THE ANIMATION INDUSTRY: TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGES, PRODUCTION

CHALLENGES, AND GLOBAL SHIFTS

DISSERTATION
Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate
School of The Ohio State University
By
Hyejin Yoon, M.A.
*****

The Ohio State University

2008

Dissertation Committee:
Approved by
Professor Edward J. Malecki, Adviser
Professor Nancy Ettlinger
Professor Darla K. Munroe

Adviser
Graduate Program in Geography

ABSTRACT

Animated films have grown in popularity as expanding markets (such as TV and

video) and new technologies (notably computer graphics imagery) have broadened both
the production and consumption of cartoons. As a consequence, more animated films are
produced and watched in more places, as new worlds of production have emerged. The
animation production system, specialized and distinct from film production, relies on
different technologies and labor skills. Therefore, its globalization has taken place
differently from live-action film production, although both are structured to a large
degree by the global production networks (GPNs) of the media conglomerates.
This research examines the structure and evolution of the animation industry at the
global scale. In order to investigate these, 4,242 animation studios from the Animation
Industry Database are used. The spatial patterns of animation production can be
summarized as, 1) dispersion of the animation industry, 2) concentration in world cities,
such as Los Angeles and New York, 3) emergence of specialized animation cities, such
as Annecy and Angoulme in France, and 4) significant concentrations of animation
studios in some Asian countries, such as India, South Korea and the Philippines.
In order to understand global production networks (GPNs), networks of studios in 20
cities are analyzed. Animation studios in these cities have formed different types of
networks - some global, some local, and some both global and local. In addition to
ii

seeking lower production cost, other factors, such as institutions, business culture and
cultural contents have affected the geography and strategies of animation studios
throughout the world.
Keywords: cultural industries, animation industry, world city networks, global
production networks (GPNs), technology, computer graphic imagery (CGI), globalization

iii

ACKNOLEDGEMENTS

I could successfully complete this dissertation thanks to my advisor, Dr. Edward

Malecki. This dissertation would not have been possible without his patience,
encouragements and thoughtful guidance. He is not only a great advisor but also a
wonderful person. He is the reason that I joined the program in the Ohio State University.
I am deeply indebted to him.
I am grateful to my committee members, Dr. Nancy Ettlinger and Dr. Darla Munroe.
They provided me with invaluable advice and inspiration, and encouraged me to succeed
in a whole new environment. Particularly, Dr. Ettlinger encouraged me to think and look
outside the box and Dr. Munroe was so great in supervising me that I could stay on track.
I thank Dr. Becky Mansfield and Dr. Larry Brown for their thoughtful comments at
the early stage of this research.
I also thank Dr. Kie-joo Hyung and the faculty members in the Department of
Geography Education at Dongguk University for their mentoring and support.
I express my thanks to the Department of Geography at the Ohio State University for
the support.
I also owe a lot to my friends, Jae-Yong, Hyowon, Myong Jin, Hyun, Yongwan, HoSeop, Gunhak and their family. In addition to these people, I am also grateful to my

iv

colleagues in the department. I also wish to thank to my friend Eunhye for her cares for
me.
Upon completion of my dissertation, I would like to thank my parents who gave
birth to and raised me, and my parents-in-law who did the same thing for my husband
Woonsup. My beloved husband and my family including Hye-eun, Joon-han, Yuna and
Yu-seung deserve my sincere gratitude for their support and sacrifice throughout my life.

VITA

March 18, 1972

Born Seoul, Korea

February 1996

B.A. Geography Education, Dongguk University,

South Korea

February 1999

M.A. Geography, Dongguk University,

South Korea

1997~1999

Administrative Assistant,
Department of Geography Education, Dongguk University,
Researcher,
Department of Urban Management, Seoul Development Institute

2000~2001
2002~2003

Research Associate,
Center for Urban and Regional Analysis, The Ohio State University,

2003

Teaching Associate,
Department of Geography, The Ohio State University,

2004-2005,

Research Associate,
Center for Urban and Regional Analysis, The Ohio State University,

2005~2007

Teaching Assistant,
Department of Geography, The Ohio State University
PUBLICATIONS

Research Publication
Park, S.A., Lee, S.H. and Yoon, H., 2001 The Policy Alternatives for Government
Contracting Out in Seoul, Seoul Development Institute, 2001

vi

Shin, C.H., Kim, R.H., Yoon, H. and Oh, E.J., 2000, Promotion Strategies of Cultural
Industry in Seoul, Seoul Development Institute, ISDN 89-8052-212-6-93320.
Park Y.G, Kang, H.S, Song, Y.P. and Yoon, H., 2000, The Research of Agglomerative
Venture Firms Region in Terms of Ecosystems, The Korea Chamber of Commerce
& Industry.
Yoon, H., 1999, The network formation of small agglomerative industrial district, Space
and Environment, 63(3): 41-52.
Yoon, H., 1997, The understanding of producer services, Journal of the Association of
Korean Women Geographers. 3(2): 33-36.

FIELDS of STUDY
Major Field: Geography

vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT........................................................................................................................ ii
ACKNOLEDGEMENTS................................................................................................... iv
VITA .................................................................................................................................. vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS................................................................................................. viii
LIST OF TABLES.............................................................................................................. x
LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... xi
Chapters
1.
2.

INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 1
LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................ 5
2.1. Introduction.......................................................................................................... 5
2.2. Cultural industries................................................................................................ 6
2.2.1. The growth of cultural industries.............................................................. 6
2.2.2. The distinctive characteristics of the cultural industries........................... 8
2.2.3. Cultural industries vs. Creative industries .............................................. 12
2.3. World cities and global cities............................................................................. 14
2.4. Global production networks............................................................................... 17
2.5. Summary ............................................................................................................ 19
3. THE ANIMATION INDUSTRY ............................................................................... 22
3.1. Introduction........................................................................................................ 22
3.2. Cel Animations .................................................................................................. 24
3.2.1. From New York City to Hollywood (1887-1930) .................................. 24
3.2.2. Expansion of the Market: depression of theatrical market and increasing
demand on TV (1940s-1988) ............................................................................ 26
3.2.3. The second heyday of the animation industry (1988- ) .......................... 29
3.3. CGI (Computer-generated Imagery) animations (1990s-2007)......................... 30
3.4. Worlds of animation production ........................................................................ 34
3.4.1. The diversification of animation production........................................... 34
3.4.2. The diversification of animation production........................................... 36
3.4.3. The characteristics of animation production........................................... 42
3.4.4. Other production places: China and India .............................................. 45
3.5. Conclusions........................................................................................................ 51
4. DATA AND METHODOLOGY............................................................................... 53
4.1. Introduction........................................................................................................ 53
4.2. The Animation World Network Data Base........................................................ 54
viii

4.3. Methodology ...................................................................................................... 58

4.3.1. Business type .......................................................................................... 59
4.3.2. Animation specialty, style or technique.................................................. 60
4.3.3. Types of animated work.......................................................................... 67
4.4. Conclusions........................................................................................................ 69
5. WORLD CITIES OF THE ANIMATION INDUSTRY ........................................... 71
5.1. Introduction........................................................................................................ 71
5.2. World (global) cities .......................................................................................... 72
5.3. World Animation Cities..................................................................................... 76
5.4. Conclusions........................................................................................................ 89
6. GLOBAL PRODUCTION NETWORKS OF THE ANIMATION INDUSTRY ..... 91
6.1. Introduction........................................................................................................ 91
6.2. Networks of animation studios in 20 cities........................................................ 92
6.2.1. North America ........................................................................................ 94
6.2.2. India ........................................................................................................ 99
6.2.3. Europe ................................................................................................... 100
6.3. Global production networks of the animation industry ................................... 106
6.3.1. Co-Production ....................................................................................... 108
6.3.2. Unbundling the animation production process ..................................... 109
6.4. Different types of production networks ........................................................... 111
6.4.1. Global producers................................................................................... 111
6.4.2. National animation producers ............................................................... 112
6.4.3. Networking without Hollywood ........................................................... 113
6.4.4. A focused network ................................................................................ 114
6.4.5. A locally embedded network ................................................................ 116
6.4.6. Global subcontractor............................................................................. 117
6.4.7. A diversified global network ................................................................ 118
6.5. Conclusions...................................................................................................... 119
7. CONCLUSIONS...................................................................................................... 121
7.1. Summary of Findings....................................................................................... 121
7.2. Contributions of this study............................................................................... 123
7.3. Limitations ....................................................................................................... 124
7.4. Suggestions for Future Research ..................................................................... 125
BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................................... 127
APPENDIX A: THE PROCESS OF ANIMATION PRODUCTION............................ 145
APPENDIX B: ANIMATION STUDIOS: COUNTRY, LOCATION AND TYPES OF
BUSINESS...................................................................................................................... 152
APPENDIX C: CITIES OF WORLD ANIMATION STUDIOS................................... 157
ix

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1. Top animated films by total domestic box office revenue............................... 33
Table 3.2. Characteristics of the animation industry ........................................................ 44
Table 4.1. Contents of the Animation Industry Database................................................. 55
Table 4.2. Number of animation studios by country ........................................................ 57
Table 4.3 Top 15 business of the animation studios......................................................... 59
Table 4.4 Types of Specialties .......................................................................................... 61
Table 4.5. Types of projects/deliverable forms ................................................................ 67
Table 5.1. Cities of animation studios .............................................................................. 77
Table 5.2. Cities of animation studios (Number of animation studios that have more than
8 studios 1 million population) ................................................................................ 89
Table 6.1. Numbers of animation studios in 20 cities with the list of clients................... 93
Table 6.2. Networks of animation studios in US .............................................................. 95
Table 6.3. Networks of animation studios in Canada ....................................................... 98
Table 6.4. Networks of animation studios in India......................................................... 101
Table 6.5. Networks of animation studios in Europe...................................................... 103
Table 6.6 Networks of animation studios in other cities ................................................ 105
Table 6.7. Top 5 cities in each network type .................................................................. 106
Table B.1. Number of animation studios by country...................................................... 153
Table B.2. Types of business .......................................................................................... 155
Table C.1. Cities of world animation production ........................................................... 158
Table C.2. Number of animation studios per 1 million population, for cities that have
more than 8 total studios ........................................................................................ 162

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 3.1. Technological development in the film industry......................................... 23
Figure 3.2. Worlds of production................................................................................... 36
Figure 3.3. Two worlds of production between 1930-1980........................................... 37
Figure 3.4. Four worlds of production since 1980s ....................................................... 39
Figure 3.5. Studio revenue by source, 1981 and 2006................................................... 42
Figure 4.1 Animation Studios by Specialties (Traditional only) ................................... 62
Figure 4.2 Animation Studios by Specialties (2D computer animation only)............... 63
Figure 4.3 Animation Studios by Specialties (3D computer animation only)............... 64
Figure 4.4. Animation Studios by Specialties (Traditional, 2D and 3D computer
animation) ...................................................................................................................... 65
Figure 5.1. The World Cities by GaWC ........................................................................ 73
Figure 5.2. World media cities....................................................................................... 75
Figure 5.3. World animation cities: absolute number of studios ................................... 81
Figure 5.4. World animation cities by per capita........................................................... 87
Figure 6.1. Global producer/ client: Hollywood type .................................................. 112
Figure 6.2. Hollywood subcontractor and high regional network: San Francisco....... 113
Figure 6.3. Networks of cultural closeness: Montreal ................................................. 114
Figure 6.4. Regional networks: Cardiff ....................................................................... 115
Figure 6.5. Locally embedded network: Chennai........................................................ 116
Figure 6.6. Global subcontractor with strong regional and Hollywood networks Buenos
Aires............................................................................................................................. 117
Figure 6.7. Global subcontractor with various networks: Seoul.................................. 118
Figure A.1. The generalized production prodcess of the animation industry.............. 149
Figure A.2. The production prodcess of 2D animation ............................................... 150
Figure A.3. The production process of 3D animation ................................................. 151

xi

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

The film industry, like many other cultural industries, is a growth sector of the
economy in developed countries and is characterized by a location pattern of
agglomeration. Despite a large and growing global market for films, and the attraction of
low-cost filming locations, production within this industry remains highly agglomerated
in traditional core regions, such as Hollywood in southern California and Mumbai
(Bombay or Bollywood) in India, with the recent emergence of a few satellite locations
where costs are lower. Basically, changes of the shooting locations have been carried out
by pursuing cheaper production cost, also by developments of technology (Scott 2005).
The animation industry, a growing sub-sector of the film industry, has adapted its
software-dependent production system and has agglomerated in a few major countries,
such as the US and Japan. Animation production also is concentrated but, at the same
time, processes which need labor-intensive efforts increasingly are subcontracted to firms
in other countries, such as South Korea. The animation production system is specialized
and distinct from film production, with different types of technology and skilled labor
from film production; therefore, animation is not as attracted to remote locations.
1

This research examines development, changes and situations within the animation
industry at the global scale. This industry does not need, and is unlikely, to be global in
its production. The success of hit films which used computer graphic imagery (CGI) has
created a sharp dichotomy between traditional hand-drawn cel animation and CGI and
their worlds of production.
Research on cultural industries has a relatively short history compared to other
industries that contribute to regional development. Traditional manufacturing dominated
discussions of regional development for a long time; however, interest in cultural
industries has exploded during the past decade. Studies of cultural industries have tended
to focus on two different spatial scales: the national scale and the city scale. For instance,
Scott (1997) has analyzed the spatial patterns of specific cultural industry sectors in the
US to illustrate the distinct characteristics of those patterns. Generally, the agglomeration
of cultural industries at a few locations within national economies is a prominent
characteristic.
The city level also has been the focus of much investigation. One place,
Hollywood, the capital city of the world motion picture industry, has been studied
repeatedly, including the organization of studios and their employment patterns
(Christopherson and Storper 1989; Scott 2005). These studies have covered the changing
location patterns of the motion picture industry and runaway production to low-cost
filming locations. In general, the process behind these spatial patterns of cultural
industries is not so different from that in other industries; that is, capital and labor are the
most significant location factors (Pratt 2000).

This study contributes to understanding the historical and evolving location patterns
of the animation industry. Existing research has covered the location patterns of the
motion picture industry, especially the agglomeration of Hollywood. However, recent
and important technological changes in the animation industry have not been addressed in
previous research. This study addresses three sets of research questions.
First, what the characteristics of the production of the global animation industry and
how does the new digital technology change the map of the global animation industry?
Second, what are the spatial patterns of production in the animation industry? Are the
spatial patterns of production in the animation industry similar to those of other cultural
industries? Are animation studios concentrated in big cities? What countries play
important roles in the global production of animation?
Third, what are the networks among the studios in the animation industry? What are
characteristics of these networks? Do studios in different locations differ in their global
production networks (GPNs)
To answer these questions and provide the background and examples of the global
animation production system, this research is organized as follows: In chapter two,
reviews of the literature and a definition of the key constructs of cultural industries,
debates on world cities and explanations of GPNs are presented. Then, history and
characteristics of the animation industry are reviewed in chapter three. The important
shift has been from hand-drawn animation to CGI. Chapter four explains the data and
methodology that will be used in this research. In chapter five, analysis of locations of
animation studios from the data base illustrates the animation production cities. Global
animation hubs and regional centers are presented. Chapter six focuses on global
3

production networks of twenty cities that are based on their clients locations and
explains unique characteristics of each city as production places of the animation industry.
Lastly, chapter seven includes a summary and conclusions drawn from the findings of
previous chapters. Also, this chapter points out limitations of the study and suggests
directions for future studies.

CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Introduction
Since the mid-1980s, many scholars have paid attention to how culture influences
the regional or urban economy. They also have studied spatial patterns of economic
activity in the cultural economy. The agglomeration of the movie-related industry in
and near Hollywood has been the most attractive issue to both scholars and policy makers
in recent years. It is believed that cultural industries can make a positive impact to
regional economies. In other words, culture its production as well as its consumption
influences employment and economic growth at regional levels (Bassett et al. 2002).
This chapter reviews three different themes. First, previous studies on cultural
industries are reviewed. Second, world cities/global cities have been studied following
the enormous influence of globalization since the 1980s. Third, a recent research
framework, global production networks (GPNs), is presented.

2.2. Cultural industries

2.2.1. The growth of cultural industries
Cultural industries are related to the entire spectrum from production to consumption.
Cultural products include aesthetic and symbolic forms. Culture is one of the indicators to
show homogeneity of a region. That is to say, culture and place cannot be separated.
However, much place-based culture has become non place-based globalized culture
(Scott 1997; Scott 2000a). Also, changes in the production system and the society, from
mass production to post-Fordism with flexibility, have brought diversification and
exploitation of niche markets for the changing needs and fickle tastes of individuals
(Throsby 1999; Throsby 2001; Scott 2000a; Drake 2003).
The cultural industries have been identified as a large and growing part of capitalist
economies. The recent growth of cultural industries is a result of several factors. The first
factor behind the growth of cultural industries is a change in the concept of culture. As
Pratt (1997a) illustrates, culture is deeply related to concepts of civilization,
education and enlightenment from the mid-nineteenth century. Thus many believe
that culture encompasses only high culture, such as classical music and fine art. These
manifestations of culture have a very limited geography, confined to places, such as
opera houses and fine art galleries, where only a few people can enjoy the culture. For
instance, a symphony orchestra, an opera company and ballet company (SOB) and an art
museum are considered traditional cultural attractions of a city (Florida 2002).
The concept of culture has changed, however, since World War II in four ways
(Hesmondhalgh 2002). First, the proliferation of popular or pop culture, such as motion
pictures and non-classical music, has brought about the mass consumption of culture.
6

This change has been stimulated by young populations with high incomes. The mass
production of culture includes advertising, photography, pop music, films, cartoons,
fashion, design, textile, toys and so on.
Second, culture has become an economic commodity, reflected in changes in policies
toward culture (Lukinbeal 2004). Earlier cultural policies had the preservation and
maintenance of high culture as the most important aims (Pratt 1997a). Consequently,
public investment in culture has long been encouraged by local governments. In other
words, culture is regarded as a profit sector through which places compete for tourists as
competing localities (Kong 2000). A new dimension of this competition is a result of
the fact that many creative people are interested in street-level culture, which can only
be consumed in particular places (Florida 2002). In other words, cultural industries have
become sectors that can be profitable and beneficial to regional economies.
Third, growth of the cultural industries has exploded with the development of
technology (Leyshon 2001; Power and Jansson 2004; Leyshon et al. 2005). Mass
production of culture, in traditional and digital formats, including TV, film, printing and
MP3 music compression, are made widely available by the remarkable technological
development of digital storage. In other words, the new technologies have given us new
devices of art and made possible unlimited numbers of copies of songs, books, films and
other cultural products. Regarding the impact of technology to cultural industries, these
new innovations are adopted and diffused rapidly. Generally, early adopters are young
and high-educated people (Hansman et al. 1999).
Fourth, based on all of the above factors, the emergence of both wide and niche
markets has played a significant role in the expansion of the cultural industries. Scott
7

(2005) points out that specialized cultural production has been carried by cultural
diversity. As explained, young people become the main consumers of the cultural
industries, whereas old people, with a high level of purchasing power, remain an
important part of consumption in the cultural industries (Norcliffe and Rendace 2003).
Therefore, technology and the existence of a variety of markets have attracted creative
people and capital to cultural production. As a result, the cultural industries have become
the one of the most important industries and turned into one of the main venues for
competition among local governments. The growth of cultural industries is not a result of
only one factor but of all the complex factors discussed above.

2.2.2. The distinctive characteristics of the cultural industries

As seen in the above discussion of the definitions of cultural industries, the cultural
industries have diversified and complex characteristics. Overall, the cultural industries
are considered as innovative, flexible, creative, idea-driven, constantly changing and
risky industries (Banks et al. 2000; Hesmondhalgh 2002). Beyond these, the distinctive
spatial pattern of the cultural industries is agglomeration (Schoales 2006). Agglomeration
also has brought the spatial dispersion of these industries globally by the introduction of
de-skilling processes in production system. Furthermore, changes of organization of the
cultural industries have been observed. Two distinctive features, agglomeration and
changes of organization, will be presented in this section.

2.2.2.1. Agglomeration economies

Many studies of the cultural industries have made efforts to find out the spatial
patterns of the cultural industries. As illustrated earlier, these studies have adopted
employment analysis, especially the location quotient (LQ) technique, to explain the
concentrations of the cultural industries (Power 2002, 2003; Scott 1997; Pratt 1997a;
Scott 2000b). The scales of these studies range from cities and regions to comparisons
among countries. In this context, some cities or regions are specialized in the cultural
industries and these spatial patterns and their success become the purpose of the cultural
industries policy (Griffiths et al. 2003; Pratt 1997a; Garnham 2005). At the same time,
their specialized products vary from region to region: book (publishing), jewelry, music,
video games, film and television, new media, and fashion design (Aoyama and Izushi
2003; Bathelt 2002; Ekinsmyth 2002; Rantisi 2002; Pollard 2004; Bassett et al. 2002;
Scott 1996; Pratt 2000; Norcliffe and Rendace 2003; Johns 2006a).
Cities that are well known as centers of the cultural industries, such as New York,
Paris, and Los Angeles, usually have the entire production system from production to
consumption (Scott 1999). Regarding the processes of locational patterns, localization of
the new industries is initiated by a historical event and then the clustering of new start-up
companies occurs in that location. The next process is dispersal: growth from core
regions to peripheries. Finally, a shift of the center of the industry may take place (Coe
2001; Scott 2000b).
Within a cluster, economic actors, firms, individuals or groups share their information
and learn tacit knowledge with the support of unique local institutions, customs and so on
(Cooke 2002; Asheim and Cooke 1999). Thus clusters and proximity are important
9

preconditions of building (formal/informal) networks (Sturgeon 2003; Henry and Pinch

2000). Large cities, such as New York and Los Angeles, are considered as important
places for innovation because individuals or economic actors create buzz in cities
(Storper and Venables 2002). Buzz is an important concept of communication to transfer
and exchange knowledge within the same industry or and place or region (Bathelt et al.
2004). However, proximity is not always important. It is possible to build especially
informal networks among small companies in rural areas (Kingsley and Malecki 2004).
The de-skilling of a cultural industry can result in the dispersion of production globally
and create new regional clusters (Scott 2004). The reason is that firms pursue profits by
reducing production costs through vertical disintegration and outsourcing. Sometimes this
outsourcing occurs within a region (city), but more commonly production moves to
distant, low-cost locations.
Regarding the last two processes, similarities between the garment industry and the
motion picture industry can be observed (Coe 2001; Lukinbeal 2004; Gereffi and
Memedovic 2004). The technological development of communication has stimulated the
dispersion of similar cultural content to other regions. Especially, shooting locations of
the motion picture industry have been studied. The Vancouver film industry, for instance,
was a satellite production location with high dependency on Hollywood, but has become
a hybrid industrial district, a satellite-Marshallian district, through active networks
within the region ( Coe 2000; Coe 2001).
In general, the spatial patterns of the cultural industries essentially show
agglomeration with benefit of scale economies, but recent technology and
communication development have facilitated location dispersion of the cultural industries
10

through opportunities to exploit reduced production costs in low-wage locations. Even

though this trend seems to support the perspective of globalization in the cultural
industries, the old-fashioned debates, such as north and south unevenness, remain
relevant (Gibson and Klocker 2004).

