Sony Pictures Imageworks Inc. (also known as Imageworks) is a Canadian visual effects and computer animation studio headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, with additional offices in Los Angeles, California and Montreal, Quebec. SPI is a unit of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Motion Picture Group.

The company has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences winning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for their work on Spider-Man 2, as well as the Academy Award for Best Animated Film for Into the Spider-Verse and Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for The ChubbChubbs!, having also received many other nominations for their work.

SPI has provided visual effects for many films; most recent include The Meg, Men in Black: International, and Spider-Man: Far From Home. They also provided services for several of director Robert Zemeckis' films, including Contact, Cast Away, The Polar Express, and Beowulf.

Since the foundation of its sister company Sony Pictures Animation in 2002, SPI would go on to animate nearly all of SPA's films, including Open Season, Surf's Up, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, KPop Demon Hunters, Goat, and films in the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Smurfs and Hotel Transylvania franchises, in addition to animating films for other studios such as Arthur Christmas for Aardman Animations (co-produced by SPA), Storks and Smallfoot for Warner Animation Group (now known as Warner Bros. Pictures Animation), The Angry Birds Movie for Rovio Animation and its sequel (co-produced by SPA), and Over the Moon for Netflix and Pearl Studio, The Sea Beast and In Your Dreams for Netflix Animation Studios, and The Bad Guys 2 and Forgotten Island for DreamWorks Animation.

History Sony Pictures Imageworks was formed on May 26, 1992 with five employees to use computers to help plan complicated scenes for live-action films. Located in the former TriStar building, their first work was a previsualization for the 1993 film Striking Distance. In April 1993, the previously unnamed unit received its current name. In 1997, SPI became part of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Digital Studios unit.

To fill the gaps between VFX jobs, SPI decided to partake in the more profitable animation business. Its first independent animated effort was the 5-minute short The ChubbChubbs! directed by Eric Armstrong. In 2002, it won the Oscar for Best Animated Short. Early Bloomer, released in 2003, was the division's second short film and originally made as a storyboarding exercise. SPI completed its first feature animation project in 2006 with the release of Open Season, which was produced by sister company Sony Pictures Animation.

In 2007, SPI acquired Indian visual effects studio FrameFlow to take advantage of lower labor costs. Renamed to Imageworks India, a modern facility was opened in Chennai a year later. To leverage New Mexico's tax rebates and talent base, a satellite production facility was opened in 2007 in Albuquerque, becoming the largest post-production operation in the state. In 2010, SPI opened a production studio in Vancouver, British Columbia, in order to take advantage of the local talent pool and government film production incentives. Two years later, the studio doubled its Vancouver facilities. At the same time, the Albuquerque studio was closed down due to declining state subsidies and difficulty with attracting artists to move there.

In the beginning of 2014, as a cost-cutting move, SPI transferred a portion of its technology team from its headquarters in Culver City to Vancouver. By May 2014, entire headquarters and production had been moved to Vancouver, with only a small office remaining in Culver City. At the same time, SPI closed down its Indian studio, laying off around 100 employees. A year later, over 700 artists moved into a new 74,000-square feet headquarters in Vancouver.

On October 6, 2023, Cartoon Brew reported that DreamWorks Animation was moving away from producing films in-house at their Glendale campus to rely more heavily on outside studios after 2024, as part of a layoff by chief operating officer Randy Lake in a series of meetings the previous month. According to the report, SPI was named as the animation service for a then-unannounced DreamWorks sequel (The Bad Guys 2) scheduled for 2025. The film would use a "mixed production model", in which pre-production would be done in-house at DreamWorks along with approximately 50% of the asset build and one hour of production, while SPI would handle the other 50% of asset builds and 20 minutes of shot production.

Technology During 2009–2010, SPI made a transition from a traditional, emotional, multi-pass rendering system to a largely single-pass, global illumination system incorporating modern ray-tracing and physically based shading techniques. They have achieved that with Arnold Renderer, an unbiased stochastic ray tracer. Arnold, started in 1997 by Marcos Fajardo, was co-developed between 2004 and 2009 with SPI, where Marcos was employed, and a commercial branch is being developed by Marcos' Madrid-based company Solid Angle SL (now owned by Autodesk). Arnold was used on projects such as Monster House, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, 2012, Alice in Wonderland, The Smurfs and Arthur Christmas.

