Sony Pictures Imageworks
Encyclopedia
Sony Pictures Imageworks, Inc. is a visual effects
and character animation
company headquartered in Culver City, California
, USA. SPI is a division of Sony Pictures Digital Productions
, which oversees the digital production and online entertainment assets of Sony Pictures Entertainment
.
The company has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
with Oscars for their work on Spider-Man 2
and the computer-animated short film The ChubbChubbs!
, and received many other nominations for their work.
SPI has provided special effects for many films, most recent include Watchmen
, 2012
and Alice in Wonderland
. They also provided services for several of director Robert Zemeckis
' films, including Contact
, Cast Away
, The Polar Express
, Monster House
and Beowulf
.
Since foundation of its sister company Sony Pictures Animation
in 2003, SPI has also animated all SPA's films, including Open Season
, Surf's Up
and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
.
Its first independent animated effort was the 5-minute short The ChubbChubbs!
directed by Eric Armstrong. In 2002, it won the Oscar for Best Animated Short. Early Bloomer
, released in 2003, was the division's second short film and originally made as a storyboarding exercise.
SPI completed its first feature animation project in 2006 with the release of Open Season
.
In 2007, SPI acquired the majority of the shares of FrameFlow, an Indian visual effects studio based in Atlanta with most of its work being done at its Chennai
(Madras) centre. The company has been renamed to Imageworks India, and opened next year a state-of-the-art facility in Chennai. SPI has announced that it will establish new satellite production facilities in Novato, California
and Albuquerque, New Mexico
. According to the article, "They're going to move a division of their animation department to New Mexico and will continue to do their digital animation and live action features out here."
stochastic
ray tracer. Arnold, started in 1997 by Marcos Fajardo, was co-developed between 2004 and 2009 with SPI, where Marcos was employed, and is now maintained by Marcos' Madrid based company Solid Angle SL. Arnold was used on projects such as Monster House
, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
, 2012
, Alice in Wonderland
and is being used on all upcoming SPI's films (The Smurfs
, Arthur Christmas
).
Visual effects
Visual effects are the various processes by which imagery is created and/or manipulated outside the context of a live action shoot. Visual effects involve the integration of live-action footage and generated imagery to create environments which look realistic, but would be dangerous, costly, or...
and character animation
Character animation
Character animation is a specialized area of the animation process concerning the animation of one or more characters featured in an animated work. It is usually as one aspect of a larger production and often made to enhance voice acting. The primary role of a Character Animator is to be the...
company headquartered in Culver City, California
Culver City, California
Culver City is a city in western Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 38,883, up from 38,816 at the 2000 census. It is mostly surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, but also shares a border with unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. Culver...
, USA. SPI is a division of Sony Pictures Digital Productions
Sony Pictures Digital
Sony Pictures Digital is an operating unit of Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc....
, which oversees the digital production and online entertainment assets of Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. is the television and film production/distribution unit of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony...
.
The company has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...
with Oscars for their work on Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 2 is a 2004 American superhero film directed by Sam Raimi, written by Alvin Sargent and developed by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, and Michael Chabon. It is the second film in the Spider-Man film franchise based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Spider-Man...
and the computer-animated short film The ChubbChubbs!
The ChubbChubbs!
The ChubbChubbs! is a 2002 American computer-animated comedy short film by Sony Pictures Imageworks. It was directed by Eric Armstrong, produced by Jacquie Barnbrook, and written by Jeff Wolverton....
, and received many other nominations for their work.
SPI has provided special effects for many films, most recent include Watchmen
Watchmen (film)
Watchmen is a 2009 superhero film directed by Zack Snyder and starring Malin Åkerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Patrick Wilson. It is an adaptation of the comic book of the same name by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons...
, 2012
2012 (film)
2012 is a 2009 American disaster film directed by Roland Emmerich. It stars John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newton, Danny Glover, and Woody Harrelson. It was produced by Emmerich's production company, Centropolis Entertainment and was distributed by Columbia Pictures...
and Alice in Wonderland
Alice in Wonderland (2010 film)
Alice in Wonderland is a 2010 American computer-animated/live action fantasy adventure film directed by Tim Burton, written by Linda Woolverton, and released by Walt Disney Pictures...
. They also provided services for several of director Robert Zemeckis
Robert Zemeckis
Robert Lee Zemeckis is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Zemeckis first came to public attention in the 1980s as the director of the comedic time-travel Back to the Future film series, as well as the Academy Award-winning live-action/animation epic Who Framed Roger Rabbit ,...
' films, including Contact
Contact (film)
Contact is a 1997 American science fiction drama film adapted from the Carl Sagan novel of the same name and directed by Robert Zemeckis. Both Sagan and wife Ann Druyan wrote the story outline for the film adaptation of Contact....
, Cast Away
Cast Away
Cast Away is a 2000 drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks as a FedEx employee stranded on an uninhabited island after his plane crashes in the South Pacific. The film depicts his successful attempts to survive on the island using remnants of his plane's cargo, as well as his...
, The Polar Express
The Polar Express
The Polar Express is a 1985 children's book written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg, a former professor at the Rhode Island School of Design. It was adapted as an Oscar-nominated motion-capture film in 2004....
, Monster House
Monster House (film)
Monster House is a 2006 computer animated motion capture horror/comedy film produced by ImageMovers and Amblin Entertainment, and distributed by Columbia Pictures. Executive produced by Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg, this is the first time since Back to the Future Part III that they have...
and Beowulf
Beowulf (2007 film)
Beowulf is a 2007 American animated fantasy film written by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary inspired by the Old English epic poem of the same name. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, the film was created through a motion capture process similar to the technique he used in The Polar Express...
