Mackay says that Gray Matter FX now upgrades its equipment every year to stay fresh and competitive. "It used to be every two to three years," she says. In addition Gray Matter is developing and testing an internal system for sending files back and forth from Vancouver to L.A., because the company has found T3 and even T10 lines too slow.

"The industry is maturing much as it always has: innovative effects seen in high-end, big dollar visual effects extravaganzas become, within a short few years or even months, the staple of low-budget shows," Atmosphere's Hoey says. "But while the expectations of our clients can seem crazy at times, for the most part we do manage to live up to them. Maybe our clients aren't so crazy after all!

"Where things have shifted over the last five years or so," Hoey continues, "is that hardware is no longer the kind of limiting factor that it once was. Hardware is cheap now: all our CG and compositing is done on generic Windows PCs with, perhaps, a bit of extra RAM and a fairly decent graphics card. Editing in HD and film resolutions can be done on ordinary Macs with Final Cut Pro and relatively inexpensive external RAID. It's great!"

Hybride has provided vfx for such major productions as Sin City (above), 300, Snakes on a Plane, Spy Kids. Property of Dimension Films. Courtesy of Hybride. 

"Software is still a limiting factor once you start getting into higher-end visual effects," comments Hoey, "simply because off-the-shelf software, while excellent, can only get you so far. For some shots you still need to dedicate resources to creating custom software tools."

Hoey also believes that the production pipeline is the most difficult resource to get right. "More vfx houses fall down because of a poorly-organized pipeline than any other single factor," he says. "My feeling is that creating a good pipeline is less about technology per se than it is about creative thinking. As always, it comes down to having good people who can anticipate problems and think them through."

"We are always seeking better, faster methods, and software and the hardware is never fast enough," comments Buzz Image's Moodie. "We recognize the importance of pipeline on any modern production, and have recently put a lot of effort into implementing and improving our own."

"We use Autodesk's 3ds Max as our primary 3D tool," says Frantic Films' Bond. "I realize that most of the industry leans towards Maya or Softimage, but using 3ds Max has really allowed us to do things in a time frame that is unbelievable when compared to the other tools." Bond points out that two of the feature films nominated for best visual effects last year had work in them produced by Frantic, using 3ds Max: previs for Poseidon and previs and final effects for Superman Returns.