2.2.2.2. Changes of organization in the cultural industries

For a long time, the market of the cultural industries has been unstable, unpredictable
and fluctuating. Due to unstable market conditions, many firms in the cultural industries
have pursued higher profits and more creativity by turning to outside expertise rather than
having all personnel inside the company, which also may reduce the production cost
( Banks et al. 2000; Ekinsmyth 2002; Grabher 2002b). A specific creative project is
staffed only through the completion of the project. To understand project-based systems,
characteristics of the production system are as follows.
First, organization of project-based work has been practiced for a long time some
industries including engineering and film production. This work is based on temporary
systems and contains various forms in terms of relationships with clients, forms of
organization and networks (Grabher 2002a). Second, inter-personal relationships are
more important than interfirm relationships, and regional clusters and their resources are
very significant preconditions of project organization (Grabher 2002b; Hesmondhalgh
2002). Lastly, the goal of firms from projects is to improve profits with a reduction in
sunk coast and risk, by moving the risk and uncertainty from the client to the freelancers
(Christopherson 2006; Ekinsmyth 2002). The reason is that freelancers are eager to
succeed in the current project and demonstrate their capability for future work. If they fail
11

in the current project, they are unlikely to get the next opportunity. In this sense,
unevenness and unbalanced power relations arises between large corporations and
freelance, creative workers (Christopherson 2006; Ekinsmyth 2002).
At the same time, project-based practices promote agglomeration and bring about the
spatial concentration of the industry in urban areas. Factors that influence location
characteristics of the cultural industries are the networks of buyers, suppliers and labor
and proximity to related industries. At this point, local inter-personal ties within a region
are more important than inter-organization ties on international and global scales. The
latter are more limited than those of the local-inter personal ties in a region (Grabher
2002b).
In sum, project-based production systems have brought positive characteristics in
terms of innovation, different types of learning in the short term and regional
concentrations of business within a region. At the same time, however, project-based
organization also has negative features, such as unstable job conditions and unevenness
of power between suppliers and customers.

2.2.3. Cultural industries vs. Creative industries

Earlier in this chapter, definitions and characteristics of the cultural industries were
presented. Unfortunately, many recent studies do not distinguish the cultural industries
and creative industries clearly. In this research, cultural industries will be used rather
than creative industries. To show how they are different, explanations of the creative
industries and then differences between the cultural industries and the creative industries
will be illustrated in this part.
12

Recently, the concepts of creative industries, class and creativity have become hot
issues in the regional development field (Bakhshi et al. 2008; Yusuf and Nabeshima
2005). Of course, this is not a totally new concept, but is very inventive because of its
connections to everyday life (Florida 2002). The creative class emphasizes the amenities
and culture which attract people to some cities (Malecki 2004). In this sense, the concept
of creativity is connected to the urban areas directly and creative industries are
considered as a motor of urban economies. Also, based on agglomeration of creative
industries, cities become creative cities, a new basis for competitiveness (Scott 2006).
Creative cities emphasize the importance of services sectors, for example producer
services, such as venture capital, legal services and marketing rather than production
aspects (Donegan and Lowe 2008). With the diversification of industrial structure from a
manufacturing-based economy to a high-tech related service-oriented economy, creativity
has brought competitive advantage to some selected cities in the Western countries
(Florida 2002).
However, in debates regarding the term creativity, some believe that creativity is
emphasized too much. Recently, creativity is considered as a panacea for urban
economic development problems (Gibson and Klocker 2004). Policymakers exaggerate
the positive impact to economic development of cities. For instance, they overlook
polarization of the economy between high and low wage-jobs and social
marginalization in urban communities (Scott 2006; Peck 2005; Gibson and Klocker
2004).
As explained above, the cultural industries and creative industries are frequently
considered as a single concept. However, technically these are not same. Usually high13

technology, bio-technology, and pharmaceutical industries are included in the creative

industries, but not in the cultural industries. Creative industries is considered a more
sophisticated term reflecting wider social changes in the information age (Garnham 2005).
The subsectors that are used in Floridas book, The Rise of the Creative Class, should
be illustrated. Florida divides the creative class into two major sub-components: a supercreative core and creative professionals. The super-creative class includes computer and
mathematical occupations, architecture and engineering occupations, life, physical and
social science occupations, education, training, and library occupations and, lastly, arts,
design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations (p. 328). These occupations can
hardly be considered cultural in nature, except for the last set of occupations that are
related to arts. Furthermore, the creative professions also contain more service-oriented
occupations than the cultural occupations.
In sum, even though the creative industries encompass wider concepts that are
considered as very important and can provide well-defined and organized explanations to
regional competitiveness, cultural industries are more appropriate to this study.

2.3. World cities and global cities

Discussion on world cities and global cities traces back to Friedmann and Wolff
(1982) and Friedmanns (1986) article, The world city hypothesis. In this account,
world cities must include the following functions: corporate headquarters, financial
centres and connections to world economies. This hypothesis leads to build a hierarchy of
cities. According to Friedmann, the hierarchy of cities is based on the different functions
that each city has. In other words, cities in the highest rank in the hierarchy have more
14

functions than lower-ranked cities. For example, some cities are especially attractive to
multinational corporations. Multinational corporations prefer to choose these world cities
for their headquarter locations or regional offices based upon a global strategy. In
addition to this, world cities in high ranks are attracting high-skilled workers from all
over the world, because jobs in the world cities need high-skilled labor. That is to say,
command and control functions are concentrated on these world cities. This urban system
can be considered as an extension of the spatial division of labor (Taylor 2004b). The
core and periphery issue is related to Wallensteins world system theory
(Wallerstein 1984). Therefore, North/South and East/West divisions appear in the world/
global city discussion and emphasize connections to the global economy as well as
polarization.
Sassen also has contributed to the literature on world cities and global cities,
preferring however to use the term global city (Sassen 1991, 2001). The concept of the
global city is more attuned to questions of power and inequality (Sassen 2001, p. 80).
Taylor (2004b) has focused on the world city network, based on the locations of firms in
advanced producer services. Especially globalization is more emphasized than before.
The role of global cities also is connected to not merely command centers but global
service centers. In this context, the role of multinational corporations (or transnational
corporations: TNCs) is the most influential on global cities and more industries such as
finance services. Even though Sassen also uses the term, network, her discussion
continues to hold hierarchical urban system rather than networks among world cities
(Taylor 2004b). In general, research on world cities or global cities compares the

15

standing or competitiveness among different places in the world, either overall or on the
basis of select urban functions or industries.
A large body of research on world cities is the product of researchers in the
Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) network. In addition to studies of advanced
producer services, other determinants of place attractiveness have been added. These
include transportation related indicators, especially on airline passengers (Taylor et al.
2007), locations of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) (Taylor 2004a) and flows of
high-skilled labor (Beaverstock 2002). Both of the main theoretical approaches world
cities mainly by geographers and planners and global cities mainly by sociologists
continue to generate research (Derudder 2006).
Studies on world cities and global cities have identified the capacities of cities under
globalization using diverse indicators, but these studies have some limitations. First, they
continue to focus on the classification of world cities rather than the processes of
formation of world cities. Most studies only show dichotomy and polarization of cities in
the world. However, each city has uniqueness and its political-economic processes
should be considered in research on the world cities (McCann 2004).
Second, studies on the world/ global cities have limited explanation of non-Western
cities (Robinson 2002). Third, a small range of data and restricted data availability is a
limitation of research on world cities (Short et al. 1996). Fourth, the basic determinants
for world/global cites are advanced producer services, but development of creative
industries and cultural industries have been overlooked. Production of cultural industries
is a new type of economic activity that is deeply related to effects of agglomeration

16

economies in large metropolitan areas. Thus, the production side of the cultural industries
is an added dimension in contemporary urban economies.
In general, research on the world/ global cities has emphasized how globalization
influences changes of urban systems and showed inter-urban systems, but these
discussions also focus on rank of world cities as well as network and flows of people,
technology, knowledge and information.

2.4. Global production networks

The last framework of this study is global production networks (GPNs) (Coe et al.
2004). This research provides a framework for explaining agglomeration economies and

clusters within particular regions or industries as globalization has occurred.

Two different forces that have led to agglomeration: centrifugal and centripetal forces
(Roper and Grimes 2005). Various factors are centrifugal forces: pursuing lower
production costs, reducing transportation costs and the increasing use of advanced
telecommunication technology. In contrast, centripetal forces have been reinforced by
spatial concentrations of skilled labor and by transaction costs, which are minimized in
spatial agglomerations. Both forces have contributed to dispersion of industry globally as
well as to the formation of clusters. As commercial and industrial activities have
globalized, how aspects of globalized production are connected to each other has become
a more and more important issue (Hess and Coe 2006).
First, the global commodity chain (GCC) framework includes commodity chains and
sets of inter-organizational networks within the world economy in a world systems
perspective (Gereffi 1994). In this framework, GCC investigates relationships between
17

firms using two types of commodity chains: buyer-driven and producer-driven chains.
Second, the global value chain (GVC) focuses on transaction economies and provides
comprehensive understanding of governance structures and global economy at a firm
level (Gereffi 2006).
These two frameworks give us insights into dynamics of networks under
globalization, but they overlook some aspects of current situations (Henderson et al.
2002). Neither GCC or GVC provide explanations of long-term or historical changes of
these chains and their primary concern is currently existing chains. In this sense, GCC
and GVC explain simple or linear flows of products or services. Thus GCC and GVC
largely overlook details of differences among the diverse products markets and different
levels of how the fundamental structural and relational nature of production, distribution
and consumption of goods and services are organized (Coe et al. 2008, p. 272).
Furthermore, they neglect nationality of firm ownership that can bring important
understandings of dynamic structures of global networks and their territorial aspects. In
addition to this, social, spatial and institutional aspects of globalized networks are not
illustrated by GCC and GVC. For example, supra-national organizations, such as NGOs,
are not included in these frameworks. Flows within transaction spaces also seem to be
complicated and winding webs rather than linear networks.
Global production networks (GPNs) were developed to address these limitations of
existing frameworks, GCC and GVC. GPNs include four dimensional aspects: firms,
sectors, networks and institutions. Based on these four dimensions, GPNs draw attention
to the organizationally and geographically complex webs of intrafirm, interfirm, and
extrafirm networks that characterize contemporary production systems (Hess and Coe
18

2006, p. 1207). In other words, GPNs identify the distribution of power among the
diverse organizations that are involved in production networks, including companies,
institutions and supra-national bodies. Furthermore, GPNs focus on broad aspects of
production networks spatially and territorially as well as functionally. GPNs also
address the embeddedness of production networks in their regional contexts.
GPNs do not only connect firms functionally and territorially but also they connect
aspects of the social and spatial arrangements in which those firms are embedded and
which influence their strategies and the values, priorities and expectations of managers,
workers and communities alike (Henderson et al. 2002).
In order to understand global animation production and its outsourcing, the GPN
framework is helpful to make clear complex networks of the animation industry. Also,
GPNs provide a neat framework to comprehend intermingled production agents,
including small and medium-size animation studios and supra-national business, such as
multinational media conglomerates, as well as local and national governments.
Regulations and institutions that are different in each country are important aspects of the
animation industry and these are part of the GPN framework.

2.5. Summary
In this chapter, three different literatures have been presented that are related to the
animation industry: cultural industries, world/global cities and global production
networks or GPNs.
First, the cultural industries are a relatively new issue in studies on economic
geography and have been developed coinciding with changes of production and
19

consumption from Fordism to post-Fordism. Development of technology also has

brought about a proliferation of niche markets in the cultural industries. The animation
industry shows some common characteristics with the cultural industries, as later chapters
of this dissertation will show.
Second, the literature on world cities and global cities shows establishment of urban
systems under globalization. Some functions are concentrated in a few cities, such as
New York, London and Tokyo. These world/global cities dominate through their
attraction to some industries, mainly in advanced producer services and this dominance
also represents high levels of regional competitiveness. In this context, globalization has
led to flows of labor as well as polarization within places.
Third, studies on GPNs provide understanding of production networks of the
animation industry and this is a useful tool for global production in the animation
industry.
The geography of the animation industry can be explained by the combination of
these three theoretical backgrounds. The overriding locational patterns of cultural
industries is that big cites are the base of cultural industries. Thus studies of world cities
provide a perspective on the nature and networks of large cities. In addition to this, GPNs
provide an insight into the structure of the animation industry which is mainly controlled
by multinational corporations, especially a mall number of media conglomerates. The
megacities that are production sites of the animation industry are linked through the
structure of GPNs in the media sector.
The following chapter adds to these three theoretical frameworks reviewed in this
chapter by focusing on the specific historical context of the animation industry. In
20

addition, it shows how the evolution of technology has influenced the globalization of the
industry. Together, these two chapters provide a strong framework for an analysis of
global animation production.

21

CHAPTER 3
THE ANIMATION INDUSTRY

3.1. Introduction
The development of technology has from the very beginning affected the growth of
the motion picture industry and the animation industry, as it has other cultural industries.
After the Lumire Brothers invented the cinematograph in 1895 in Lyon, France, the
motion picture industry and the animation industry evolved rapidly. The impacts of
technological development have influenced not only the artistic purpose but also the form
of the industry (Figure 3.1). The Lumire Brothers cinematography brought the birth of
the new genre to the public. That is, the new technology shed light on the expanded
market for performances and entertainment available to the motion picture industry.
Before this invention, theatrical performances were only for the few people who had
leisure time and enough money to enjoy them. In other words, film also engendered a
new concept: distribution.
Film makers who pursued profits from their works adapted themselves to this new
environment and extended the market. Before the motion picture era, the producers had
to pay actors and staff, and they had to be concerned constantly with unexpected events,
such as an actors daily health and condition. However, once a motion picture is made, it
22

can be shown repeatedly in many places simultaneously. While the Lumire Brothers
promoted the diffusion of the new technology in Europe, Edison Manufacturing
Company and other competitors developed new technology for film exhibition, such as
multi-reel films in 1909 (Mieizas and Kuperman 2000).
As shown in Figure 3.1, new technology in the 1920s, such as Technicolor and
adding sound, made the motion picture industry more popular. In parallel to the
technological development of the motion picture industry, animation has experienced
technological change. The most significant technological change in the animation
industry is the use of computer graphic imagery (CGI). The next section explains more
details of the development of the animation industry, dividing the historical changes

Figure 3.1. Technological development in the film industry

23

of the industry into cel animation and CGI animation. The brief history of the animation
industry will be explained in terms of these two different technologies, the traditional
two-dimensional or 2D, and newer three-dimensional or 3D animations. The global
production of the animation industry also will be illustrated more in detail. The final
section of the chapter addresses the considerable power accumulated by the studios,
which have become the hubs of feature film production and distribution.

3.2. Cel Animations

3.2.1. From New York City to Hollywood (1887-1930)
As the center of live action cinema moved to Hollywood, animation studios gradually
headed from New York to Hollywood. Once many animators worked for comic strips in
New York, but they started animation production with the development of cel animated
techniques by Bray and Hurd, patented in 1914 (McLaughlin 2001). Imitating and
improving upon this invention, many animators entered animation production and opened
their studios in New York City, which became the hub of this new industry. At the
beginning of animation and motion picture production, the New York-New Jersey
metropolitan area was the main center of the film industry in terms of both production
and exhibition (Scott 2005). Companies such as Kleine Optical Company and Kodak
Film Company also influenced the concentration of the film industry. Furthermore,
subsidiaries for both production and exhibition were found in Chicago and Philadelphia
during the 1920s.
24

In the 1920s, however, some animators such as Walter Lantz and Walt Disney1
moved to California, influenced by the moving of the whole motion picture industry.
Most big motion picture industry studios and independent studios found good weather
conditions and cheap production costs in Hollywood, California, ideal for shooting
locations. Thus, Hollywood itself was could be considered as the first runway
production location (Scott 2005). However, since the headquarters of the major studios,
such as MGM, Twentieth Century Fox, moved into California, a high level of vertical
integration of the industry evolved (Storper and Christopherson 1987). Therefore, major
studios in Hollywood are both animation studios important clients and powerful
distributors; thus animation could not stay away from major Hollywood live action film
studios.
During this period, one of the most important technological changes in the film
industry was introduced: adding sound to films (Acheson and Maule 1994). The first
movie that had sound the spoken words of actors was The Jazz Singer in 1927. The
introduction of sound also expanded the market of American films, because English
already was spread throughout much of the world as a by-product of British and
American imperialism (Dixon and Zonn 2004). Furthermore, the production of talkie
movies could be connected with the music recording industry through sales of original
sound tracks.
As in motion pictures, the use of sound also affected animation. The person who first
used sound in the animation field was Walt Disney (McLaughlin 2001; Brasch 1983).
1

Walt Disney, opened his studio, Laugh-O-Gram Films, in 1922 in his home town,
Kansas City. After his studio became bankrupt, Disney moved it to Los Angeles,
California in 1923.
25

Beginning with his successful sound animation film, Steamboat Willie in 1928, Mickey
Mouse became a widely popular animation character (Wright 2005). Thus the use of
sound made animated films more popular and established animation as an important
genre within the motion picture industry (Bendazzi 1994; Barrier 1999; McLaughlin,
2001). In summary, the early hub of the animation industry was New York, but relocation
of the animation industry to California eventually occurred. Strong interrelationships
between the business of live action film and the animation industry evolved.

3.2.2. Expansion of the Market: depression of theatrical market and increasing

demand on TV (1940s-1988)
After many animation studios settled down in California, the golden years of
cartoons began. The success of Mickey Mouse highlighted the importance of animated
characters. During this period, other studios introduced their own characters, such as
Betty Boop and Daffy Duck, and obtained great popularity (Bendazzi 1994). The
expanded demand put pressure on the studios and, in turn, on their workers, to churn out
more animated films. Labor issues arose, in part because the workers in the animation
part of Hollywood studios were paid lower wages than other people who worked on live
action films in the same studios (Barrier 1999; Lent 1998). During the early years of
animation, there were many talented workers, but the studios gradually lost talent not to
competitors but to burn-out. The reason is that the repetitious and monotonous character

26

of the work made people tired easily, which conflicted with the tight production
schedules and long hours of daily work based upon the Bray-Hurd system2.
The use of the Bray-Hurd system brought about an increase of production volume,
but this system also changed labor characteristics from creative artistic animators to
cheap and deskilled assembly line elements with job titles such as in-betweeners,
tracers, opaquers, and story personnel with different salaries (Bryman 2000; Yu
1999).3 That is to say, Fordism of the animation industry had begun.
Protesting their low salaries, animators in Disney and other animation studios, such as
Max Fleischers studio, went out on strike in 1941 (Yu 1999).4 Besides this, a depression
of the US film industry, which began in the 1950s with diffusion of television (TV)
broadcasting, forced the animation studios in the US to find cheaper labor elsewhere.
These labor problems in Hollywood led to the global production of the animation
industry beginning in the 1950s. The early off-shore production sites were Japan and
Eastern European countries (Solomon 1989).
In addition to labor concerns, the arrival of TV production and smaller theater
audiences resulted in a decrease in profits and caused the decline of the entire film
industry, so many studios eliminated jobs in the animation area during the 1950s. The
case of MGM illustrates this trend clearly. The animation part of MGM was closed in
1957 and people shifted their jobs to TV. For instance, the animators Hanna and Barbera

Generally, animators, during the Golden Years made at least 23 feet or 276 finished
drawings per week. Based on this minimum work load, animators did not have any
vacation, health care etc. The average weekly work hour was 55 hours (Sito 2006).
3
The Bray-Hurd process accelerated the speed of animation production with remarkable
efficiency but it needed a large amount of cheap labor (Yu 1999)
4
Max Fleischers studio is well known for Betty Boop and Popeye cartoons.
27

were in the same studio in MGM, but after the MGM animation studio was closed, they
began to make TV animation independently (Burke and Burke 1999). Moreover, the
animation studios struggled with the lay-off of labor or complete shut-down of studios.
In general, agglomeration economies permit firms (studios) in Hollywood to achieve
lower production cost because of proximity to other related firms or services. In addition,
the abundance of high-quality labor, including freelancers, benefited from the size and
diversity of the Los Angeles regional economy. Therefore, they can get the advantages of
reduction of production cost and scale and scope economies, because freelance animators
and other related firms were located near major animation studios in Hollywood (Barrier
1999).
After World War II, then, the overall trend in the motion picture industry was that the
number of cartoons that were shown in theaters decreased. However, the emergence of
TV presented a new opportunity to the animation industry. The development of the
television industry was aided by the supply of laid-off animators from Hollywood
(Barrier 1999). After World War II, TV sets diffused through the US (Mullen 2003). In
this context, childrens cartoons became popular at first in Saturday morning programs,
largely substituting for the shortage of animation in theatres5. The regular schedule of the
cartoons on television created continuous demand for animations which, together with
labor issues in the US, reinforced the global production of animation.