.
Since foundation of its sister company Sony Pictures Animation
Sony Pictures Animation
Sony Pictures Animation is an American computer-animated film production company owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, founded in May 2002. It is working closely with Sony Pictures Imageworks, which takes care of the digital production...
in 2003, SPI has also animated all SPA's films, including Open Season
Open Season
Open Season may refer to:* Open season , a hunting term* An annual enrollment period- Literature :* Open Season , a comic book series by Jim Bricker* Open Season , a 1992 novel in The Hardy Boys series, #59...
, Surf's Up
Surf's Up (film)
Surf's Up is a 2007 American computer-animated mockumentary family comedy film directed by Ash Brannon and Chris Buck. It stars the voices of Shia LaBeouf, Jeff Bridges, Zooey Deschanel and Jon Heder among others....
and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (film)
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a 2009 American computer-animated family comedy film, produced by Sony Pictures Animation, distributed by Columbia Pictures, and released on September 18, 2009. The film is loosely based on the children's book of the same name by Judi and Ron Barrett.The film...
.
History
Sony Pictures Imageworks was founded in 1992 as a VFX company.Its first independent animated effort was the 5-minute short The ChubbChubbs!
The ChubbChubbs!
The ChubbChubbs! is a 2002 American computer-animated comedy short film by Sony Pictures Imageworks. It was directed by Eric Armstrong, produced by Jacquie Barnbrook, and written by Jeff Wolverton....
directed by Eric Armstrong. In 2002, it won the Oscar for Best Animated Short. Early Bloomer
Early Bloomer
The Early Blooomer is a 2003 computer-animated short by Sony Pictures Imageworks. It was written by Guy T. Wiedmann and directed by Kevin Johnson...
, released in 2003, was the division's second short film and originally made as a storyboarding exercise.
SPI completed its first feature animation project in 2006 with the release of Open Season
Open Season (film)
Open Season is a 2006 computer-animated comedy film, written by Steve Bencich and Ron J. Friedman and directed by Jill Culton, Roger Allers, and Anthony Stacchi, and production designed by Michael Humphries...
.
In 2007, SPI acquired the majority of the shares of FrameFlow, an Indian visual effects studio based in Atlanta with most of its work being done at its Chennai
Chennai
Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
(Madras) centre. The company has been renamed to Imageworks India, and opened next year a state-of-the-art facility in Chennai. SPI has announced that it will establish new satellite production facilities in Novato, California
Novato, California
Novato is a city located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, in northern Marin County. Novato is located about north-northwest of San Rafael, at an elevation of 30 feet above sea level . The 2010 U.S. Census estimated the city population to be about 51,904. Novato is about ...
and Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque is the largest city in the state of New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County and is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande. The city population was 545,852 as of the 2010 Census and ranks as the 32nd-largest city in the U.S. As...
. According to the article, "They're going to move a division of their animation department to New Mexico and will continue to do their digital animation and live action features out here."
Technology
During 2009-2010 SPI made transition from traditional biased, multi-pass rendering system to a largely singlepass, global illumination system incorporating modern ray-tracing and physically based shading techniques. They have achieved that with Arnold Renderer, an unbiasedUnbiased rendering
In computer graphics, unbiased rendering refers to a rendering technique that does not introduce any systematic error, or bias, into the radiance approximation. Because of this, they are often used to generate the reference image to which other rendering techniques are compared...
stochastic
Stochastic
Stochastic refers to systems whose behaviour is intrinsically non-deterministic. A stochastic process is one whose behavior is non-deterministic, in that a system's subsequent state is determined both by the process's predictable actions and by a random element. However, according to M. Kac and E...
ray tracer. Arnold, started in 1997 by Marcos Fajardo, was co-developed between 2004 and 2009 with SPI, where Marcos was employed, and is now maintained by Marcos' Madrid based company Solid Angle SL. Arnold was used on projects such as Monster House
Monster House (film)
Monster House is a 2006 computer animated motion capture horror/comedy film produced by ImageMovers and Amblin Entertainment, and distributed by Columbia Pictures. Executive produced by Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg, this is the first time since Back to the Future Part III that they have...
, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (film)
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a 2009 American computer-animated family comedy film, produced by Sony Pictures Animation, distributed by Columbia Pictures, and released on September 18, 2009. The film is loosely based on the children's book of the same name by Judi and Ron Barrett.The film...
, 2012
2012 (film)
2012 is a 2009 American disaster film directed by Roland Emmerich. It stars John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newton, Danny Glover, and Woody Harrelson. It was produced by Emmerich's production company, Centropolis Entertainment and was distributed by Columbia Pictures...
, Alice in Wonderland
Alice in Wonderland (2010 film)
Alice in Wonderland is a 2010 American computer-animated/live action fantasy adventure film directed by Tim Burton, written by Linda Woolverton, and released by Walt Disney Pictures...
and is being used on all upcoming SPI's films (The Smurfs
The Smurfs (film)
The Smurfs is a 2011 American 3D family film based on The Smurfs comic book series created by Peyo and the 1980s animated TV series it spawned. It was directed by Raja Gosnell and stars Neil Patrick Harris, Hank Azaria, Jayma Mays, and Sofía Vergara. It is the first CGI/live-action hybrid film to...
, Arthur Christmas
Arthur Christmas
Arthur Christmas is a 2011 British/American 3-D computer animated fantasy comedy film produced by Aardman Animations and Sony Pictures Animation, and distributed by Columbia Pictures. It was released on November 11, 2011, in the UK, and on November 23, 2011, in the USA...
).