Miramichi animator garners prestigious award
Melissa Dunne
For the Telegraph-Journal
Published Monday October 22nd, 2007
Appeared on page B1
Investing in leading-edge animation technology is paying off big-time for local whiz kid Gene
Fowler.
Since Fowler, a Miramichi native, founded Fatkat Animation Studios just over four years ago, the
company has landed contracts with the likes of PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE:PEP) and Nickelodeon, a unit
of American media conglomerate Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B).
And, Fowler, 31, just took home the prestigious Business Development Bank of Canada's Young
Entrepreneur Award for New Brunswick.
"I was quite surprised to win it, it's quite something," Fowler said.
"It shows a tremendous faith in the company "¦ We have lots of exciting things coming up."
Fowler credits the success of his Miramichi company, now Atlantic Canada's largest animation
studio, in large part to investing in the latest technology.
The crown jewels of Fatkat Studios are their Wacom Cintiq flat screen monitors, usually used as a
second monitor.
These days animation is mostly done using a computer and software programs such as Abode
Flash, Art of Illusion, and TrueSpace.
Since Wacom Cintiq monitors, which look like your average personal computer screen, cost about
$3,000 a pop only a few animation studios on the East Coast have invested in them, Fowler said.
Fatkat has about a dozen of the screens and Fowler says "seeing the smiles on the artists faces"
and the "drawing efficiency" makes the hefty investment well worth it.
"You can draw right on the screen - it's fantastic. They can speed people up by 100 to 150 per
cent," Fowler said.
"They have a traditional animation feel. Instead of just using a mouse and a keyboard you draw
with digital pens, it feels more like how animation used to be done."
The company founder and animator, who trained at the Miramichi campus of the New Brunswick
Community College, also makes an effort to constantly update Fatkat's software.
While many Canadian animation studios update software only every several years, Fowler says, it
is important to him that his staff are using the "latest and greatest" technology.
The emphasis on using only the best gadgets and software has landed Fowler's company many
big-name clients and a reputation as a leader in flash animation.
Established in 2003, Fatkat has doubled in size in the past 18 months or so, boasting 115 workers.
The studio provides animation services to the television industry as a subcontractor, prime
contractor, distributor, and original author and has a commercial client list that features Yahoo!
Inc. (NYSE: YHOO), Microsoft Corp. (NYSE: MFST), and Century 21.
Building its success, Fatkat recently started producing an $8 million, 26-episode, half-hour
cartoon show called Three Delivery with Animation Collective, an American animation cartoon
studio based in New York City.
Three Delivery features three childrens, drawn in what Fowler dubs "urban North American
anime", who work in a Chinese restaurant and have fortune cookies that give them the ability to
cast spells and do magic. The show is set to air next winter on Nickelodeon, YTV, Canada's leading
youth network, and BBC Kids, a Canadian digital cable specialty channel owned by Alliance
Atlantis and BBC Worldwide.
Most exciting for Fowler, Fatkat, usually a subcontractor, finally landed the opportunity to be the
prime contractor for a pilot called Space Knights for Teletoon, Canada's first and only 24-hour
animation station.
The pilot, which Fowler described as "South Park meets the Power Rangers," is an original Fatkat
production and is set to air on late-night television next fall. The show will feature four
superheroes who talk about everything from their sex lives to insurance.
Fowler, who has been dubbed the "Komeback Kid" by animation insiders, has not always been
this successful.
After graduating from NBCC about a decade ago, he landed his first animation gig at a studio in
Halifax, but was laid off after only eight months.
At that point he decided to go it alone and started his own freelance animation business, which
was taken over by his biggest client San Diego-based Traininigscape within a year. After creating
more than 40 animated training films for big-name companies such as Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE),
the world's largest athletic shoe and clothing maker, and Hasbro Inc. (NYSE: HAS), a leading
American toy maker, Trainingscape Studios Canada dissolved.
Fowler moved back to Miramichi in 2003. After a slow star,t television production jobs started to
pour in.
"It is an extremely odd place to have an animation studio," Fowler admits.
"But there were already tons (of studios) in Toronto, Ottawa, and Halifax. Miramichi needed it,
and besides there is a beautiful NBCC animation college here already."
Unlike many other animation studios, Fatkat's staff are full-time, salaried, and get health benefits.
This creates a lot of loyalty, which equals more effort and better results from animators, Fowler
said.
The young artist and entrepreneur has hit his stride and promises Fatkat has a bright future in
New Brunswick.
"We're developing killer software - it will put us on the international map," Fowler says.
"I can't tell you anymore about it. We've been developing it for about six months, ask me again in
six months and I'll be able to reveal all."