Based on the success of childrens cartoons on TV, adult cartoons, such as Fritz the Cat,
were shown to the public in the 1970s by Ralph Bakshi, who had worked at Terrytoons.
However, adult cartoons were not as successful on TV as childrens cartoons. His
cartoons, such as Fritz the Cat and Coonskins, included too much satire and many people
thought cartoons were for children and not for adults (Roman 2005).
28

3.2.3. The second heyday of the animation industry (1988- )

Since the 1950s, television networks have become significant customers of the
animation studios, but a further opportunity for the market expansion came with a new
technology: CGI. Before the 1980s, CGI was mainly developed in universities for
academic purposes, frequently collaborations between experts in art and computers. An
artistic film, Hunger, an 11-minute short animated film, became the first Academy
nominated CGI film in 1974 (Jones and Oliff 2007). Eight years later, the memorable use
of CGI in animation began in 1982 in a 15-minute film by Walt Disney Studios, Tron
(McLaughlin 2001). CGI had been used in motion pictures for special effects in the late
1970s, but use of CGI in some movies and short animations showed the possibility to
produce animated films using CGI.
During the 1980s, after a hiatus of two decades, 2D animated films were made for
theatrical exhibition again. The motion picture director, Steven Spielberg, produced a 2D
animation, An American Tale, in 1986. In addition to this animation, Who Framed Roger
Rabbit, which was not entirely for childrens audiences, was shown in theatres in 1989
and its total gross was over $300 million at the box office. In the same year, Disney made
a feature-length animated film again for theatrical purpose, The Little Mermaid. Its
success in the theatres led Disney to continue with more animated films.6 This was the
beginning of a new era of cartoons. Since 1989, Disney has presented at least one
animated film per year and has had huge success in both exhibition and selling video
tapes, DVDs and related items all over the world. That is, the development of home and
6

Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992) and The Lion King (1994).
29

personal electronic devices also enabled a post-exhibition market. The recent success of
Disney has accelerated competition with other studios in the animation industry, such as
DreamWorks. In addition to competition from US studios, animation studios outside the
US, such as the famous Japanese Studio Ghibli, have rushed into the global market and
expanded that market with diverse cartoons. In general, the depressed market of the
1970s has transformed into a boom since the late 1980s again and competition has
become fierce among the major studios in the US and other studios in foreign countries
with the development of technology.

3.3. CGI (Computer-generated Imagery) animations (1990s-2007)

The beginnings of computer animation trace back to the 1960s, but the
monochromatic computer animation of the time was very simple compared to recent CGI
animations. Early animation was usually made in laboratories in universities, such as
MITs Lincoln Lab, the University of Utah, and the New York Institute of Technology,
many funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) (Bendazzi
1994). The commercialization of CGI in the entertainment industry began in the 1970s,
when the CGI technique was mainly used for science fiction (SF) movies and visual
effects (VFX) in wide genres of live action films. Increasing use of CGI in live action
films led to change audiences aesthetic view and widen participation of CGI in the film
industry. In addition, the first major use of computer animation in an animated film
appeared in The Great Mouse Detective (1986) by Disney studio (Jones and Oliff).7

Jones and Oliff (2007) claim that an animated film, The Black Cauldron (1985) used
CGI before The Great Mouse Detective.
30

In the CGI production process, animations begin with 2D techniques in the

conceptualization stage, especially the design of the characters. If the director and
animators are satisfied with the designs in 2D, they move to the next step, modeling in
3D (Wright 2005).8 Besides the characters in the animation, other aspects, such as
backgrounds, pass through this stage. Usually, this step needs many skilled workers and
takes much longer time than cel-animated films. Consequently, production of CGI
animated films requires bigger budgets to finish a full-length film (Crawford 2003).
Because the large budgets and assembly of skilled CGI animators are high barriers to
entry, full-length CGI animations that are released in theatres are made by only a few
major companies, even though CGI techniques in special effects are much more
widespread. The CGI production process uses computer graphics, not human hands, to
draw and color each frame, but the process is still somewhat labor-intensive. CGI brought
about a change from a need for animators who paint characters on each cel to animators
who have computer skills (Economist 2005; Crawford 2003).
These changes also have emerged in markets as well. In recent data, audiences
prefer CGI animation in box office. Table 3.1 shows the recent full-length films that had
the greatest success in the US market from 2004 to 2008 (April). Of the total 24 animated
films, CGI was used to produce 21 of them (87.5%). Only three non-CGI animated films
have been popular during the time.
In addition, major distributors, including DreamWorks, Buena Vista (Disney), Fox,
Warner Brothers, Paramount and Sony, have made successes. Three studios, Pixar, Blue

Characters can be modeled on a computer often from basic geometric shapes and
the parts fused, or sculptures can be digitized as a wire-frame model (Wright, 2005, p. 8).
31

Sky, and an Australian animation studio, Kingdom Feature,9 mainly created those movies,
but the role of major distributors is very important in box office success. In addition to
Disney, Warner Brothers, DreamWorks, Paramount, and Sony have started to compete
with other major distributors in the animated film market since 2006. As mentioned
above, ancillary markets have increased and these are also related to the success of box
office. Thus animation production, particularly CGI, has been an important source of
profits to the major Hollywood conglomerates.
In addition to CGI animations in theatres, the penetration of CGI in TV animation has
increased. Recently, the cost of CGI TV production has come down to only 10 to 25
percent higher than traditional 2D TV animation production, because of fast rendering
time and better software packages (Raugust 2004; Strike 2006). Since the 1990s, the use
of CGI in TV animation has been popular: early shows include ReBoot (1994) and Rolie
Polie Olie (1998).
In addition to production of original CGI TV series, recreations of old animation
including Mickey Mouse and Popeye have been done. These CGI TV series are created
by various animation studios, including major studios, such as DreamWorks, Disney, and
Nelvana (Canada), and independent studios, such as Attitude Studio (France) (Strike
2006). Compared to production of blockbuster CGI animation, the shorter, less
demanding TV audiences of CGI animation shows face lower entry barriers and
animation studios in many countries not merely the US participate.

Pixar (The Incredibles, Cars and Ratatoulle), Blue Sky (Horton Hears a Who?, Ice Age:
Melt Down, and Robots), and Kingdom Feature (Happy Feet) are important full-length
CGI animation studios.
32

Title

Year

Shrek
2004
Shrek the Third
2007
The Incredibles
2004
Cars
2006
Alvin and the Chipmunks
2007
Ratatouille
2007
Happy Feet
2006
Ice Age: Melt Down
2006
Madagascar
2005
The Simpson Movie
2007
The Polar Express
2004
Over the Hedge
2006
Horton Hears a Who!
2008
Chicken Little
2005
Robots
2005
Bee Movie
2007
Beowulf
2007
Monster House
2006
Banayard: The Original
2006
Party Animals
Flushed Away
2006
Surf's Up
2007
Wallace and Gromit: The
2005
Course of the WereRabbit
Tim Burton's Corpse
2005
Bride
Hoodwinked
2005
* Dream Works
** Paramount

Distribution
DW*
Par**/DW
BV***
BV
Fox
BV
#
WB
Fox
DW
Fox
WB
DW
Fox
BV
Fox
Par/DW
Par
Sony

Total
Type
Gross/Theaters($)
441,226,547
322,719,944
261,441,092
244,082,982
217,275,958
206,445,654
198,000,317
195,330,621
193,595,521
183,135,014
162,775,358
155,019,340
150.093.773
135,386,665
128,200,012
126,631,277
82,195,215
73,661,010

CGI
CGI
CGI
CGI
CGI
CGI
CGI
CGI
CGI
2D
CGI
CGI
CGI
CGI
CGI
CGI
CGI
CGI

Par

72,637,803 CGI

Par/DW
Sony

64,665,672 CGI
58,867,694 CGI

DW

56,110,897 Clay

WB

53,359,111 Puppet

Weinstein
51,386,611 CGI
#
*** Buena Vista
Warner Brothers

Source: Box Office Mojo (2008)

Table 3.1. Top animated films by total domestic box office revenue
The animation industry has expanded its capability to other segments of the
entertainment industry and has shown that animation can be very profitable. For example,
video games have improved and become widely popular for their realistic graphics, in
large part as a result of CGI technology and roots in the cartoon and animation industry
(Johns 2006b; Aoyama and Izushi 2003). As noted above, the development of exhibition
33

technology, such as home electronic devices, had led to DVD sales becoming one of the
main growth segments of the global animation market.
In summary, the introduction of new CGI techniques has led to the success of a few
major studios in the global film market (e.g., Pixar (originally independent but acquired
by Disney in 2006), DreamWorks, and Disney) and has opened a wider market to the
animation studios. Furthermore, the technical demands of CGI have brought about new
partnerships and linkages that are different from traditional subcontracting in the
production system of cel-animation. Examples of cases will follow a proposed framework
for understanding the location of animation production.

3.4. Worlds of animation production

3.4.1. The diversification of animation production
To explain how production of animated films is influenced by these forces, the
analytical framework of Salais and Storpers (1992) worlds of production is borrowed.
Salais and Storper suggest that two exogenous determinants, technologies and markets,
are able to influence the real world of production. To explain this, they show four
categories standardized generic products, standardized dedicated, specialized dedicated
products and specialized generic that are defined by a combination of technology and
market characteristics of products and represent four different worlds of production
(Figure 3.2). Each world of production in the figure is based on a different combination
of determinants.

34

As shown in Figure 3.2, firms in the bottom-right quadrant (I the Industrial World)
make standardized generic products with wide markets and many clients. It is a modern
mass production world (Salais and Storper 1992). Second, the upper-right quadrant
stands for standardized dedicated products. This worlds products are specialized and
have a small number of clients, but products become standardized because their life cycle
is relatively long. Interfirm competition is determined largely by price competition with
subcontracting.
The third cell is called the Marshallian market world (III). In this world, the market
is narrow and firms may face the uncertainty of the market but, because they have
dedicated products, they have a few clients who value high quality products with a
particular use. In this world, firms have close relationships with their customers in order
to understand their tastes and needs. The last quadrant is the world of innovation (IV).
Firms in this world usually produce high-technology outputs. One of the major
characteristics of this world is large investment in research and development with new
scientific and technical know-how. This world is controlled by scientific and
professional rules (Salais and Storper 1992). As explained above, these four different
worlds of production are a consequence of complicated determinants that can however
be illustrated in the real world. In their research, Salais and Storper draw examples from
the French automobile industry. This analytical framework helps to understand
production in the animation industry.

35

Marshallian Market
World
III

Network Market World

II

Specialized
dedicated products

Standardized
dedicated products

World of Innovation
IV

Industrial World
I

Specialized
generic products

Standardized
generic products

Source: adapted from Salais and Storper (1992); Storper and Salais (1997)
Figure 3.2. Worlds of production

3.4.2. The diversification of animation production

As shown previously in the technology development of the film industry (Figure 3.1),
theatre exhibition has been the center of film consumption for decades. From the late
1960s, the major studios in Hollywood did not produce animated films for theaters
directly, but they produced and provided nationwide distribution for animated films for
TV. Also, some major studios no longer contained animation divisions in their studios;
they subcontracted production of animated films to subcontractors, mainly overseas.
Because production of cel animation is labor-intensive work (repetitive drawing and
coloring), similar to sewing or cutting tasks in the garment industry, the garment industry
36

and production of cel animated-films chose a similar strategy finding cheap labor
sources globally.
Based on their production systems and competitive criteria, including quality of
production, characteristics of products/market, and technology, four different worlds of
production organization are suggested. Between the 1930s and up to the 1980s,
animation production systems can be separated into two different types (Figure 3.3). First,
the beginning of animation production can be found in the left cell. Generally, the early
generation of animation production and animated films by artisan studios in Eastern
European countries were supported by the governments. The then-Czechoslovakia was a
dominant high-quality animated-films producer.

Local Artisan Style Animation

The Globalized Hollywood System

Focus on artistic quality and local

contents

For theaters:
Focus on market appeal: a good story,
memorable characters, and good music
(Sito 2006, 296)
For TV: Focus on cost and schedule
Snow White(Disney)
The Flintstones (Warner Brothers)

Lotte Reiners Silhouette animation

Source: adapted from Salais and Storper (1992); Storper and Salais (1997)
Figure 3.3. Two worlds of production between 1930-1980

37

Second, two different distribution channels are shown in the right cell. For theaters,
the production system has different priorities compared to TV production. Sito (2006)
indicates the ingredients which create market appeal: a good story, memorable characters
and good music. Many of Disneys feature-length films for theatres from the 1920s to the
1980s include all these in films.
For TV, diffusion of TV has brought a new market to animation studios. Animation
studios produced many TV animation series for Saturday morning cartoons during this
time (Roman 2005). Thus, the main characteristics of TV animation production are low
production cost and a quick pace of work to fit the schedule for airing. Competition based
on lowering the labor cost is the most important factor that can decide production
location. It can be done by subcontracting labor-intensive tasks to studios in other
countries that have cheaper labor. Also, competition among firms in this production
system is determined first by price (low production cost) and on time delivery based upon
tight schedules. Quality of products is the second priority in this situation. In this
production system, location shifts imply that an industrial standard is required.
In this context, less creative work is shifted to subcontractors outside the US. Even
though the number of animated films that were released in theatres decreased after World
War II, growing demand from TV made the US market into a major customer of
animation studios.
These two different production worlds continued into the 1980s. However, the
animation industry has experienced many technological changes in the development of
exhibition devices as well as the development of CGI (Figure 3.4). As explained

38

Local Artisan style animation

Focus on artistic quality
Frequently Subsidized

The Globalized Hollywood System

(2D and CGI)
For theaters:
Focus on market appeal; market has
almost disappeared since CGI emerged
For TV:
Focus on cost; often limited
animation

Wallace and Gromit

Princes et Princesses

Theaters (Mainly CGI)

Focus on entertaining
Characterized by high cost and high
risk
Lower quality, (and lower budget)
products for TV
Toy Story/Finding Nemo (Pixar)
Shrek 1, 2, 3 (DreamWorks)
Happy Feet (Kingdom Feature)

The Simpsons (AKOM)/Sponge Bob

(Nickelodeon Movies)
The Lion King (Disney)

Mass production for

non-theatrical markets
Focus on large non-theatrical markets,
such as home entertainment

Barbie Fairytopia series (Mainframe)

Baby Einstein series (Disney)
Pororo (Iconix)

Source: adapted from Salais and Storper (1992); Storper and Salais (1997)
Figure 3.4. Four worlds of production since 1980s

above, the two main markets for the animation industry before the 1980s were theatres
and TV. Based on the diffusion of TV sets in nearly every home, cable TV became more
specialized and began to launch specialized animation channels. Long and short animated
films began to air 24 hours a day. Additionally, the popularization of new electronic
devices, such as VCRs and DVD players, created new markets (the lower-right quadrant
39

in Figure 3.4). Besides the growth of individual purchases, new technology, such as
Direct TV or On demand TV, permits sales of animation to people who watch at home
anytime they want. That is, the market becomes bigger and bigger and effectively
stimulates the mass production of animation products. In this sense, this new production
world is now added to the previous two old worlds of animation production.
Figure 3.5 shows the effects of changes of delivery formats. Theaters were the biggest
revenue source (58%) of the movie industry and TV was the second biggest source in
1981. Video rental and video sell-through shared only small portions of the market.
These four revenue sources of the movie industry still exist in the market 15 years later.
By 2006, however, the portion of revenue from theaters has decreased and TV has
become the biggest revenue source for the industry. This illustrates that diverse delivery
channels are used commonly in the current market. Most importantly, video sell-through
has become the major delivery form in 2006 compared to that of 1981. Also, a new
revenue source, a la carte, that did not exist in 1981, has appeared in 2006. The portion
of TV in studio revenue source also is bigger in 2006 (Adams 2006).10 The largest source
of revenue today is video sales, or sell-through, which now account for 42% and,
together with video rentals, 50% of studio revenues. Television, including broadcast
channels, cable and satellite, has grown as a source of revenue from 24% in 1981 to 34%
in 2006. A currently small (less than 2%) but potentially huge source of revenue is video
on demand (VOD). Thus those various delivery formats accelerate growth of new non-

10

Adams (2006) provides examples of new revenue sources in 2006: syndication,

premium TV and broadcast networks etc.
40

theatrical markets. Some animations, such as the Barbie series, focus only on DVDs for
home entertainment.
The fourth world of animation production is CGI animation for theatre (the lower left
quadrant in Figure 3.4). The use of 3D technology in production of animation may be
considered the innovation world in the animation industry. Recently, 3D animated films
have become a major part of the industry and make enormous profits from theatres as
well as from home-exhibition devices. Among the top 30 movies in US box office
revenues in 2007 are five animated films, four of which are produced by CGI.11 In this
world of production, the production work is done by people whose training in computer
software is very different from that of traditional cel animators. Jones and Oliff (2007)
point out that 3D animators show loss of technique, a lower level of artistic knowledge
of performance and cinematic storytelling, a result of the different training of traditional
and 3D animators.
In summary, the development and use of new technologies in production of the
animations has enabled production to diversify. This diversification is drawn from not
only saving labor cost but also other determinants, such as the different types of market
or products. Additionally, all four different world of animation production permit
lucrative licensing of non-film products, including book publication, toys, video games,

11

The five animated films are Shrek the Third (Paramount/ Dreamworks), Alvin and the
Chipmunks (20th Century Fox), Ratatouille (Walt Disney Pictures/ Pixar), The Simpsons
Movie (20th Century Fox), and Bee Movie (Paramount/ Dreamworks) (BoxOfficeReport
2008). Among them, only The Simpsons Movie is considered as a traditional cel animated
film.
41

apparel, comics and other related products (Raugust 2004; Mortimer 2004).12 For
instance, the characters in Barbie and Thomas the Train are well-known in the licensing
industry with various products that their fans are eager to buy.

100%
90%
80%
70%

A La Carte
Video Sell- Thro ugh
Video Rental
TV
Theaters

60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%

1981

2006

Source: Adapted from Adams (2006)

Figure 3.5. Studio revenue by source, 1981 and 2006

3.4.3. The characteristics of animation production

As explained earlier, production in the animation industry generally is divided into
the traditional cel-animated production and new CGI. As the animation market has grown,
major studios have found subcontractors who have many diligent, cheap workers for
12

Overall, the licensing business of the animation industry includes three different
categories: preschool childrens TV shows, family/childrens films, and action-themed
video games (Raugust 2004).
42

more routine work, such as painting cels. The production process of animation allows us
to better understand global production of the animation industry. The production process
of animated films can be classified into four stages: development (conceptualization),
pre-production, production, and post-production (See Appendix A).
Based on differences of their production processes and labor forces, contrasts emerge
between the traditional cel-animated film industry and the CGI animation industry (Table
3.2). The main differences between the two different types of animation production are
labor creativity. As mentioned above, low-wage and low-skilled labor is the most
significant location factor in both the garment and cel animation industries, but CGI
animation is likely to be located in regions where high-skilled workers are abundant.
Also, part of the distinctive production process of CGI animation is computer
modeling and rendering work. This early production stage in CGI can take up to two
years of round-the-clock computer calculation for a feature-length film (Economist 2005).
Using these computer models, the major studios produce animated films primarily in
their studios in California or Tokyo. In addition to these places, other places have begun
to be involved in production of CGI animation (See Section 3.4.4 on China and India).
Based on differences of technology and labor, other comparisons are evident. The
need for powerful computers and specialized software limits CGI production to a few
countries, such as the US, Japan and a few newcomer countries, including Australia,
South Korea and India. However, only firms in the US and Japan are able to distribute
CGI animation to the global market because the required pre-production, post-production
and distribution of CGI production are very costly. The high total cost of animated CGI

43

films has not been affordable to animation studios in other countries yet, compounded by
a shortage of creative and skilled workers.
Thus far, any feature-length CGI animation that has made a profit at the box office
has been made in wealthy countries, such as the US or Australia or Japan, often assisted
by subcontracted low-cost labor elsewhere. CGI animation from other countries or from
independent, young animators is not yet competitive in the full-length film market, but
they have begun to penetrate to young people through web-based distribution (Crawford
2003). In short, even though both use a project based production system, cel animation
production and CGI animation production are very different from each other,
emphasizing different technological skills and labor characteristics.

Labor
Skill
Creativity
and Content
Typical
Countries

Cel Animation
Low-waged labor
Low
Working with others
creativity
South Korea,
Philippines
Newcomers: China,
India

CGI Animation
High-waged labor
Skills vary by different tasks
High level of technical
capability;
US, Japan
Newcomers: Australia, South
Korea, India

Table 3.2. Characteristics of the animation industry

44

3.4.4. Other production places: China and India

Blockbuster full-length CGI animations are produced in a few countries, including the
US and Australia, and more countries are involved in CGI animations for TV. In recent
years, however, other countries, notably China and India, have begun to be involved in
CGI production.
3.4.4.1. China
Along with its recent rapid economic development, the animation industry in China
has grown and is often considered the replacement for other subcontractor countries, such
as South Korea. Animation production in China has a long history dating back to the
1920s, the time of the four Wan brothers, who had an important role in animation
production during the 1920s and the 1930s (Bendazzi 1994). In addition to the domestic
market, the patriotic content gave the brothers an advantage to export to countries near
China, such as Indonesia, which also had a threat from Japan. According to Bendazzi
(1994), before World War II, the four Wan brothers sought to educate young animators as
well as to make new cartoons, and this tradition has recently reemerged in an education
institute for animators in Beijing. This long-standing tradition makes Chinese animation
production very competitive with other countries (Fu 2003).13
Chinese animations traditionally used the mythological novel and adapted typical
Chinese calligraphy methods for cartoons. Therefore, these animated films have a
Chinese style a style clearly distinct from cartoons of other countries. These Chinese
cartoons are shown mainly in China and not in foreign markets. The Shanghai animation
studio became the center of Chinese animation production once again by 1965, before the
13

Shanghai was the Hollywood of the East (Fu 2003).

45

Cultural Revolution in China. During this period, many young animators worked in the
Shanghai animation studio and developed and elaborated its distinctive style. Animation
production in China seemed to flourish in terms of both technology and industry, but the
artistic expression of Chinese animators faced strict censorship. Cartoon content included
more ideological context compared to the early Chinese cartoons.
Under this political situation, for decades Chinese cartoons have mainly targeted the
domestic market. The Shanghai animation studio was closed from 1965 to 1972 and, after
re-opening, made fewer animations than before 1965 (Bendazzi 1994). Even though
fewer works were made after 1972, Chinese animators continued to build experience and
expertise in several genres, such as cel animated films and puppets. Furthermore,
production in the Shanghai studio continues, using Chinese tales together with traditional
artistic techniques, such as Chinese calligraphy. Under their political situation, however,
Chinese animated films lost competitiveness in the world market and could not catch up
to the market trends. Therefore, the portion of Chinese animated films in the domestic
market, especially in Chinese television, became smaller than before. As in Koreas case,
cheaper imported animated films were shown increasingly on TV (Ehrlich and Jin 2001).
After the 1980s, the planned economy system in China has changed and the Chinese
government partially opened the market to foreign investors. With the open market policy
of the Chinese government, the animation industry also has experienced changes. Before
the market opening, the price of an animated film, the production cost, and the salaries of
animators were managed and controlled by the Chinese government. In 1999 the Chinese
government began to cut its support to Shanghai animation studio. This change brought
about the commercialization of the Chinese animated-film industry, which began to enter
46

into subcontracting and co-production with foreign studios. As the cheap labor in China
became attractive to foreign companies in the animation industry, many young animators
have been trained in the Shanghai animation studio and the Chinese government also now
is eager to boost the animation industry. The Chinese government has announced
incentives and protection of intellectual property (Wong 2006; Lent 2008). Currently,
Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong are emerging centers of the Chinese
animation industry (Wong 2006).
China is the one of the biggest markets for animation in the world with nearly 400
million TV sets. However, most animations shown on Chinese TV, approximately 90
percent, originate in foreign countries, such as the US or Japan. Thus the Chinese
government recently announced a plan to support local production by creating 13
animation centers (Schwankert 2004). Besides the government support, the development
of technology, especially CGI, which is also related to computer games, promotes the fast
growth of Chinese animation production (Bynum 2005).
In general, production of Chinese animated films has occurred since the 1920s and
the industry has developed unique techniques from those of other countries. However, its
position in the world market is placed in the less creative jobs, such as painting and
inking in the making of 2D animated films, because of the impact of the Cultural
Revolution. The recent fast growth of the animation industry combines cheap labor with
new CGI technology, in which many new animators are being trained in many colleges
(Ortolani 2005).

