We chatted with Mark Zoeller, an animation industry veteran about the technological trends he sees in animation production. Mark’s a storyboard artist who has worked with major studios on various animation projects. From conception to completion, a storyboard typically requires five weeks, a multiphase process that includes scanning, compositing, layout, rough storyboards, and finally the clean storyboard--and Mark’s there every step of the way.

Modern storyboard art is no longer done chiefly in ink and paper. There are myriad animation programs on the professional and consumer markets, but Mark mainly uses vector-based software, such as Flash, USAnimation, ToonBoom, Illustrator, and occasionally Photoshop. Regardless of the software he uses, all of his drawings are created on his Wacom Cintiq interactive pen display which serves as his high-tech animators table.

I asked Mark to discuss the digital workflow that is made possible with a Cintiq and why he prefers it to traditional computer animation. Here’s what he had to say:

“Upon using the Cintiq, I realized this is going to change animation. This is going to change everything we do. And I realized that it’s possible to take many steps out of animation once it’s digital. We don’t need Xerox machines, we don’t need scanners, we don’t need compositors, we don’t need all of these steps that make animation production so cumbersome. Traditionally, a complete storyboard takes five weeks. Using Cintiq in a digital workflow, you can get a rough storyboard done in four days and take that straight to layout. A single workstation using a Cintiq replaces all traditional functions that used to involve dedicated hardware, processes and expertise. It’s all one thing now.”

Mark adds that another benefit of the new digital process with the Cintiq is the versatility of tasks that can be performed. “This can be used not only for 2D, but for 3D. For 3D storyboards, for templates used in Flash productions—all the way across the board, this has a very basic, core attraction about it. Core uses in pre-production and for design of storyboards, etc.” Besides replacing traditional functions of animation, the Cintiq is clearly a time saver. “What took me five weeks to do now takes me three. It does anything you would normally do, but faster.” We asked Mark if the speed improvements using a Cintiq compromised the quality of the finished product. “What used to be sloppier, more dirty, more down and dirty, is now much cleaner. Using a Cintiq not only allows me to do things faster, but of a cleaner, clearer quality,” Mark says.

Clients took notice as well. On one assignment, Mark reflects on the impression his Cintiq made. “I brought in my Wacom Cintiq, my computer, my software, and set it up at the table. The look on my boss’s face was complete confusion. He was basically a technophobe. But my system worked, and it worked very well.” Artists themselves, of course, are quick to note the merits. “It takes about five minutes for an artist to work on the Cintiq before he looks up at me and says, “Oh my God, traditional animation is over.” Mark’s tool set left other industry professionals awestruck as well. “People from other studios, including Disney, saw what I was doing and became very, very interested.”

Obviously the Cintiq has revolutionized old practices in the world of animation, but we wondered if Mark had any apprehension or discomfort learning to use a sophisticated new system. “It takes as much time to get used to drawing on a Cintiq as it does to get used to drawing with a Sharpie pen. You can click undo, though, instead of erase.” we asked Mark how artist’s impressions of this technology differed from their manager’s views. “There is a lot of criticism that artists won’t be ready to work on this. On the contrary, not only did I find artists, but artists in their 60s and 70s, of all ages, were interested in the Cintiq. The Cintiq was not something that scared people.”

Having discovered an integral tool to ease and improve productivity and workflow, we asked Mark about the feasibility of others being able to invest in the Cintiq and incorporate it into their workplaces. He explains, “It took me about one week to pay for the Cintiq, really. The Cintiq, and all the software that I use with it, can be paid for in one job. If an individual can afford two workstations, with monitors, and each of those monitors is a Wacom Cintiq, then the major studios can certainly afford to do that, because mine have already paid for themselves.”

And because Mark uses the Cintiq, clients save money as well. Production elements long thought too expensive or impractical are now a cinch to generate. “I used to do storyboards where they said no pans and no trucks because it costs too much money for the overseas studios to do it. If I hear that argument now, I tell them they are using the wrong studio and they are being charged too much money because I can do it right here on my Cintiq in under five minutes for practically nothing.”

Mark takes a big-picture approach to how the Cintiq has changed his role as an animator. “One thing about the Cintiq, it’s like insulin being pumped right into the bloodstream. Whatever I can think, whatever I can draw is immediately digital.” And he speculates it will have an even broader effect for animation as a whole. He elaborates: “I liken it to the invention of the electric guitar for music. This allows us to reach a very wide audience in the same way the amplifier did.”

Hearing an industry pro like Mark Zoeller wax philosophic on the evolution of animation is exciting because these frame-breaking tools are readily available now. Mark has learned how to put these tools together to free himself from the confines of the traditional animation process so he can do what he does best, create great art as fast as he wants to.