Recruiting; Imageworks' Vancouver Production Studio; Open Source and Technical Achievements Lead Activity at SIGGRAPH 2011

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 8, 2011 — (PRNewswire) — Sony Pictures Imageworks, the Academy Award® winning visual effects and digital character animation unit of Sony Pictures Digital Productions, features an exciting slate of upcoming projects at SIGGRAPH 2011, the 38th International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques. These include the films THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, MEN IN BLACK 3, Sony Pictures Animation’s HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA, and OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL; Imageworks’ recently opened production studio in Vancouver’s Yaletown district; several innovative technologies; and the latest developments in its Open Source program.

With "Make It Home" the theme of this year's SIGGRAPH conference, Imageworks is pleased to showcase work performed in the studio's Vancouver facility. Much of the animation featured in the summer hit, THE SMURFS, was done by animators in Vancouver and will be featured in a SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival production session on Wednesday, August 10 at 2 PM as well as in the Electronic Theater.  The session, led by Digital Effects Supervisor Daniel Kramer, CG Supervisor Dan Lobl, and Vancouver animation lead Sacha Kapijimpanga and moderated by Vancouver General Manager Rick Mischel, will also feature Imageworks' latest advances in lighting, color, compositing and rendering tools.  Mischel adds an Imageworks voice to an 11 am Wednesday morning panel on building remote facilities in the East Building, Room 18.

Imageworks recruiters will be at the SIGGRAPH job fair Tuesday through Thursday meeting talent for all of Imageworks' shows and facilities in Culver City, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Vancouver, and Chennai, India.

Imageworks continues to expand its successful Open Source initiative.  On Tuesday, August 9 at 9:30 am in the Pearl Room at the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel, Imageworks and Lucasfilm will announce the release of ALEMBIC 1.0, their jointly developed exchange format.  Solution providers including Autodesk, The Foundry, Luxology and SideFX will be on hand to demonstrate ALEMBIC running in their respective software.

In other Open Source developments, Imageworks CTO Rob Bredow will announce another new program, "The Pyed Piper", or PyP, a Linux command line text manipulation tool similar to awk or sed, but which uses standard python string and list methods as well as custom functions evolved to generate fast results in an intense production environment. PyP joins a growing family of Imageworks Open Source programs that now include OpenColorIO, OSL, Maya Reticle, Field3D, and Scala Migrations.

Four Imageworks productions are featured in the 2011 Electronic Theater, the most Imageworks has had in a single year.  Selections include THE GREEN LANTERN, SMURF-OLUTION -- From Comic Strip to Movie Screen, ZOOKEEPER and a very special advance screening of a sequence from the new Aardman Animation production for Sony Pictures Animation, ARTHUR CHRISTMAS.

Imageworks is also participating in numerous technical presentations, courses, panels and Birds of a Feather sessions throughout the conference.

"It is particularly exciting to be at SIGGRAPH in Vancouver as the city establishes itself as a dynamic and prominent digital production center. Imageworks is pleased to be part of this development," notes Randy Lake, executive vice president and general manager of Sony Pictures Imageworks. "The leading artists, innovators and educators from around the world gather at SIGGRAPH, the most influential meeting in the computer graphics field. The conference gives us an opportunity to meet talent, share our latest technical developments, and showcase our best work."

ABOUT SONY PICTURES IMAGEWORKS

Sony Pictures Imageworks is the Academy Award® winning visual effects and animation unit of Sony Pictures Digital Productions. The company is currently in production on OZ: THE GREAT AND POWERFUL, THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, MEN IN BLACK 3, and the animated features ARTHUR CHRISTMAS (3D) and HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA. Other recent credits include the hybrid live-action/animation film THE SMURFS (3D), THE GREEN LANTERN (3D), ZOOKEEPER, ALICE IN WONDERLAND (3D), and CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS (3D).

For more information, please visit  www.imageworks.com.

SOURCE Sony Pictures Imageworks

Contact:

Sony Pictures Imageworks Sony Pictures Digital Productions Don Levy of Sony Pictures Imageworks Phone: +1-310-840-7315, Vancouver Phone: +1-310-962-1102 Email Contact Web: http://www.imageworks.com