47

3.4.4.2. India
In production of live action films, India is a major place, making over 800 films per
year (Scott 2005). Most live action films in India are produced in Mumbai, known as
Bollywood.14 India is the one of the largest live action film production clusters and has a
large market both nationally and globally, because these films are imported by other
countries in the Middle East, South-East Asia, Australia and even Europe and North
America (Srinivas 2002). Beyond the cultural similarity in countries that are near India,
the market expansion of Bollywood is a response to the diaspora of the Indian population.
However, animation production in India has been less energetic than live action film
production.
Like animated film production in other countries, making television series,
educational films, commercial/advertisement animation and outsourcing have been the
main demand factors for the animation market in India (Nasscom 2005; Goldman 2007).
Thus, the animation studios in India have been able to accumulate skills and know-how
from this experience. Furthermore, the special effects in live action films from
Hollywood have led to imitation in India to make their films more real (or more
Hollywood-like), which supports the growth of the animation industry in India as well.
According to Nasscom (2005), outsourcing from foreign companies, for example the
US, French and British studios, to the animation studios in India grew during the 1990s.
In addition, some animation studios and art institutions trained young and talented

14

Although Mumbai/Bollywoood is the center of live action Hindi-language film

production, other states produce in regional languages (Srinivas, 2002).
48

animators and well-equipped studios supported this.15 In this fertile context for the
animation industry in India, India has become an important animation offshore factory
for global production. To train young animators, in addition to Indian instructors, skilled
animators from the Philippines went to India to train Indian animators (Tschang and
Goldstein 2004). Furthermore, the development of IT technology brought about the
agglomeration of animation studios in several cities, including Mumbai, Hyderabad,
Chennai, New Delhi, and Bangalore (Iype 2005; Bound 2007).
As mentioned above, subcontracted work in India by the animation studios in other
countries has increased from the 1990s. What has drawn attention to India as a new
production center? First, the presence of many animators who can speak English is
considered as the main reason. As explained earlier, production in cultural industries is
mainly customer-driven and thus it needs good communication with clients, foreign
animation studios and subcontractors. Second, the competitiveness of the animation
industry in India is mainly drawn from low-cost production. For instance, producers in
the animation industry spend US$250,000-400,000 to make a half-hour animation
program in the US and Canada, but only around US$ 60,000 makes the same program in
India. The reduction of the cost of production is primarily due to labor cost differentials.
As in the global production of the garment industry, the growth of the animation industry
in India is led by cheap labor. Indian animators can earn $25 per an hour one-fifth of

15

The major animation studios are in India include: Crest Communications, Films
Division Maya Entertainment, Silverstoon Studios, 2NZ studio, Cine Magin, Climb Films,
UTV Toons, Zee Institute of Creative Arts (ZICA), Digital Studio, Pentamedia Graphics,
Prased Studios, Acropetal, JadooWorks, Color Chips, Heart Animation Ocean Park,
Padmalaya Telefilms, Toonz Animation, Magic Shop and Moving Pictures (Nasscom,
2005).
49

salary earned by animators in US studios (Iype 2005). This is much lower than the labor
cost even in many other Asian countries.
Third, IT strength also helps the boost the animation industry in India. This has led to
progress in 3D animation skill with the development of software. As with the software
industry in Bangalore, India, this development can be expected to bring about change
from an emphasis on low-cost, low-skilled labor to value-added production by skilled
CGI engineers in India (Parthasarathy 2004).
In addition, the recent success of a 2D animated film, Jai Hanuman in domestic
market has brought a new opportunity to Indian animation production (Goldman 2007).
Even though this animation film cannot guarantee the best quality, a story of familiar
methodology and a young god appeals to Indian audiences.
Despite the developments in animation production in India, the Indian animation
studios face some difficulties to become a hub of the global animation industry. Goldman
(2007) points out difficulties of Indian animation production. First, animation production
is less favorable than live-action Bollywood films. In general, animation production
requires higher production cost than live-action films in India. Second, despite a huge
animation market in India, a business hurdle that is difficult to overcome remains: the
multiple Indian audiences with different languages, dialects and cultures. Third, the lack
of understanding of licensing and merchandising is an obstacle to animation production.
Finally, the Indian animation industry has struggled with a lack of financing by both the
private sector and the government.
In summary, the development of the software industry in India has built the
foundation for the growth of 3D animation production but, overall, the animation industry
50

in India is still an offshore factory to other major animation studios outside India
(Nasscom 2005). The animation industry in India has focused on production of 2D
animation, with low-cost production and a language advantage compared to that of other
countries that do not use English. On the other hand, they are still almost exclusively
involved in low-skilled work and low-waged labor. To change this to value-added
production, they need local demand for increasing original programs.

3.5. Conclusions
This chapter has discussed the evolution and the current situation of the animation
industry. The animation industry has experienced the globalization of production and
distribution. Until the1980s, targets of animation production had only two different
dimensions or worlds: Local artisan style and globalized Hollywood system.
Development of technology has led to the emergence of new markets in the animation
industry and currently we can observe two more worlds of production in the animation
industry: CGI blockbusters in the world market and mass production for non-theatrical
markets.
The animation industry has been influenced by two main factors. First, the role of
development of technology is important in the animation industry because advanced
technology supports not only various new types of delivery formats and diversified
markets and products but also improves the capability of animators to express their ideas
and creativity. Also, this contributes to the expansion of the global market and multiple
regional niche markets for the animation industry. Second, efforts to reduce production
cost are the main factors for globalization of the animation industry. At the same account,
51

this provides basic conditions for animation production to other subcontracting countries.
There are many animation studios in the world that want to be the second Pixar or
DreamWorks. Moreover, the use of cheap software and fast rendering of CGI animation
has brought changes in TV animation from 2D traditional to CGI. These changes also
have made a huge impact on the geography of the animation industry. Thus some
countries, such as India and China, have been spotlighted in the animation industry based
on development of CGI skills.
The following chapter describes the data collected for the study. The data are collected
from the Animation Industry Database and shows information of the database set.

52

CHAPTER 4
DATA AND METHODOLOGY

4.1. Introduction
The previous chapter has shown the historical development of the animation industry.
Its development has been highly connected to changes of technology and the diffusion of
the industry has been affected by labor supply. However, there has been little literature on
the geography of the industry so far. Among the few studies are on segmented production
in Europe (Cole 2008), outsourcing of the animation industry in the Philippines (Tschang
and Goldstein 2004), and animation studios in Asia (Lent 2001).
All these studies focus on development of the animation industry in a particular
region and influences of Hollywood animated films on the local animation industry. As
noted before, the animation industry has globalized since the 1960s with outsourcing and
coproduction to overcome different local/ regional market and budget constraints. In
addition to this, diffusion of new software has lowered the entrance barriers to the
animation industry. Studies on the animation industry at a global scale are needed to be
done to understand the current and complicated production and market of the animation
industry.

53

In this sense, a principal objective of this research is to draw the map of this industry
for the first time. To draw the map, the online Animation World Network (AWN) data
base is considered as a good source to understand the animation industry. I will use this
data set to map where the firms are located and to analyze several characteristics of the
firms in the animation industry.
This chapter begins to explain what the AWN data base looks like and what
information the data base includes. Then I will outline characteristics of the data set from
AWN and the current situation of animation studios.

4.2. The Animation World Network Data Base

The AWN is the online network of animators, computer graphic designers, producers
and others. This website provides information and forums for professionals and general
audiences who are interested in animation-related business and production.16 Many
animators, designers and producers in related fields share information on new technology,
job announcements, and services on this online network website.
This online network also includes information on animation firms and studios which
choose to submit it. Each animation firm fills out an online form and submits it through
the website. The AWN data on studios includes the following categories: company name,

16

The Animation World Network is the largest animation-related publishing group on

the Internet, providing readers from over 145 countries with a wide range of interesting,
relevant and helpful information pertaining to all aspects of animation. Covering areas as
diverse as animator profiles, independent film distribution, commercial studio activities,
licensing, CGI and other animation technologies, as well as in-depth coverage of current
events in all fields of animation, AWN gives its readers an easy to navigate, visually and
intellectually creative mechanism to electronically access a wealth of information
previously unavailable anywhere in the world (Animation World Network 2008b).
54

location, business type, animation specialties (or styles and techniques), types of
animated work (or projects and deliverables) (Table 4.1). These sub-categories are
important variables in the data set that were collected from the AWN (Animation World
Network 2008a).

Expected features
Variable

Basic
Information

Name/Country
Address/
Contact
information
Website
Year founded
# of employee

Information
Business type
from
studio sources Animation
Specialties
Projects/
Deliverables
Clients*

Location
Details of firms
Firms age and
experience
Studio size
Types of services or
products they provide
Animation styles or
techniques
Specific types of
animated work
Links between players
in the animation
industry/ ties

Number of
%
firms reporting
this item
4242
4212

100
99

3661
373

86
9

41
4058

1
96

4036

95

2867

68

1474

35

Source: compiled from data in Animation Industry Database (AIDB) (2008a)

NOTE: * 1,473 animation studios provide names of clients on AIDB (Animation Industry
Database), but only a few studios identify their clients.
Table 4.1. Contents of the Animation Industry Database

55

Data on a total of 4,242 studios from 92 countries were collected from the AWN data
base. These firms describe themselves as related to animation production in the
variable business type. The data were collected from August 2006 to July 2007.17 All
4,242 studios provide the firms name and country, but 30 studios do not provide a
detailed address; thus 4,212 studios have a precise location.18
More variables are shown in Table 4.1. The most frequently checked categories are
business type (96%) and animation specialty (95%). The third highest percentage of
categories is each firms website, but their websites vary greatly in the information
provided. The next category, types of animated work (or projects/deliverables) (68%)
includes several possibilities: short films, feature films, TV series, educational products,
animation character designs etc. A minority of firms in the database (35%) provided a list
of clients on AIDB. However, 1,468 studios do identify their clients, and this information
can help us to understand networks of production of the industry globally. The locations
of all clients were searched through each clients website.
The number of employees is the least frequently-answered variable. Only 41
studios reported the size of their studios in terms of number of employees. Year founded
is provided by 373 animation studios, or 9% of all studios.
As mentioned before, information on location is more frequently provided than other
information about these studios. Table 4.2 shows the 20 countries that contain over 30
animation studios. These 20 countries account for 85.9% of all global studios.
17

AWN provides only an individual web-based form on each firm not an aggregated
data set.
18
All 4,242 studios checked their countries, but 30 studios did not provide detailed
location information on AWN database. Also one studio is located in Ohio, but this
studio left detailed location, a city or address, information empty.
56

We can see several situations in Table 4.2. First, only 14 countries contain more than
80% of the 4,212 studios that provide their country location. Nearly one-half the world
total are in three countries: US, India, and UK. Of the 92 countries, 18 have just one
studio; the complete list of all countries is shown in Table B.1 (Appendix B).
Second, several big clusters are revealed in Table 4.2. In particular, the US has the
largest number of animation studios in the world a total of 1211 studios (28.7%) of the
world total.
The second largest is found in India which has 449 studios (10.6% of the world total).
The United Kingdom (376 studios, 8.9%) follows in third place, and Canada ranks fourth

Rank

Country

Number

1 United States
2 India
3 United Kingdom
4 Canada
5 France
6 Germany
7 Israel
8 Spain
9 Australia
10 China
11 South Korea
12 Argentina, Mexico, Netherlands
15 Belgium, Philippines
17 Brazil
18 Ireland
19 South Africa
20 Sweden
Source: compiled from data in AIDB (2008a)

1211
449
376
354
314
127
119
108
99
60
54
46
41
38
34
32
30

Table 4.2. Number of animation studios by country

57

%
28.7
10.6
8.9
8.4
7.4
3.0
2.8
2.6
2.3
1.4
1.3
3.3
2.0
0.9
0.8
0.8
0.7

Cumulative
%
28.7
39.3
48.2
56.6
64.1
67.1
69.9
72.5
74.8
76.2
77.5
80.8
82.7
83.6
84.4
85.2
85.9

(354 studios, 8.4%). Four other countries, France, Germany, Israel and Spain have more
than 100 animation studios each.19
Third, the number of animation studios also refers to tradition of the animation
industry in a country. For example, long-time animation pioneers, such as the US and
France, hold high ranks in the current animation industry. Popular outsourcing countries,
such as South Korea and the Philippines, rank 11 and 15, respectively.
Fourth, even though animation studios are agglomerated in a few countries, 92
countries still have at least one animation studio. Thus, animation production has
dispersed and becomes more and more globalized. A total of 45 countries have ten or
more animation studios.
Total numbers of the animation studios in the world provide a large-scale picture of
the global animation industry. However, these numbers do not give us details of the
structure of the industry. Variables to analyze industry structure will be introduced next.

4.3. Methodology
Collecting the data and finding the location of animation studios at a national scale
shows the spatial distribution of the animation studios in 92 countries. Moving beyond
the basic map of the animation industry, other variables which are frequently reported
will be analyzed.

19

A very small number of animation studios in Japan (29) reported their information in
the AWN data set. That is because the Animation World Network might not be as
important for studios in countries whose first language is not English. Also, animators in
Japan may have Japanese-language websites for sharing information with each other.
58

4.3.1. Business type

The first variable is business type that is, the types of services or products they
provide to clients. This variable is how a studio defines itself as a company.
Types of business are divided into six categories: business/professional management,
careers, community, production, commerce, and information/publishing. The animation
studios on which data were collected are involved in animation production first and then
they serve other forms of business to maintain the studio in competition with others.

Business
Business/Profession
Advertising agencies
al Management
Animation production
Graphic design
Visual effects production
Web animation production
Post-production services
Production
Multimedia/ Interactive development
Pre-production services
Web site development
Game development
Motion picture studio
Sound/Music production
Animation products/ supplies
Commerce
Educational products
Information/
New media
Publishing
Total Studios
Source: compiled from data in AIDB (2008a)

Number of
studios

% of
number of
studios

341

8.4

4242
867
843
823
786
776
558
459
384
238
196
322
190

100.0
21.4
20.8
20.3
19.4
19.1
13.8
11.3
9.5
5.9
4.8
7.9
4.7

378

9.3

4058

Table 4.3 Top 15 businesses of the animation studios

In addition to animation production and publishing, various types of business are
done by each animation studio (Table 4.3). The 4,058 studios reported 13,659 business
59

types, or approximately 3.4 per firm (See Table B.2 in Appendix). We can see all stages
that are related to animation production from the planning of animation production to
distribution. Some studios are even doing retail business, as resellers and rentals as well
as other businesses. Others are involved in designing theme park and rides. The scope of
animation studios is much wider than merely making toons (Neuwirth 2003).

4.3.2. Animation specialty, style or technique

The next variable is the studios specialties. A total of 31 types of specialties are
defined by the AWN, and a total of 9,531 specialties are reported by 4,036 studios, or 2.4
specialties per studio. Table 4.4 shows how many specialties are reported by animation
studios. Making an animation film, for example, requires various workers with different
skills in an animation studio. Having various specialties means that an animation studio
can satisfy clients needs and allow the studio to be flexible in meeting customers needs.
Surprisingly, 3D computer animation, the newest technology, as discussed in Chapter
3, is the most popular specialty or skill among the animation studios in the AWN data set,
found in 2,117, or 52.5%, of studios. However, studios that are good at 3D computer
animation also can do other specialties, such as traditional hand drawn skills (30.5%) and
2D computer animation (37.5%). Currently, these three specialties are the most widely
used skills in the animation industry. Widely-available and inexpensive computer
animation software can bring to a studio capability in both 2D and 3D computer
animation at the same time. Both 2D computer and 3D computer animation are likely to
share the same labor in a company. Based on specialties from the AWN data set, the

60

Specialty
Number
% of number of studios
% of specialties
3D computer animation
2117
52.5
22.2
2D computer animation
1515
37.5
15.9
2D/ Traditional
1229
30.5
12.9
Digital/ Visual Effects
1054
26.1
11.1
Flash/ Internet animation
1030
25.5
10.8
Animated objects
552
13.7
5.8
Live action
305
7.6
3.2
Rotoscope
236
5.8
2.5
Clay
222
5.5
2.3
Pencil on paper
203
5.0
2.1
Cut-outs
176
4.4
1.8
Photos
168
4.2
1.8
Ink on paper
167
4.1
1.8
Motion capture
159
3.9
1.7
Puppets
115
2.8
1.2
Pixilation
99
2.5
1.0
Pastel on paper
77
1.9
0.8
Paint on glass
38
0.9
0.4
Engraving on film
33
0.8
0.3
Sand
13
0.3
0.1
Others
23
0.4
0.2
Total numbers of studios
4036
100.0
Source: calculated from data in ADIB (2008a)
Table 4.4 Types of Specialties

First, many animation studios with the specialty traditional hand drawn skill
(traditional 2D) are located in animation countries that have longer histories within the
animation industry than others. These studios are mainly located in the US, especially in
cities along the East coast area and near Chicago, and in Western Europe (Figure 4.1).
Compared to its total number of animation studios, India and Australia have very small
numbers (4 studios each) with traditional hand drawn skill. Especially in this case, the
cities with traditional 2D specialty in India are not the same as the cities of high tech
industry, such as Bangalore.

61

The second specialty is 2D computer animation. A larger number of animation

studios answer that they deal with 2D computer animation (37.5%) than 2D traditional
hand drawn specialty (30.5%) (Figure 4.2). The pattern of the studios distribution is
similar to that of 2D traditional skill. India also has a few 2D studios in a couple of cities
that are not IT (Information Technology) specialized areas. However, the concentration
of a specialty in computer-enabled 2D only is more prevalent in Europe than is the case
for 2D traditional only.

Source: based on data in AIDB (2008a)

Figure 4.1 Animation Studios by Specialties (Traditional only)

62

The third specialty is only 3D computer animation (Figure 4.3). Three distinctive
agglomerated regions are found: North America, Europe and India. Many studios appear

Source: based on data in AIDB (2008a)

Figure 4.2 Animation Studios by Specialties (2D computer animation only)

in the US, especially in the New York and Los Angeles areas. The UK and France are
important within Europe. The case of India expands location of animation studios in
famous outsourcing cities, such as Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai. In addition to these
countries, animation studios with a 3D computer animation specialty are found in
63

Chinese cities, notably Shanghai and Hong Kong. Cities in Australia, however, are not
shown, unlike the case of 2D traditional and 2D computer animation.

Source: based on data in AIDB (2008a)

Figure 4.3 Animation Studios by Specialties (3D computer animation only)
Among animation studios in the AWN data set, a total of 663 animation studios are
specialized in all three: traditional, 2D and 3D computer animation (Figure 4.4). Cities in
North America, Europe, and India are still dominant places. In addition to this, more
countries are shown in Figure 4.4 for the combination of all three specialties: Argentina,
Brazil, and Uruguay in Latin America, New Zealand, countries in East Asia including
Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, Singapore in South East Asia, and Johannesburg

64

in South Africa. Thus, specializing in a single skill or technology, animation studios tend
to extend their specialty to as many as possible to fit various projects with diverse clients

Source: based on data in AIDB (2008a)

Figure 4.4. Animation Studios by Specialties (Traditional, 2D and 3D computer
animation)
Based on these specialties, animation studios that report that their specialty is only
traditional hand drawn style without 2D or 3D computer animation skills can hardly
expand their business. Only one animation studio which is specialized in only traditional
hand drawn specialty (traditional 2D only) marks the Digital/ Visual effects (or special
effects; SF) field together. There is no animation studio which is specialized in only 2D
computer animation that has SF related projects at the same time. In animation studios
65

with 3D only skill, 94 animation studios report that they are also working on SF related
projects.
This gives us explanations to understand the current animation industry market
situation. Under unstable market conditions, animation studios can manage their business
using several types of animation specialty to make profits. If in-studio animation
production decreases, they are able to use another specialty and get projects from
different types of clients to reduce the ups and downs of their business. While there is no
best or optimized way to reduce business risk, this portfolio approach has advantages.
In general, particular specialties tend to agglomerate in specific areas, such as the
US, Europe and India. Additionally, many animation studios prefer to show themselves
as capable in several different specialties (Raugust 2004).
The recent failure of traditional and 2D animation in the box office has led to the
increase of 3D computer animated film. Producing 3D animated feature films takes more
time and money than 2D animation. Also, the growth of demand in 3D animated films
forces medium-size or small studios to develop other types of markets. The next variable,
the type of animated work or the type of projects and deliverables, gives us richer
information on this situation.

66

Types of animation work

(projects/ deliverables)

Number of
studios

Animated characters
Commercials
Television Series
Short Films
Feature Films
Multimedia/ New media
Animated web graphics
Music videos
Television Specials
Title Sequences
Interstitials/ Logos/ Bumpers
Educational/ Industrial films
Games
Websites
Webisodes
Rides/ Simulators
Others
Total
Source: compiled from AIDB (2008a)

1673
1465
1266
1166
1010
879
878
819
679
663
622
583
549
493
390
158
123
13416

% of
number of
studios
58.4
51.1
44.2
40.7
35.2
30.7
30.6
28.6
23.7
23.1
21.7
20.3
19.1
17.2
13.6
5.5
4.3

% of
projects
12.5
10.9
9.4
8.7
7.5
6.6
6.5
6.1
5.1
4.9
4.6
4.3
4.1
3.7
2.9
1.2
0.9
100

Table 4.5. Types of projects/deliverable forms

4.3.3. Types of animated work

The third variable is the type of animated work or the form of the studios projects or
deliverables (Table 4.5). A total of 2,867 animation studios provided their types of
projects in the AWN data set. A total of 13,416 available projects are shown from among
16 possible types of projects. Overall, the studios tend to do various projects an average
of 4.7 per firm at the same time. As mentioned before, doing different types of projects
helps to reduce the firms risk in the market.

