 |
|
|
|
|
| August 4, 2006
Giving lip to animation BY MAUREEN DIXON
But when you meet him, it’s immediately apparent that this is a person who has not let any of his success go to his head. McCullough’s unpretentious, genial demeanor and youthful enthusiasm—combined with the fact that he lives on a Sausalito houseboat instead of in a Mulholland Drive mansion—make him a rare entity in a traditionally egocentric business. Perhaps because he has also lent his marketing research expertise to many prominent Democratic politicians, along with causes such as rent control, offshore drilling, nuclear freeze and healthcare-insurance reform, he has a perspective that goes beyond the self-absorbed entertainment industry. Back in the ’80s, McCullough also served as the vice president of the San Francisco Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame and is currently on the San Francisco Film Commission. His latest passion is still entertainment-related, but he’s branched out and is now vice president of sales and marketing for a new-kid-on-the-block software company called Onadime, which has created a real-time and voice recognition lip-sync program for animation. To put Onadime on the map, one of McCullough’s ideas was to contact the Rolling Stones during their 2002-2003 world tour and convince them to have Onadime create colorful, digital backgrounds that would react directly to the Stones’ music as it was being played live on stage. The only hitch: McCullough had the airline ticket to go to London, but no way to actually meet with the group. “I was trying to get ahold of this guy, Willie Williams, who had done videos for them, but wasn’t getting through,” says McCullough. “So, the day before I left, I was in my parking lot and saw this English guy, Gerard, who lives on the dock...and I said ‘I’m going to England tomorrow.’” Gerard was intrigued and asked McCullough what he was going to do there. When McCullough told him that he was trying to contact Willie Williams so he could have a meeting with the Rolling Stones, kismet took over. “He said, ‘That’s my best friend.’ And I said, ‘What?!’ and then he said, ‘I’ll call him right now,’” explains McCullough, still amazed as he retells the story. As fate would have it, this Gerard is renowned visual effects designer Gerard Howland, who had designed the sets for the Stones’ Bridges to Babylon world tour, not to mention the giant Coke bottle at AT&T Park. McCullough got his meeting in London and from there Onadime put together a spectacular music visualization show that ran throughout the Stones’ tour. “That’s how things happen to me...I’ve got a guardian angel that’s looking after me,” laughs McCullough. “Normally, I just would have said, ‘Hi,’ to Gerard and moved on.” Another coup came with the 2003 Warner Brothers film Looney Tunes: Back in Action. McCullough convinced the studio to hire Onadime to bring Bugs Bunny to life for the press junket promoting the movie. He worked with Warner’s head of animation, Eric Goldberg, and showed him various versions of what the Onadime team had prepared. “We’d show him what we had and he’d say it wasn’t good enough. Looney Tunes is his thing...he was a protégé of Chuck Jones and did Bugs Bunny’s voice, so we were up against the hardest thing we could be up against.” On a Friday afternoon, Goldberg still wasn’t satisfied and decided to pull the plug on the project. McCullough had one more meeting set up for Monday, which Goldberg wanted to cancel. But McCullough finally persuaded him to give them the weekend to further tweak the project, even though Goldberg was sure it was no use. The programming genius behind Onadime, Phillip Reay, spent the weekend re-working the software, and what evolved by Monday soon become known as ONAmation—the creation of real-time interactive animated characters that could perform live for any audience. Now Bugs could give actual live interviews using this groundbreaking voice recognition lip-sync and action-controlled program. When Goldberg saw their presentation he told them, “Do you realize what you’ve done? You’ve found the grail of animation.” The new technology, creating digital puppetry using images manipulated by sensor devices, and live lip-sync driven by voice actors, allowed Bugs Bunny to give over 90 live interviews in two days. The founders of Seattle-based Onadime, Bruce Mitchell and Reay, patented the revolutionary new software and McCullough continued taking it around to various studios. Next, McCullough flew to New York to spread the word about the new technology. “I was talking with Robert Smigel who created the “TV Funhouse” cartoon for Saturday Night Live,” says McCullough. “He’s a great, great guy and loved our stuff, but he told us that he had his own animators and was really happy with them, so he didn’t see any need for what we had to offer.” Typical of McCullough’s remarkable luck, Smigel went into a meeting directly following his meeting with McCullough and was told by the SNL producers that he would have to change the first half of his latest cartoon to make it more politically current. “At midnight that night, while I was still in New York, I got a call,” says McCullough. “And it was Smigel asking, ‘Can you help me?’ Well, of course, I said ‘sure’ and so we worked like dogs all that night and all the next day to get it ready in time to air.” Onadime’s Reay was able to hack into the footage that Smigel supplied to them, apply the voice-recognition software, and then an actor phoned in the new dialogue. “The idea that this isn’t traditional animation is both frightening and exciting to animators,” says McCullough. “Some people were afraid that we’d be taking jobs away from animators, but we’re creating a new medium that still requires drawings. There’s room in the big tent for everybody. We’ve met some of the biggest people in Hollywood and in the Bay Area in digital animation, and there’s a great deal of interest. We’re a new tool in the toolbox.” With all the buzz going on about Onadime, it’s hard to imagine that McCullough would be thinking beyond its application in the entertainment industry; but, true to form, he is. McCullough and Onadime’s founders are looking to take the software in other directions that will benefit education and medicine. “Robert Smigel’s son is severely autistic and we went to his son’s school and showed the kids Onadime, and they flipped out,” smiles McCullough. “The teachers said, ‘This is really amazing. We’re really reaching kids that would normally sit in a corner and not interact at all.’” One of Onadime’s goals is to enhance learning and brain development in autistic children. As McCullough continues with his brilliant career, can he share any secrets of his success? In his usual modest way, he attributes it all to luck. “I’ve been a very blessed person. Whenever I want to do something, I’ve almost always been able to do it. I’ve just had really good luck.” But, as famed film producer Sam Goldwyn used to say, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.” PHOTO BY ROBERT VENTE: McCullough says Onadime’s technology allowed Bugs Bunny to give more than 90 interviews in two days; he didn’t specify how many were conducted in drag. |
THE CUTTING EDGE Rising Suns 2006 Straus Family Creamery Brad Silen and PlanetQuest Nicholas and Michael Broffman BioMarin researchers Gareth Loy Christi Graham and Veronica Galvin and the Buck Institute’s Alzheimer’s research |
|||
|
The first image that comes to mind when you hear about Jim McCullough might be an Armani-clad, über- Hollywood high roller. After all, he’s not only worked with mega film studios, he’s also consulted directly with top producers and directors (most notably George Lucas and James Cameron) on numerous feature films, including some of the most popular movies of all time: Chariots of Fire, the original Star Wars trilogy, Risky Business, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Alien, L.A. Confidential, Terminator 2 and Oceans Eleven...to name merely a few. Then there’s his work in television, which includes contributions to the major networks, as well as Turner, Showtime, Discovery, VH1, MTV and David Letterman’s Worldwide Pants. |
|