Filmography Sony Pictures Imageworks has provided visual effects and digital animation for the following films: YearFilms1993Last Action HeroIn the Line of FireSo I Married an Axe MurdererStriking Distance (CGI previsualization, uncredited)Mr. Jones (titles only)Rudy (titles only)Look Who's Talking NowMy LifeThe Pelican Brief (falcon jet air to air shot)1994Guarding Tess (CGI titles only)SpeedWolfBlankman (CGI blankwheel screen graphics and CGI plate supervision)1995HideawayTall TaleDie Hard with a VengeanceJohnny Mnemonic (CGI cyberspace sequence)Judge Dredd (CGI additional digital compositing)The Net (CGI plane crash sequence)Virtuosity (CGI tendril animation)Money Train (CGI money train wreck sequence/CGI digital composites)Wings of Courage1996James and the Giant Peach (CGI water, sharks, and seagulls)The CraftThe Cable GuyPhenomenonThe Ghost and the DarknessMichael1997AnacondaContactStarship Troopers (CGI spaceship)The PostmanAs Good as It Gets1998The Replacement KillersSphere (CGI end sequence)City of AngelsPaulieThe Big HitGodzillaYou've Got Mail (CGI titles only)Patch AdamsStar Trek: Insurrection1999Big DaddyThe Astronaut's Wife (CGI visual effects)The Ninth GateJakob the LiarStuart LittleSnow Falling on Cedars2000What Planet Are You From?What Lies BeneathHollow ManCharlie's AngelsCast Away2001Evolution (CGI flatworm animation sequence)America's SweetheartsRiding in Cars with BoysHarry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone2002Spider-ManMen in Black IIStuart Little 2The TuxedoI SpyThe Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers2003Darkness FallsAnger ManagementIdentity (CGI digital color timing)The Matrix ReloadedHollywood HomicideCharlie's Angels: Full ThrottleBad Boys IISeabiscuitMatchstick MenThe Matrix RevolutionsThe Haunted MansionBig FishPeter Pan200450 First DatesSpider-Man 2Anchorman: The Legend of Ron BurgundyLittle Black BookThe ForgottenThe Polar ExpressChristmas with the KranksThe AviatorSpanglish2005CursedBewitchedThe Prize Winner of Defiance, OhioZathuraThe Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe2006ClickSuperman ReturnsMonster HouseOpen SeasonLast Holiday2007Ghost RiderSpider-Man 3Surf's UpBlade Runner: The Final Cut (CGI visual effects enhancement)The Jane Austen Book ClubBeowulfI Am Legend2008Speed RacerYou Don't Mess with the ZohanHancockEagle EyeBody of LiesValkyrie2009Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert ExperienceWatchmenG-ForceCloudy with a Chance of MeatballsMichael Jackson's This Is It20122010Alice in WonderlandCats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore2011The Green HornetJust Go with ItGreen LanternZookeeperThe SmurfsArthur Christmas2012Men in Black 3The Amazing Spider-ManHotel TransylvaniaHere Comes the Boom2013Oz: The Great and PowerfulThe Smurfs 2Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 22014Captain America: The Winter SoldierThe Amazing Spider-Man 2BlendedEdge of Tomorrow22 Jump StreetDeliver Us from EvilGuardians of the GalaxyFuryAmerican SniperThe Interview2015PixelsHotel Transylvania 2Concussion2016The Angry Birds MovieAlice Through the Looking GlassGhostbustersSuicide SquadStorks2017Smurfs: The Lost VillageSpider-Man: HomecomingThe Emoji MovieKingsman: The Golden CircleJumanji: Welcome to the Jungle2018Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer VacationThe MegSmallfootVenomSpider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse2019Men in Black: InternationalSpider-Man: Far From HomeThe Angry Birds Movie 2Zombieland: Double Tap (Columbia Pictures CGI opening variant only)Jumanji: The Next Level2020MulanOver the Moon2021The Mitchells vs. the MachinesVivoSpider-Man: No Way Home2022Hotel Transylvania: TransformaniaDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of MadnessThe Sea BeastThor: Love and Thunder2023Ant-Man and the Wasp: QuantumaniaGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3Spider-Man: Across the Spider-VerseThe Marvels2024Ghostbusters: Frozen EmpireRed One2025A Minecraft MovieKPop Demon HuntersThe Fantastic Four: First StepsThe Bad Guys 2In Your Dreams2026GoatProject Hail MarySpider-Man: Brand New DayForgotten IslandAvengers: DoomsdayJumanji: Open World2027Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-VerseThe Haunting of Hotel TransylvaniaCharlie vs. the Chocolate Factory

Television The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest ("The Edge of Yesterday") Stuart Little: The Animated Series (CGI animation and visual effects) Love, Death & Robots ("Lucky 13" and "In Vaulted Halls Entombed") The Falcon and the Winter Soldier ("One World, One People") The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (TV special)

Controversy In an article published by Vulture in June 2023, several animators quit Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse due to unstable working conditions. According to the Animation Guild, while SPI is associated with Sony Pictures Animation, SPI remains non-union.

See also Sony Pictures Animation Pixomondo List of animation studios owned by Sony

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