67

The most frequently reported type of animated work is development of animated

characters (58.4%). Many animation studios are involved in designing of animated
characters which therefore is a basic project in the industry. Designing animated
characters is one of basic studio capacity and independent of the levels of their skills or
technology that is, whether their specialties are traditional hand drawn or 3D computer
graphic. Commercials (51.1%) are the second most frequently reported type of animated
work.
Other important projects that play important roles in studios business are: TV series
(44.2%), short films (40.7%), feature films (35.2%), and music videos (28.6%). These are
types of animated films projects that are considered as typical projects of animation
studios historically. Game-related projects (19.1%) are an important revenue source for
studios. Sometimes, CGI animators switch their jobs to gaming production and vice versa
(Edwards 2002). Also, gaming and animation production have similarities in general
processes from creating scripts to post production. Therefore, many animation studios
work on game projects as well.
Some animation projects are web based projects: animated web graphics (30.6%)
website development (17.2%) and webisodes (13.6%). Responding to the growth of the
Internet as a distribution channel, web based projects are seen in the list of studios
projects or deliverables. Webisodes are short animated films that are distributed on
websites using streaming video or downloading formats. This type of delivery has
become more popular than before, because it is a good way for studios to advertise their
new series or films to the public (Raugust 2004).

68

To survive in the market, animation studios take advantage of presenting themselves

as all-round players who can do everything as professionally as possible. In this sense,
developing websites for other companies, commercials (advertising), animated web
graphic, and title sequences are effective capabilities for an animation business.
Therefore, a hierarchy of types of work in the animation industry is observed: from basic
and simple projects to longer and more complicated projects, such as TV series/ specials
and feature films that need greater experience as well as more labor and solid financial
resources.

4.4. Conclusions
In this chapter, characteristics of the data from the AWN were described. A total of
4,242 animation studios reported, with varying numbers of studios providing their
locations, types of business, specialties, and types of animated work or forms of projects/
deliverables.
Most animation studios prefer to use many specialties and are involved in diverse
types of business rather than use one or two specialties. In general, animation studios in
the AWN data set are engaging in diversification and exploring wider markets by newly
developed distribution windows. More details of the industry will be explained in the
following chapters.
A prominent characteristic of the animation industry, along with other cultural
industries, is its agglomeration in metropolitan areas. Chapter 5 will focus on showing
this characteristic of the animation industry and then draw the global geography of the
animation industry at the scale of the urban area. Also, this study will adopt global
69

production network (GPN) analysis to understand details of the globalized animation

industry in Chapter 6. The clients of the 1,468 studios reporting allow us to analyze each
studios roles and connections in various global production networks (GPNs) that rely on
animation. These data enable us to report the links on the global map of animation
production between the suppliers (the studios) and their customers or buyers (the clients)
of animation projects. These lists of clients will be the bases of the analysis reported in
chapter 6 at the scale of cities. GPNs also help us to understand centrifugal and
centripetal forces of the animation industry at a global scale.

70

CHAPTER 5
WORLD CITIES OF THE ANIMATION INDUSTRY

5.1. Introduction
The previous chapter has described several characteristics of the data set collected
from the Animation Industry Data Base (AIDB) of the Animation World Network
(AWN) The chapter also presented general information of the animation studios from
data set, including the location of animation studios among 92 countries.
In this chapter, the focus shifts to the scale of urban or metropolitan areas. The
distribution of the world cities of the animation industry will be compared with the
spatial patterns of world cities from other studies. Firstly, world cities identified by the
research group on Globalization and World Cities (GaWC), and other but more
specialized global media cities that are elaborated by Krtke (2003), will be presented.
Secondly, world animation cities by absolute numbers will be provided and be compared
with these two previous lists of world cities. The scale of this research is global, so the
similar scale from other studies can give us easy but useful understanding of the big
picture of the animation industry. Finally, findings from the location patterns of the
animation industry will be drawn at the end of this chapter.

71

5.2. World (global) cities

Many people, firms and services have concentrated in cities. As mentioned in Chapter
2, agglomeration is the one of the characteristics of the cultural industries, at times with
different names, such as clustering (Porter 1988) and nodes (Amin and Thrift 1992).
Recently, a new term and related concepts, creative class and creativity, have been added
to studies of agglomeration. These have been initiated by Florida (2002) and applied to
many places in many countries so far. Creative people bring creative thoughts and values
and they become an important generator of regional economies (Currid 2006; Gabe 2007).
Also, cities are always attractive to those people who are creative. In addition to jobs for
creative people, different levels of jobs need various different skills and creativity and
this variety exists in cities. Thus, cities always have an abundance of people who want to
make their living. Furthermore, various services for firms and business are concentrated
in cities as well. Especially producer or professional services sectors, such as finance, law,
public relations and advertising, are clustered in urban areas (Sassen 1991). In addition to
basic functions and the concentration of related services in cities, more choices, including
leisure and other cultural activities, are very important attractions to people.
In this circumstance, we can expect agglomeration of animation studios in some large
cities and their metropolitan areas as an outcome of the attraction of urban environments.
An example of the benefits of living and working in a node of the animation industry is
seen in the advice of Simon (2008) to young animators: Most animation studios are in
Los Angeles, especially around Burbank. For the best possibility of landing a job at a
studio, you should live near the studios.

72

Source: Beaverstock et al. (1999)

Figure 5.1. The World Cities by GaWC

In the research on the world city network by GaWC researchers, three types of world
cities are categorized by their capacity to provide advanced producer services for
companies, especially transnational companies. In other words, locations of companies in
specific industries are gathered and selected for showing networks of global cities. Based
on these networks among cities, they identify three different groups: alpha, beta, and
gamma world cities. These three levels of cities serve different levels of the world city
network. The world cities identified by GaWC (Figure 5.1) include 10 cities as alpha
73

world cities. As in other studies on world cities, top cities, such as New York, London,
Paris, Milan, and Tokyo, are foremost. Following those alpha cities, 10 cities, for
example, Toronto, San Francisco, Moscow, and Zurich, are regarded as beta world cities.
Lastly, many gamma cities are shown in Figure 5.1. Even though gamma cities are spread
out geographically, they are mostly located in North America, Europe and Asia. Some
parts of the world, such as Africa, South America and Oceania, have fewer world cities.
Especially, we find no alpha city in those areas (Robinson 2002).
Research also has been done on specific types of world cities. Krtke (2003) and
Krtke and Taylor (2004) provide empirical studies on global media cities that use
locations of 33 global media firms and their branch offices and networks. They use the
same categories alpha, beta and gamma world cities to analyze the world media
industry and add one more category: regional media centers (Figure 5.2).
The alpha world media cities are similar to the GaWC alpha cities, such as New York,
Paris, and London. Differently from other studies on world cities, cities in Europe seem
to be more prominent. Even though many multinational media conglomerates fix their
headquarters in the US, many other media conglomerates have their regional offices in
major cities in Europe to control local markets there. Thus, not only London and Paris,
but also Frankfurt and Munich, are shown in the list of world media cities. Also, fifteen
beta media cities are identified and the majority of them are in Europe. Only two beta
media cities, Toronto and Sydney, are outside Europe.
In the case of gamma global cities, seven cities, Helsinki, Prague, Vienna, Lisbon,
Dsseldorf, Cologne, and Rome are spread throughout Europe. However, no Asian cities
are identified as either alpha or beta cities. Only three cities in Asia, Tokyo, Hong Kong
74

and Singapore, are gamma world media cities. These three cities are usually considered
as alpha cities in most research, especially Tokyo, and Hong Kong and Singapore are also
regarded as hubs of transportation and financial centers in Asia (Alderson and Beckfield
2004). However, because these world Asian cities are less directly connected to the
networks of multinational media conglomerates they emerge as gamma world cities. It
seems that Asian media markets are, thus far, more independent of the giant media firms
compared to those in Europe.

Source: Krtke (2003)

Figure 5.2. World media cities

75

5.3. World Animation Cities

Studies on world cities emphasize the network and its nodes and highlight flows of
people, technology, knowledge and information rather than fixed places. In this context,
world cities are attractive to large multinational corporations because these cities support
the economic activities of multinational firms with various producer services and
amenities. In research on three different types of world cities, Beaverstock et al. (1999)
analyze locations of advanced producer services, especially four sectors of corporate
services: accountancy, advertising, banking and law (or legal services). Based upon this
framework to study world cities, research has also analyzed other aspects, such as
economic, cultural and political indicators (Alderson and Beckfield 2004). As Krtke
(2003) points out, however, these studies pay little attention to production activities and
focus on service related activities. Furthermore, based upon the unique characteristics of
cultural industries, production facilities of cultural industries tend to be agglomerated in
large metropolitan areas perhaps even more than producer services because those
large cities make it possible for firms of the cultural industries to work with various the
production-related services. Additionally, both production and consumption of the
cultural industries occur in metropolitan areas. In other words, value chains of the
cultural industries cannot be separated from large city areas and this is also the case in the
animation industry. Even though every country has variant institutions, policies and
characteristics, the functions and services of cities become are similar: they provide
critical conditions for economic activity.

76

# of
Name of City*
studios
309
220
195
177
121
92
70
69
65
64
57
51
47
40
38
37
35
28

# of
cities

Los Angeles
New York
Paris
London
Toronto
San Francisco
Chennai
Mumbai
Montreal
Vancouver
Bangalore
Hyderabad, Seoul
Delhi
Boston
Buenos Aires, Chicago, Manila
Annecy, Barcelona
Milan, Sydney
Kolkata, Pune

1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
3
2
2
2

Total #
Cumu
%
of
lative
studios
%
309
7.3
7.3
220
5.2
12.6
195
4.6
17.2
177
4.2
21.4
121
2.9
24.3
92
2.2
26.4
70
1.7
28.1
69
1.6
29.8
65
1.5
31.3
64
1.5
32.8
57
1.4
34.2
102
2.4
36.6
47
1.1
37.7
40
0.9
38.7
114
2.7
41.4
74
0.9
43.1
70
1.6
44.8
56
1.4
46.1

27 Berlin, Washington

54

1.2

47.4

26 Melbourne, Mexico City, Rome

78

1.8

49.2

25
24
22
21

1
1
3
6

25
24
66
126

0.6
0.6
1.5
0.5

49.8
50.4
51.9
54.9

2
2

38
36

0.5
0.4

55.8
56.7

119

0.4

59.5

16 Dallas , Helsinki, Hong Kong, Sofia, Stockholm

80

0.4

61.4

15 Brisbane, Hamburg, Houston, Ottawa

60

0.4

62.9

84

0.3

64.5

52

0.3

65.8

84

0.3

67.8

Philadelphia
Portland
Dublin, Miami, Singapore
Bristol, Cologne, Copenhagen, Madrid, Munich, Tokyo

19 Atlanta, Phoenix
18 Minneapolis, Kuala Lumpur
Ahmadabad, Austin, Brussels, Istanbul, Johannesburg,
17
Orlando, Seattle

14

Auckland, Budapest, Halifax, Karachi, Manchester,

Tehran

13 Beijing, Detroit, Rio de Janeiro, Shanghai

12

Amsterdam, Bogota, Bucharest, Cairo, Guadalajara,

Kochi, San Diego

NOTE: * city is shorthand for urban or metropolitan area

Source: calculated from data in AIDB (2008a)
Table 5.1. Cities of animation studios
77

Continued

Table 5.1 continued

11

Calgary, Denver, Dhaka, Lyon, Prague, So Paulo,

Taipei, Tampa, Vienna

10 Bangkok, Cardiff, Stuttgart

Belfast, Brighton, Cape Town, Dubai, Montevideo,
Oslo, Valencia, Warsaw, Zagreb
Angouleme, Bilbao, Coimbatore, Jakarta, Lisbon,
8 Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Salt Lake City, Santiago,
Torino
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
9

99

0.3

70.1

30

0.2

70.8

10

90

0.2

72.7

10

80

0.2

74.6

7
8
18
27
47
105
408

49
48
90
108
141
210
408
4212

1.2
1.1
2.1
2.6
3.3
5.0
9.7
100.0

75.8
76.9
79.1
81.6
85.0
89.9
99.7

Total

NOTE: * city is shorthand for urban or metropolitan area

Source: calculated from data in AIDB (2008a)
As discussed in Chapter 4, the collected data on 4,212 studios include city locations
in their addresses from the Animation Industry Database. These locations of studios make
it possible to identify location patterns of the animation industry.20 In the Animation
Industry Database, all 4,242 animation studios provide their nationality, but 30 animation
studios did not report details of their names of cities. Thus 4,212 animation studios are
used in Table 5.1.
As mentioned in Chapter 4, high portion of animation studios are concentrated in
some countries, including the US, India, the UK and Canada. More than half of the
animation studios (56.6%) are located in these four countries. As pointed out in Chapter 4,

20

A whole list of cities for animation studios is provided in Table C.1.

78

animation studios are operating in 92 countries. Of the total, 90.7% are concentrated in
only 30 countries.
At a city level, the 4,212 animation studios are located in 729 cities. Of the 4,212
studios, 3,132 firms (74.4%) are found in 108 cities that have at least eight studios (Table
5.1).
Differently from studies on global cities which focus on producer services, this study
concerns the production side of the animation industry at a global scale. However, the
groups of cities below do not deal with networks of global animation cities, but just focus
on their location and concentrations of the animation studios. From the collected data of
the locations of the animation studios, four different types of animation cities are
characterized by numbers of the animation studios. Five alpha world animation
production cities each have more than 100 animation studios and 24.3% of global
animation studios are concentrated in these cities. Eight beta world animation production
cities serve more than 50 and less than 100 animation studios. The next group, gamma
world animation cities, contains smaller numbers of animation studios than those of the
first and second groups. This group of 29 cities has more than 20 and less than 50
animation studios in its area.
Roughly, two main patterns are observed from three different world animation city
groups.
First, a large number of cities serve as a base of the animation industry. Not only
super mega cities, such as New York, but also small rural towns are locations of
animation studios. A total of 736 cities in the world have at least one studio that is related
to animation production. Regarding numbers of studios in each city, the variation of
79

numbers of studios in each city is very big. While 309 are located in one single area, Los
Angeles, many cities have small numbers of animation studios. Of the 732 cities with at
least one studio, 408 cities have only one animation studio. It seems that these cities with
only one studio are not big major metropolitan cities in their country (See Table C.1)
Cities which have small populations also exist on the list of the animation cities.
Second, a few cities have far more studios than other cities. Five world cities Los
Angeles, New York, Paris, London, and Toronto contain 901 animation studios (24.3%
of the world total). In addition, approximately three-fourths of all animation studios are
located in only 108 cities, which indicates the concentration of the animation studios in a
relatively small number of cities in the world. Even though, overall, animation studios are
spread out at a global scale, a few cities gain higher status than others. To put it another
way, the concentration of the animation studios identifies the major clusters of the
animation business.
Defining the alpha world animation cities, the upper five cities are: Los Angeles, New
York, Paris, London and Toronto. Usually, many studies show that New York, London,
Paris and Tokyo are the top four world cities (Beaverstock et al. 1999). Additionally,
other cities, such as Los Angeles, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam are also classified as alpha
cities in GaWC studies. Except for Tokyo, these cities are in North America and Europe.
Tokyo is the only one mega city that is located in Asia. However, after the depression of
the bubble economy, some scholars give strength to other Asian cities, such as Singapore,
Hong Kong, Shanghai and others (Taylor 2005). Krtke (2003) has a similar but longer
list of alpha world media cities in his research. Seven global cities New York, Los
Angeles, Berlin, Amsterdam, London, Paris, and Munich comprise his top media city
80

group. In both lists of alpha cities, European and North American cities dominate. The
influences of large multinational corporations are huge in location choice of the cultural
industries (Krtke and Taylor 2004; Krtke 2003).

Source: based on data in AIDB (2008a)

Figure 5.3. World animation cities: absolute number of studios
Compared to other top world cities, one of the most distinctive alpha animation cities
is Toronto. Usually, Toronto has been regarded as a beta world city or as a regional
center (Beaverstock et al. 1999), However, Toronto is a very important city in the
animation industry. Proximity to major US media conglomerates and a similar business
culture encouraged Marvel Entertainment to set Toronto as an international office that
81

manages the world market (except for the US market) (Animation World Network 2007).
Also, Toronto has served as a frequent shooting location of low and medium budget
Hollywood movies. Film studios take advantage of Torontos similar landscapes to US
cities and English-speaking labor. More importantly, state-of-the-art post-production
services are another huge attraction of Toronto in film production (Goldsmith and
O'Regan 2005). Based on the experience of Toronto firms in post production services,
many computer graphic imagery studios are concentrated in Greater Toronto area (Bielik
2004; Tetiker 2004).
A total of eight cities exist in the group of beta world animation cities: San Francisco,
Chennai, Mumbai, Montreal, Vancouver, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Seoul. These cities
are concentrated in North America and Asia. Europe has no cities in this group. This
uneven distribution is considered as the clear contrast to other world cities in the beta
group. Among Krtkes beta world media cities, cities in Europe dominate this category;
however, no city in Europe is in the beta group of the world animation cities. This is
because the animation industry in Europe, rather than having one agglomeration form,
shows many small groups of animation studios through the whole continent (Cole 2008).
Cole argues that one huge agglomeration is not a necessary condition of the European
animation industry and the industry is appropriate for specific niche markets rather than
one globalized market, the target of the US animation industry. Even though Paris is one
of the leading alpha animation cities, many small towns in Europe, such as Annecy and
Angoulme, are identified as locations for the animation business in Table 5.1.
In North America, two cities are famous as film industry satellite hubs: Vancouver
(Hollywood North) and San Francisco (Silicon Valley). The former is a well-known
82

shooting location of many Hollywood movies and also has related services (Scott and
Pope 2007; Tinic 2005). Thus, as in the case of Toronto, we can expect that there are a lot
of animation studios in Vancouver. The latter is the home of world high-tech industry,
especially computer and software related industry utilized in CGI animation, so a large
group of animation businesses in the San Francisco area is not a surprising result.
The next group is four beta cities in India among beta world animation cities. The
center of the Indian film industry, known as Bollywood, is in Mumbai (formerly
Bombay) (Lorenzen and Taeube 2007), Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad are wellknown as the industrial and educational hubs of India (Basant and Chandra 2006). Lastly,
Seoul is the only city that joins the group from East Asia. Studios in Seoul have been
involved in global animation production for several decades.
The gamma world animation cities consist of 27 cities in North and South America,
Europe and Asia. Compared to the beta world animation cities, we see a more even
distribution of cities geographically. Most of these cities are each countrys industrial,
economic and cultural center or capital city: Buenos Aires (Argentina), Manila (The
Philippines), Barcelona (Spain), Dublin (Ireland), Copenhagen (Denmark), Tokyo
(Japan), and Singapore. Most American cities in the group (Boston, Chicago,
Washington) are considered as centers of the creative class (Florida 2002).
Compared to these large cities, one very unique city is observed in the gamma world
animation group: Annecy. This city lies in the Rhne-Alpes region of France has more
animation studios per 1 million people in the city than Los Angeles. Annecy has hosted
the Annecy International Film Festival (Festival du Film d'Animation du Annecy) since
1960. This festival is very famous both commercially and artistically. Its International
83

Animated Film Market (MIFA) is the biggest event for both producers and clients; it
covers various windows including television, cinema, video, cable and satellite
industries. Thus, a wide variety of animation related agents, not only on the creation side
such as individual artists and producers but also distributors, manufacturers and other
educational institutions, get together in the festival, share information on markets, new
technologies and other topics through various kinds of meetings. Individual artists and
major studios open booths for exhibition and sell their animation products including films,
character licensing and so on. Thus an animation festival like the Annecy International
Film Festival is considered as a good opportunity to show individual animation artists
potential to future clients and for film samples to find distribution channels. These
vigorous businesses in the market make the animation festival prominent. This animation
festival leads Annecy to the stature of a distinctive animation city among other cities. The
reputation of the animation festival contributes to the agglomeration of firms and related
services in the city much as similar agglomeration in London takes place in financial
services (Cook et al. 2007). Thus not only regional or national major cities but also places
for specialized clusters appear among the gamma world animation cities.
The many gamma world animation cities located in Europe, North America and Asia
contrast with the small numbers of gamma cities in Eastern Europe, the Russian
federation, Africa, and the Middle East. The only city in Africa is Johannesburg. Even
though large cities in India and small cities in Europe have played a role in the industry,
the places of the animation industry still have concentrated in limited cities, places, and
countries in the world.

