Malaysia's Lil Critter increases production productivity by 20% with ftrack Review

“We’re headquartered in Malaysia and have a studio in the UK,” says Ezarisyirwan Basri, Head of Studio and Productions at Lil Critter. “Our goal is to create content that resonates with global audiences, and I think our fusion of cultures and ideas enables us to harness different voices to tell stories that are high-energy, bold, and fun. In this sense, we do not differ much from studios in any other creative industry. We all just want an opportunity to share stories that entertain and delight!”

Unity is strength

Ezarisyirwan graduated from the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak in 2007 with a degree in cinematography. He went on to work at creative shops like KRU STUDIOS, where he was Head of Operations, before joining Lil Critter Workshop in 2018. “Over the last seven years, Lil Critter Workshop has completed over 40 hours of 2D animation for major brand owners and producers in the UK and North America,” he says.

The country’s Commonwealth status supports Malaysia’s global approach to animation; Malaysia has a strong English-speaking workforce, compared to other countries in the region. “Our bilingualism enables us to collaborate with English-speaking partners very efficiently,” says Ezarisyirwan. “It also helps that our technology infrastructure, laws, and regulations make working with Malaysia straightforward.”

There are financial benefits for Western companies to work with Malaysia, too. “We have the Film in Malaysia Incentive (FIMI), which provides up to 30% cash rebate on production expenditure in Malaysia. Therefore, our production cost is extremely competitive compared with other regions,” explains Ezarisyirwan. “It’s an interesting proposition for our clients, for sure. We’re currently working on two projects that benefit from the incentive.”

Keeping teams in sync

Although international collaboration with Malaysia may be more fluid than with other countries, the actual production of animated projects remains challenging as ever. Lil Critter’s productions have many moving parts and multiple episodes, as well as large animation teams that must collaborate effectively if they’re to meet deadlines. To keep its team connected, especially on cross-continental collaborations, Lil Critter turns to ftrack Review.

“A few years back, a need arose at the studio for a simple solution to help our clients and team review assets, storyboards, animation shots, and comps,” says Ezarisyirwan. “We started looking for something that would save us and our clients’ time when reviewing notes. We tried ftrack’s standalone media review tool, and it was a winner, not to mention a very cost-effective solution.”

Lil Critter uses ftrack Review almost daily to ensure the animation it produces is in line with client expectations. “We use ftrack Review to send deliverables to our clients,” says Ezarisyirwan. “The annotation feature makes it easy for clients to communicate their precise requirements. For example, they can annotate a rough sketch over a frame and pinpoint their specific expectations, so the artist knows what they need to do next.

“Sometimes, people can’t make a session due to timezone differences,” he continues. “ftrack Review has a solution for this too. We can export all feedback from a session as a PDF, which compiles the session notes and annotations neatly. We can then send that on, meaning no one is left out of the loop, wherever they may be.”

Speeding up production

Since adopting media review in ftrack Review, Ezarisyirwan has noticed a tangible increase in team productivity, with shots signed off faster and projects moving more swiftly toward delivery. 

“Since ftrack Review, we’ve saved every department’s information data entry and processing time by at least 20 minutes daily – over the months, that time saving adds up to a lot,” he explains. “We’re doing 30% fewer repeat retakes compared to before we used ftrack. I would say overall production productivity had increased by 20%. Furthermore, thanks to ftrack Review’s notes and annotation tools, Lil Critter’s artists have a better understanding of what’s expected in their shots, which translates into a higher quality in our work.

“ftrack Review is a solution I would heartily promote to the Malaysian animation industry. After all, animation is a universal language – and one in which ftrack is fluent.”