Best VFX Studios in Vancouver (2026)

Introduction

Vancouver is one of the largest visual effects centres in the world, and the 11 studios below all make shots in the city in 2026. They range from the Vancouver arms of ILM, DNEG and Digital Domain to independents such as The Embassy, which splits its time between features, series and advertising.

The local map has shifted over the past two years. Technicolor’s collapse in early 2025 closed MPC and The Mill, and Framestore no longer lists Vancouver among its studios. Netflix folded Scanline VFX into a single brand, Eyeline, in October 2025, and FuseFX’s Vancouver studio now trades as Folks VFX after the Pitch Black group retired the FuseFX name in January 2025. Sony, meanwhile, has said it will close Pixomondo and move that work to Imageworks, which was reported in March 2026 to be expanding in Vancouver.

Each studio here has a working Vancouver studio in 2026, checked against its own site or recent trade coverage. Selection was based on recent credits and the range of work each one takes on. The list runs in no particular order, since the right fit depends on the size of the show, the shot count and how your production likes to review work.

The best VFX studios in Vancouver

1. Industrial Light & Magic

Lucasfilm (Disney) · Gastown · ilm.com

ILM set up in Vancouver in 2013 and moved into a 30,000 sq ft studio in Gastown the following year. The studio is a regular part of ILM’s global shot work, and in 2026 the company published a profile of the Vancouver team’s people and culture, followed in May by a feature on the Vancouver crew’s work on Tron: Ares.

ILM’s recent slate includes Sinners, Frankenstein, Superman, Stranger Things season 5 and The Mandalorian and Grogu. Work is shared across ILM’s studios, so ask which sequences will be handled in Vancouver.

2. DNEG

Prime Focus · Vancouver · dneg.com

DNEG has won eight Academy Awards, the most recent for Dune: Part Two in 2025. It runs 19 studios worldwide, including Vancouver, and is part of Prime Focus. In June 2026 it acquired Ánima Kitchent.

Recent and current features include Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, Mortal Kombat II, A Minecraft Movie, How to Train Your Dragon and Mickey 17, with The Angry Birds Movie 3 in production. DNEG also has an animation arm, which matters if a project mixes live-action and full CG.

3. Sony Pictures Imageworks

Sony Pictures Entertainment · Vancouver · imageworks.com

Imageworks runs studios in Vancouver, Montréal and Los Angeles and handles both visual effects and feature animation. In June 2026 the Vancouver Sun covered the studio’s Vancouver role in KPop Demon Hunters and the Spider-Verse films.

The studio’s position in the city is growing. Sony said in March 2026 that it would close Pixomondo and move that work to Imageworks, and reports at the time described the Vancouver hub as expanding.

4. Image Engine

Cinesite partner company · Mount Pleasant · image-engine.com

Image Engine has worked from Vancouver since 1995 and merged with Cinesite in 2015. Its studio on Quebec Street is known for creature and character work, and its recent press includes coverage of the creatures in Keeper and its sequences on Tron: Ares in befores & afters, Animation Magazine and VFX Voice.

Credits from 2025 and 2026 include Dune: Prophecy, Skeleton Crew, The Mandalorian & Grogu, Percy Jackson and the Olympians season 2, Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 and Matchbox The Movie.

5. Digital Domain

Digital Domain Holdings · Vancouver · digitaldomain.com

Digital Domain has more than 30 years of film work behind it and is owned by Hong Kong-listed Digital Domain Holdings. Vancouver is one of its studios alongside Los Angeles, Montréal, Hyderabad, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Recent features include The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Thunderbolts*, A Minecraft Movie and Captain America: Brave New World, with Supergirl, Street Fighter, Matchbox and Avengers: Doomsday among its 2026 titles. It also takes on advertising and games work and has a long record in digital humans.

6. Eyeline

Netflix · Vancouver · eyelinestudios.com

Eyeline is the brand Netflix gave its combined VFX and production technology group in October 2025, when it merged Scanline VFX (founded in 1989, acquired by Netflix in 2021) with Eyeline Studios. Scanline’s work on Andor season 2 won an Emmy in 2025, and the group’s 2026 job listings include roles based in Vancouver.

Scanline credits include Wednesday season 2, The Woman in Cabin 10, Stranger Things and Avatar: The Last Airbender. Eyeline’s virtual production side, including its Light Dome capture stage, was used on Happy Gilmore 2.

7. Folks VFX

The Pitch Black Company · Yaletown · folksvfx.com

Folks Vancouver is the former FuseFX studio, which opened in 2014. In January 2025 Folks absorbed the FuseFX brand and every FuseFX location became a Folks studio. Folks is part of The Pitch Black Company, a portfolio company of EagleTree Capital whose other studios include Rising Sun Pictures and El Ranchito.

Its recent work leans towards series and studio features: IT: Welcome to Derry, Wednesday, Reacher season 3, Murderbot, Twisted Metal season 2, Final Destination: Bloodlines, Happy Gilmore 2 and Marty Supreme.

8. Zoic Studios

Independent · Vancouver · zoicstudios.com

Zoic was founded in Los Angeles in 2002 by a group that included Chris Jones and Loni Peristere, who still run it as executive creative directors. Its Vancouver studio, Zoic BC, opened in 2006, and the company describes itself as independent, with studios in Los Angeles, Vancouver and New York.

