Press Releases

CULVER CITY, CA (August 2, 2012) - Sony Pictures Imageworks (SPI) and Sony Pictures Animation (SPA), celebrating 20th and 10th anniversaries, respectively, will feature their renowned stable of effects and animation talent August 7 in special "behind the scenes" presentations of blockbuster live-action hits Men in Black 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man and the highly-anticipated animated feature film Hotel Transylvania during SIGGRAPH 2012 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

"SIGGRAPH is the perfect forum to exhibit the incredible creative and technical ingenuity of the artists at Sony Pictures Imageworks and Sony Pictures Animation," said Rob Bredow, Chief Technology Officer, Sony Pictures Imageworks. "We take great pride in sharing our work with the industry's most respected minds in visual effects and animation."

In addition to its three creative presentations, Sony Pictures Imageworks Recruitment will have a major presence at the SIGGRAPH Job Fair. The award-winning SPI team is seeking animators, lighters, compositors, cloth/hair sims TDs and Houdini FX TDs for its Vancouver studio, as well as Lookdev TDs, Texture Artists, Matte Painters and Creature TDs for SPI's main studio located in Culver City, California.

"The SIGGRAPH audience has the experiential background to appreciate the significant effects work created at SPI and SPA," said Ken Maruyama, Vice President, Recruiting, Sony Pictures Imageworks. "The conference provides a great opportunity to interact with that audience and potential new talent."

Sony Pictures Animation will open the August 7 presentations with an exploration of the dazzling art, unique animation style and technical achievements of Sony Pictures Animation's upcoming monster comedy, Hotel Transylvania. From 9:00 - 10:30 a.m. in Hall K, audience members will be treated to an advance look at the film from Director Genndy Tartakovsky, Animation Supervisor James Crossley and VFX Supervisor Daniel Kramer. Following the presentation, Tartakovsky will be signing limited edition Hotel Transylvania posters in Hall H (Booth #25-26) from 11:00 a.m. - Noon. Hotel Transylvania arrives in theatres on September 28, 2012.

Sony Pictures Imageworks takes the Hall K stage from 10:45 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. to go behind the scenes of the hit film Men in Black 3. SPI oversaw the visual effects for MIB3, including the diverse, richly detailed array of characters and environments - all created with a heightened sense of realism. VFX Supervisor Jay Redd, Digital Effects Supervisor Ken Hahn, Animation Supervisor Spencer Cook and CG Supervisor Darren Lurie will give a guided tour "back to 1969" - where SPI visual effects artists digitally created everything from the historic Apollo 11 rocket launch and New York's Shea Stadium, to a chronology shifting time jump and an action-packed monocycle chase through the streets of Brooklyn … not to mention a galaxy of extraordinary alien characters.

SPI continues its Hall K presentations from 2:00 - 3:30 p.m. with the untold story of The Amazing Spider-Man. SPI's VFX team established a visual style for the blockbuster hit film that naturally blends cutting edge live-action stunt work, extensive digital environments and CG character animation. Senior VFX Supervisor Jerome Chen, Digital Effects Supervisor David Smith, Animation Supervisor Randy Cook, Additional Animation Supervisor David Schaub and Senior CG Supervisor John Haley will take audience members into this gritty, urban world for an inside look at this "amazing" film.

SPI and SPA is also represented in other areas of the conference with exclusive never-before-seen content appearing in the Electronic Theater and Animation Daytime Selects. On August 7, SPI's Jeremy Selen will be presenting an all day course on Cinematic Color and Adam Martinez will present a practical guide to using Open Shading Language as part of the Practical Physical-Based Shading in the Film and Game Production course. For a complete listing of where to find Imageworks at SIGGRAPH please click here.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2012, Sony Pictures Imageworks is the Academy Award® winning visual effects and animation unit of Sony Pictures Digital Productions known for live-action visual effects and dynamic creature and character animation, all-CG animation, and stereoscopic 3D imagery. The company is currently in production on Oz The Great and Powerful (3D), The Smurfs 2 (3D) and the animated features Hotel Transylvania (3D) and Cloudy 2: Revenge of the Leftovers. Other recent credits include Men in Black 3, The Amazing Spider-Man, the hybrid live-action/animation film The Smurfs (3D), The Green Lantern (3D), Alice in Wonderland (3D) and Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (3D).

Sony Pictures Animation celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2012 with a robust slate of upcoming films. Following in the grand tradition of box office hits and award-winning favorites like Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs and Open Season, Tartakovsky's Hotel Transylvania is next up in September, after which Sony Pictures Animation will welcome the July 2013 release of The Smurfs 2, the follow-up to the 2012 global sensation. Cloudy 2: Revenge Of The Leftovers, a sequel to the Sony Pictures Animation's popular animated blockbuster, will reach theatres worldwide in February 2014. Also now in development are the aforementioned Popeye; The Familiars, directed by Doug Sweetland (who previously helmed the Academy Award ® nominated Pixar short Presto); Kazorn and the Unicorn, with Kelly Asbury (Shrek 2, Gnomeo & Juliet) at the helm and co-directed by Troy Quane; and the hybrid live-action/CG feature Secret Histories, written by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein.

CONTACT:
Steven Argula
Director, Publicity
Sony Pictures Imageworks
310-815-5233
sargula@imageworks.com