Pioneer animation software company looking at feature film
There’s no sign to give it away, but the 95-year-old church that houses the Columbia Arts Center in downtown Vancouver is actually a Cabal for digital animation activities.
Martin Hash bought the church in 1996, and he runs his 20-year-old computer animation software company there. Before that, Hash Inc. called a converted house on East Evergreen Boulevard home.
Along with being a reception hall-for-hire and home of the arts center, the church is actually a software design, packaging and shipping facility, as well as a technical support office and mini production studio.
"I just couldn’t resist having this old church to work from," said Hash, a mildly eccentric animation enthusiast with two MBAs, a law degree and a doctorate in computer science. He left a career as an inkjet printer designer at Hewlett-Packard Co. in 1987 to design and sell computer animation software, which at the time was a pioneer technology. He had hopes of becoming the leader in that field.
"At that time, we had no competition, because we were the first," he said. "But then the industry just exploded, and each studio started creating its own software to get a unique look, and pretty soon the industry was self-sustaining."
The computer animation revolution that kicked off with Pixar Animation’s feature film Toy Story in 1995 threatened to put Hash on the scrap heap of start-ups in the industry. Every studio was innovating the product, and software such as Softimage and Maya became industry standards, carrying price tags upwards of $9,000. Even though he had caught the wave early, it appeared the explosion in the industry had passed him by.
Instead of quitting, Hash adapted. Focusing on schools and people interested in learning the craft, he found a niche and set his price point to capture it. His product, Animation:Master, is designed to be easy to use while still being capable of feature film-quality animation. At $299 per unit, the product sells. Today Hash has over 100,000 customers, including 1,000 high schools nationwide. He employs nine people, ranging from code writers to shipping clerks to technical support staff.
"We’ve got the school market, and also the hobbyists," said Hash Inc. programmer Ken Baer. "We like to say, ‘If you’re over 30 and looking for a hobby, then you’re our customer."
Baer said what makes Hash’s software different is that it is designed to be easy to use, while retaining production-level quality. And they go heavy on marketing to the budget set, running the tagline, "Software even an artist can afford."
"It’s every bit as advanced as Softimage or Maya," he said.
To promote the product, Baer and Hash together visit more than 40 industry trade shows each year, showing examples of short films created by Hash product users.
"Most of what we show is produced by one person using the software," Baer said. "It’s quite a comparison to the large crews that work on feature films."
The most widely known is a one-minute short by Victor Navone, called "Alien Song," produced on A:M in 1999. It depicts a green, oblong-headed, one-eyed space alien on a disco floor, singing Gloria Gaynor’s "I will Survive." The short, says Hash, is what put him on the map, demonstrating the high-end capabilities of his software.
Hash’s product is credited with over 400 animation shorts worldwide, many of which have won awards and launched careers. Many Hash "graduates" have gone on to work for major studios. Recently, Hash customer Shaun Freeman gained notoriety in the industry for his short, called "The Cuckoo," and went on to work on the Warner Brothers’ production, "Happy Feet," released late last year.
While the accessibility and user-friendliness of Hash’s product keeps sales up, the wide use of it serves a solid education purpose as well. Martin Hash has emphasized the educational application of his product, teaching the software at Clark College and serving on the advisory board at Washington State University Vancouver.
"Animation: Master is used in every Clark County High School," he said.
Hash doesn’t stop there. He got into the business through his love of the genre, and has mounted efforts to produce his own films at his Vancouver headquarters. Currently, he is co-producing an animated film called, "The Tin Woodsman of Oz." The film carries a $100,000 budget, and is being produced online, with the help of nearly 100 A:M users from around the world.
"We’re hoping to create a new wave in animation," he said, "we can bring in talent from across the planet to produce high-quality films for almost nothing, while helping people learn the craft."
The film has promise. In fact, one of the technicians working on it did work on such iconic animated films as Ralph Bakshi’s "Wizards," and "American Pop."
Hash plans to market the completed feature at film festivals in hopes of building a reputation as a producer. This, he says, is the fun part.
"Can you put a price on coming to work each day in an old church and doing stuff with animation?" he asked.