84

The last group of world animation cities is regional animation centers of the
animation industry. Cities in this group include from eight to nineteen animation studios
(Table 5.1). We can see regional animation centers in North America, such as
Minneapolis, Austin, Halifax and Calgary and, in Europe, such as Cardiff, Glasgow, and
Wilmington appear. In addition to those cities, finally we can observe cities in Africa, the
Middle East, Eastern Europe and Russia on the list of regional animation centers: Cairo,
Cape Town, Colombo, Dubai, Moscow and St. Petersburg. That is, regional animation
centers are dispersed widely. As mentioned in Chapter 3, animation production in Eastern
Europe and Russia had strength based on pursuit of artistic perfection by support from
governments. However, their connections to the globalized animation industry are less
vigorous than studios in other cities or other countries. They have not yet dealt with the
tough competition and short life cycles of the global animation business. Especially,
Russia contains only two regional animation centers: Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
Besides the regional animation centers discussed above, one another special city in
France, Angoulme, is noticeable among other cities. Angoulme has been the host city
of the Angoulme International Comics Festival (Festival International de la Bande
Dessine d'Angoulme) since 1972 (Festival International de la Bande Dessine
D'Angoulme 2008). A small town in France, Angoulme does not appear on other
rosters of world cities or among wannabe world cities (Taylor 2004b). The main
industries of Angoulme are paper making and printing, but hosting a festival becomes a
major advantage to the city attracting many animators. In particular, Forum International

85

des Technologies de lAnimation (FITA)21 is held every year since 1998, and a large
group of people who work in animation, post production, game development, and
computer graphic related services meet and share trends of the industry and know-how
and issues of current technology through this forum (FITA 2007). In fact, this annual
event builds buzz in the business and brings reputation to the city.
Another city outside North America and Europe that is interesting is Dubai (one of
the United Arab Emirates). This fact is regarded as a consequence of efforts to cultivate
the media industry in Dubai. In order to make Dubai as a regional media hub, the
government of the United Arab Emirates (the UAE) provides world-class infrastructure
and good working environments including visa issues to multinational multimedia groups
including CNN and BBC (Al-Abed et al. 2006)
So far, the global animation cities identified here are based on the total number of
animation studios in each city. As we would expect, cities with large populations
generally have large numbers of animation studios. But which cities have more than we
would expect? A hint at an answer can be found by calculating the number of animation
studios per 1 million people in each city (Figure 5.4). This calculation is done only for
cities with eight or more studios.
First, this provides unusual results especially for alpha animation cities. Compared to
the world animation cities (Figure 5.3), based on the absolute number of animation
studios, the world cities based on animation studios per million population (Figure 5.4)
has only one alpha animation city, 28 beta animation cities and 174 gamma animation
cities (Figure 5.2 and Table C.2).
21

International Forum for Animation Technologies

86

Source: based on data in AWN (2008)

Figure 5.4. World animation cities by per capita

Annecy is the only alpha animation city when calculated per 1 million people. To
define the groups above, more than 50 studios per 1 million people is a condition for
alpha animation city and Annecy has 74.0 animation studios per 1 million people. Second,
following Annecy, 28 cities are shown in beta world animation cities. Of the beta cities,
17 cities in Europe, six cities in the US, five cities in Canada and 1 city in New Zealand
are identified. These cities have more than 11 and less than 50 animation studios per 1
million people in each city.
87

Third, some cities in the beta group appear in other lists of world cities (Beaverstock
et al. 1999). For example, Los Angeles, London, Paris and New York are joined by
Toronto, Vancouver, San Francisco, Copenhagen and Oslo. In general, the cities of the
beta animation city group are similar to other lists of world cities.
Fourth, many cities in Europe place in higher rank. Especially, both the beta and
gamma groups include many cities in Europe. We can see small cities in Europe such as
Bristol, Brighton, and Cardiff (UK) in the beta group.
Fifth, the status of animation cities in Asia is somewhat different when controlling for
population from their status based on the absolute number of animation studios.
Animation cities in Asia are clearly important world cities in the animation industry,
particularly in both the alpha and beta groups. However, the importance of cities in Asia
seems to shrink in number of animation studios by number of population compared to
absolute number of animation cities. Thus we can say that animation studios are mainly
located in big cities in Asia.
In general, animation studios are found in large world cities as well as small and
medium-size animation cities in Europe, such as Annecy, Cardiff and Bristol. However,
this pattern appears differently in Asia. Big-size cities, including Bangalore, Chennai,
Hyderabad, Seoul and Taipei, turn out to be major animation cities in Asia. These cities
are regional centers of economy and culture where many people live in. Thus people in
creative fields in Europe are more dispersed than those people in Asia.

88

City (Number of studios Per capita)

Alpha
Annecy (74.0)
Beta
Bristol (38.2), Brighton (35.8), Halifax (35.0), Vancouver (29.3), Cardiff
(28)
(28.7), Los Angeles (25.1), Toronto (22.8), Dublin (21.2), Cologne (21.0),
London (20.8), Paris (20.3), Copenhagen (19.3), San Francisco (18.3),
Montreal (17.9), Brussels (17.0), Munich (16.2), Austin (15.5), Helsinki
(14.6), Sofia (14.6), Portland (13.3), Orlando (13.1), Auckland (12.7), Ottawa
(12.5), New York (11.8), Milan (11.7), Zagreb (11.6), Valencia (11.3), Oslo
(11.2 )
Gamma Amsterdam (10.9), Taipei (10.7), Calgary (10.4), Chennai (10.1), Stockholm
(17)
(9.4), Prague (9.4), Boston (9.2), Bangalore (8.8), Hamburg (8.8), Salt Lake
City (8.5), Bilbao (8.5), Hyderabad (8.3), Brisbane (8.3), Budapest (8.2),
Kochi (8.2), Sydney (8.1), Berlin (8.0)
Source: calculated from data in Animation Industry Database (2008)
Table 5.2. Cities of animation studios (Number of animation studios that have more than
8 studios per 1 million population)
5.4. Conclusions
From the collected data, locations of 4,212 animation studios are categorized by
groups for explaining spatial patterns of the animation industry and production. To do
this, the concept of alpha, beta and gamma world cities are adopted from previous studies.
Based upon results from grouping of animation cities, characteristics of the spatial
patterns of the animation industry are as follows.
First, overall locations of the animation industry are extended out globally: 408 cities
have at least 1 animation studio.
Second, world cities are dominant production places for the animation industry. Los
Angeles, New York, Paris, London, and Toronto are the major animation cities, each with
over 100 studios.
Third, some specialized cities are shown in the animation industry. These cities show
distinctive feature in the hierarchy of the animation industry. In particular, two cities in
89

France, Annecy and Angoulme, are unique compared to size of city or other world cities.
Frances long-time strength in animation production is no doubt responsible for this result.
Fourth, some countries, particularly India, have many animation studios in major
national cities, such as Chennai, Mumbai and Bangalore. This characteristic is also seen
in Seoul (South Korea) and Manila (The Philippines), national capitals and the largest
metropolitan area in each country.
Based upon the above results, the globalization of the animation industry is
demonstrated, but only tentatively in Africa and Latin America. However, the above
results mostly focus on location of the industry rather than linkages and networks of
animation production. This does not give us full understanding of worlds of production.
Thus, networks of the animation industry from selected countries will be presented and
analyzed in the next chapter.

90

CHAPTER 6
GLOBAL PRODUCTION NETWORKS OF THE ANIMATION INDUSTRY

6.1. Introduction
The previous chapter identified the top-ranking global animation cities and compared
those cities and the global media cities. The list of global animation cities also pointed to
possible explanations for the location patterns of the animation industry. One of the
characteristics of cultural industries, agglomeration in metropolitan areas, is reinforced.
While some global animation cities also are identified as world cities in other research,
specialized animation cities that have not appeared in other studies of world/global cities
are observed in this study, including Annecy, France, and Brighton, UK. These cities
have not appeared in other studies of world cities, but they are important cities in the
animation industry. Especially, these cities are top rank cities in their ratio of number of
animation studios and population. In the case of other world cities, such as New York,
London and Paris, these world cities also are top on the rank of total numbers of
animation studios. However, small cities are identified as specialized animation cities.
This chapter presents global production networks (GPNs) in the animation industry. The
analysis of production networks makes use of data on the clients or customers of 1,468
animation studios. Those examined are located in agglomerations or clusters of animation
91

- that is, cities where at least four studios (and up to several dozen) have identified their
clients.

6.2. Networks of animation studios in 20 cities

In order to show the interlinked networks that exist among animation studios and
their cities, animation studios in 20 cities are analyzed. The principle of selection is the
availability of a list of a studios clients on the Animation Industry Database website
(Animation World Network 2008a). Only a minority of animation studios report their
clients list on the AWN data set. This research focuses on the clients of 540 animation
studios in 20 different cities. This is 13% of the total of 4,242 animation studios, and
36.8% of all studios which identified one or more of their clients.
Numbers of clients that are shown in the list vary by each studio. Some studios
provide the names of more than 10 clients and some studios add only one or two
animation clients. Of the total 4,242 studios, 1,468 animation studios (35.7%) provide
locations of clients. Also, the locations of most clients are not provided by many
animation studios, thus locations of their clients were searched through the Internet.22
However, these 1,474 are not evenly distributed in the world. The 540 studios that
provide a large client list are in six different continents (Table 6.1).

22

Location information of client firms was searched in hoovers.com or client firms

websites. However, some location information could not be found through any sources.
92

Continent Country

City

Africa
Asia
(95)

Johannesburg
Bangalore
Chennai
Hyderabad
Mumbai
Delhi
Seoul
Vienna
Stockholm
Cardiff
London
Auckland
Montreal
Toronto
Vancouver
Los Angeles
New York
Portland
San Francisco
Buenos Aires

Europe
(84)
Oceania
N.
America
(332)

South Africa
India (76)

South Korea
Austria
Sweden
United Kingdom
(68)
New Zealand
Canada (87)
United States
(251)

Number of
companies

S.
Argentina
America
Total
Source: calculated from AIDB (2008)

Animation studios
per 1 million
people

7
17
27
7
18
7
9
4
12
7
61
10
19
47
21
104
100
10
37
16

5.2
8.8
10.1
8.3
3.8
3.1
5.3
4.9
9.4
25.7
20.8
11.8
17.9
22.8
29.3
25.1
11.8
13.3
18.3
3.0

540

Table 6.1. Numbers of animation studios in 20 cities with the list of clients
The largest group is animation studios in North America (Canada and the United
States). Cities with studios reporting client lists include 104 animation studios in Los
Angeles, 100 in New York, and 47 in Toronto. The second largest group is animation
studios in Asia, where five cities in India and one city in South Korea are selected to be
analyzed. Chennai has 27 studios reporting their clients. In Europe, four cities have
studios that report their client networks, led by 61 animation studios in London that
report their business connections. Finally, in the southern hemisphere, are the networks of
studios in two cities, Johannesburg (South Africa) and Buenos Aires (Argentina).
93

After choosing animation studios in 20 cities, the locations of their clients provide a
rare glimpse at the global production networks of the animation industry, especially
connections between producers and clients, which also indicate flows among cities. The
next part of his chapter presents the networks of studios in each city.

6.2.1. North America

The networks of studios in the four US cities are shown in Table 6.2. In the first city,
Los Angeles, 104 animation studios identify a total 898 clients. In this case, Los Angeles
includes the Combined Statistical Area (CSA) as defined by the US Census Bureau.
Therefore, Los Angeles and Hollywood are in the same area in this study.
Networks of Los Angeles based animation studios tend to be localized. Local ties
are related to animation or live-action film production. In this case, their clients are major
film production studios or animated film studios. Regional links (to clients in other US
cities) also comprise a high percentage (37.6%). This number is same as the percentage
of networks with other countries including Canada, Europe, Japan and other global (449),

94

San
NY*
Type
LA
%
%
Francisco %
Portland %
Local
449 50.0
198 27.5
29
8.5
12
17.9
Regional Other US
338 37.6
345 48.0
166 48.7
44
65.7
Canada
28
3.1
9
1.3
2
0.6
Hollywood N/A
108 15.0
118 34.6
8
11.9
Europe
37
4.1
40
5.6
11
3.2
3
4.5
22
2.4
5
0.7
13
3.8
Global Japan
OG
25
2.8
13
1.9
2
0.6
Global
Total
112 12.4
175 24.5
146 42.8
11
16.4
Total
898 100.0
718 100.0
341 100.0
67
100.0
NOTE: Local LA, NY, San Francisco, Portland except Hollywood (LA)
Regional Other US,
Other Global
OG_LA = Argentina + Australia + Brazil + China + Japan + New Zealand + South Korea +
Thailand
OG_NY = Australia+ China (Hong Kong) + India+ Israel+ Malaysia+ Pakistan+
South Africa + South Korea
OG_SF = New Zealand + Israel

* Locations of 19 clients of New York area studios were not found.

Table 6.2. Networks of animation studios in US

and this is one-half of all ties of the studios in Los Angeles. As major broadcast
companies are located in New York, networks of Hollywood animation studios are highly
regionalized outside Hollywood but within the US.23 Both local and regional networks
combined account for 75.5% of all clients of New York studios, and 87.6% of clients of
studios in Los Angeles. Relatively few of their clients are located outside North America.
The second city for animation in the US is New York. The 100 studios in the New
York CMSA identify a total of 718 clients. New York shows a lower degree of localized
networks (24.5%) compared to Los Angeles. A total of 48% of clients are in other US
23

Three American major broadcast networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC are located in New York.

95

regions, bringing the percentage of local and regional networks combined to 75.5%.
Regarding relations with Hollywood, 15% of New York studios clients are located in
Hollywood.
The third city is San Francisco. The most distinctive characteristic is weak local
networks. Only 8.5% of total networks in San Francisco are within the San Francisco
CMSA. On the contrary, nearly one-half (48.7%) of San Francisco-based animation
studios are involved in projects from other US regions. The 37 San Francisco studios
identify 118 clients in Hollywood, or nearly 3.2 per studio. Locations of Pixar and many
CGI animation studios are found in or near San Francisco. The last city in the US
analyzed here is Portland, where 10 animation studios report their clients. Portland, like
San Francisco, shows weak local networks (17.9%). Reliance on clients in other US areas,
or regional networks, is much higher than in the local area.
In sum, networks of animation studios in Los Angeles are highly localized, drawing
on the rich base of film studios and other animation customers in Southern California. On
the contrary, animation studios in New York find their clients throughout the US rather
than in the local area. Studios in San Francisco and Portland also show weak localized
networks. However, these two cities are highly dependent on regional networks notably
to clients in Hollywood for San Francisco-area studios. Thus, animation studios in these
four US cities have strong local or regional networks but weak networks with other
countries. The largest agglomerations of animation studios, Los Angeles and New York,
have the most global networks of clients. These are small in percentage terms, but include
dozens of clients in Europe: 37 for Los Angeles studios and 40 for New York studios. In

96

addition, studios in Los Angeles have 22 clients in Japan, and San Francisco studios have
13 Japanese clients.
Table 6.3 shows networks of animation studios located in three cities in Canada.
Montreal is the economic and regional center of Quebec. Toronto is the national center of
the economy and culture in Canada. The third city, Vancouver, is well known as
Hollywoods runway production location.
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB), initially known as the National Film
Commission and now a federal cultural agency within the portfolio of the Canadian
Heritage Department, has supported Canadian animation production as well as live-action
film production. Montreal has been the center of animation training and has trained
young and talented animators at the NFB. Young animators in the NFB, including
Norman McLaren and his colleagues, created animation films with innovative techniques
beginning in the 1990s. Their work was the part of French program of the NFB
(McWilliams 2006). In addition to this, French Canadian culture has influenced Canadian
animation (National Film Board 2006). After the NFB divided English and French
language studios, five other cities, Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg and
Halifax, became other branches of English language studios and Montreal remains the
branch of French language studio. Also, the production facility in Montreal is wellknown for its good production environment (Bendazzi 1994).
In Table 6.3, the category local means each metropolitan area and regional
designates other regions of Canada except each city. Also, other global (OG) networks
vary by their clients locations.

97

Toronto*
Montreal
%
%
Vancouver
Local
30
23.4
65
16.8
25
Regional Other Canada
31
24.2
106
27.5
51
Hollywood
14
10.9
80
20.7
34
US
19
14.8
100
25.9
51
Europe
22
17.2
12
3.1
5
Global
Japan
5
3.9
20
5.2
16
OG
7
5.5
3
0.8
2
Global Total
67
52.4
215
55.7
108
Total
128 100.0
386
100.0
184
NOTE: Local Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver
Regional - Canada
OG_Montreal= China + India + Israel+ South Africa+ Turkey
OG_Vancouver= Australia + Mexico
OG_Toronto= Mexico
*Locations of 6 clients of Toronto area studios were not found.

%
13.6
27.7
18.6
27.7
2.7
8.7
1.1
58.7
100.0

Table 6.3. Networks of animation studios in Canada

The Montreal vicinity area shows stronger local ties (23.4%) than the other two cities.
The proportion of client networks that link studios in Montreal and other locations in
Canada (24.2%) is similar to the percentage found in the Montreal area. Studios in
Montreal have more global clients than local or regional. A total of 52.4% of Montreal
animation studios clients are located in other countries. The highest proportion appears
in networks with clients in Europe (17.4%) a percentage that is higher than of clients in
Hollywood (10.9%) or other US regions (14.8%). Animation studios in Montreal have
many clients in Europe, including ImageEngine and Television Suisse Romande.
Montreal studios identify only five clients in Japan.
Toronto is the largest city in Canada and large Canadian animation studios, such as
Nelvana, have their headquarters in this city. Local networks within Toronto are weaker
98

than for Montreal studios (16.8%). Additionally, the proportion of global networks of
Toronto (55.7%) is higher than both local and regional networks (44.3%). Especially,
other areas of US (25.9%) and Hollywood (20.7%) are important clients to animation
studios in the city. Clients in Japan (20, or 5.2%) outnumber those in Europe (12, or
3.1%).
Animation studios in the third city, Vancouver, also have relatively few local client
networks (13.6%), but the share of clients in regional networks of Vancouver studios
(27.7%) is much higher than local networks. By contrast, their dependency on Hollywood
(18.6%) and other US clients (46.3%) is high. Few studios have clients in Europe (5, or
2.7%). Like studios in Toronto, animation studios in Vancouver have many clients in
Japan (16, or 8.7%).
In general, studios in the three Canadian cities can be categorized as more
globalized network cities than are studios in major US animation centers. The production
networks of studios in all three cities are predominantly global that is, the majority of
their clients are outside Canada. Toronto and Vancouver show strong ties with clients in
the US and particularly Hollywood, but the largest group of clients of Montreal studios
are European firms and film production companies.

6.2.2. India
Five cities in India are shown in Table 6.4. These five cities also are the first tier hightech centers in India (Bound 2007). The city that has the largest number of studios in the
AIDB is Chennai with 27. Chennai studios also have very localized client networks:
51.6 % of clients are local that is, within India. The proportions of local networks of
99

other city, Mumbai is also high. These highly localized networks suggest that customers
of these two Indian animation studios are less oriented to countries outside India.
However, global networks of customers are more common for studios in four cities,
except for Chennai. In general, Animation studios in Indian cities have not strong
networks to Hollywood. By contrast, studios in Mumbai, also known as Bollywood, have
more networks to Hollywood, compared to other four cities. Increasing outsourcing from
Hollywood studios have brought post-production tasks, especially visual effects, into
India (Govil 2005). The data in Table 6.4 suggest that this outsourcing is centered in
Mumbai and Bangalore and Mumbai, including work for clients in the US but outside
Hollywood as well as clients in Europe. The Indian studios that have clients in Japan are
located in Bangalore. In short, animation studios in Chennai and Mumbai are largely
dependent on local and regional clients rather than global clients but Bangalore, Delhi
and Mumbai posses more globalized networks.

6.2.3. Europe
The fourth group of studios is located in four cities in Europe: London, Cardiff (both
in the UK), Vienna (Austria) and Stockholm (Sweden) (Table 6.5). In this group, local
clients are considered to be those located in the country of each city and regional
networks are clients elsewhere in Europe.

100

Local
Regional
Global

Total**

Hollywood
US
Canada
Europe
Japan
OG
Global Total

Bangalore
44
31
8
30
2
17
4
8
69
144

%
30.6
21.5
5.6
20.8
1.4
11.8
2.8
5.6
47.9
100.0

Chennai*
111
64
2
11
1
16
2
8
40
215

%
51.6
29.8
0.9
5.1
0.5
7.4
0.9
3.7
18.6
100.0

Delhi
22
9
0
13
4
7
0
2
26
57

%
38.6
15.8
0.0
22.8
7.0
12.3
0.0
3.5
45.6
100.0

Hyderabad
13
7
0
8
1
2
0
2
13
33

%
39.4
21.2
0.0
24.2
3.0
6.1
0.0
6.1
39.4
100.0

101

NOTE: Local Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai

Regional Other India
OG_Bangalore = Australia + China + Singapore + Latvia + Turkey + Saudi Arabia
OG_Chennai = Australia + Malaysia + Singapore + UAE + Ukraine
OG_Delhi = New Zealand + Singapore
OG_Hyderabad = Australia + Pakistan
OG_Mumbai = Australia + Brazil + Egypt+ Kenya + Kuwait + Singapore + South Korea + Tanzania + UAE
*Locations of 4 clients were international organizations and not included.
** Locations of total 10 clients in India were not found

Table 6.4. Networks of animation studios in India

101

Mumbai*
80
13
12
27
3
10
1
13
66
159

%
50.3
8.2
7.5
17.0
1.9
6.3
0.6
8.2
41.5
100.0

Animation studios in all four cities in Europe have locally oriented networks. The
most localized networks are those of studios in London (64.0%), followed by those in
Stockholm (61.7%).Therefore, these four cities also are less globalized in terms of
clients locations. Furthermore, studios in two cities, Cardiff and Vienna, have no
connections with clients located outside Europe or the US.
The animation industry in Cardiff has the support of a Welsh television channel, S4C
(Sianel Pedwar Cymru).24 Cardiff is the center of the Welsh animation industry and a
media center outside London. The unique Welsh culture and language, supported by S4C,
includes support for local cartoon makers (Welsh Animation Group 2004). Additionally,
the production networks of animation studios in Cardiff have expanded to Hollywood,
accounting for 13 clients, or 31.7% of all clients. London studios have a total of 13
Japanese clients (2.9% of all clients).
In general, animation studios in the four cities in Europe have production networks
that are strongly local and, secondarily, regional within Europe. Production linkages to
the US are much more common than to Asia or elsewhere.
The last group includes the production linkages of animation studios in four cities:
Seoul (South Korea), Auckland (New Zealand), Johannesburg (South Africa) and Buenos
Aires (Argentina). These are areas of the global economy not represented by the cities
discussed thus far. Thus, regional networks of Seoul are considered to be China or Japan,
but only customers in Japan are included in this regional group. No customer group in
China is named by studios in Seoul.

