Oblique FX

Oblique FX was an independent visual effects and digital animation boutique based in Montreal, Canada. Established in 2008 following the purchase of Buzz Image Group’s film division, it produced photorealistic imagery for feature films and television. Its work combined computer-generated characters, environments and simulations with live-action footage, ranging from visible fantasy effects to subtle alterations intended to pass unnoticed.

The studio’s capabilities covered production planning, 3D modeling and animation, digital compositing, matte painting, set extensions and on-set visual effects supervision. Its artists developed creatures, digital doubles and crowds, alongside simulations of water, explosions and other natural phenomena. Concept art, creature design and storyboards supported the development of effects sequences.

Film and television work

For Source Code, Oblique FX delivered 46 effects shots involving train explosions, computer-generated enhancements to the interior bomb sequence and a digital stunt double of Jake Gyllenhaal. Its work on the Ben Hur television miniseries included naval warfare, simulated water and matte-painted extensions of Jerusalem.

The studio collaborated on Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario and Arrival. On Sicario, it supplied 123 shots, including work on the border bridge sequence and background environments. Its Arrival contributions included wide views of spacecraft landing sites, landscape extensions and alien craft dematerialization imagery. These projects illustrate the studio’s emphasis on integrating effects into photographed settings and supporting the visual requirements of a story.

Television assignments included werewolf transformations, facial blendshapes and creature animation for Being Human, as well as digital environments and spacecraft effects for the second season of The Expanse. Other film assignments encompassed period environments, digital cleanup and scenic enhancements.

The founding artists brought experience from Buzz Image Group’s film division. Their pre-2008 projects belonged to that earlier operation rather than to the subsequently established Oblique FX studio. Oblique FX concluded its commercial operations around 2018–2019.