Rini
Sugianto
Have mouse,
will travel
Fancy a
Tinsel Town career? What could be finer than glamor and glitz from sunup to
sunup; wherever you go red carpets wait, cameras flash, fans swoon, bubbly
flows, limos glide.
If that’s
your fantasy avoid the technical end of filmmaking.
Here you’ll
probably get paid reasonably well, travel to exotic lands and see your name on
the big screen.
But by the
time the credits roll the lights are on and the cleaners are sweeping you and
spilt popcorn towards the EXIT signs.
Consider this a metaphor for a tough job in an exciting industry,
provided they are risk-takers.
“This is a
business of hard work and long hours,” said animation artist Rini
Sugianto. “It’s not for those who
aren’t fully dedicated. I don’t want to
be rude but newcomers have to learn to learn the basics, to animate bouncing
balls before tackling facial features.
“Unfortunately
many Indonesian would-be animators look for short cuts. I’m happy to help young people who don’t
wait for me to send them something. For others that’s a problem and I’m trying
to get my head around it now.”
Rini is
currently working in the Weta Digital visual effects studios in Wellington, New
Zealand on The Hobbit. The film,
produced by Sir Peter Jackson who directed the trilogy The Lord of the
Rings, is due out in December.
Along with
other non-celebs Rini and her colleagues will buy their own tickets to see the
film. They’ll sit through to the end hoping their names are spelt correctly
then party – and wonder what next, and where.
Their photos won’t gloss the social pages and no teen screamers will
crave autographs.
Yet the
film could not have been made if around 80 animators hadn’t spent 50 hours a
week or more bonding like soulmates to their computers, finessing each shot, 24
frames every second long after the stars have soared back to their penthouses.
Animators
make the production absolutely believable, so keen observation skills are
another required quality. With nimble fingers, sharp eyes and fertile minds
their mice slowly nibble away the barriers between fantasy and reality letting
viewers slump deeper into their seats and another world.
Cartoon
films using thousands of drawings, each one slightly different from its predecessor
were being made 100 years ago. Computer
film animation is one of the new transforming jobs that hardly existed last
century.
An
animator’s village is the world. With
show reels of their work on line, a passport in their jeans and English on
their tongues the digital generation is young, keen, smart and ready to roll.
This is an
informal industry where what you’ve done and can do overpowers qualifications
or the way you dress. Many now work at
home. Hazards include burn out,
fractured marriages and repetitive strain injuries.
Rini, 32,
was one of the few Indonesians who saw the possibilities while at school in
Lampung and Bogor. While her friends
chased boys, fashion and fun the teenager was chasing a cursor across a screen. Her childhood, dominated by sport, computers
and comics, including Tintin, had “different priorities.”
When she
entered Bandung’s Parahyangan University the best fit for her talents was
architecture. But when she graduated
the Indonesian economy had been crimped by the Asian economic crisis.
Working for
a Jakarta company producing 3D images of furniture wasn’t going to meet Rini’s
surging ambitions. Instead of waiting
for times to change she took an animation course, sadly discovering local
directors were “squeezing production time and sacrificing quality.”
Next stop
San Francisco for further study, followed by animating games and small
films. She spent five years working in
the US, her last as a supervisor, before heading to NZ in 2010 with her
Australian Shepherd bitch Kali.
An
“open-minded family” that didn’t try to restrain their independent daughter
smoothed passage for the overseas adventuress.
Rini arrived in the US with little English so threw herself into the
culture, making local friends, avoiding expats.
Her
adaptability is so complete that this month (May) she’ll marry an American
special effects expert who shares her love of mountaineering. Her plan is to scale the Seven Summits – the
highest mountain on every continent.
Already
underfoot is Kilimanjaro, the 5,895-meter mountain in Africa and NZ’s
Ngauruhoe, Mount Doom in The Lord of the Rings.
“Like
airline pilots, the animation industry uses English,” said Rini, whose advanced
language masks her origins. “A Jakarta animator with excellent abilities and
wanted by Weta had to be turned down because his language was limited.
“The
business is highly competitive and global.
I’m with people from NZ, Australia, the US, Britain and Germany. Most are men. Five Indonesians are working on The Hobbit, but I’m the
only animator.
“It’s not
just the artists who are mobile. US companies are moving to Canada. Others are
going to Singapore. The new center for
animation is India where they’re really hard workers.
“I wish
Indonesia could be there but the bureaucracy involved in setting up a company
would be too difficult. High-speed
Internet access is essential.
“People
come from all over the world to work at Weta (The company has employees from 35
nations). They’d do anything to work here.
“Graduates
will be stuck if they accept Indonesian standards. They need to put their work
out there, let people bash it. Once you get comfortable you’re in danger. There are so many resources available,
including courses on line.
“You can
learn by yourself if you’re artistic and technically literate. You must be
multi-skilled but really skilled in one area.
(Rini is also a photographer and sculptor).
“My father,
who works in real estate in Indonesia, always said that he didn’t worry about
me because I’m independent. He knew I’d
always figure out a way to get ahead.”
(First published in The Jakarta Post 2 May 2012)
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