Animation studio eyes Sherbrooke

January 30, 2012

Sylvain Viau hopes to be able to set up a state-of-the-art animation studio here in Sherbrooke. Courtesy photo

With changing times and technology, entrepreneurs have been bringing emerging industries to Sherbrooke and the city is currently being scouted as a potential home for one of the top animation studios in the country.
If Sylvain Viau’s plans fall on schedule, when Image Entertainment Corporation (IEC) opens up shop by June it will likely be the first animation studio in Sherbrooke producing 2D-3D, hybrid and live action projects for film and television.
“I think we can find a lot of people in Sherbrooke to train and develop,” the president and executive producer of IEC said. “Its normal that things take awhile to [get started] but there are a lot of talented and creative people here.”
Viau is not unfamiliar with the region. The native Montrealer graduated in marketing at the Université de Sherbrooke in the late eighties before fully launching into his career in 2D animation, which included working in TVA International’s youth and animation department.
In 2000, Viau decided to launch his own company and IEC began working on family and children’s animation.
“The first two years are very difficult as an entrepreneur, it’s hard to sell something and try to get your first contract. We worked a lot to try and find support,” he said. “I had federal support to go outside Canada so I went to France and worked with Marathon Animation. Marathon gave me my big break with Martian Mystery.”
With the 66 episodes of Martian Mystery, his French collaboration led to a dozen co-productions including 130 episodes of Totally Spies and 52 episodes of Team Galaxy, to name a few.
Of all the projects he’s been involved in, the closest one to Viau’s heart is a character named Walter that was created to over a decade ago in an effort to raise awareness of the environmental issues around the planet.
“Walter is a kind of Charlie Chaplin/Mr.Bean character. He’s a character everyone can understand. In our first production we shot it like a Charlie Chaplin movie, silent and black and white,” said Viau, adding later that the character also reminds him of a mentor.

Please see Tuesday's Record for the complete story.