GVFX, initially Gajdecki Visual Effects, was a visual effects company initially based in Toronto, founded in the spring of 1991 by John Gajdecki. The company is notable for being one of the first visual effects companies in Canada. A second branch of the company based in Vancouver was started in 1998. [1] Gajdecki left the company in 2002, leaving corporate executive Ron O'Brien as president and CEO. [2] A year later, the company's Los Angeles branch closed in the summer, with the Toronto office closing in September, leaving the company consolidated to its Vancouver branch. The company was in financial trouble at that point, with employees being owed back wages, and Gajdecki stating that "this company didn't have enough money to cover its expenses". [3] Carrying the high capital costs of visual effects equipment proved too much, and he has since liquidated much of his corporate and personal assets to cover the outstanding bills. [4] The Vancouver branch was restructured in 2004.
One of the first series that GVFX worked on was the short-lived Dracula: The Series , but their first big success was with Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. Since then, GVFX has worked on various television projects such as Stargate SG-1 , The Outer Limits , Goosebumps , and films such as Mimic and Bride of Chucky , among others. The company was working on I, Robot prior to bankruptcy. After the company went bankrupt, Gajdecki moved to Rainmaker Studios as a visual effects supervisor, and they carried the rest of production. [4] Gajdecki would continue to work as a visual effects supervisor on films such as Slither , The Hole , and Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 .
Stargate SG-1 is a military science fiction adventure television series within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Stargate franchise. The show, created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner, is based on the 1994 science fiction film Stargate by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich. The television series was filmed in and around the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The series premiered on Showtime on July 27, 1997, and moved to the Sci Fi Channel on June 7, 2002; the final episode first aired on Sky1 on March 13, 2007.
Special effects are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual world.
ReBoot is a Canadian computer-animated TV series that originally aired on YTV from 1994 until 2001. It was produced by Vancouver-based Mainframe Entertainment, Alliance Distribution and BLT Productions. The animated series was created by Gavin Blair, Ian Pearson, Phil Mitchell, and John Grace, with the visuals designed by Brendan McCarthy after an initial attempt by Ian Gibson. It is notable for being one of the first made-for-television CGI series.
Mainframe Studios is a Canadian computer animation company owned by Wow Unlimited Media and based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Founded in 1993 as Mainframe Entertainment Inc. by Christopher Brough, Ian Pearson, Phil Mitchell, Gavin Blair and John Grace, the company established itself as a leading contributor to the introduction of computer-generated imagery (CGI) Live Action in animation, film and television.
The history of Canadian animation involves a considerable element of the realities of a country neighbouring the United States and both competitiveness and co-operation across the border.
John Charles Dykstra, A.S.C. is an American special effects artist, pioneer in the development of the use of computers in filmmaking and recipient of three Academy Awards, among many other awards and prizes. He was one of the original employees of Industrial Light & Magic, the special effects and computer graphics division of Lucasfilm. He is well known as the special effects lead on the original Star Wars, helping bring the original visuals for lightsabers, space battles between X-wings and TIE fighters, and Force powers to the screen. He also led special effects on many other movies, including Batman Forever, Batman & Robin, Stuart Little, X-Men: First Class, Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2.
Animal Logic is an Australian animation and visual effects digital studio based at Disney Studios in Sydney, New South Wales in Australia, Vancouver in Canada, and Rideback Ranch in Los Angeles, California. Established in 1991, Animal Logic has produced visual effects and animation for feature films such as the Academy Award-winning Happy Feet, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, Walking with Dinosaurs 3D,The Lego Movie andPeter Rabbit. The company was also recognized for its work as lead visual effects vendor on Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby, which won Outstanding Achievement in Visual Effects at the 3rd AACTA Awards ceremony. In 2018, Peter Rabbit was presented with a range of accolades, including the AACTA Award for Best Visual Effects or Animation, and Australian Production Design Guild Awards (APDG) in Visual Effects Design and Drawing, Concept Illustration & Concept Models for Screen. Most recently, the company has produced work for the Warner Animation Group's The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part and Marvel Studios' Captain Marvel. It is a subsidiary of Netflix.
Total Recall 2070 is a science fiction television series influenced by the work of Philip K. Dick. It was first broadcast in 1999 on the Canadian television channel CHCH-TV and later the same year on the American Showtime channel. It was later syndicated in the United States with some editing to remove scenes of nudity, violence and strong language.
Vancouver Film School (VFS) is a private entertainment arts school located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Founded in 1987, it has achieved international recognition. The Vancouver Film School has campus locations around Downtown Vancouver and comprises six buildings. As part of the school's 20th anniversary in 2007, in August 2006 one million dollars was set aside in scholarships for new students. In March 2008, Vancouver Film School and YouTube launched a competition for three full-tuition scholarships for the creators of the three videos submitted and voted as favorites by the YouTube community.
Mike Tucker is a Welsh special effects expert who worked for many years at the BBC Television Visual Effects Department, and now works as an Effects Supervisor for his own company, The Model Unit. He is also the author of a variety of spin-offs relating to the television series Doctor Who and novelisations based on episodes of the television series Merlin. He sometimes co-writes with Robert Perry.
Sony Pictures Imageworks Inc. is a Canadian visual effects and computer animation studio headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia and Montréal, Québec, with an additional office on the Sony Pictures Studios lot in Culver City, California. SPI is a unit of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Motion Picture Group.
Intelligent Creatures (IC) is a motion picture visual effects company located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Rainmaker was a visual effects and post-production company headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, with an office in Los Angeles, California, United States, which contributed to the final works for feature films, television shows, commercials and video games. It acquired and folded into Mainframe Studios in 2007.
"Squeeze" is the third episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on September 24, 1993. "Squeeze" was written by Glen Morgan and James Wong and directed by Harry Longstreet, with Michael Katleman directing additional footage. The episode featured the first of two guest appearances by Doug Hutchison as the mutant serial killer Eugene Victor Tooms, a role he would reprise in "Tooms". "Squeeze" is the first "monster-of-the-week" episode of The X-Files, unconnected to the series' overarching mythology.
Pixomondo (PXO) is an Academy and Emmy award-winning international visual effects and virtual production company with studios in Los Angeles, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, and London. The company provides virtual production and visual effects for feature films, television, and commercials. As of 2019, PXO employs over 655 people worldwide.
DNEG is a British visual effects, computer animation, and stereo conversion studio that was founded in 1998 in London, and rebranded as DNEG in 2014 after a merger with Indian VFX company Prime Focus, it was named after the letters "D" and "Neg" from their former name.
Atmosphere Visual Effects is a Canadian visual effects company. It was founded in Vancouver in 2003 by Andrew Karr, Tom Archer, and Jeremy Hoey, ex-employees of Vancouver-based visual effects company GVFX, after said company folded in that year. They have worked on a number of science fiction shows, including the reimagined Battlestar Galactica, Stargate Atlantis, The 4400, Andromeda, and Babylon 5: The Lost Tales.
Marc Weigert is a film producer and film/TV visual effects supervisor and 2nd unit director.
Pixar Canada was a short-lived, wholly owned subsidiary of Pixar Animation Studios. It was located in Vancouver, British Columbia. The studio was tasked to produce short films based on Pixar’s feature film characters.
Warren Franklin is an American visual effects manager, supervisor and producer who is credited on multiple features and TV series.
