A Motion Picture Art Form That’s ‘Specially Effective

You remember the scene from “Independence Day”: The alien attacker is chasing Will Smith and his F-18 through the Grand Canyon. The stomach-lurching turns and close-ups of the fabled rock chasm take your breath away.

Except Smith wasn’t really in the Arizona desert. He was on a sound stage, only pretending to play top gun.

The real heroes in this movie were the artists for OCS/Freeze Frame/Pixel Magic in Toluca Lake. They created the scene, intercutting footage from the Grand Canyon with shots of Smith in his Hollywood cockpit.

The digital animation field is growing rapidly as studios and film companies seek to save money on exotic location shoots. Many firms can’t hire enough people to keep up. Others keep promoting from within to fill jobs. That’s what happened to Tyler Foell, one of three animation supervisors at OCS whose team creates photo-realistic, digitized sets of everything from the contemporary New York skyline to 1930s Berlin and timeless Machu Picchu.

Foell, 28, started at OCS in March 1996 to do restoration work on old films as a digital artist; he became lead artist a month later. In November, he was promoted again to animation supervisor, where his staff of special-effects artists can add sweat to a policeman’s forehead, erase wiring used for dangerous stunts and airbrush out wrinkles and cellulite.

“Everyone here is passionate about film,” Foell says. “It’s an absolutely great atmosphere and an opportunity to work with cutting-edge technology.”

When big project deadlines loom, the animators work three shifts around the clock. OCS--a family-owned firm with 60 employees--recently worked on the movies “Eraser,” “Wild America” and “Nothing to Lose,” and one of the company perks is often advance screening invitations to the films.

The salaries aren’t shabby, either. Starting pay for entry-level employees is $10 per hour, and OCS is willing to train someone with artistic skills who knows his way around a computer and can conceptualize in 3-D, says Ray McIntyre Jr., the company’s vice president and chief engineer. That’s a good deal, considering that many people dig into their own pockets and pay thousands of dollars to learn the trade.

And there are only a handful of places--among them UCLA--that offer access to cutting-edge technology, machines and trainers. At OCS, experienced 3-D animators earn up to $2,000 a week, and salaries for animation supervisors such as Foell’s range from $60,000 to $120,000 annually.

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Foell knew early on that he wanted to work in the arts. He majored in design at Oregon State University, where he got into the rave dancing scene and started doing concert promotion to make money. Moving to Los Angeles after graduation, he took production classes through UCLA’s extension program, bought a computer and started noodling around with different programs such as Painter, Photoshop and Lightwave, a 3-D animation program.

“I taught myself,” he recalls. “You basically buy a book and start working on projects and that’s how you learn.”

For a while, he did freelance production work. Then last year, he heard from a friend that OCS was hiring. Soon, he was on board.

“Since I was 16 and saw ‘Raiders [of the Lost Ark],’ I knew I wanted to be in this industry,” Foell says. “We really push the limits. We use the technology and machines in ways no one has used them before.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

AT A GLANCE

* Name: Tyler Foell

* Job: Digital animation supervisor, OCS/Freeze Frame/Pixel Magic

* Experience: Freelance graphic designer

* Education: Bachelor’s degree in design, Oregon State University

* Home: South Pasadena