24

S4C: Welsh for Channel Four Wales

102

%
Local
Regional Other Europe
Hollywood
US
Canada
Global Europe
Japan
OG
Global Total
Total

London
283
32
40
56
9
N/A
13
9
127
442

%
64.0
7.5
9.0
12.7
2.0

Cardiff
24
4
13

2.9
2.0
28.6
100.2

13
41

%
58.5
9.8
31.7

31.7
100

Vienna
11
1

%
57.9
5.3

Stockholm
60
19

%
61.9
19.6

31.6

16

16.5

5.3
2
18
97

2.1
18.5
100

7
18

36.8
100

103

NOTE: Local - Each city and country

Regional - Europe
OG_London = Australia + Bangladesh + India+ Jamaica + New Zealand + South Korea + Turkey
OG_Stockholm = Malaysia + Thailand

Table 6.5. Networks of animation studios in Europe

103

First, animation studios in two cities, Auckland (48.2%) and Johannesburg (44.8%),
have the most localized networks among the four cities, but these local production
networks include less than 50% of all clients. On the contrary, Seoul and Buenos Aires
have far lower local ties, 27.1% and 26.9% respectively. As mentioned above, clients in
Japan are defined as regional customers of studios in Seoul. Also, subcontracting
relations between Japanese studios as customers and South Korean studios as
subcontractors have existed for a long time (Lent and Yu 2001).
Second, all four cities have high degrees of global client networks: 48% to 64%.
Details of global networks vary by each city. Networks of Buenos Aires studios show a
high degree of connections to Hollywood (15.4%) and to other parts of the US (37.2%).
As the Latin American market for kids increases, major specialized cartoon channels,
such as Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and Disney, set up their co-production centers for
Latin America in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina (Baisley 2007). The fourth city,
Johannesburg, also is dependent on networks with US clients. The production networks
of Seoul animators are globally diverse, including projects for Canadian clients, clients in
South East Asia, and Europe. Indeed, all four cities have 10% or more of their clients in
Europe. Studios in Buenos Aires are best linked to clients in the US outside Hollywood,
and secondarily to those in Hollywood; together these clients account for 52.6% of all
clients.
Networks of animation studios in 20 cities in ten countries have been presented. The
role of local clients is very important for studios in some cities, such as Los Angeles
(Hollywood) and London. Studios in Europe and India have highly localized networks.

104

Type
Local
Regional Japan
Hollywood
Other US
Canada
Europe
Global
Hollywood
Japan
Global
Total
Total

Seoul
%
13 27.1
5 10.4
6 12.5
3 6.3
9 10.4
5 18.8
6 12.5
Regional
24 62.6
48 100

Auckland
41
3
8
15
2
10
8
1

%
48.2
3.5
9.4
17.6
2.4
11.8
9.4
1.2

Johannesburg
%
26 44.8
2
3.4
0
0
21 36.25
0
8 13.8
0
0

41 48.3
85 100.1

105

NOTE: Regional Auckland = Australia

Johannesburg = Africa
Buenos Aires = Bolivia + Mexico+ Puerto Rico + Uruguay (Latin America)
OG_Seoul = India + Singapore + South Africa+ Thailand
OG_Auckland = China+ Malaysia + Mexico+ South Korea
OG_Johannesburg = Australia + Algeria + Madagascar
OG_Buenos Aires = None
*Locations of 4 clients in Buenos Aires were not found

Table 6.6 Networks of animation studios in other cities

105

30
58

51.8
100

Buenos Aires*
21
7
12
29
1
8
12

%
26.9
9.0
15.4
37.2
1.3
10.3
15.4

50
78

64.1
100

Also, the role of Europe as a source of clients is somewhat lower than in the US.
Table 6.7 shows the locations of studios whose production networks are most localized
(column a) and the most globalized (column b). In addition, it shows the locations of
studios whose networks of clients are most in Hollywood (column c). Based on these
results, several types of networks of the animation industry are presented the next section.

Rank

a. The most localized

1
London
2
Stockholm
3
Cardiff
4
Chennai
5
Mumbai
* LA CMSA is excluded in the rank.

b. The most globalized

Buenos Aires
Seoul
Vancouver
Toronto
Montreal

c. Top 5 linked to
Hollywood*
San Francisco
Cardiff
Toronto
Vancouver
Buenos Aires

Table 6.7. Top 5 cities in each network type

6.3. Global production networks of the animation industry

In order to understand networks of animation studios, global production networks
(GPNs) can explain the global nature of animation production. The current animation
industry has several characteristics.
First, the influence of large multinational conglomerates has increased. These media
conglomerates AOL Time Warner, The Walt Disney Co., Viacom, News Corp, Sony
Entertainment, and NBC Universal Inc. run major film studios including animation and
many cable channel companies (Mossig 2008). They are engaged in activities from pre106

production to distribution, as well as new sources of revenue, including selling DVD and
licensing products. Thus these media conglomerates have impacted on the whole
production process (Scott 2005; Wasko 2003). Also, financing and distribution are very
important to major media conglomerates (Coe and Johns 2004).
Second, runaway production has occurred to reduce production costs and look for
creative talent in both live-action and animation film. This has led to agglomeration of
pre- and post-production in Hollywood. Animation production for TV series has been
dependent on runaway production since the 1970s (Sito 2006; Tschang and Goldstein
2004).
Third, despite the decentralization of animation production processes, global markets
are dominated by multinational conglomerates using various forms of partnership, coproduction, and joint ventures (Scott 2006a, pp. 77-78). In other words, countries outside
the US are not only direct markets of Hollywood with direct distribution but also
production sites for other platforms, such as DVD/video and TV. Besides production cost
or talented labor, animation production cannot be separated from its cultural context and
the regulations or policies of each national market. For example, France and Canada
strongly subsidize their national film industries, including animation. Therefore, diverse
strategies such as co-production have been adopted to explore global markets and have
been considered as effective marketing by multinational media conglomerates. Coproduction, especially, has become a very common production type.

107

6.3.1. Co-Production
As production costs have skyrocketed, co-production emerged as a popular strategy
for studios in many countries. Funding flows for co-production, from Hollywood to other
countries, or other countries to Hollywood, are found at the same time. Co-production
can be defined in many ways. According to Raugust (2004, p. 303), co-productions are
animation productions involving more than one company contributing creative services.
In this context, there are various types of co-productions. All these different levels of coproduction are results of negotiation between the partners. Canada has partially funded
co-production of animation by Canadian studios with co-production partners in more than
20 countries.
The transnational character of animation in Europe is promoted by the Council of
Europes Eurimages program, which supports co-production of animated feature films,
and by CARTOON, funded by the MEDIA Programme of the European Union.
CARTOON, the European Association of Animation Film, sponsors gatherings where
artisans meet for collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and training, including Cartoon
Forum, a co-production forum for European animation TV series; Cartoon Movie, a coproduction forum for feature-length animation mainly for the cinema; and Cartoon
Masters, four training seminars per year, dealing with specialized subjects. The media
giants have taken advantage of the innovative animations being produced in Europe,
doubtless enjoying as well the subsidies for co-production (Masters 2005). As coproduction has increased, animation studios in China and India have become popular co108

production partners of studios in Europe, Japan, and North America recently (Raugust
2004; Govil 2005).
Hirsh (1998) proposes that successful co-production should be an appropriate mixture
of various components and with no specific cultural references, instead of replicating the
Hollywood formula. However, sometimes having an American commercial touch can
be a successful tip to co-production with US firms (Strover 1995). Furthermore, from the
point of view of the major studios, co-production can provide flexibility to those that
work with small studios and bring new and fresh creativity from other countries (Raugust
2007). Increasingly, then, transnational capital is complemented by transnational labor, as
new Argonauts (Saxenian 2006) are involved in homogenizing the product, and as
some animators with big-studio experience have become entrepreneurs in new studios, in
Asia, Canada, and elsewhere (Raugust 2007).
Nowadays, movement of film professionals is more intense than ever, and with
cross-border financing for films more and more of them work internationally. ...
They are no longer exiles, and not even migrs, but members of the new class of
people involved in transnational filmmaking (Iordanova, 2002, p. 527).

6.3.2. Unbundling the animation production process

As mentioned before, some tasks of animation production have been outsourced to other

countries, but other tasks have become more centralized in Hollywood or London or
Tokyo (Goldsmith and O'Regan 2005). Two tasks conceptualization, including
storyboard and character creation, and some post-production tasks, such as recording

109

dialogues using famous Hollywood actors and actresses and the sound track remain
agglomerated in southern California (Neuwirth 2003; Wright 2005).
In general, labor-intensive production work still is commonly outsourced to
studios in Asia and other subcontracting countries. By contrast, animation tasks that need
more creativity and more control remain in North America and Europe (deGraf 2004;
Tschang and Goldstein 2004). This is a result of the spatial division of labor and
unbundling of tasks, which has been widely observed starting in manufacturing sectors
and is now widespread in service industries (Baldwin 2006).
Asian animation studios are still considered as a home of low-cost labor but this
concept has begun to change (Wong 2006). Singapore has become a hub of animation
production through co-production with partners in Canada, the US and South Korea.
Furthermore, Lucasfilm located its Asian subsidiary in Singapore in 2004. According to
Wong (2006), Singapore and other Asian countries have changed the traditional map of
animation production. In addition to this, expansions into global markets by major studios
have encouraged the use of local sources of animation, set in the local cultural context
and employing local talent to reduce risk when entering new markets (Marr 2007).
Creating local animation content means work for local studios, but only if they are linked
to the global conglomerates. Without a comprehensive understanding of the full
production process, subcontracting studios cannot compete on an equal footing with
major animation studios.
Even CGI work has been outsourced recently, because of the increased use of less
expensive software and hardware and the spread of infrastructure such as the Internet and
110

communication systems (Raugust 2007). Especially, simple but labor intensive types of
visual effects have been sent to Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad recently (Govil 2008,
2005). However, Jones and Oliff (2007) point out that still many difficulties remain to
maintain artistic integrity from outsourcing. Despite difficulties of CGI outsourcing, less
creative and more technical tasks in CGI production have been sent to other countries
(Tschang and Goldstein 2004).
6.4. Different types of production networks
In order to understand global production networks of the animation industry, six
distinctive types of networks are chosen from the networks of the studios in the 20 cities
discussed in Section 6.2. Each type shows a different proportion of local, regional, and
global networks including links to Hollywood. From global customers to regional center
of the animation industry, following different networks will help to initialize our
knowledge of GPNs of the animation industry.

6.4.1. Global producers

Hollywood is the center of the global movie industry, including animated films, and
wields enormous influence worldwide (Figure 6.1). In recent years, financing and
distribution, largely controlled by Hollywood conglomerates, have enabled them to
dominate global markets. However, the animation studios of Hollywood are mainly
dependent on local clients, which are abundant in the Los Angeles area and contribute
buzz. A city that has similar, local networks is London. Both cities have global networks
of studios in other countries that are customers or co-production partners.
111

Figure 6.1. Global producer/ client: Hollywood type

6.4.2. National animation producers

While studios in Hollywood and London have highly localized networks and the
status of global producers and clients, animation studios in San Francisco work almost
exclusively on projects from clients in Hollywood and other US regions. These studios
are not locally embedded and do not depend on clients who are geographically close.
Even though global networks appear, the intensity of ties outside the US is noticeably
weak or low compared to Hollywood and other US clients. For example, clients in
112

Europe and Japan combined comprise only 7.0% of the customers of San Francisco area
animation studios.

Figure 6.2. Hollywood subcontractor and high regional network: San Francisco

6.4.3. Networking without Hollywood

Another city that contains interesting relations primarily to clients outside Hollywood
is Montreal. Montreal, like Vancouver, is a well-known runway shooting location of
Hollywood live-action films. The networks of Montreal animation studios, however, are
unique compared to other Canadian cities. Clients in Hollywood and elsewhere in North
113

America are the most important client groups of Montreal animators, but clients in
Europe also are a major client group to studios in Montreal (17.2%). The proportion of
clients in Europe is higher than even those in Hollywood or the rest of the US. Quebecs
culture and French language are unique in North America and these differences turn to be
an advantage to attract European clients.

Figure 6.3. Networks of cultural closeness: Montreal

6.4.4. A focused network

Cardiff exhibits a very simple network with both a high degree of local and nonlocal
clients from only two regions: Hollywood and elsewhere in Europe (Figure 6.4). Studios
114

in Cardiff have no clients in Canada or in the US outside of Hollywood. Animation

Figure 6.4. Regional networks: Cardiff

studios in Cardiff focus on a very limited set of clients. In this case, proximity is an
important factor of making networks and cultural similarity also may influence results.
Cardiff becomes a local center of the industry and a strong subcontractor or co-producer
for customers in Hollywood. However, it is difficult to describe this as a global network,
because of the highly focused connections to only a couple of client groups.

115

6.4.5. A locally embedded network

The most localized networks are those of studios in Chennai, where nearly 90% of
clients are within (Figure 6.5). Other Indian cities also have a high degree of dependence
on local networks, but the case of Chennai has the highest degree of local embeddedness.
Beyond the highly localized networks, other networks of Chennai studios are, so far, still
rather limited. Animation studios in Chennai have not developed global networks yet and
have stayed in the local market. No links to customers elsewhere in Asia could be shown
in Figure 6.5.

Figure 6.5. Locally embedded network: Chennai

116

6.4.6. Global subcontractor

Regarding influences of Hollywood, animation studios in Buenos Aires have been
affected by the power of Hollywood recently (Figure 6.6) Buenos Aires studios have
been involved in the global market just since the 1990s, building upon the long history of

Figure 6.6. Global subcontractor with strong regional and Hollywood networks Buenos
Aires
animation in Argentina as old as that in the US. Large media conglomerates in the US
have begun to develop the Latin American broadcast market using specialized cartoon or
117

kids channels, and local animation production has developed as local demand has
increased. However, 64.1% of their clients are located outside Buenos Aires, especially in
Hollywood. Thus Buenos Aires animators have emerged as subcontractors of US clients,
but their networks also include 10.3% clients in Europe.

6.4.7. A diversified global network

The last type of network of global production animation industry is found in Seoul
(Figure 6.7)

Figure 6.7. Global subcontractor with various networks: Seoul

118

As mentioned before, animation studios in Japan, Hollywood, and elsewhere in the US

have connected to animation studios in Seoul since the 1960s. Thus, Korean animation
studios have accumulated know-how and experience based on subcontracting for four
decades. A large variety of customers exists in the current production networks of
animation studios in Seoul. Clients in Europe and Canada have become influential clients
and Korean animation studios have expanded their networks to clients in many countries
consistently. Networks with diversified clients are the most distinctive characteristic of
animation studios in Seoul.

6.5. Conclusions
In this chapter, networks of animation studios in 20 cities that provided their client
lists in the Animation Industry Database (AIDB) on the data set have been analyzed and
explained as global production networks (GPNs) of the animation industry. GPNs of the
animation industry have grown as a result of several sets of forces. First, firms exploit the
spatial division of labor to seek out pools of labor with different levels of creativity and
skills. Second, the global media conglomerates employ various strategies to explore and
satisfy different global audiences. Providing animation products for diverse local markets
has demanded local animators familiar with different cultural contexts. Third,
development of technology, especially Internet infrastructure and less expensive software
and hardware has led to the increasing use of CGI technology in countries beyond the
original bases of Japan and the US.

119

While the animation industry has developed including these characteristics, the
current networks of animation studios in different countries have expanded their
networks in different ways. Thus seven different types of networks could be identified.
Global production networks influence each citys status in ways that are more
complicated than just skills or technology.
The next chapter draws some conclusions from this research, and suggests comments
for future research.

120

CHAPTER 7

CONCLUSIONS

7.1. Summary of Findings

The goal of this research was to investigate the structure and evolution of the
animation industry at the global scale. The first question about the animation industry
was the characteristics of the production of global animation industry. The second
question of the research was the recent spatial patterns of production in the animation
industry. The last question was networks of animation studios under global production
networks.
In order to explain characteristics of the animation industry, several aspects of 4,242
animation studios collected from the Animation Industry Database (AIDB) are used for
the research. These studios provide their locations, types of business, specialties, and
types of animated work or forms of projects/ deliverables. To fit diversified market needs,
these animation studios use various specialties and newly developed distribution
windows.
The map of the animation industry uses 4,212 locations of animation studios at the
scale of urban areas. For better understanding of the spatial patterns of the animation
industry, the concept of alpha, beta and gamma world cities are adopted from previous
121

world city studies. Four main findings of the spatial patterns of world animation cities are
as follows.
First, despite the concentration of the animation industry in some cities, the animation
industry is located globally. A total of 408 cities in 92 countries have at least one
animation studio. Second, world cities, such as Los Angeles, New York, Paris, London,
and Toronto, are identified as the major animation cities, each with over 100 studios.
Third, specialized animation cities appear. There are two cities in France, Annecy and
Angoulme, each with a long history in the French animation industry. Fourth, some
Asian countries, such as India, South Korea and the Philippines, also are home to many
animation studios.
In order to understand worlds of production, global production networks (GPNs)
analysis is adopted. Analysis of networks among 20 cities which have several studios that
identify their clients in the Animation Industry Database (AIDB) is done. In particular,
links of two different agents, the suppliers (the studios) and their customers or buyers (the
clients), are the base of the analysis.
First, different levels of creativity and skills have drawn a spatial division of labor
onto the animation industry. Second, various strategies, such as co-production, are
selected by the global media conglomerates to penetrate the local markets for various
audiences tastes. Third, many latecomer countries have begun to enter production of
CGI animation because of Internet infrastructure and less expensive and easy-to-use
hardware and software packages.

122

Based on these characteristics of the current animation industry, animation studios in

different cities develop different networks using their various situations. Seven different
types of networks are identified: global producers, national animation producers,
networking without Hollywood, a focused network, a locally embedded network global
subcontractor and a diversified global network. Furthermore, these network types have
been influenced not only by skills and technology, but also by more complicated factors
such as institutions, business culture and cultural content.

7.2. Contributions of this study

This study is helpful to understand the geography of the animation industry, on which
there has been little research. Based on presenting the current map of animation
production, the different status of animation cities was investigated. Previous studies of
the entertainment industry have focused on the film, music and media industries, but
there have been few attempts to shed light on the global animation industry. In addition to
this, data on the animation industry is hardly found except for the data in AIDB. In
general, data that are used in many studies of the cultural industries is very aggregated.
The aggregated data sets are easily obtained but the animation industry is hardly
identified. This study compiles a data set from AIDB that is the first comprehensive data
on the global animation industry.
Based on the data, the geography of the animation industry was mapped by country
and by city. These maps show the That is globalization of the industry and agglomeration
in some mega cities at a global scale. The world animation cities are generally very
123

different from the top-ranking cities identified in other research on world cities. This
suggests that cultural sectors respond to aspects of the world economy that are not the
same as those which influence advanced producer services for example.
In addition to this, global networks of studios located in 20 cities were presented.
These networks are made up of the links between suppliers and buyers, and they respond
not only to low costs but also to various reasons, such as artistic traditions, cultural
closeness, experiences of the industry, the levels of creativity and story-telling skills. This
analysis provided new knowledge about global production networks, and identifies seven
distinct types of networks, which vary by city.

7.3. Limitations
Despite contributions of the study about the animation industry, this research cannot
be free from limitations. As pointed out before, obtaining data about the animation
industry is very difficult. No complete data set is readily available.
First, this study has focused on a global producer, Hollywood as both a supplier and
buyer. The important role of Hollywood cannot be ignored, but the research pays little
attention to other global players, such as Japan. Even though Japanese animation is less
dominant in terms of worldwide distribution in theater markets, the overall influence of
Japanese animation as global producers is well established. In particular, Japanese
animators have dominated TV animation markets for a long time and licensing products
based on animated characters has been vital to animation studios in Japan. The partialness

124

of the data from AIDB is recognized. Even though the data set used here set omits studios
from non-English speaking countries, particularly in Asia, such as Japan and China.
A second limitation is that most studios in subcontract did not identify, their clients,
perhaps because of nondisclosure clauses in subcontract agreements, which limits the
GPNs analysis. Based on the data, we could know who some of the buyers and suppliers
in the industry, but this did not explain the complete of networks between all buyers and
all suppliers. In addition to this, we have no way to know which exact production tasks
are mainly involved in outsourcing and which are not.

7.4. Suggestions for Future Research

There are, however, some suggestions to be addressed in future research.
First, this research focuses on production of the animation industry at a global scale.
Therefore, local context in the diverse animation centers could not be explained fully. For
future research, different scales of research on the animation industry should be tried.
Second, a different research method also is needed in order to understand the different
scales of the industry in future research. Furthermore, deeper knowledge and
understanding local context including regional history, institutions, and business culture
should be investigated in various ways. For instance, in-depth interviews or surveys to
local animation studios or individual animators would add details to identify the
geography of the animation industry.
In summary, future research should consider the following perspectives: 1) Find
better data on the animation industry, especially longitudinal data; 2) Focus on animation
125

production at national, regional and local scales. 3) In order to explain different regional
or local animation production, further knowledge of regional or local situations may be
necessary. These would uncover the often rich traditions of animation that still exist
despite the Disneyfication and globalization of animation that has been occurring for
several decades.

126

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144

APPENDIX A
THE PROCESS OF ANIMATION PRODUCTION

145

There are five stages in animation production. The first stage, development
(conceptualization) is the very beginning of the entire production process. At this point, a
piece of a story and main characters are visualized and developed by original writers or
directors. For more systematic development of the story, producers hire professional
story editors (Wright 2005). In addition to the story, the budget, schedule, length of a
movie or episode (pilot episode for TV series), other business related planning and basic
concepts of art work will be done at this stage (Tschang and Goldstein 2004). At this
stage, original writers or directors have to lock in their financial sources, so they make a
production plan, including numbers of scenes, story plot and attractive characters as
detailed as possible.
The second stage is pre-production. From this stage, agreement between production
team, a purchaser and distributors begin to be important. The key activities at this stage
are visualization and making a style guide, that is, the story becomes visualized.
Additionally, recording of the voice-over audio track is made and then animators make
the animation based upon a style guide and this voice audio track (Raugust 2004).
Designers make decisions for various characters and other details such as background
design. Sometimes, this stage can take many months, even up to a year. However,
attention in pre-production can reduce production cost and time in later stages.
The third stage is production. This stage is where global production of the animation
industry has occurred especially in 2D animated films (See Figure A.2). Labor intensive
work for making traditional cel-animated film is subcontracted to the animation studios
in other countries. Story boards and characters in the animated film are planned by the
146

major studios, such as Disney, and the subcontracting studios work to a strict schedule.
Production time varies by project; usually the production phase on 3D animated films
takes longer than on 2D animated films.25
For a full-length feature film, the rendering process (calculating the position of each
characters body parts for each expression or movement) can take more than a year of
round-the-clock calculation. For Madagascar which depicts the adventures of animals
transplanted from a zoo into the wild DreamWorks computer center (or render
farm) ran seven days a week for a year and a half.
Although the subcontracting studios are doing routine tasks, communication is
frequent between subcontractors and the major studios that created the original concepts
of the animation. For instance, painting by the subcontracting studios has to satisfy their
clients, the major studios. To ensure this, they contact between them is frequent and
making a good working relationships is a key precondition for a good quality film
(Tschang and Goldstein 2004).
The most different process between 2D and 3D animated films at this stage is the
back-and-forth process in 3D animated films. Raugust (2004) explains this process in
detail:
Animators working in 3D animation and gaming also use a back-and-forth process,
completing many tasks historically associated with production during preproduction. For
example, when creating the main model pack (like the character design in 2D), a
25

In general, nine to twelve months are needed for making a 2D TV series and 18 months
to 2 years for a 2D theatre film. Especially in production of TV animation series, a pilot
episode, the first episode of the animation series, is done before the premier date. The rest
of episodes are made while the first parts of the series are on air at the same time. In the
case of CGI TV series, animators spend six to eight weeks for one episode (Raugust
2004).
147

preproduction task, 3D animators often complete some of the key framing, traditionally a
production task. Conversely, the 3D production process will sometimes unearth
technological needs that must be resolved, taking a scene back into preproduction. And
since producers and directors can review details in CG, just as they can in live action,
scenes can be revised immediately, creating more of a continuous or rolling editing
process (p. 54).
In this sense, production of 3D animated films is less movable than that of 2D animated
films because the interconnected back-and-forth production process of 3D animated
films does not easily allow major studios to set up overseas production (See Figure A.3).
The final stage is post-production. Technological mistakes that may have been made
in the previous stages are corrected in editing at this stage. Also, sound is added as well
as titles and credits. 26 To exhibit in theatres, prints are copied at this stage. In addition to
copies of final version of animated films, other information, such as script, lyrics of songs
in the films are delivered together.

