The
show is the brainchild of Lee's Summit
businessman Jim Lammers, who has just
finished coordinating a 10-minute sample of
the program on video.
Lammers is president of Trinity Animation,
Inc., which does animation work - mostly for
advertising - and distributes computer
software, hardware and training tapes.
Lammers hopes to sell the "Quantity Time"
concept to a major network or cable channel
as a weekly half-hour TV program.
"I've been toying with the idea since about
1996," Lammers said
Local Talent
The pilot was produced in Kansas City.
Lammer's partner is Brad Scott, who did a
lot of the writing and helped finance the
project. The two met "by a lot of luck and
circumstance," Lammers said.
"It's been an aavocation for me," said
Scott, who works in advertising. "Something
I can be passionate about on my own time."
John January and Tug McTighe provided voices
for the project. Both know Scott through
local advertising circles.
"It was a friend of a friend kind of a
thing," McTighe said.
January said he's enjoyed working on the
project.
"As creative professionals I think it's
natural that we all look for extensions of
our professional lives," January said. "So I
jumped at it." |
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"The technology is unreal," McTighe said.
"It was neat they could tweak it a little
here and there, put a little shine on it."
Return to Art
Lammers, who grew up in Kansas
City, was heavily involved in art in high
school. The competitions he won helped to
finance his college education - as an
electrical engineer.
"I think my high school are teacher was a
little shocked," Lammers said.
Lammers graduated from the University of
MIssouri in 1983 and took a high-tec job in
Los Angeles. But he moved back to the
Mid-west three years later. He liked
California's salaries but not its cost of
living.
Lammers, who had never lost his interest in
art, got into the computer animation
business in the early 90s.
"It couldn't be done on personal computers
before that," he said. Computer animation
let him combine his artistic and mechanical
abilities.
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"It took a while to realize I could create
3-D worlds and then the computer can
calculate them," he said. "For instance, if
you want the duck's head to be red instead
of green, it's a few minutes of edits and
the computer does the rest."
Saving Time
In "Quantity Time," nothing is
animated in the traditional way. There is no
"cell-work" - illustrations done one frame
at a time. Instead, the show is just a huge
computer file. For example, the cockroach
bar scene only lasts about a minute but
takes up five gigabytes of computer memory.
"We can get a lot more work out in the same
time as cell animators," Lammers said.
"'Pinocchio' is only 80 minutes and it took
Disney three years to make."
Nonetheless, it took nearly a
year-and-a-half to complete the 10-minute
demonstration program.
If he can sell the show, Lammers believes he
can offer a very competetive cost by
producing the program entirely in this area.
"Other people are charging $10,000 a frame
to do what we do," he said.
Lammers has just returned from pitching the
show in California.
"We had a promising trip with some excellent
meetings," he said. "We also got an agent.
So at this point, we are very optimistic." |
