Day 5: Glass Egg: A Virtuous Studio
We went to Glass Egg Animation Studio. It was my favorite site visit so far. They are the number one animation studio in the world for cars. As a self-proclaimed animator who takes four hours to animate a simple ball bounce on Procreate Dreams, I found particular appreciation for the talent of each artist. Walking by the desks, I watched one animator spend three minutes editing a single line on a tiny plate within an engine. The attention to detail is immaculate, which is what sets the company apart from others. When we play these games, I think we all tend to take for granted the amount of work that goes into the designs.
They are so in depth and skilled with their designs that sometimes the car companies will even take their advice. I was told that a few years ago Maserati made a new car and began producing it. It was then sent to Glass Egg to be animated for a game. The animators realized that there was a way to maximize the efficiency of the car by changing the design, so Maserati took their suggestion and actually changed the design of the new car in production. This really shows the level of technicality involved in each design, spanning beyond looks and into the actual functionality of the cars.
We were told that there is very minimal cross discipline work for artists. Each one is extremely specialized in their role, which means the team needs a mastery of collaboration to successfully complete each project, especially at the speed they do, with each car taking only a few weeks to complete from the initial client request to the final produced product.
The woman giving the tour was incredibly insightful. She explained that 35% of the company is women, and the new manager is the first female in her role. This is well above the industry standard of only about 20%. In terms of sustainability, the company focused heavily on the sustainability of their artists. Until recently, graphic design was not a major in Vietnamese universities. So unless the rare student who had studied abroad was applying, most artists are hired based on raw talent. That is incredibly risky for a company because they need to predict the future success of an untrained employee. This means they put a lot of effort into hand-selecting each person who works for them.
They then provide on-site job training at no charge. They also provide accommodations and support to allow employees the ability to afford their lifestyle while they are in training. I asked if they find many hires are unable to meet the standard despite training, which would lead to a high turnover rate and wasted resources for the company. However, I learned that they work with employees until they reach the standard, whether that means meeting the level within the expected time frame or needing extra support. Those who excel have their talent reflected in high initial job placement post-training.
A company that is so willing to individually tailor training to their hand selected hires is a company that succeeds. They do not try to fit everyone into a mold, but rather work with each individual to ensure success. When a team relies on so many moving pieces, it is essential that everyone is cohesive and doing their part. She explained that Glass Egg cares about more than just the output for the client, but also about creating a better life and opportunities for everyone who is part of the company. It is rare to see this in a corporation.
During the Q&A, I asked a question about whether they ever reuse designs across multiple clients or versions of games. They do something called remastering, where they take a design and make it better, either aesthetically or functionally. As someone interested in law, I am curious about to what extent they are allowed to remaster designs across clients without breaking copyright laws. If a client purchases a design that they expect to be unique to their game, I can imagine they would have legal grounds to sue if Glass Egg gives the same design to another game. Does the design become the property of the game that purchased it? Since laws differ country to country and Glass Egg works worldwide, I wonder if they are able to reuse more designs when producing in countries with less strict rules on property ownership. Or perhaps they need to strip the design down to a certain level, like the basic code or sketching, so it does not need to be restarted from scratch while ensuring the remastered finished product does not resemble the original.
We were unable to take pictures in the studio due to the work of the animators being unreleased, so please enjoy the pictures of the food I ate throughout the day!