Canadian VFX
And Film Archive
Welcome to the Canadian VFX and Film Archive.
Feel Free to Explore the archive and learn about past and present studios, productions, and evemts.
Press kit photo from The Others.(2001) Distributed by Alliance Atlantis
Alliance Atlantis Logo 3rd logo November 6, 1999-2005
The National Film Society of Canada (NFS) was founded in 1935 by a CBC/NFB director Donald Buchanan and a group of film enthusiasts. It became the second oldest film institution in the world, modelled on the British Film Institute in London founded in 1933. Within a year, the society opened branches in Ottawa, Toronto, Montréal, and Vancouver.
The Associated Screen News studio in Montreal, initially controlled by American interests, became the largest private Canadian production company following massive investment in it by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), which became the principal shareholder in February 1921. For several decades the company was run by Bernard E. Norrish, former head of the Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau.
The Associated Screen News studio in Montreal, initially controlled by American interests, became the largest private Canadian production company following massive investment in it by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), which became the principal shareholder in February 1921. For several decades the company was run by Bernard E. Norrish, former head of the Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau.
The Canadian Pacific’s significant financial resources allowed Associated Screen News to quickly acquire key material resources and assemble a large team. Initially housed in the Albee building located behind the Imperial cinema, the company erected a massive building in the mid-1920s, which is still standing nearly a century later at the corner of Décarie and de Maisonneuve West boulevards. It contained the company’s studio, workshops, laboratory and offices.
The first-ever sponsored film, the precursor of both the documentary and the television commercial, was created in 1898 by the Canadian farm equipment manufacturer Massey Harris, which wanted to show its reaper-binder at work on Ontario farms. By 1900, Massey Harris founder Hart Massey was running clips of the Second Boer War at his theatre, Toronto's Massey Hall, to raise funds for the Canadian Patriotic Fund.
This building still stands in Montreal
he Eaton Centre Cineplex. Opening on April 19, 1979, it had eighteen screens, and was the largest cinema complex in the world, making the Guinness Book of World Records.
Johnny Mnemonic is a 1995 cyberpunk action film directed by Robert Longo in his feature directorial debut. A Canadian film distributed by Alliance Atlantis, It was shot in Canada; Toronto and Montreal filled in for Newark and Beijing. VFX studios: Alias Research Inc., Gajdecki Visual Effects (GVFX), C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures
Johnny Mnemonic is a 1995 cyberpunk action film directed by Robert Longo in his feature directorial debut. A Canadian film distributed by Alliance Atlantis, It was shot in Canada; Toronto and Montreal filled in for Newark and Beijing. VFX studios: Alias Research Inc., Gajdecki Visual Effects (GVFX), C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures
Johnny Mnemonic is a 1995 cyberpunk action film directed by Robert Longo in his feature directorial debut. A Canadian film distributed by Alliance Atlantis, It was shot in Canada; Toronto and Montreal filled in for Newark and Beijing. VFX studios: Alias Research Inc., Gajdecki Visual Effects (GVFX), C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures
Cube is a 1997 Canadian science fiction horror film directed and co-written by Vincenzo Natali. A product of the Canadian Film Centre's First Feature Project. C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures completes the VFX
Toybox Toronto Created a sequence of VFX for the film
Toybox Toronto Created a sequence of VFX for the film
Toybox Toronto Created a sequence of VFX for the film
Toronto's premier animation man of the 1960s sitting in a press conference . Founder of Rainbow Animation, Al Guest Animation, and The Guest group Al Guest would also co found the directors guild of Canada.
The Undersea Adventures of Captain Nemo is a Canadian animated television series of five-minute cartoons produced in 1975 by Rainbow Animation in Toronto, Ontario.
TOPIX Logo TOPIX was an award-winning, artist-driven visual effects, animation and design studio that specializes in commercial advertising, feature film titling and broadcast design.
By 1984, Pennie had Omnibus steam-rolling; slick annual reports and state-of-the-art computer animation studios in Toronto and Los Angeles made it easy for Pennie to dazzle heavyweight investors with high tech glitz and the promise of having a piece of the digital future. The dream didn’t last long. By March, 1987, Omnibus was sinking under the weight of $30 million in debt and in default on its loan agreements; in May it was in bankruptcy, leaving the American computer graphics industry in rui
Dream Flight (Vol De Rêve) is a 3-D computer-animated short fiction film completely produced by computer. The film was created in 1982 at the University of Montreal and was directed by Philippe Bergeron, Nadia Magnenat Thalmann and Daniel Thalmann.
By 1984, Pennie had Omnibus steam-rolling; slick annual reports and state-of-the-art computer animation studios in Toronto and Los Angeles made it easy for Pennie to dazzle heavyweight investors with high tech glitz and the promise of having a piece of the digital future. The dream didn’t last long. By March, 1987, Omnibus was sinking under the weight of $30 million in debt and in default on its loan agreements; in May it was in bankruptcy, leaving the American computer graphics industry in rui
Omnibus was founded in Toronto. They were originally in the business of marketing and communications, and expanded into video production. They founded Image West in Hollywood in 1975. Image West primarily used analog video for production, including the famous Scanimate (more about Scanimate can be found in Chapter 12.) In the late 70s, Image West split from Omnibus.
JOHN PENNIE WAS A CANADIAN BOY WITH A DREAM. He knew without a shadow of a doubt that there was a big, bright future in computer graphics, and he was determined to be part of the big boom when it happened. In 1982 he started a company called Omnibus . By 1984, Pennie had Omnibus steam-rolling; slick annual reports and state-of-the-art computer animation studios in Toronto and Los Angeles made it easy for Pennie to dazzle heavyweight investors with high tech glitz and the promise of having a pie
Omnibus Annual Report (1985)
Omnibus purchased the Foonly F1 from Triple-I and placed it on the Paramount lot. The investments that allowed for the takeovers of DP and Abel were in part due to predictions by Pennie that investors would see income of upwards of $55M per year. They consolidated the efforts of the three companies and initially laid off 50 people. As a result of the extremely fast expansion and alleged discrepancies in the stock offering, they accumulated a $30M debt, including losses of $5.9M in one quarter al