The Polar Express marks the debut of Imageworks’ proprietary ImageMotion performance capture technology. This software allowed Tom Hanks to perform five characters in sequence on a Mo Cap stage. © 2004 Warner Bros. Ent. All rights re

Sony Pictures Imageworks was five years old when Warner Bros. executive Tim Sarnoff took the helm in 1997. The company had already gotten on the map by luring five-time Oscar winner Ken Ralston away from ILM, and his presence had prompted perennial Ralston collaborator Robert Zemeckis to tap Imageworks for visual effects work. Signing Ralston was a move, Sarnoff observes, “that said Sony was serious.”

Seven years later, Ralston and Imageworks have just completed the visual effects on Zemeckis’ latest film, The Polar Express (a Warner Bros. release on Nov. 10). But the nature of the all-CG film, and Sony Imageworks’ contributions to it, speak volumes about how the studio has evolved. Not only have Ralston and company brought their proven visual effects skills to bear on the film’s fanciful worlds, but this project also marks the debut of the studio’s ImageMotion performance capture technology. Harnessing the latest Vicon capture hardware and applying proprietary software, Sony’s ImageMotion team gave Zemeckis a way to use more expressive MoCap performances by Tom Hanks as the basis for five animated characters in the film. With another Zemeckis-produced project, Monster House, already booked on the ImageMotion stage, it looks as though Sarnoff can confidently add a performance capture business to the Imageworks portfolio.

Tim Sarnoff moves Imageworks along three paths: Performance capture, 3D animation and photoreal digital work.

But perhaps the most dramatic development of all is Imageworks’ role as a CG animation provider for sister company Sony Pictures Animation. Imageworks’ 3D animators are already committed to providing animation for Open Season, with characters voiced by Martin Lawrence, Debra Messing and Ashton Kutcher and directed by The Lion King co-director Roger Allers. Also on the horizon is Surf’s Up, co-directed by former Pixar artist Ash Brannon and Chris Buck of Tarzan fame.

Regardless of the technical differences between the performance-captured stars of Polar Express, the animated critters of Open Season or the photoreal digital actors of the blockbuster Spider-Man franchise, Sarnoff sees a unifying 3D trend — character creation. “What ties all three of these businesses together is character animation.” Developing that ability, he believes, “is the greatest part of our success.”

A Matter of Characters
That success was by no means assured. “When I arrived at Imageworks,” Sarnoff recalls, “they were finishing Starship Troopers and Contact. We analyzed what was going well and what was going less well, and the character animation department was the least utilized part of the company. Even though the character animation group at that time had unbelievable artists, we hadn’t had the work to prove that.”

Sarnoff credits the 1999 animated effects film Stuart Little with changing perceptions. “When we focused our efforts on doing digital characters, we were not necessarily worrying about whether it was a live- action film or an animated film. The first Stuart Little was clearly a live-action film and Stuart Little 2 (2003) was clearly an animated film. Seventy-five percent or more was animated. The Polar Express is a film with motion-captured people that comes out looking like an animated movie. Despite the fact that it looks like an animated film, there were a lot more live-action people involved on The Polar Express than there were on Stuart Little 2. When I’d meet with The Polar Express team, much of what we’d talk about were the environmental effects. This is, without question, the largest visual effects movie we’ve ever made — it also happens to be the largest animated movie we’ve ever made, too!”