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for watching the evolution of the motion graphics industry. As president of the
Video Association of Dallas and director of the Dallas Video Festival, he has
selected and watched the entries for 18 years. One specific area has showcased
the industry’s changes.

“Every year we have these little [graphic] intros to the video festival, and in 1987
they were kind of flat and two-dimensional and moved very slightly,” he said. “It’s
gone from ‘Can we just make this [graphic] move?’ to ‘Is that real or is it motion
graphics?’ They’ve really emerged as an incredibly important art form.”

On its most fundamental level, motion graphics means animated designs. They
show up primarily on television and in film, but are also making appearances
on Web pages and even as art installations. The industry is heavily coastal,
with powerhouse operations in New York City and Los Angeles, but a few main
companies and several independent talents in Dallas have changed that over
the past 15 years. They’ve been bringing in animators and creative directors with
vision and talent to North Texas. They are turning out projects that are making
Dallas a go-to location for motion graphics work. “The work in Dallas is getting
big — there’s no doubt in my mind,” said Liquid Logixx President Josh Hurst.

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Element X created this animated photo-real water
for the new flavor of Trident Gum and this animated
3-D storybook that came to life for Jim Henson’s
“Mother Goose.” Images courtesy of Element X.
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The creative community in this area has been growing from all sides over the past
decade and motion graphics is no different. The presence of strong academic
programs at places like the Art Institute of Dallas, Collin County Community
College, and Texas A&M Commerce’s Downtown Dallas branch breed the best
and brightest. There are also professional organizations like A Bunch of Short
Guys and the Dallas Motion Graphics Association that foster networking and
host development sessions, like advanced mail scripting or speakers from Pixar
Animation Studios and Walt Disney.
“I’m seeing the talent base in Dallas grow and I’m seeing [local] companies doing
a really good job and drawing attention to the area,” said Vince Sidwell, partner
at Element X Creative. “In the last 10 years it’s quadrupled.” This boom has many
companies recruiting talent from the coasts.
“We’ve been able to increase the impressions that Dallas is a great place to work,”
Sidwell said. “In the past, if you were an animator, why would you come to Dallas?
There is now a community that will support you.”
Cost is another draw of North Texas.
“There’s a 60 percent savings over work that’s done in L.A.,” Sidwell said. “We’re
not the 80 percent savings that India is, but we’re a lot closer.” The momentum is
building, said Weiss, and likely to snowball, making Dallas a leading market for
the industry.
“Generally when you have this kind of creative output you get more and more of
it,” he said. “Partially it’s just that people know they can hire somebody to do all
these technical things here. I think Dallas is going to be a place to go.”
Two particularly strong motion graphics companies are contributing to the
local creative scene in Dallas, Deep Ellum-based Reel FX and Irving-based
DNA Productions.

“Between Reel FX and DNA we are hiring an awful lot of animators in Dallas,” said
Weiss. “It’s one of the hidden things that people don’t know because animators by
their nature are not that big into promotion.”

Reel FX is housed in funky downtown digs with 120 on-location employees,

about 15 of which are dedicated to the company’s motion graphics work. “Motion
graphics is definitely an important part of what we do here at Reel FX because
it’s moving artwork and that is kind of what our focus here is — it’s a small aspect
of bringing to life the dream of our clients or our employees,” said visual effects
supervisor Barrett Lewis.

Recent projects have included an opening sequence for Hasbro’s “Action Man”
video, a Playskool commercial for “Ride to Roll” and a Pepsi commercial that uses
CG animation to fold a cardboard 12-pack box into different origami shapes, like
a Bombardier ATV and ski boat. A public service announcement for 20th Century
Fox and Blue Sky Studios featured the characters from “Robots” as an in-theater
reminder for patrons to turn off their mobile phones.

Across town, 18-year-old DNA Productions is more heavily involved in film work
with 220 employees (52 of which are animators) creating “Jimmy Neutron — Boy
Genius,” the Academy Award-nominated animated feature film produced, written, Reel FX produced this commercial for Playskool
directed and animated by DNA for Paramount and Nickelodeon. The direct result? “Ride to Roll.” Below, a flying logo for Hasbro’s
“Action Man” video. Images courtesy of Reel FX.
A sequel and a spin-off television program in production at DNA and a new 3-D
animated feature film for Warner Bros. and Playtone Co. called “The Ant Bully.” You
can also see DNA’s work in the IMAX film “Santa vs. the Snowman” and Emmy-
nominated animated feature “Olive, the Other Reindeer.”

