Canadian animation got a boost on news that Pixar will open a new studio in Vancouver this fall to handle spillover work from Los Angeles. Attracted by the local talent and government subsidies, Pixar is to employ up to 100 animators at a 20,000-square-foot studio in a still-to-be-determined downtown location.

‘The operation will be small in size and dedicated to producing short-form quality computer animation for theme parks, DVDs, television and theatrical exhibition for several different divisions of the Walt Disney Co.,’ Disney/Pixar president Ed Catmull explained.

Pixar’s main feature and stereoscopic 3D animation will still be done at company headquarters in Emeryville, California, while Vancouver does non-feature short films and character animation for franchises like Toy Story and Cars. Pixar’s Emeryville campus is also midway through an expansion scheduled to open in 2011, so the Hollywood studio opted for a satellite facility in Vancouver to fill the vacuum.

The Vancouver studio will be led by general manager Amir Nasrabadi, most recently VP of operations and finance at DisneyToon Studio, and Dylan Brown, whose supervising animation credits include Ratatouille and Finding Nemo.