It started with some clever cartoons and a flair for software. Early on, Canada earned a reputation for toons and technical skill and has since built an infrastructure which encompasses animation, special effects and post production which, like some kind of sprawling military industrial complex, gets bigger and more pervasive yearly.

Here, Playback presents a grab bag of items on Canada’s animation, post and effects and technical talent which illustrate the international impact of Canadians in these sectors. The aggregation provides a glimpse of what native talent has done for the world of images lately, spanning the endeavors of animators who have migrated south to establish themselves in the major U.S. studios as part of the vanguard of the discipline, to post production companies like Eyes Post which is among those Canadian shops breaking ground with image manipulation – in this case becoming an early adopter of new telecine technology.

A sampling of Who’s Who in the L.A. animation studio scene catches up with some of the Canadians who have, among other C.V. highlights, broken ground in writing software and developing characters, movements and particles in the production of major animated features. The U.S. is also top of mind elsewhere in the report as reporter Karen Mazurkewich gets an American perspective on the off-kilter talents of Vancouver animation minds from broadcasters like the Cartoon Network and from animation festival circuit. And, with NATPE on the horizon (Jan. 23-28), the round-up also includes profiles of new projects just some of the Canadian producers are taking to New Orleans.

Beyond animation, Canadian production shops have been building on the international reputation of Canadian software pioneers like Softimage, Ailas|Wavefront and Side Effects, with shops like Toronto’s C.O.R.E. and TOPIX/Mad Dog earning recognition for their proprietary plug-ins which tackle notoriously forbidding cg prospects like fur and cloth creation.

Finally, thrown in for good measure is a quick look at the purported future of the industry: high definition television. It’s one area where Canada has passed on its usual role as pioneer and is in the perhaps enviable position of an active observer as the North American broadcasting and distribution industries gear up for perhaps its biggest technical and production challenge.