Janimation is another big employer with 20 artists on staff at their Dallas office.

“We do a little of everything. We’ve been around for 12 years and we’re always
growing, bringing on more and more people,” said Janimation senior producer
Pete Herzog.

He’s not exaggerating. Their 20 employees have worked on “Spy Kids 2" and "Spy
Kids 3-D” with Robert Rodriguez, flying logos and Flash-type animation for the
Web, the Barney show opener for the last three seasons, and work with major ad
agencies in Dallas.

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 They’re just finishing a 15-second commercial for Sylvania’s new “Dot-It” stick-it,
click-it LCD lights. Janimation also has two new video game trailers for Midway
Games: “Area 51” and John Woo’s “Stanglehold,” which is still in preliminary
stages. A 90-second photo-real CG video game trailer of Chow Yun-Fat was voted
one of the best video game trailers at 2005 E3 Video Game Conference.

There are 13 resident animators at Liquid Logixx, a four-year-old company working

on motion graphic projects for channels 12 and seven in Chicago, Kohler and
“Walker, Texas Ranger.”

“We’re working on a piece for NASA, an opening project called ‘Countdown: 10-
seconds.’ It takes that ‘5-4-3-2-1’ sequence and puts different elements between
the numbers, like flying through outer space and passing the Hubble Telescope,”
said Hurst.

Jollymade Graphics is a Dallas-based company specializing in motion graphics,

digital media and video. Their project for Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for
Children, “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Your Surgery (But
Didn’t Know You Could Ask),” won awards from the Houston Film Festival,
Media Communications Association-International and the Health and Science
Communications Association.

Hurst is co-host of the Dallas Motion Graphics with Mark Clive of Clive Creative,
another smaller group that does motion graphics and effects for film, broadcast,
video, and Web pages.

For the past two years, Element X Creative has brought together individual
freelancers into a cohesive motion graphics company with about eight
artists onboard.

“We met through [professional development and networking group] A Bunch

of Short Guys and we decided, ‘Let’s do something bigger,’” said partner Vince
Sidwell. “One of our goals is to grow to a 20- to 25-man shop specializing in more
intellectual property work.”

Along with partners J. Schuh, Chad Briggs and Bryan Smith, Sidwell has moved
easily into the industry. “We started up as 3-D animators and ended up doing
motion graphics,” he said. “We’re working on a global level, doing corporate
animation for film (special effects); vampire films with lots of blood, guts,
and smoke.”

Top two images: DNA Productions created

“Jimmy Neutron — Boy Genius.”
Images courtesy of DNA Productions.
Bottom two images courtesy of Janimation.

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One possible area of growth in the motion graphics industry: art. “This is a new
thing, the installation of an architectural type of work,” said Limbert Fabian, creative
director at Reel FX. “Some corporations are doing [motion graphic] installations
the same way you would get a painting or piece of art. An example of that is in
some brand new Nike stores, instead of a billboard they would commission artists
to do mini movies to show in the store.”

Keeping the creative flow strong is the most important thing, said Keith Alcorn,
co-owner of DNA. “As long as the animation industry keeps producing hits like it,
then the sky’s the limit,” he said. “Ten years ago, there was nothing like this here.
Reel FX, Janimation…we were all doing smaller effects or industrial videos. It has
changed a lot.” ■

Liquid Logixx created this Playstation spot

involving a lot of 3-D animation to create
the morphing effect. NASA had Liquid
Logixx work on an opening sequence
called “Countdown: 10-seconds.” Images
courtesy of Liquid Logixx.

Leah Shafer is a freelance journalist living in Dallas. She
has written for AAA Texas Journey, American Way magazine,
Modern Bride, and the fall edition of Create, where she wrote
about post production houses in North Texas. For more of her
work, visit LeahShafer.com.
Cameron Cariffe runs Grafika Design in Dallas. He produces
award-winning print and Web work for clients in technology,
real estate and the music industry. Visit grafikadesign.com to
see and learn more.

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