Archive for category I Design Your Eyes

Zoic Studios riding VFX boom

Posted by Dang in I Design Your Eyes on November 7, 2011

“Interviews with principals at Zoic Studios, a visual effects studio in Gastown. Principals Patrick Mooney, and Barbara Dawson talk about the boom in VFX work that’s under way in British Columbia.”

Watch Video from The Vancouver Sun:
Zoic Studios Ride VFX Boom

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Once Upon a Time, Sun, Vancouver, VFX-heavy feature films, Zoic Studios

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Zoic sees Vancouver as ideal satellite hub for booming VFX sector

Posted by Dang in I Design Your Eyes on November 7, 2011

Tax, talent and time zone.

A competitive advantage in all three has allowed British Columbia to mature into a North America hub for film and television production during the past 40 years.

Now, thanks to technology, Hollywood North is evolving into a world leader in the industry’s hottest sector: visual effects.

Visual effects, or VFX, aren’t exclusive to science fiction and fantasy; even conventional television dramas rely on them as a cost-effective alternative to set building and location shooting, and they’re also used to enhance special effects and physical stunts such as a car crash.

Eric Roth, a California-based spokesman for the VFX artists community, describes visual effects as the entertainment industry’s “new superstar.”

“When people plunk down $12 for their movie tickets, they’re looking to see great effects, whether in 2D, 3D, in Imax or as a download. From Hollywood to Bollywood, visual effects is now the key to the entertainment industry’s bottom line,” Roth, executive director of the Visual Effects Society, said in an email.

Hollywood Reporter recently estimated that VFX now accounts for more than 2,200 jobs in Vancouver — with hundreds more coming in the months ahead.

The list of VFX and digital animation companies that have set up shop here, or plan to open in the near future, reads like a who’s who of the entertainment industry, not including homegrown pioneers like Image Engine and Rainmaker Entertainment.

Your cost of shooting in a green room — essentially, an empty room with green walls where VFX artists superimpose a background after the actors have been filmed in it — could be one-fifth the expense of a physical set.

Los Angeles-based Zoic Studios was one of the first arrivals, adding a Vancouver operation in 2005 in the Sun Tower on Pender. They moved last December, over the course of a weekend amid a hectic production deadline, to expanded facilities in Gastown.

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Canada, film, Once Upon a Time, TV, Vancouver, Zoic Studios

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Zoic Tags Up FIFA Street

Posted by admin in I Design Your Eyes on August 24, 2011

The excitement over the latest installment of Electronic Arts FIFA STREET is intense. When the game was announced at GamesCom 2011 in Cologne, Germany on August 16, it was trending #6 worldwide on Twitter beating the Justin Bieber juggernaut. Zoic Studios was proud and happy to have been able to partner with EA SPORTS to create the announcement trailer for the event. The fan response has been tremendous.

“Our #1 mandate from EA SPORTS was that this trailer be, above all else, authentic,” says Levi Ahmu, Zoic’s Creative Director. “Naturally, our first action was an exploratory dive into the rich and textured world of street football.” Ahmu and Dmitri Gueer, ZOIC’s Senior Editor, worked on the edit to express this energy and enthusiasm in the piece. “Levi has an amazing sense of timing and an eye for detail. We had a lot of fun experimenting with the flow of the edit. That fun really comes across,” says Gueer.

“The guys at EA SPORTS supplied us with a phenomenal audio track (“Maskinen” by Skåmslåkkar),” continues Ahmu, “it’s an energetic pounding track that exemplifies the never ending excitement known in street football culture. The dev team provided us with some of the most amazing angles and coverage of the game, which made the editorial process a dream.”

That cultural excitement is communicated in all aspects of the trailer. Even the design is based on the street art of the community, again showcasing EA SPORT’s renowned commitment to authenticity. Zoic is pleased to have been a partner in letting the football community get a peak at this exciting title.

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FIFA Street EA Sports Graffiti Tags Up Games Design Zoic Levi Ahmu

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Fringe gets animated

Posted by Leslie Morgan in I Design Your Eyes on April 29, 2011

Last Friday night’s episode of Fringe entitled “Lysergic Acid Diethylamide” is one of the most unique and compelling productions to air on television. For Zoic Studios it was also one of the most ambitious, involving the creation of 240 heavily stylized animated shots, a blend of hand drawn and 3D techniques, in just under six weeks.

Inspired by graphic novels, Max Fleischer and Hanna-Barbera classics, Zoic began the process with extensive character designs for each of the actors who would appear in the animated dream-state. Storyboards were drawn for every scene in the show and were cut together with footage from stunt coordinator fight scene choreography and live action performances to retain the integrity of the actor performances and ensure that that these unique character personalities translate on screen. Using a unique blend of 3D and hand drawn bush strokes, Zoic created animated characters that strike a balance between stylized and authentic, allowing the subtleties of the actors’ emotions and mannerisms to shine through. The materials and footage from various formats were extensively tracked in Zoic’s project management pipeline, to effectively organize plates, actor and voice over performances and feed shot and version notes to the artists from the supervisors and client.

In addition to the character animation, the Zoic team recreated some Fringe sets and designed and animated new environments key to the narrative. These environments, often hand painted backgrounds projected onto 3D plates, have incredible depth of field and subtle hand held float, providing an immersive experience for the viewer.

“This project was one of the most intensive and rewarding we have worked on in Zoic’s history,” says Zoic Studios Creative Director Andrew Orloff. “It was an incredible undertaking, from the amazing writers at Fringe to the animation production that is both steeped in tradition and groundbreaking.”

For more info check out the article in Wired Magazine

Also here are some photos from this ground-breaking episode:

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Zoic congratulates our clients for extraordinary wins at the PromaxBDA Mi6 Conference!

Posted by admin in I Design Your Eyes on April 8, 2011

Last night at the PromaxBDA/Mi6 conference, DraftFCB & W&K won “Overall Marketing Campaign of the Year” for the ‘Your Mom Hates Dead Space 2′ campaign that features focus group mothers’ condemnation and fear of EA/Visceral Games’s Dead Space 2. Meanwhile, The Ant Farm swept the coveted PromaxBDA/Mi6 Agency of the Year. Two amazing wins for our friends and clients. Their creative & collaborative spirit, combined with innovation and savvy, earned these accolades…and what we can only assume are a few post-celebration hangovers.