With a new Alias|Wavefront Maya system in the house, Optix Digital Post & Effects is moving into 3D animation and creating some disastrous circumstances for CineNova Productions.

At the control panel of the new system is senior effects animator/compositor John Moores, who is currently animating elements and compositing for CineNova’s The Coming Disasters, a docudrama series of three one-hour shows, and Escape From Earth, a two-hour special about leaving this planet for which Moores created elements in CGI.

For Asteroid Impact, the first of The Coming Disasters series, directed by Christopher Rowley and lensed by Harry Makin, Moores was supplied with photos of asteroids taken with a telescope camera, but since the shots were hard to make out, the animator basically started from scratch, creating his own virtual earthly disaster.

Using Maya, Moores created a wire frame, which he transported into Lightwave where he surfaced, animated and rendered the asteroids, which were then composited into different backgrounds such as sparkling starfields.

Maya is an integrated 3D software package used for creating character animation and visual effects at a high speed. It gives animators the ability to build characters and easily manipulate certain parts of them.

With the first of the series wrapped, Moores is taking a short break from the docudrama before tackling the second installment, Volcanoes (working title), which he says will be an interesting project and will involve much of the same type of work used in Asteroid Impact.

With so many animation and special effects houses to choose from, CineNova post supervisor Lynn Van Rooyen says it was Moores himself who was the ‘drawing card.’

‘We first went to them with compositing elements and we liked what they could do on Jaleo,’ says Van Rooyen. ‘They showed us Moores’ reel and our director really liked what he could do with space elements.’

Prior to joining the crew at Optix, Moores spent some time in L.A. where he had a chance to hone his space element skills doing special effects work on feature film Independence Day.

Aside from the CineNova jobs, Optix has put its new Maya to good use on other projects including a Mennen Speed Stick commercial done through the CBC’s Event and Sales Promotion department, and is in discussions with Sniper Fire Communications on a job for Canadian computer manufacturer Patriot Computers that would involve bringing their mouse mascot to life.

According to Optix GM Paul Moyer, the motivation behind the new animation division was to open more doors for the rapidly expanding post and effects company as well as to feed its composite suites.

Since opening in 1996, Optix has acquired two Jaleos and two Avids, a digital post and effects tool for high-end uncompressed editing, and to keep all of this software running the post house has added some new people to its creative team: Avid editor Calvin Grant, Jaleo expert David Hedley and Moores.

Other projects out of Optix include CD-ROM game Global Domination for Cloud Nine Films and Psygnosis of the U.K., which called for offline EDL, compositing and motion tracking of 3D elements supplied on CD-ROM and special effects done using Jaleo.