Visual effects wizard Andrew Orloff makes his living bringing the impossible to life.

Orloff is visual effects supervisor on the Vancouver-produced fantasy series Once Upon A Time, which airs its 100th episode on Sunday and has been renewed for a sixth season.

On any given work day, Orloff and his team at Vancouver’s Zoic Studios can be expected to conjure up a mermaid, make a monkey fly or bring some storybook world to life.

“This is a big deal for us. Once Upon a Time is a huge show with heavy levels of visual effects, both in volume and quality. We have been working on it for all five years, have done 100 episodes with the team and this is a big milestone for us.”

No request is too big or fantastic.

“We don’t really say no. We find a way to make it work,” Orloff said. “It’s an incredible environment and magical land that it is our job to create. We are creating creatures that are acting alongside actors, we are creating virtual sets that are designed by the art department of the show and being shot on a green screen stage. There is so much interaction and collaboration with all the different departments. When we started, visual effects was a separate thing that happened after the fact. Now, because we are so integrated with the way the show is, we need to be there every step of the way.”

Zoic, a company Orloff co-founded 14 years ago in Los Angeles, opened its Vancouver branch in Gastown’s The Landing building 10 years ago.

The California-born Orloff joined the Vancouver studio four years ago, moving from L.A. to Bellingham, Wash. where he commutes from. Orloff’s move came at the same time as more and more visual effects-heavy TV shows, lured by tax credits and a low Canadian dollar, started moving north of the border. There are nearly 300 people working out of Zoic’s Vancouver studio compared to 100 staff at the original L.A. office.

Many of the series being shot in Vancouver — Once Upon A Time, Arrow, The Flash, The 100 and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow — are among the most technically complicated shows in the history of television.

It’s not a coincidence they are all here.

“We are celebrating our 10-year anniversary as a Canadian company … and in that time, the artist pool and the talent pool has grown so much. It is very attractive for companies with visual effects shows to come here because there are so many good artists,” said Orloff, who cut his SFX teeth “dusting” bloodsucking monsters on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff Angel.

“Vancouver is one of the top three or four places in the world to get visual effects done. L.A., Vancouver, London and New York, along with WETA (Workshop) in New Zealand, those are the main hubs.”

The 100th episode of Once Upon A Time airs Sunday, 8 p.m., on CTV.

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