Vfx and CG animation juggernaut Sony Pictures Imageworks is expanding into Albuquerque, New Mexico in as it gears up to deliver more feature-film animation for Sony Pictures Animation. The new facility will also help the company grow on the side of visual effects and the creation of digital characters for movies that blend live action and animation like the Spider-Man and Stuart Little films.
Sony Pictures Imageworks president Tim Sarnoff says the Albuquerque campus will enable the company to harness the power of scalable capacity and favorable economics. ‘People trust Imageworks as a valued creative collaborator and for our production expertise,’ he comments. ‘Bringing additional offices on line is very much like parallel processing.’
Imageworks’ Albuquerque facility is expected to encompass about 100,000 square feet of a 550,000-square foot studio complex being built by Pacifica Studios in the center of Mesa del Sol, a 12,900-acre development near the site where the University of New Mexico will establish its film school. The green operation will feature modern systems that will recycle the heat radiated by the electronics, distribute cooling and heating from ground up for maximum efficiency, draw from solar panels and implement other ecologically aware features.
Headquartered in Culver City, Calif., Imageworks established other satellite facilities in Chennai, India and Novato, Calif. earlier this year. Having recently completed Open Season and Spider-Man 3, the company has moved on to Robert’s Zemeckis’ performance-capture feature Beowulf and the Sony Pictures Animation movies Surf’s Up! and Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs. Surf’s Up opens in theaters nationwide on June 8.
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