Zoic’s credits lean towards episodic work, from early credits such as Battlestar Galactica and an Emmy for CSI through to The Witcher, Sweet Tooth and For All Mankind. In 2025 it was one of the vendors on The Wizard of Oz at Sphere.

9. Barnstorm VFX

Privately held · Vancouver · barnstormvfx.com

Barnstorm was founded in 2011 and added a Vancouver studio around the time of its Emmy-nominated work on Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle, where it went from a single sequence in season one to most of the effects in season two. It now lists studios in Vancouver, Los Angeles, New York, Montréal, London, Atlanta and Toronto.

The studio’s focus is high-end episodic work, and it offers supervision, look development, virtual production and remote or in-house setups to suit a show. VFX supervisor Lawson Deming led its High Castle work.

10. Crafty Apes

Privately held · Vancouver · craftyapes.com

Crafty Apes was founded in 2011 and has grown into a multi-site vendor with studios in Vancouver, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Montréal, New York, New Jersey, London and, since March 2025, Sydney. CEO Alana Newell has led a run of senior creative hires across Canada, the UK and Australia through 2025.

Credits include IT: Welcome to Derry, The Housemaid, Captain America: Brave New World, Stranger Things and The Wizard of Oz at Sphere.

11. The Embassy

Independent · Mount Pleasant · theembassyvfx.com

The Embassy is an independent VFX and production studio based in Vancouver’s digital district on West 7th Avenue, with a second studio in Culver City. Winston Helgason leads it as president and executive producer. Its record includes Oscar nominations and awards from the VES, Cannes, D&AD, the Clios and the ADCC.

It is one of the few studios on this list with a large advertising practice. Recent work includes the Nissan Snowmen campaign (written up by the studio in February 2026), Nissan Kicks, Disney Resorts and Flonase, alongside Descendants: Wicked Wonderland and The Spiderwick Chronicles. In 2025 it wrote about expanding its CG creature work.

What to look for in a Vancouver VFX studio

Start by asking where the work will be done. Most of the studios above run several sites, and shots on one show are often split between Vancouver, Montréal, London or India. British Columbia’s tax incentives are part of why productions place work here, so it is worth confirming early which sequences, and which supervisors, sit in Vancouver.

Match the studio to the shape of the job. Feature work at ILM, DNEG or Digital Domain runs on long schedules with large crews. Episodic specialists such as Zoic, Barnstorm and Folks are set up for tight turnarounds across many episodes. For commercials and brand work, a studio with an advertising practice, such as The Embassy, will be used to agency approvals and shorter delivery windows.

Look at the team as well as the reel. Vancouver’s VFX workforce moves between studios as shows start and wrap, and the past two years brought closures and rebrands, from MPC and The Mill to Scanline and FuseFX. Ask who will supervise your show and what they delivered most recently.

Then agree how review will work before the first turnover. Plates, renders and versions pile up quickly, and a show can lose days when notes come back by email against the wrong version. A clear naming convention, one place for the latest shots and a review loop that records which notes are closed will save time on both sides.

How Fabric helps VFX teams

Fabric is a workspace for a team’s files, feedback and knowledge, with AI search across all of it. For VFX work, the starting point is storage: Fabric’s cloud drive streams files on demand, so plates, renders and reference take no local disk space and heavy files open without a full download. There is more on this in your rendering files need a home.

Finding material is the next problem on a long show. Search works by meaning across documents, images and transcribed video, and results jump to the right page or timestamp. Similar search takes a frame or image and finds visually related shots and reference, weighing composition, colour and subject.

Shot review runs through sharing. Share a file or folder with a supervisor or client as a commenter and they can leave timestamped comments on a video, draw on the frame to point at a problem, or draw on a still and attach a note, all without creating an account. Every comment can be marked completed, so a round of notes works like a checklist; annotations and marking client feedback as done cover the details. Published links are view-only, so use sharing for anything that needs notes.

For deliveries and bids, password protection keeps unreleased shots private, and link analytics shows when each named recipient opened a link and how long they spent with it.

Password protection and link analytics are included on Pro and Team plans. See plans for teams.

Frequently asked questions

Which Vancouver VFX studios work on the biggest films?

ILM, DNEG, Digital Domain and Sony Pictures Imageworks all run Vancouver studios that contribute to major studio features. Recent examples include Tron: Ares (ILM and Image Engine), The Odyssey (DNEG) and The Fantastic Four: First Steps (Digital Domain).

Is Scanline VFX still in Vancouver?

Scanline is now part of Eyeline. Netflix merged Scanline VFX with Eyeline Studios under the Eyeline name in October 2025, and the combined group lists Vancouver among its locations in 2026.

What happened to MPC and The Mill in Vancouver?

Both closed with the collapse of their parent company, Technicolor, in early 2025.

Which Vancouver VFX studios work on commercials?

The Embassy has the largest advertising practice on this list, with recent work for Nissan, Disney Resorts and Flonase. Digital Domain also takes on advertising. For finishing, grading and edit on a commercial, see the best post-production houses in Vancouver.

Do Vancouver VFX studios only work for Hollywood?

Most of the credits on this list come from US studios and streamers. Some studios also take on other work: The Embassy has a large advertising practice, and Digital Domain works in advertising and games, so it is worth asking even for a smaller project.

Related lists

VFX in other cities: New York · London · Los Angeles · Chicago · Toronto

More in Vancouver: Creative agencies · Animation · Post-production · Video production · Colour grading · Sound design

Run your studio on Fabric: Fabric for creative teams · Fabric for video editors · How to manage video project files