26

Postproduction includes many tasks: sound effects and sound editing, color correction,
retakes and recording sessions, title and credit approval, negative cutting, creating
textless versions for foreign markets, quality control and video duplication or film
processing (Ragust, 2004).
148

Source: adapted from Coe and Johns (2004), Winder and Dowlatabadi (2001)
Figure A.1. The generalized production process of the animation industry

149

Source: adapted from Jones and Oliff (2007) and Winder and Dowlatabadi (2001)
Figure A.2. The production process of 2D animation

150

Source: adapted from Anzovin, S. and Anzovin, R. (2005), Economist (2005), Weishar
(2002), and Winder and Dowlatabadi (2001)
Figure A.3. The production process of 3D animation

151

APPENDIX B
ANIMATION STUDIOS: COUNTRY, LOCATION AND TYPES OF BUSINESS

152

Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
15
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
27
28
30
31
32
34
35
37
40
43
44
45
46

Country

Number

United States
India
United Kingdom
Canada
France
Germany
Israel
Spain
Australia
China
South Korea
Argentina, Mexico, Netherlands
Belgium, Philippines
Brazil
Ireland
South Africa
Sweden
Japan
Denmark
Pakistan
Taiwan
New Zealand, Singapore
Turkey
Malaysia, Poland
Finland
Russia
Austria, Iran
Bulgaria
Colombia, Portugal
Hungary, Indonesia, Norway
Egypt, Rumania, Switzerland
Czech Republic
Bangladesh
United Arab Emirates
Croatia, Greece, Uruguay

1211
449
376
354
314
127
119
108
99
60
54
46
41
38
34
32
30
29
28
26
24
22
21
20
19
18
17
16
15
14
13
12
11
10
9

Source: calculated from data in AIDB (2008a)

Table B.1. Number of animation studios by country

153

%
28.7
10.6
8.9
8.4
7.4
3.0
2.8
2.6
2.3
1.4
1.3
3.3
2.0
0.9
0.8
0.8
0.7
0.7
0.7
0.6
0.6
1.0
0.5
1.0
0.5
0.4
0.8
0.4
0.8
0.9
0.9
0.3
0.3
0.2
0.6

Cumulative
%
28.7
39.3
48.2
56.6
64.1
67.1
69.9
72.5
74.8
76.2
77.5
80.8
82.7
83.6
84.4
85.2
85.9
86.6
87.3
87.9
88.4
89.5
90.0
90.9
91.4
91.8
92.6
93.0
93.7
94.7
95.6
95.9
96.2
96.4
97.0
continued

Table B.1 continued

49 Chile, Luxembourg
51 Lithuania, Macedonia
Estonia, Serbia and
53 Montenegro, Sri Lanka,
Ukraine, Vietnam
Costa Rica, Ecuador, Lebanon,
58
Slovakia
Latvia, Nepal, Peru, Tunisia,
62
Venezuela
Armenia, Barbados, French
67 Polynesia, Guatemala, Kuwait,
Morocco, Panama, Syria
Algeria, Belize, Bolivia, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Dominica,
Ghana, Iceland, Jamaica,
Kazakhstan, Maldives,
75
Mauritius, Moldova,
Mozambique, Nigeria,
Paraguay, Qatar, Saudi Arabia,
Trinidad Tobago
Total 92 countries

154

8
7

0.4
0.4

97.4
97.6

0.5

98.5

0.4

98.8

0.5

99.2

0.0

99.6

0.0

4242

100.0

100.0

100.0

Business

Business/Professional
Management

Careers

Community

Production

Advertising agencies
Business agencies
Talent agencies
PR agencies
Casting agencies
Legal/ accounting services
Schools/ Educational institutions
Contract labor/ Temp services
Recruitment services
Job boards
Web entertainment portal
Film/ Trade commissions
Festivals/ Markets/ Trade Shows
Associations/ Societies
Museums/ Archives
Chats and forums
User groups/ Special interest Groups
Unions/ Guilds
Animation production
Graphic design
Visual effects production
Web animation production
Post-production services
Multimedia/ Interactive development
Pre-production services
Web site development
Game development
Motion picture studio
Sound/Music production
Performance animation/ Motion capture
studios
Screenwriting/ Editorial

Number of
studios

% of
number of
studios

341
41
26
25
16
7
151
52
30
16
164
59
57
44
25
20
10
5
4242
867
843
823
786
776
558
459
384
238
196

8.4
1.0
0.6
0.6
0.4
0.2
3.7
1.3
0.7
0.4
4.0
1.5
1.4
1.1
0.6
0.5
0.2
0.1
100.0
21.4
20.8
20.3
19.4
19.1
13.8
11.3
9.5
5.9
4.8

159

3.9

128

3.2

Continued
Source: compiled from AIDB (2008a)
Table B.2. Types of business

155

Table B.2 continued

Production

Commerce

Information/
Publishing

Television studio
Cable/Television networks
Voice Acting/ Voice talent
Theme park/ Ride design
Animation products/ supplies
Educational products
Software vendors
Distribution/ Syndication
Art galleries
Licensing/ merchandising
Hardware vendors
Equipment rentals
Reseller/ VAR/ VAD
Auction houses
Video stores/ Resellers
Specialty stores/ Resellers
New media
Industry websites
Comic book publishers
Magazine/ Ezine publishers
Book publishers
Market research
Journal publishers
Others

Total Studios

Source: compiled from AIDB (2008a)

Table B.2. Types of business

156

110
93
87
35
322
190
134
106
103
101
47
33
14
8
6
5
378
149
88
57
55
48
12
165
4058

2.7
2.3
2.1
0.9
7.9
4.7
3.3
2.6
2.5
2.5
1.2
0.8
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.1
9.3
3.7
2.2
1.4
1.4
1.2
0.3
4.1

APPENDIX C
CITIES OF WORLD ANIMATION STUDIOS

157

Group

Number (#s
of cities)
Alpha
309 (1)
220 (1)
199 (1)
177 (1)
121 (1)
Beta
92 (1)
70 (1)
69 (1)
65 (1)
64 (1)
57 (1)
51 (2)
Gamma
47 (1)
40 (1)
38 (2)
37 (2)
35 (2)
28 (2)
27 (2)
26 (2)
25 (1)
24 (2)
22 (3)
21 (6)
Regional
19 (2)
centers
18 (2)
17 (7)
16 (5)
15 (4)
14 (6)
13 (4)
12 (7)
11 (9)
10 (3)
9 (9)

City
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside
New York
Paris
London
Toronto
San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland
Chennai
Mumbai
Montreal
Vancouver
Bangalore
Hyderabad, Seoul
Delhi
Boston
Buenos Aires, Chicago
Barcelona, Annecy
Milan, Sydney
Kolkata, Pune
Berlin, Washington
Mexico City, Rome
Philadelphia
Portland
Dublin, Miami, Singapore
Bristol, Cologne, Copenhagen, Madrid, Munich, Tokyo
Atlanta, Phoenix
Minneapolis, Kuala Lumpur
Ahmadabad, Austin-Round Rock, Brussels, Istanbul, Johannesburg,
Orlando, Seattle
Dallas, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Sofia, Stockholm
Brisbane, Hamburg, Houston-Baytown-Huntsville, TX, Ottawa
Auckland, Budapest, Halifax, Karachi, Manchester, Tehran
Beijing, Detroit-Warren-Flint, MI, Rio de Janeiro, Shanghai
Amsterdam, Bogota, Bucharest, Cairo, Guadalajara, Kochi, San
Diego
Calgary, Denver, Dhaka, Lyon, Prague, So Paulo, Taipei, Tampa,
Vienna
Bangkok, Cardiff, Stuttgart
Belfast, Brighton, Cape Town, Dubai, Montevideo, Oslo, Valencia,
Warsaw, Zagreb

Continued
Source: based on data in AIDB (2008a)
Table C.1. Cities of world animation production
158

Table C.1 continued

Regional

8 (10)

centers

7 (7)
6 (8)
5 (18)

4 (27)

3 (47)

2 (105)

Angoulme, Bilbao, Coimbatore, Jakarta, Lisbon, Moscow, Saint

Petersburg, Salt Lake City, Santiago, Torino
Athens, Glasgow, Grenoble, Hanover, Lille, Luxembourg, Pittsburgh
Edinburgh, Hartford-West Hartford-Willimantic, Lahore, Pittsfield,
Rennes, Skopje
Amman, Antwerp, Belgrade, Cincinnati-Middletown-Wilmington,
Columbus-Marion-Chillicothe, Cordoba, Galway, Ho Chi Minh City,
Indianapolis, Kiev, Nashville, Shenzhen, St.Louis, Tallinn, Tel-Aviv,
Treviso, Trivandrum, Victoria, Vilnius, Wellington
Bandung, Belfast, Bielsko-Biala, Birmingham, Bologna, Bratislava,
Buffalo-Niagara-Cattaraugus, Charlotte, Christchurch, Derby,
Edmonton, Frankfurt, Geneva, Granada, Hangzhou, Indore, Ipswich,
Islamabad, Kilkenny, Leeds, London, Milwaukee-Racine-Waukesha,
Oxford, Provo-Orem, Rotterdam, Santa Fe-Espanola, Sheffield,
Wilmington, Gold Coast
Adelaide, Albuquerque, Beirut, Belo Horizonte, Breda, Chandigarh,
Colombo, Erfurt, Exeter, Faridabad, Genova, Greensboro-WinstonSalem-High Point, Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson, Guangzhou,
Hamilton, Honolulu, Kansas City-Overland Park-Kansas City,
Katmandu, Le Bourget du Lac, Lima, Matane, Moncton, Montpellier,
Napoli, Northampton, Palermo, Patna, Pisa, Pretoria, Quebec City,
Rajkot, Raleigh-Durham-Cary, Richmond, Riga, San Jose, San
Sebastian, Scranton-Wilkes-Barre, Sevilla, Springfield, St. Ismier,
Tunis, Utrecht, Vadodara, Varese, Virginia Beach, Visakhapatnam,
Winnipeg
A Corua, Aarhus, Albany-Schenectady-Amsterdam, Alkmaar,
Ancona, Ankara, Arles, Aurangabad, Bakersfield, Bath, Bathinda,
Beaumont-Port Arthur, Bhopal, Boise City-Nampa, Bridgetown,
Cagliari, Cambridge, Caracas, Changzhou, Charlottetown,
Chattanooga-Cleveland-Athens, Cleveland-Akron-Elyria, Coventry,
Curitiba, Damascus, Den Haag (The Hague), Dundee, Dsseldorf,
Fargo-Wahpeton, Gard, Geldrop-Mierlo, Gent, Giza, Green Bay,
Grosseto, Halle (Saale), Harpenden, Hasselt, Hilo, Hilversum, Hobart,
Huntsville-Decatur, Kranj, Kuwait City, Las Vegas-ParadisePahrump, Leicester, Lige , Ljubljana, Llanelli, Madison-Baraboo,
Mlaga, Mangalore, Marseilles, Mauricie, Medelln, Milton Keynes,
Monterrey, Mysore, New Orleans-Metairie-Bogalusa, Newport,
Niagara Falls, Noosa, Norwich, Norwich-New London, CT,
Nottingham, Oklahoma City-Shawnee, Olinda, Ottawa-Gatineau,
Panama City, Papeete, Perth, Perugia, Poole, Portland-LewistonSouth Portland, Porto, Potsdam, Puebla, Quito, Rochester-BataviaSeneca Falls, Salinas, Salzburg, San Antonio, San Juan (Puerto Rico),
San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Goleta,
Santiago de Compostela, Sarasota-Bradenton-Punta Gorda,

Continued

159

Table C.1 continued

2 (105)

1
(408)

Hertogenbosch, Slough, Soyaux, Steiermark, Strasbourg, Surat,

Szczyrk, Thessaloniki, Thiruvananthapuram, Tucson, TulsaBartlesville, Valence, Viborg, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Windsor (UK), Yeovil,
Yerevan, Zaragoza
Aachen, Aarschot, Abu Dhabi, Accra, Ajmer, Albert Lea, Albertville,
Alessandria, Alicante, Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, Almaty,
Amersfoort, Amiens, Amravati, Ankeveen, Arnhem, Asansol, Asse,
Asuncin, Aubire, Auburn, Augusta-Richmond County, Avanca,
Aveiro, Bacolod, Baden Baden, Banbury, Bar Harbor, Bari, Basel,
Beit Shemesh, Beit Shean, Belfast, Belleville, Bellingham, Belper,
Bentong, Berango, Bergamo, Berkhamsted, Berlin, Bernburg,
Bewdley, Billericay, Birmingham-Hoover-Cullman, Bitola,
Blackpool, Blida, Blumenau, Bogor, Bordeaux, Borgomanero,
Bournemouth, Bradford, Brasilia, Bremen, Bretagne, Bridgend,
Bucheon, Bhlertal, Calicut, Camira Creek, Canberra, Cardif,
Casablanca, Cedar Rapids, Cham, Charleston, Charlottesville,
Chatham-Kent, Chisinau, City of Shoalhaven, Clermont Ferrand,
College Station-Bryan, Colonia Del Valle, Colorado Springs, Como,
Coos Bay, Cornwall, Costa de Caparica, Covilha, Crest, Cromarty,
Cuenca, Cumberland, Dalton, Des Moines-Newton-Pella, Diego
Martin, Doha, Doncols, Dordrecht, Dresden, Dlmen, Dumaguete
City, Dunwich, East London, East Stroudsburg, Edwards, Eindhoven,
Emmaljunga, Empuriabrava, Eskiehir, eThekwini, Fanar,
Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, Flekkefjord, Floreal, FlorenceFort
Collins-Loveland, Fort Wayne-Huntington- Fortaleza, Frameries,
Friesland, Frome, Galle, Galway, Gdask, Gelnhausen, Gilford,
Gingins, Gloucestershire, Godalming, Goes, Gothenburg, Grand
Rapids- Muskegon-Holland, Grange Over Sands, Great Missenden,
Groningen, Grouville, Guanajuato, Guatemala City, Guayaquil,
Haapsalu, Haarlem, Hadera, Hgersten , Haifa, Hanoi, Harlingen,
Harrisburg-Carlisle-Lebanon, Hartlepool, Heiligkreuzsteinach,
Hertford, Herzliya, Hitchin, Hollenstedt, Honiton, Hull, Hyderabad,
le-des-Chnes, Incheon, Indery, Inverness, Isle of Man, IthacaCortland, Iver Heath, Jabbeke, Jacksonville, Jaffa, Jammu,
Jamshedpur, Jeddah, Jerusalem, Jevington, Jnkping, KalamazooPortage, Kaliningrad, , Kannur, Karlshamn, Karlsruhe, Karlstad,
Kaufbeuren, Kaunas, Kecskemet, Khammam, Kharkov, Kiama,
Kingston, Kitchener, Klagenfurt, Klaipda, Kobe, Kodad, Kongsberg,
Kotte, Krakw, Kramfors, Kunpo City, La Paz, Lahti, Lake City,
Lakeland, Lancaster, , Langly, Langres, Las Rozas de Madrid,
Lausanne, Laval, Leiden, Leipzig, Leschaux, Leuven, Limburg,
Lindesberg, Linkping, Linthorpe, Logan, Loreto, Lucerne, Lynn,

Continued
160

Table C.1 continued

1
(408)

Macamic, Macerata, Magdeburg, Maharashtra, Maidenhead, Mainz,

Mal, Malaga (Spain), Malm, Mansfield-Bucyrus, Maputo,
Middlesbrough, Mijdrecht, Miano, Minya, Miramichi, Modena,
Modesto, Moffat, Montgomery-Alexander City, Mooskrichen,
Moreda, Moss Vale, Motzkin, Mugla, Muriae, Naga City, Nagpur,
Nakornpathom, Nanaimo, Nancy, Nanjing, Nantes, Nelson, Neu
Isenburg, Neum, Newcastle upon Tyne, New Romney, Niagara on the
Lake, Nice, Nijmegen, Nonthaburi, Novara, Novi Sad, Nutley,
Oberhaching, Ostrava, Ourense, Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville,
Pamplona, Parma, Parramatta, Pembrokshire Crymych, PendletonHermiston, Peshawar, Phagawara, Ponca City, Pontyclun, Port St.
Lucie-Sebastian-Vero Beach, Portadown, Port Harcourt, Porto
Alegre, Portsmouth, Poznan, Prato, Prescott, Pszczyna, Puerto Galera,
Pwllheli, Ra'anana, Rabat, Raipur, Ratoath, Red Bluff, Redhill,
Reggio Emilia, Regina, Rehovot, Reno-Sparks-Fernley, Runion,
Reykjavik, Riazzino, Ribble Valley, Riverview, Rockford-FreeportRochelle, Rocky Mount, Roseau, Rosieres, Rouen, Rourkela, RouynNoranda, Rovaniemi, Royston, Sabadell, Sacramento-Arden-ArcadeYuba City, Saginaw-Bay City-Saginaw Township North, Sagunt,
Saint Albans, Saint John, Saint Baldoph, Saint Augustin de
Desmaures, Saints, Salem, Salina, Salt Spring Island, San Pedro,
Santa Cruz, Santa Fe, Santiago de Cali, So Carlos, Sapporo,
Saskatoon, Savannah-Hinesville-Fort Stewart, Schwerin, Sendai,
Sevenoaks, Seville, Seynod, Shelburne, Shetland, Shiraz, Shoalhaven
City, Sidney (Canada), Silver City, Sitges, Sborg, Sderhamn,
Solihull, South Bend-Elkhart-Mishawaka, Southampton, Springfield,
St. George, UT, St. Lazare, St. Marys, Staplehurst, Stirling,
Stockbridge, Stockton-on-Tees, Stourbridge, Straume, Surabaya,
Suzhou, Swindon, Sydney, Nova Scotia, Syracuse-Auburn, Tain,
Tainan, Tallahassee, Taunton, Terni, Terrassa, Test Valley, Themar,
Thrissur, Tilburg, Timioara, Tonekabon, Torrington, Toulouse,
Townsville, Trento, Trichy, Tring, Trollhttan, Trondheim, Tucuman,
Tupelo, Turku, Ujjain, Vannes, Vellinge, Venturina, Vernal, Vernon,
Vicenza, Villeurbanne, Virum, Visby, Wagga Wagga, Warrington,
Waterford, Waterloo-Cedar Falls, Westbourne, Westminster, Windsor
(Canada), Wolverhampton, Woodbridge, Woodford, Wroclaw,
Wuhan, Yekaterinburg, Youngstown-Warren-East Liverpool,
Zaventem, Zrich, Zwickau

Source: based on data in AIDB (2008a)

161

Group
Alpha
Beta
(28)*

Gamma
(17)*

City (Number of studios per 1 million population)

Annecy (74.0)
Bristol (38.2), Brighton (35.8), Halifax (35.0 ), Vancouver (29.3), Cardiff
(28.7), Los Angeles (25.1), Toronto (22.8), Dublin (21.2), Cologne (21.0),
London (20.8), Paris (20.3), Copenhagen (19.3), San Francisco (18.3),
Montreal (17.9), Brussels (17.0), Munich (16.2), Austin (15.5), Helsinki
(14.6), Sofia (14.6), Portland (13.3), Orlando (13.1), Auckland (12.7), Ottawa
(12.5), New York (11.8), Milan (11.7), Zagreb (11.6),
Valencia (11.3), Oslo (11.2 )
Amsterdam (10.9), Taipei (10.7), Calgary (10.4), Chennai (10.1), Stockholm
(9.4), Prague (9.4), Boston (9.2), Bangalore (8.8), Hamburg (8.8), Salt Lake
City (8.5), Bilbao (8.5), Hyderabad (8.3), Brisbane (8.3), Budapest (8.2),
Kochi (8.2), Sydney (8.1), Berlin (8.0)

Regional
Lyon, Rome (7.8), Barcelona (7.7), Angoulme (7.3), Melbourne (7.2),
Centers
Montevideo (7.1), Minneapolis (6.9), Dubai (6.8), Washington DC,
(61)*
Manchester, Pune (6.4), Bucharest (6.2), Seattle (5.7), Atlanta (5.6), Warsaw
(5.4), Seoul (5.3), Johannesburg (5.2), Singapore (5.1), Coimbatore, Denver,
Tampa, Vienna (4.9), Torino (4.8), Philadelphia (4.6), Phoenix (4.4), Chicago
(4.3), San Diego (4.2), Miami (4.1), Mumbai, Madrid (3.8), Stuttgart (3.7),
Manila (3.6), Dallas (3.4), Detroit (3.3), Ahmadabad (3.2), Delhi (3.1),
Buenos Aires, Guadalajara (3.0), Cape Town, Lisbon (2.9), Hong Kong (2.2),
Kolkata (2.0), Tehran (1.9), Istanbul (1.7), Bogota (1.6), Bangkok, Saint
Petersburg (1.5), Santiago (1.4), Mexico City (1.3), Beijing, Karachi (1.2),
Kuala Lumpur (1.0) Rio de Janeiro, Cairo (1.1), Dhaka, Shanghai (0.9),
Moscow (0.8), Jakarta, Nashville, So Paulo, Tokyo (0.6)
NOTE:* ( ): Numbers of cities
Source: calculated from data in AIDB (2008a)
Table C.2 Number of animation studios per 1 million population, for cities that have
more than 8 total studios

162