Big - Time Animators Get Entrepreneurial.

To look at their resumes, David Niles White and Ron Tippe seem like two guys who are deeply entrenched in big-name animation.

White produced the pilot for "South Park" and set up a digital animation studio for the show's creators. He then became top executive for digital animation at Film Roman, which produced "The Simpsons," "King of the Hill" and "Family Guy."

Tippe produced the animation for the movie "Space Jam," and has worked on projects with Dream Works SKG, Warner Bros., Walt Disney Co., Universal Studios Inc. and Industrial Light & Magic.

But the very system that spawned White and Tippe also convinced them that the studio way of animation is too bogged down in expensive, time-consuming projects.

White and Tippe recently founded Digital Character Group in Culver City, an animation studio that will focus on smaller digital animation projects for television, film and the Internet.

"Part of the good thing about having come from the big studio system, we learned how to fight the good fight," said Tippe, senior vice president for creative affairs. "If you go to any of the major studios with a good idea, it's going to take months to get an answer back. They have huge production pipelines, they have to take certain considerations legally, they are inundated with properties, and in house they have lots of properties on their own. To act on something, it's going to take a major studio a year and a half or two years. We've made five deals in the past three weeks."

White and Tippe declined to elaborate on the projects they have underway, noting that a formal announcement of "some real fun stuff" is planned for Nov. 7. They are working on one feature film, two television projects, three Internet sites, a collaboration with a theme park and a series of commercials.

Tippe said the focus will be on smaller-budgeted projects, significantly less than the $100 million animated films produced by the majors. "We're lithe, and studios can't move on their feet quickly," White said.

But other considerations may make it a rough road ahead.

"In animation, there are only really three things you've got to be worried about: distribution, distribution, distribution," said Jon. Cantor, an attorney who works within the computer animation industry. "If they are going into the video and Internet market, they are going to have to get companies behind them that have distribution capabilities... and right now, the major studios are the ones that have that."

Cantor doesn't believe that focusing on small projects will be enough of a draw. "Unless they've got some technological widget that nobody else has, they're just going to be just another house," he said.

White said the company intends to rely on contacts at the majors for distribution. "We will still be distributed through the networks and the studios," he said. "We still have all those contacts that I made in television and Ron in film, and we intend to use them."

Another draw is the work atmosphere they are trying to create. Artists will have the option of coming to the studio to work or staying home and sending their work to the office via computer.

"We don't believe in telling the artists 'Here, draw this picture and when you are done, come back and draw another one for us,'" said White, president and executive producer. "We've been very blessed with a lot of folks coming up to the door and telling us they're happy to leave the factory environment."