Canada, and Los Angeles, Calif. - Award-winning visual effects house Zoic Studios has launched Zoic BC, a Canadian-based company formed to service Zoic Studios' client base. Zoic BC has already completed the feature film Pathfinder for 20th Century Fox and is working on two episodics -- Eureka for SCI-FI Channel and Blade for Spike TV.
Patti Gannon and Randy Goux, two of Zoic Studios' visual effects supervisors, relocated to the Vancouver area to set up the Zoic BC office. In addition to assuming creative director roles for the Canadian office, they oversaw the production and execution of 280 visual effects for the upcoming Marcus Nispel feature film Pathfinder for 20th Century Fox. Immediately following wrap on Pathfinder, Patti Gannon began on-set VFX Supervision for the feature One Missed Call in Atlanta, which Zoic will finish in BC in the fall and be distributed by Warner Bros.
In addition to these top LA creatives, Zoic Studios recruited some of the very best Canadian-based talent offered. Veteran visual effects supervisor Bob Habros joined the company to oversee the original series Blade for Spike TV, while seasoned effects producer Patrick Mooney came on board to guide the production aspect of the fast-paced visual effects studio.
Zoic Studios rounds out its arsenal with 20 key local artists that consist of such respected talent as Kevin Little and Trevor Strand. Little is currently heading the 3D creation of the original "ashing" sequences for Blade and Strand is leading multiple teams of compositors working on Tim Minears' original pilot Drive for Fox Television.
Zoic's Vancouver office is set up on an invisible network between the two cities, which allows the teams to work seamlessly as one company using high-speed connections and video conferencing. At full capacity, Zoic Vancouver has workstations for more than 40 2D and 3D artists, who have 20 terabytes of storage and more than 100 render nodes at their disposal. Additionally, the Canadian team can access and utilize the 100 terabytes of storage and more than 1000 render nodes in Los Angeles using the high-speed Internet and VPN connection established between the two studios. The Vancouver studio also offers an Avid edit suite, a screening room, and a Frame Thrower 2k playback system.