Jonathan Herberts decision in 1995 to re-name his New York-based computer animation company Zero Degrees Kelvin may be puzzling to some people. After all, what does zero degrees Kelvin, the absolute lower limit of temperature, have to do with computer animation?
Animation, even though its in motion, is a series of still images and at zero degrees Kelvin, molecular motion ceases so its really still, said creative director/ executive producer Herbert.
Herbert changed the name of his company to Zero Degrees Kelvin from Computer Illustration after the companys focus started to shift from illustration to animation.
I was calling people up and saying, AHi, Im Computer Illustration, and Im looking for animation work, and it seemed a little confusing, explained Herbert, who founded Computer Illustration in 1987. So I said, AYou know what, wait a minute, we need a new name, we want to do a new brand-identity thing.
For most companies, re-branding is an intricate and time-consuming endeavor. But for Herbert, his companys new identity simply evolved from a basic idea.
I kept thinking I need a cool name. Cool names are cool, he said. And finally Im sitting in my car one day and I was like, AOh, cool, of course, zero degrees Kelvin, its absolute zeroayou cant get any cooler.
Earlier in his career, Herbert spent three years at Herbert Wagner Computer Images, a photography and computer-imaging company he owned with still photographer David Wagner. After Herbert and Wagner, both of whom attended junior high school together back in their native Valley Stream, N.Y., parted ways and shuttered their company, Herbert launched Computer Illustration.
Although Herbert may come across more like a meteorologist than an artist or animator, he has spent most of his adult life artistically expressing himself. He graduated in 1977 from Bostons School of the Museum of Fine Arts with a diploma in painting. He spent a few years driving a taxi in New York and pursuing his passion for painting while living in what was then bohemian downtown Manhattan.
I was a typical downtown-New-York-try-to-paint-make-a-living-and-find-a-way kind of guy, recalled Herbert, who now runs a not-so-typical 2,500-square-foot facility located on the western edge of SoHo.
Herbert said he enjoys both painting and computer animation, although the latter medium, he argues, sometimes offers him some complex challenges.
When I pick up a paintbrush, its no big deal. Not only do I have the years of experience but its always the same technique, its always canvas, Herbert said. When I have a computer animation job, very, very, often its a matter of inventing the paint and canvas first. Its like: AHow are we going to do this job? What is the approach? And then you have to sit there and analyze it.
Although Herberts energies are more focused on computer animation at Zero Degrees Kelvin than on painting, he said he still likes to take his paintbox up by the roadside and paint wildflowers, landscape close-ups.
Herbert said when he first started shopping his book around at the very beginning, it was really the pharmaceutical art directors who showed the most interest. Not much has changed since the shops early days. Most of the recent spots Herbert, executive producer/general manager Suzanne Mauer, staff animator Ian Brookfield and the fairly extensive roster of about 100 freelance production artisans have worked on have been for pharmaceutical clients such as Centrum, Caltrate, Denorex, Tums and FiberCon.
Zero Degrees Kelvins large freelance roster includes animators, storyboard artists, sculptors, compositors, Flame artists, Avid editors, graphic designers and special effects directors. What that enables us to do is put together the absolute perfect team for each individual storyboard, said Herbert.
One of the more high-profile projects Zero Degrees Kelvin has worked on is Arm & Hammers 1996 Boxman, a PBS show open for Julia Childs Baking With Child created by Partners & Shevack, New York. The open features a talking, animated box of baking soda. Herbert said he is very fond of the Arm & Hammer piece because its character animation and its whimsical.
Zero Degrees Kelvins recent commercial work also includes 3-Way, a fully animated :10 for Evolve via New York ad agency Ciociola & Co.; Tums Spanish-language Testimonio and Para Dos, directed by Marcelo Szechtman of Colibri Films, Dallas and Marina del Rey, Calif., via jmcp Publicidad, New York; and FiberCons Tight Jeans, directed by Brian Coyne of Gargoyle Films, New York, via Carrafiello Diehl & Associates, Irvington-on-Hudson, N.Y., which features a bulging animated bottle of FiberCon.
Although Tight Jeans was not as complicated as some of Zero Degrees Kelvins other work, Herbert said it remains one of his favorite spots. It was not so much that it was amazingly difficult, he explained. The job with the spot was not to make that thing [the bottle] stand out; the bottle was not the whole story. My job in that position is not to upstage the commercial but to make it fit in.
Regardless of how complicated animating a spot may be, Herbert said the challenge remains the same for all projects that he works onahow to breathe as much life as possible into things. Considering that Zero Degrees Kelvin has managed to turn a yellow cardboard box of Arm & Hammer baking soda into a lifelike character, complete with mouth, eyes and arms, it is clear that Herbert and his team are up for any challenge, no matter how complexaor bizarre.
