopefully see further development in local animation and more original Filipino animation.
* National Commission for Culture and the Arts
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