Image Engine

Image Engine is a Vancouver-based visual effects studio working across feature films and high-end episodic television. Founded in 1995, it began with television productions including The X-Files, Stargate SG-1, and Andromeda before expanding into large-scale feature and streaming work.

The studio creates photoreal visual effects for live-action storytelling, with particular strengths in character and creature animation, digital environments, set extensions, matte painting, digital doubles, hard-surface assets, invisible effects, and complex simulation work. Its production capabilities span creative development, on-set and studio visual-effects supervision, previs and postvis, modelling, texturing, rigging, animation, FX, compositing, roto, paint, and technical direction.

Visual effects and pipeline work

Image Engine combines artistic and technical disciplines across its work:

• Photoreal creature and character animation
• Environment creation, set extension, and live-action integration
• Fire, water, destruction, cloth, groom, and volumetric simulations
• Look development, lighting, rendering, and deep-image processing
• Pipeline software development and open-source production-tool engineering

The studio is particularly associated with Gaffer, a node-based open-source application for look development, lighting, and workflow automation, as well as the Cortex software libraries.

Screen work

Its credits include feature films such as District 9, Jurassic World, Logan, Elysium, Chappie, Thor: Ragnarok, The Revenant, The Shape of Water, Deadpool & Wolverine, and Alien: Romulus. Television and streaming work includes Game of Thrones, The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Lost in Space, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Dune: Prophecy, 3 Body Problem, Halo, Foundation, and The Crown.

Image Engine received an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects for District 9 in 2010. Its work has also been recognised through Primetime Emmy and Visual Effects Society awards for productions including Game of Thrones, The Book of Boba Fett, The Mandalorian, and Lost in Space.

Since joining Cinesite in 2015, Image Engine has continued to operate under its own brand from Vancouver as a specialised visual-effects company within the Cinesite Group.