Montreal: Caisse de Depot subsidiary Capital Communications cdpq and Fonds d’investissement de la culture et des communications (ficc) have announced investments of $4 million and $1 million, respectively, in Montreal special effects producer Tubes Images.

‘The investment will help us develop our own content and production partnerships,’ says industry pioneer and Tube president Danny Bergeron, who established the company in 1993.

Tube is developing several new long-form, full 3D animation projects, both tv series and feature films, including Nunavut, a children’s series in its early production phase presold in Canada to Tele-Quebec and cbc.

Tube is also developing Twin Brains, an ‘organic 3D’ youth tv concept, and a feature film project.

Bergeron says Canada is an international leader in cgi visual-effects production, and as such, providers in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver are competing as they seek to export to the u.s. and Europe.

Tube f/x assignments in ’99 included the Galafilm feature Two Thousand and None and the coproduction tween series The Worst Witch, broadcast on ytv in Canada and on itv in the u.k. Tube also has the contract to provide cgi and cgi/live-action stereoscopic composites for Oceania, an ambitious location-based entertainment complex. The shop is also signed on to service the 10-hour Motion International/ Editions Dupuis live-action drama Largo Winch.

cdpq recently made a significant investment in Montreal large-screen (imax) animation producer Productions Pascal Blais.

Since its launch in ’97, ficc, a risk-capital investor with financing from the ftq labor union and sodec, has invested $6.4 million in the share equity of 12 Quebec companies in the cultural and communications sectors.