Zoic

Zoic Studios Sign

Zoic Studios is a Los Angeles-based visual effects and CG animation company responsible for the visual effects shots used in the Battlestar Galactica Miniseries and early seasons of the Re-imagined Series. The name "Zoic" comes from the Greek suffix meaning "of life, or being."

Company History

Zoic Studios was co-founded in July 2002 by executive producer Steve Schofield and creative directors Chris Jones, Loni Peristere, and Andrew Orloff. According to Andrew Orloff, "We were visual effects artists — Chris and I were effects artists and Lonnie was a visual effect supervisor and Tim was from the business side. We decided to launch out and do our own thing instead of being attached to someone else's company."

The founders had previously worked together at visual effects companies including Digital Magic, POP, and Radium, bringing their projects and relationships with them when they established Zoic as their permanent venture. They wanted to focus on features and commercials while also servicing television clients, recognizing television as experiencing significant growth in visual effects at that time.

The company was formed with a distinctive production model heavily reliant on partnership, where visual effects work begins in pre-production rather than being relegated solely to post-production. According to Peristere, "This early communication and design allows for a clear creative process, rather than a reactive 'fixer upper.'"

By 2006, Zoic had grown from a core group of about 12 employees to approximately 120, expanding beyond its original Culver City headquarters to include facilities in Vancouver, British Columbia, and North Hollywood, California.

Battlestar Galactica

Zoic's involvement with Battlestar Galactica began through an indirect connection to the failed Tom DeSanto continuation project through one of Zoic's owners. When that project failed to materialize, series creator Ronald D. Moore approached Zoic to handle the Miniseries, based on work that both Zoic's Visual Effects Supervisors Emile Smith and Gary Hutzel had undertaken on Star Trek.

Technical Approach

Visual effects supervisor Gary Hutzel recruited the Los Angeles-based Zoic to render the production's pioneering effects shots, recognizing that state-of-the-art computer-generated imagery (CGI) would be the quickest, most cost-effective and most versatile means of producing the show's effects.

According to the Battlestar Galactica: The Official Companion, Hutzel praised the partnership:

"From the start, Zoic was determined to do a good job on Galactica and make our effects work. Everyone at Zoic was full of ideas, but they also completely accepted the parameters and were open to revisiting shots and trying them again. We quickly developed a very strong partnership with Zoic."

Production Process

Zoic's compositing supervisor Patti Gannon described their collaborative approach:

"We work closely with Gary on every aspect of the effects. The process of producing each effect shot basically begins with Gary giving us an idea of how he would like the shot to look, and it's then up to us to execute his idea. Gary gives us a lot of freedom to develop his idea and take it a step further, if we can."

The company's initial tasks on Battlestar Galactica included building computer-generated models of the miniseries' various ships. NewTek's LightWave 3D software program was used to construct, light and animate the show's CG models, which were later composited into shots using Discrete Combustion and Discrete Flame.

CG Modeling Philosophy

CG supervisor Lee Stringer, who led the model-building process, explained their approach: "When we built the CG models for Battlestar Galactica, I tried to make sure that they didn't look like CGI. You can make everything perfect and pristine in a computer, but that's not very believable, so I've always put a lot of work into doing the models in a way that makes people forget they're looking at CGI. I added some roughness to the models and did some other things that are often forgotten when other people have done CGI effects."

Split Screen Experiments

During development of the miniseries, Moore had hoped to utilize a split screen format similar to productions like 24 and Hulk. Although Zoic worked on several effects sequences featuring multiple images of the action, Hutzel was pleased when the producers decided to abandon these plans, noting that while it was "a cool idea and it would have been a cute gimmick," it created logistical problems and wasn't necessary for the show.

Reduced Role in Later Seasons

During the first season, financial and logistical issues led Hutzel to supplement Zoic's work with Vancouver-based effects houses. According to the Official Companion, "Zoic did approximately half the work for season one, while the rest was done in Vancouver," with Hutzel explaining that while "Zoic has remained a brilliant partner on this show," he needed to use other companies that were "closer to me and the production in Vancouver and more cost-effective."

In Season 2, visual effects supervisor Gary Hutzel began building up an in-house effects team, which by Season 3 would produce over 70% of the show's effects shots, with the remaining work handled by Atmosphere Visual Effects.

Awards and Recognition

As a result of their work on the Battlestar Galactica Miniseries, Zoic received multiple nominations and wins at the 2004 VES Awards (2nd Annual Visual Effects Society Awards):

• Winner: Outstanding Visual Effects in a Television Miniseries, Movie, or Special - Battlestar Galactica (Gary Hutzel, Kristen L. Branan, Emile E. Smith, Lee Stringer)
• Nominated: Outstanding Models and Miniatures in a Televised Program, Music Video, or Commercial - Battlestar Galactica (Lee Stringer, Jose Perez, Gabriel Koerner, Mike Enriquez)
• Nominated: Outstanding Compositing in a Televised Program, Music Video, or Commercial - Battlestar Galactica (Stefano Trivelli, Patti Gannon, Chris Jones, Sean Apple, Jarrod Davis)

Zoic has won multiple Emmy Awards for their television work, including:

• 2010: Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects For A Series for CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode "Family Affair"

In their first three and a half years of operation, Zoic was nominated for 15 awards and won nine, including Emmys, Clios, London International Awards, Visual Effects Society Awards and AICP Awards.

