In about six months, MPC LA's work has included high-profile spots for Guinness (Fridge Magnet) and PlayStation. All images courtesy of MPC.

London's Moving Picture Co., a pillar of Britain's visual effects community, enhanced its reputation by adding a satellite facility in Vancouver, British Columbia (working on Watchmen). Then in the autumn of 2008, MPC branched out even farther, launching a boutique commercial-focused facility in Santa Monica, California. Operating under the leadership of veteran producer Mark Tobin, MPC LA has already made its presence known with music video work for Depeche Mode and commercial spots for such major advertisers as Guinness and Sony PlayStation.

Because MPC LA is connected to the company's London headquarters via a high-speed network, the studio can deliver a lot more than one might expect from a studio staff of 25 (regularly supplemented by freelancers). In addition to offering capabilities in 3D animation, previs and 2D vfx and compositing, Tobin notes, "We are different from the other houses in L.A. because we have telecine under one roof, alongside high-end visual effects. Being able to share work with London means that we've had big jobs that a standalone company of our size typically wouldn't be able to do. We can split those up so that a crew here and a crew in London will work on it." Tobin hopes that the new facility can also benefit from the expertise of MPC's parent company, Technicolor (especially now that Tim Sarnoff has become president of the new Digital Prods. division). "The idea is that we would help our clients realize the benefits of Technicolor in terms of film processing for dailies for commercials. They've been really supportive in terms of working out color science for us. Technicolor also has an interactive and games division, and I think that could be a natural area of business for us."

Because of the connection to the parent facility in London, MPC LA does everything from 3D animation, previs and 2D vfx and compositing.

MPC LA was launched by Tobin with a handful of industry veterans, including Senior Colorist Mark Gethin, VFX Supervisors Franck Lambertz, Duncan McWilliam and Daniel Sanders and Head of Production Andrew Bell. The majority of staff hires have been from California, notes Tobin, who previously was a producer at Method and managing director and exec producer at A52. "We're always on the lookout for good freelance CG people. Most of our technology is fairly user-friendly -- we primarily use Maya, Flame, Smoke and Shake. We've tried to organize it so that freelancers can come in here and within a day get up to speed." However, Tobin adds that the studio's use of Shake may change. "Shake has been actively developed by MPC's feature division in London, and it works for us right now, though I imagine we'll eventually migrate to Nuke for compositing because of the talent base that knows how to use it."

At the same time, MPC LA offers its clients the benefit of the proprietary tools that MPC London has developed throughout the years. "That's where the added value is for clients who want to do something that you can't get off the shelf at any old place," Tobin asserts. MPC's proprietary toolkit includes the crowd simulation software Alice and the PAPI physics engine, which is used for realistic shattering of hard materials and detailed fur grooming. "Right now, all the R&D is happening at MPC in London," explains Tobin. "We do some simulation work in L.A., but the idea was to not reproduce what we have in London. We want to leverage what MPC London has developed over the years, and use those resources as we need them."