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.

A current example of putting that idea into practice can be seen in a commercial MPC LA is doing for the San Diego Zoo through M&C Saatchi. "The piece has CG mastodons, which supposedly had more hair than you might think," laughs Tobin. "We're using MPC's proprietary software solutions developed in London, so that part of the job is being done there. It helps us win work when we can tell clients that we have some solutions in place that can help them, and that we won't have to reinvent the wheel. Nowadays it's all about cost, so any edge you have helps your business."

In projects that lean heavily toward 3D-CG, MPC London might do all or most of the work, with MPC LA doing the compositing. Communications among MPC sites and clients are facilitated by a secure network and the teleconferencing software CineSync. The time gap between the L.A. and London studios means that one site often works while another sleeps, edging the company closer to the holy grail of 24/7 production cycles. "I would love it if it were that easy," Tobin admits. "But it comes down to communication, and making sure that people on both ends know what needs to be done.

"You leave work and your email box is empty and when you come in the next morning there are 30 to 40 messages. That's the only downside," Tobin believes. The fact that London is eight hours ahead of Santa Monica can actually work to the advantage of MPC LA. "When we're pitching a job, we might have a director leave here at four in the afternoon and then we send concepts to London along with a brief description of our conversation with the director. We come in the next day and we have something waiting for us from London that we can show to the director -- who I know is scratching his head and thinking 'How did those guys do that?'"

While their portfolio now includes mostly commercials and music videos (including Depeche Mode's "Wrong"), MPC LA will soon branch out into interactive, back-end coding and other diversifications.

The give-and-take works both ways, notes Tobin. "We've worked on projects where the agency is in London and the director is here. We can have the agency people in a room at MPC in London see what we're doing -- and it's fully collaborative. We also do remote grading back and forth with London where the clients can sit here or in London and view the session in real time. At the end of the session we send the files back via our network." Tobin recalls a particular example of a job being done for Traktor in London that MPC wanted to show some Traktor people who were working in L.A. "We had the spot that they were working on in London wired across so they could sit here and look at it. Those people could ride their bikes up the bike path in Santa Monica to look at their job from London."

Another key benefit that Tobin sees for MPC LA is the ability to tap into the deep digital backlot that has been built up at MPC London, using a tool called Hub Viewer. "If you keep track of digital assets and archive them properly you can tweak models or animation cycles a bit and make them work for a new project. We're able to leverage some of the CG stuff that's already been built. I'm sure there have been times where people have been digging around for something that they couldn't find, but so far it's worked well for us."

Tobin's goal for MPC LA is to develop firm relationships among directors. "The great thing about having a company like this is that you can support those directors throughout their careers. Hopefully, we can maintain those relationships and grow with them. We hope we'll see them when they do features. So you always have to look after them in all facets of their careers. As soon as directors feel you've gotten complacent they sense that and move on.

"The dream of MPC is to work with directors and production companies that we've worked with in the past, and keep them happy. There's definitely a lot of crossover among people that I've worked with and that MPC has had relationships with, too," Tobin remarks. "It was nice when I met Mark Benson, who's the CEO of MPC, and Graham Bird, who runs commercials in London: that we talked about the people we knew and realized it was a really small world. But then Graham said, 'No, It's just the right-size world.' That has turned out to be true."

At the moment, MPC LA is busy working on a spot for Wrigley's gum with Fredrik Bond, and another with Danny Kleinman for a Traveler's Insurance campaign. Tobin is happy that the word about MPC LA is reaching people who admire the reputation of MPC London. "We certainly see agencies that are shooting here with an American director that come in to work with us because they know MPC." That leads to some interesting "international moments," Tobin admits with a chuckle. "We're doing an ad with Tom Kuntz for cheese strings... and I don't even know what cheese strings are!"

When Tobin turns his eye to the future growth of MPC LA, he expects that growth would probably come in the areas of desktop CG and compositing. "I think we have lots of things to do in terms of ad agencies and production companies to grow our core business. We also have to look for more talent to grow our telecine business -- at least by another telecine room. We also want to look into more of the digital interactive, web-based areas. We think there are cross-over possibilities for the assets that MPC has built that lend themselves to web-based applications. Everyone is looking to see how that will play out.

"In London we have a whole department that's Flash and back-end coding for websites," adds Tobin. "That's still a young, growing department and I think that's something we've got to do in L.A. as well. We can't just sit and think of ourselves as just making regular television commercials or we'll be in deep trouble in a year or so. So that's definitely an area of growth."

The biggest surprise that awaited Tobin in his new position, though, was nothing that could have been predicted. "Everyone has been dealing with the massive economic meltdown, and that's been a surprise for everyone. It perhaps wasn't the best time to have opened a new company, but we've been lucky to have gotten some great work and we've done well. I think if I had started a new company from scratch instead of a company with a proven brand name it would be a very different story!"

Ellen Wolff is a southern California-based writer whose articles have appeared in other publications, including Daily Variety, Millimeter, Animation Magazine, Video Systems and the website CreativePlanet.com. Her areas of special interest are computer animation and digital visual effects.