Atmosphere Visual Effects of Vancouver has frequently turned work down due to the volume of business. The firm recently finished work on the DVD release Babylon 5: The Lost Tales. Courtesy of Warner Home Video.

The same, of course, applies to Montreal. "We're no different than anywhere else," says Buzz Image's Moodie. "Certain positions within 3D are always easier to fill than others. Where we benefit is a much more accessible immigration process, allowing us to employ much more easily talent from other countries when or where needed."

"We are really training more than we are recruiting," comments Hybride's Raymond. "There's a huge difference between the Canadian and the U.S. market, and by that I mean Hollywood. In the U.S., hundreds of freelancers can be hired to finish a movie, and then they are released. In Canada, we are forced to build and maintain a team, which we support even during a low cycle."

Raymond says that the upside to this arrangement is that there is continuity, and that the team is used to working with each other. And, when Hybride does hire freelancers, they tend to come from Europe as well as the U.S. "Many do not necessarily speak English, and that works for us," Raymond adds. "When the project is over, we do try to convince them to stay. The level of the work is very demanding, and the talent that comes to us has four-plus years of experience."

Frantic Film's Bond does note that there is a huge talent pool of artists in Canada. "We have been extremely lucky to employ some of the most talented people in our industry," he says. "As well, I was recently at a college meeting with graduates out of California in 3D and 2D and they were all keen to work out of Canada. I don't believe recruiting is currently an issue -- indeed, with our L.A. office, we can gear up or down as required very easily."

Buzz Image Group's Benoit Drouin (left) points out that their rate card is typically lower than those of Hollywood or Europe, while his colleague Robert Moodie finds that Quebec has become renowned for the quality of their technicians and crew.

In addition, a new generation of Canadian vfx pros is being trained in British Columbia. Rainmaker's Franklin says that there is a brand-new masters of digital media program being offered to university graduates this year. The full-time program offers students team-based experiences focused on project learning in close collaboration with British Columbia's games and digital media industry. The masters of digital media program is a 20-month course of study, including a summer internship, and the degree will be jointly awarded by Vancouver's four major post secondary institutions: the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design and the British Columbia Institute of Technology. The first class begins in September.

Franklin says that the program is being supported with a $40.5 million government grant. The degree program also received a $1 million grant from Electronic Arts Inc. (for the Great Northern Way Campus in Vancouver) in May.

"Education is a huge part of building a successful infrastructure," says Franklin. "It doesn't just relate to the service work. It will have an impact on developing intellectual property and developing animation projects in the full CG area."

Hot VFX
Meanwhile, the types of effects that Canadian companies are being asked to achieve are both complex and innovative. "We produce a lot of varied work, from our new creature department in Vancouver to our growing R&D department in Winnipeg," says Frantic Films' Bond. "In fact, the R&D department allows us to create a lot of custom tools to handle complex problems and develop 'new' tricks -- effects and looks not before seen."

"For example," Bond continues, "developed entirely in-house, Flood is the base of our fluid toolset which comprises a number of applications which allowed us to do entirely synthetic shots of water environments and dynamics both above and beneath the surface of the water for Superman Returns, as well as the exploding red sun of Krypton for the opening credits. We have a number of current projects including a stereoscopic film, which uses some of these custom tools to create totally synthetic creatures and environments. We're very excited about the results!"

Atmosphere's Hoey says, "We recently finished work on the July 31 DVD release Babylon 5: The Lost Tales (Warner Home Video) In a compressed six-week schedule, we completed over 150 shots of space battles, virtual sets, matte paintings, shots involving complex fluid dynamics -- you name it. While we had done that kind of stuff before on other shows, we had to come up with some clever techniques to complete it for such an intense deadline. We were pretty happy with how it turned out."