Other Notable Projects

Beyond Battlestar Galactica, Zoic Studios has worked on numerous high-profile projects across multiple media:

Television

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Zoic was responsible for many of the effects in Joss Whedon's series
• Firefly - Visual effects for Whedon's space western
• Angel - Continuation of the Buffy universe
• Once Upon a Time - ABC fantasy series featuring multiple fairy tale worlds
• Fringe - Fox science fiction series
• True Blood - HBO supernatural series
• V - ABC sci-fi remake
• Human Target - Fox action series
• Eureka - Sci-Fi Channel series
• Blade - Spike TV supernatural action series
• CSI: Miami - Crime procedural effects work
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Original CSI series, won Emmy for "Family Affair" episode

Feature Films

• Serenity - The movie continuation of Firefly
• Van Helsing - Universal monster movie
• The Day After Tomorrow - Climate disaster thriller
• Zathura - Space adventure family film
• Talladega Nights
• Pathfinder - Historical action film

Commercials

Zoic has created award-winning commercial work for major brands including:

• HP - Power Book campaign that ran for two and a half years and won major awards, with commercials now housed in the Museum of Modern Art
• Mini Cooper - "modern myth" campaign
• Sony PSP - POV transitions
• Cingular - "shadow dancer"
• Lexus, Cadillac

Technical Innovation

Digitally Extending BSG Sets

The effects produced for Battlestar Galactica range from completely rendering all space vessels and backgrounds for the series through to digital extensions of the sets themselves, digitally melding live-action shots with digital backgrounds that enable the production to present the cavernous interiors expected on a vessel the size of Galactica.

Zoic has developed several proprietary technologies to enhance their visual effects workflow. For Once Upon a Time, they created the Z.E.U.S. (Zoic Environmental Unification System), an iPad application that allows directors and producers to walk through virtual sets before reaching the green screen stage. Working with a company called Lightcraft, they provide real-time feedback using a video game engine that renders environments in real time based on camera movements, creating temporary composites that can be seen, performed to, and lit during filming.

According to Andrew Orloff, one of the advantages of working on television series is the ability to continuously improve effects over multiple episodes: "One of the things that you can do on a TV show and not on a feature is come back to an effect and say 'How can we do it better?' 'What are the software advancements that can make it be more realistic and more detailed?' So, we've been evolving that effect show by show, season by season since we started."

Easter Eggs and In-Jokes

The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) tucked away in the background behind Zephyr ^{(TRS: "Miniseries, Night 1")}. Lower Right: Magnified and enhanced.

Serenity on Caprica ^{(TRS: "Miniseries, Night 1")}.

Zoic personnel were responsible for several notable easter eggs and in-jokes within Battlestar Galactica:

• The insertion of Serenity from Whedon's Firefly series, visible flying above Caprica City just prior to Laura Roslin learning of her terminal condition ^{(TRS: "Miniseries")}. This was a natural inclusion given Zoic's previous work on that series.
• The original USS Enterprise from Star Trek, seen in the upper right corner of the last glimpse of the Fleet near the conclusion of the Miniseries. This in-joke references Ronald D. Moore's history as a writer and producer for the later Star Trek series.
• As a morbid joke, Zoic effects artists hid small barely noticeable hints of movement and activity inside the Olympic Carrier during "33."
• According to Lee Stringer, "Like on a lot of other films and TV shows, there are some cameos by ships from other sci-fi shows. For example, in addition to some familiar ships appearing in the rag-tag fleet at various times, Serenity can be seen flying past the doctor's office early in the miniseries. We also did name tags and numbers on the Vipers for most of the main people working on the show."

Company Expansion

In 2007, Zoic launched Zoic BC in Vancouver, with Patti Gannon and Randy Goux relocating to establish the Canadian operation. The Vancouver studio occupies 4,000 square feet in the Sun Tower and can accommodate over 40 2D and 3D artists, with over 20 terabytes of storage and over 100 render nodes. The facility is connected to the Los Angeles studio via high-speed Internet and VPN connections, allowing seamless collaboration between the two locations.

Leadership

Key personnel at Zoic Studios include:

• Loni Peristere - Co-founder, CEO and Creative Director
• Chris Jones - Co-founder and President
• Steve Schofield - Co-founder and Executive Producer
• Andrew Orloff - Co-founder and Creative Director
• Patti Gannon - Compositing Supervisor (later Creative Director, Zoic BC)
• Lee Stringer - CG Supervisor
• Emile Smith - CG Supervisor

See Also

• References in the Re-imagined Series
• Atmosphere Visual Effects
• Gary Hutzel

External Links

• Zoic Studios Official Site