New project builds on college strengths in animation and tv/film production

For Immediate Release: December 2, 2008

Oakville, Ontario

Sheridan Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning has been granted $300,000 by the Ontario government's Ontario Media Development Corporation through its Entertainment and Creative Cluster Partnerships Fund. Additional project partners include the Directors Guild of Canada - Ontario, I.A.T.S.E. 667 of the International Cinematographers Guild, FilmOntario, and Filmport. Total funding for the project from all parties over a two-year period amounts to $460,000.

Together, the partners will develop the Creative Previsualization Unit, a studio/lab facility for applied research and training in the area of previsualization for film and television and other screen-based media in Ontario. The project combines the use of the latest technologies, including 3D modeling and motion capture systems to create interactive virtual worlds for the exploration of shot planning, visual style, and story development.

Professor John Helliker, principal investigator for Sheridan states that: "Using 3D gaming technology that allows for immediate interactivity, the director, cinematographer, production designer, and visual effects artists can now collaboratively explore character movement, camera, and story elements in a virtual studio or location well before actual production."

"The Creative Previsualization Unit will directly benefit the content creation and production companies that are at the core of the entertainment sector in this province," says Sheridan's President, Dr. Robert Turner.

John Helliker describes the Creative Previsualization Unit as the first step in Sheridan's long-term goal to develop The Centre for Real-time Production, a research and training centre dealing with a variety of collaborative digital imaging technologies serving the screen-based industries in the region. Through its research into live action, visual effects and animation processes the Centre will address the increasing convergence of these workflows and will investigate production applications from concept through to final delivery.

The Creative Previsualization Unit will be based at Filmport in downtown Toronto, and is expected to begin operation in the spring/summer of 2009. The unit will work with production, software and hardware companies, as well as industry organizations, guilds and unions, to establish effective practices for increased collaboration, creativity, and efficiencies in the use of digital 2D and 3D previsualization for animation, live action, and visual effects projects.

Media Contact:

Susan Atkinson
(905) 845-9430, ext. 2096
susan.atkinson@sheridanc.on.ca