VALENCIA EFFECTS FIRM GOES DIGITAL; HIGH-DEFINITION PILOT CALLED FIRST FOR TV.

Byline: Jason Takenouchi Daily News Staff Writer

Just weeks after a major deal with Sony Corp. doubled its work force, animation firm Air Age Images Inc. is putting finishing touches on a live-action television pilot that executives say will make history.

Company co-founder Paul Bryant said Friday a one-hour pilot for ``The Universe and Harry Morgann'' - a show that will be shot and produced entirely in the firm's Valencia studio - is nearly complete.

The show's pilot is the first science fiction television project in U.S. history to be shot in high-definition digital format, Bryant said. The project also is the company's first foray into producing its own television shows and movies.

But those milestones are just a beginning for the 7-year-old visual effects firm, which does business as Foundation Imaging.

``We're re-creating the studio system in a digital form,'' Bryant said. ``We're questioning every traditional way of creating a show, and we are seeing massive cost savings.''

Those savings are the result of an all-digital format that allows editors, composers and others to work simultaneously on a project. For instance, just seconds after an editor changes a shot, a sound designer at another computer could add or change sound effects for that shot.

The company's attempt to break into the production business is part of a growing trend among visual effects firms, said Kevin Kutchaver, president of Burbank-based animation firm Flat Earth Productions.

``We're not learning this process so we can become the biggest, baddest effects people around,'' he said. ``We got into this business to make films.''

Flat Earth is working with Air Age Images on the coming television series ``Starship Troopers: Bug Wars.''

While a deal with ``Starship Troopers'' producer Sony Corp. gave Foundation Imaging a huge boost last month, doubling its work force to over 100 people, the company is no stranger to Hollywood.

The firm was the primary animator for the television series ``Babylon 5,'' and it is a contractor for ``Star Trek: Voyager'' and ``Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.'' Foundation Imaging also did work for the movies ``Contact'' and ``The Jackal.''

But producing projects like ``The Universe and Harry Morgann'' is a new field for the company and its recently formed production subsidiary, Revenge Productions Inc.

Bryant, the company's co-founder, described the show as a dark comedy about a disgraced executive who travels the universe with a ``highly intelligent and disreputable'' crew.

Bryant said he hopes the series will serve as a showcase for the production process and story as well as the technology.

``All our projects will be effects-laden projects, because for us the effects are the easy part, but the effects are not the selling point,'' Bryant said. ``It's a good story, and these are good characters.''

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PHOTO (Color--Ran in Business only) Air Age Images says its self-produced ``The Universe and Harry Morgann'' is the first TV series pilot shot entirely in a digital format.