Lights, camera, research!

When animated characters and live actors appear together on screen, their movements should be seamlessly synchronized. The same is true of 3-D cinema, which marries views from two precisely-positioned cameras, one for the right eye and one for the left.

Getting this technology just right involves detailed research and testing of specialized hardware and software — a process that can be prohibitively expensive for one, two or even three small companies working together. Which is why Sheridan College’s Screen Industries Research and Training Centre (SIRT), established in 2009, partners with small and medium-sized movie, gaming and television production companies across Ontario to master the most efficient technologies and workflow systems.

“We are making sure the sort of technology used by director James Cameron on a through-the-roof, multi-million-dollar budget is also usable by smaller companies in Ontario, on their budgets and production schedules,” says SIRT director John Helliker, who has taught directing, visual effects and previsualization at Sheridan’s campus in Oakville, Ont.

Helliker’s goal is to anchor — and grow — the 16,000 jobs in the province already connected to film, television, gaming, and interactive media production.

SIRT is housed at Pinewood Toronto Studios, a sprawling film and television production complex in the Toronto Port Land’s burgeoning digital media district. SIRT’s facilities include a post-production and visual-effects lab, and a 5,000-square-foot studio for testing equipment and making presentations.

Until now, the centre’s researchers have had to rely on equipment borrowed from manufacturers, retailers and production rental companies. They’ve had to turn down some collaborations because they didn’t have the required hardware.

But with the $800,000 that SIRT is receiving through the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s College-Industry Innovation Fund, Helliker plans to buy the centre’s own equipment. That includes HD and digital cinema cameras, specialized rigs for holding 3-D cameras at precise angles, and both software and hardware for real-time co-ordination of live and animated elements.

Kim Davidson, president and CEO of Toronto-based Side Effects Software and a member of the SIRT advisory board, says he is excited by the research possibilities in that new equipment. Side Effects is a developer of 3-D animation and effects software whose customers create digital visual special effects for major motion pictures. The company has already partnered with SIRT on research, including one particularly time- and money-saving project.

Traditionally, special effects, including fire, smoke and water, are added post-production, Davidson explains. But SIRT helped his company coordinate live action scenes with special effects in real time, reducing the chance of mismatched action and wasted resources.

“Working with SIRT, we had access to talent and equipment so that we could develop more real-time FX tools that directors could use on set,” he says. “That is, they could see their vision earlier in the production and pre-production process.”

For his part, Helliker is particularly pleased to see funding for college-based applied research. As he points out, the Conference Board of Canada notes a core opportunity for colleges in its Innovation Catalysts and Accelerators report: “SMEs (small and medium enterprises) see colleges as ‘go-to’ venues for research facilities and equipment.”

But SIRT isn’t just about helping production companies. It also provides paid internships for animation, digital media, computer studies and project management students from Sheridan and is partnering with universities including the University of Waterloo and York University.

On a recent afternoon at SIRT, Satpal Kaur Bhullar and her fellow Sheridan intern, Navtej Pal Singh Sabhi were working with motion-tracking technology to capture the facial, head and shoulder movements of an actor, and apply these in real-time to a computer model of a donkey’s head. It’s part of a research project with an Ontario-based animation services provider.

“We learn, apply and test,” says Kaur Bhullar, a second-year Sheridan student studying computer systems analysis. “It’s really a unique experience.”

Pal Singh Sabhi, who is in the same program, agrees: “What I enjoy most about working here is that we have to come up with innovative solutions ourselves. We get to apply what we learned in the classroom.”

But what is most important, according to Helliker, is that great things come out of bringing together promising students and experienced professionals from SIRT’s partner companies. “They collaborate, they come up with innovations, they help build the economy,” he says. “And you keep them here in Ontario.”