VANCOUVER, BC — Visual effects company Zoic Studios (www.zoicstudios.com) has expanded to a bigger loft space in Gastown. The new space is located on the sixth floor at 375 Water Street and can accommodate 60 percent more artists.

Originally built as a supply warehouse for gold-rush miners, The Landing was renovated to Class A building standards in 1987. The move brought about a technical upgrade that increases productivity for Zoic and will allow for a smoother workflow between the Los Angeles and Vancouver offices.

According to Zoic head of engineering, Saker Klippstein, the space can accommodate more than 60 artists.

"Our major workflows revolve around Nuke and some Maya,” notes Klippstein. The studio supports both Vray and Mental Ray workflows for rendering. The matte painting department uses the Adobe suite of software, along with Vue from E-on, which helps in create realistic environments. Tracking is performed using SynthEyes and some of the studio’s own proprietary software. And for rotoscoping, Zoic uses Silhouette.