Intelligent Creatures is about to triple in size. The post company behind VFX in Hollywood titles such as The Game Plan and Hairspray is moving from a 3,000-square-foot space to a 10,000-square-foot studio in Toronto’s Beach area at the end of October.

Despite widespread industry fears of U.S. business dwindling in Canada as the greenback shrinks in value, IC partner Lon Molnar says the move is necessary because there is a local boom happening.

‘What the [fluctuating] dollar has forced us to be is more efficient with our resources,’ says Molnar. ‘So if the [Canadian] dollar starts to decrease, it will be icing on the cake.’

Another factor at play is that American producers are pushing to get projects in the can ahead of threatened labor strikes in the U.S. next month.

But prior to labor threats, and throughout the years of the rising loonie, Molnar’s company strategically focused its efforts on working with developing technology, such as database tools for management organization.

A focus on technology made IC more efficient for long-term growth and state-of-the-art enough to attract big projects, such as its latest work on Disney’s The Game Plan.

Molnar says IC’s growth is indicative of Toronto’s international reputation as a growing post community. ‘We’re young in the industry, but we’re attracting the larger studios’ he says. ‘The future of visual effects in Toronto is really bright.’

Intelligent Creatures gets with The Game Plan
Release date: Sept. 28, 2007
Distributor: Buena Vista Pictures
Production company: Walt Disney Pictures
Main technology used for VFX: Autodesk Maya, eyeon Fusion, Adobe Photoshop, and Andersson Technologies SynthEyes for tracking
Canadian connection: Intelligent handled 116 shots for this film, which had scored an estimated US$43 million in North America
as of Oct. 7.

In a full digital recreation of the background of a championship football game at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., IC developed technology and used its own staff as extras to create the large audience.

‘Massive, an artificial crowd simulator, didn’t meet our needs, so we created the technology ourselves,’ says visual effects supervisor Dan Dixon. The employees wore three different jerseys and provided five to six different emotions. Dixon’s team then slid the animation footage into the stadium.

In addition to handling the crowd scenes, one of the biggest challenges was digitally fixing the opening credits. A camera flies in from Boston and hovers over the stadium, then moves into the movie logo and then the lead character’s trophy room.

‘We used a Steadicam on a helicopter, but it broke halfway through, so we had to redo it digitally,’ explains Dixon. ‘Fortunately, no one can see where the live action ends and the effects begin.’
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