Last Saturday the 12th, Zoic Studios celebrated its 2009 Holiday Party at the visual effects company’s Culver City, California studio.

The festive fête featured hors d’œuvre, an epicurean sit-down buffet dinner, plenty of wine & spirits, and a DJ spinning tunes until the wee hours of 11pm. Zoic co-founders Loni Peristere, Steve Schofield & Andrew Orloff, and CFO Tim McBride gave out exciting prizes to the throng, including an American Express gift card, a trip to Santa Ynez wine country, and a paid day off.

The party was planned by Katie Johnson, whose efforts produced a fantastic evening enjoyed by one and all.

Yesterday evening, Zoic Studios hosted the Visual Effects Society 2009 Holiday Party from 7:00 – 10:00 PM. About 200 VES members showed up at Zoic’s Culver City studio to schmooze over booze and enjoy delicious catered hors d’œuvre.

From the VES web site:

The Visual Effects Society (VES) is the entertainment industry’s only organization representing the full breadth of visual effects practitioners including artists, technologists, model makers, educators, studio leaders, supervisors, PR/marketing specialists and producers in all areas of entertainment from film, television and commercials to music videos and games. Comprised of a diverse group of more than 2,000 members in 20 countries, the VES strives to enrich and educate its own members and members of the entertainment community at large through a multitude of domestic and international events, screenings and programs.

The 8th Annual VES Awards Show will be held on February 28, 2010 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Beverly Hills.

More info: The new VES web site; the photoset on Flickr.

It’s the night before Halloween, and the ghouls and witches at Zoic Studios are showing off this year’s coolest costumes. Tonight: a Zoic Halloween get-together, with costume prizes and free treats.

Wanna work here? Of course you do. Quit your job and get really good at Maya.

Yesterday evening, Culver City, California’s Zoic Studios hosted an exclusive salon event, featuring an open discussion of the history of, and trends in 3D entertainment;  plus an exhibition of stereoscopic (3D) art.

Leslie Ekker, Zoic’s commercial creative director, hosted the informal, free-of-charge event, which attracted about 60 entertainment industry professionals.

Electronic stereoscopy pioneer Lenny Lipton discussed the history of stereoscopy in film. Lipton is recognized as the father of the electronic stereoscopic display industry, having invented many of the current state-of-the-art 3D technologies.

Johnathan Banta, Digital Supervisor at Sassoon Film Design, discussed the conversion of 2D moving images to 3D. His most recent work includes the films The Brothers Bloom, Quarantine, Milk and Public Enemies.

Digital effects animator Franklin Londin spoke about new autostereoscopic displays, which do not require the polarized or anaglyph (red and blue) glasses formerly necessary for 3D. Londin brought to the event his brand new digital stereo camera from Fuji, soon-to-be-available om the US, accompanied by a stereo picture frame.

Londin also brought a collection of his amazing sculptures, integrating 3D photographs displayed through illuminated viewers.

A number of 3D books and stereoscopes were on hand, for attendees to attempt to ruin their vision trying out.

Ray Zone, film historian, author, artist and stereoscopy pioneer (the “3D King of Hollywood”), explained the functioning of a 1950s-era 3D slide projector. Franklin Londin used the projector to show stereo slides from his collection.

Zoic provided food and wine for the participants. Based on the success of this first attempt, the VFX and digital production firm intends to host future salons, although no specific plans have been announced.

Learn more: Zoic Studios; stereoscopy and anaglyph images on Wikipedia; a biography of Lenny Lipton (he invented Puff the Magic Dragon!); Johnathan R. Banta on IMDB; Franklin Londin’s 3D display art; Ray Zone’s web site (wear your red & blue glasses); UPDATE: read this story on Computer Graphics World.