Marin Hacker Space

Visual Effects companies in Marin

• Whiskeytree – 914 Mission Ave. San Rafael, Ca
• 32Ten Studios – 3210 Kerner Blvd., San Rafael, CA
• Lucas Animation – Skywalker Ranch, Lucas Valley Rd.
• Digital Domain SF- 1100 Larkspur Landing Circle, Larkspur
• Autodesk – San Rafael (makes DCC tools Maya, 3d Studio Max, & more)

Defunct

• Disney Imagemovers Digital – Hamilton Hangars, Novato
• Matte World Digital – Digital Dr., Novato, CA
• ILM – Kerner Blvd., San Rafael
• Sony Pictures Imageworks – Hamilton Hangars, Novato

The best tech in Marin county?  It seems like a lot of tech has come and gone in Marin County.  A history of Marin County tech would be interesting; WordStar, anyone?  But that’s a topic for another day.  What is the best tech going on right now?  Here’s my off-the-cuff list:

• Skywalker Sound, Lucas Valley – perennial winner of Oscars, does every Pixar movie, best in class for movie sound.
• Lucas Animation, Lucas Valley – OK, I hate to harp on Lucasfilm, but computer animation still (?) being done at Big Rock Ranch is pretty cool.
• Autodesk – AutoCAD, 3DS Max, and Maya, oh my!
• Glassdoor, Sausalito – Marin’s coolest social media site.  Like it or hate it, it’s right up there with the best of them.
• Imagemovers Digital, Novato – OK they’re now closed, but they still have an awesome server farm and converted hangar with a control tower on top.  I think another company is moving in there.  Anybody know what it is?
• BioMarin, Novato – making genetically engineered cures for rare diseases.  Not my area of expertise, but cutting edge.  They are also generating spin-offs like Ultragenyx.
• Sutter Instruments, Novato – they’ve been around a long time.  They make equipment that makes pipettes for injecting material into cell nuclei?  that’s certainly an enabling technology …
• Buck Institute on Aging – Cutting edge research on aging, genomics, stem cells.  I think they’re very well  respected in their space.
• BioSearch, Novato – they’ve been around longer than BioMarin, I think.  Some sort of genetic equipment/product.
• Las Gallinas Sanitary District, San Rafael – not that glamorous, but they have a big water recycling plant and a large solar array to power their facilities.

I know there must be lots more, but that’s all that comes to mind.  What else should be on this list?

This is the relaunch of Marin Hacker Space. We’ll be welcoming people and resources to make MHS a reality.