Mafic Studios--bringing ideas to life.

From Pilot Investors to Focus Magazine, to a variety of aerospace firms, more and more international clients in need of bringing their ideas to life are turning to a Sudbury-based 3-D illustration and animation company.

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At the center of it all is Kris Holland, founder of Mafic Studios, whose status as his company's sole employee is increasingly jeopardized as business picks up.

"I've gone from being kind of busy to being insanely busy," says Holland, with a laugh. "Last year, 50 per cent of my time was paid for. Now it's about 120 per cent, and I'm working 16- and 17-hour days just to try and keep on top of things. I've more concurrent contracts than I've ever had before."

While the company's early days following its creation in 1999 found a relatively slow trickle of work, recent months have seen a variety of windfalls for Holland, who recently signed a three-year contract to create animation for the Canadian Space Agency. What's more, Popular Science magazine has regularly hired him to create an illustration every month, occasionally requesting that he produce an additional one or two.

With the ability to easily spin concept sketches and conversations into detailed images through the use of commercial software, Holland is in high demand and has recently completed work for clients in New York, Los Angeles and Italy, with regular clients continuously knocking on his door.

Holland estimates that the majority of his current work has fallen into a specific aerospace niche, with 60 per cent of his time going towards clients in that sector.

Much of his remaining time is spent doing conceptual work for Dr. Greg Baiden, who is an engineering professor at Laurentian University. With up to 25 per cent of his time invested in Baiden and many of his related projects, Holland is considering moving his office from his home to Baiden's Telerobotics and Automation Centre in an effort to maximize synergies and simplify communication.

In years past, Holland was forced to network to develop the appropriate contracts to help increase his business. These days, his success is bringing in the contracts for him.

"Now that I'm busy, people are doing all my sales for me so that I'm getting phone call after phone call from new people," says Holland. "I used to go after businesses all the time; I haven't been after one in eight or nine months at least and I feel no need to go to them anymore."

With his eye on the future, Holland says he'd like to do more work on the ground level of the design process.

Rather than just illustrate the end product he is interested in using his skillsets and experience to contribute to a client's conceptual and development phase.

www.maficstudios.com

By NICK STEWART

Northern Ontario Business