Transitions is the first full-colour 3D IMAX film, created for the Canada Pavilion at Expo 86, co-directed by Colin Low and Tony Ianzelo and produced by the National Film Board of Canada. It was built upon We Are Born of Stars created for Expo '85 in Tskuba, Japan, which used anaglyph 3D. The film is also notable for the first use of stereoscopic computer animation.

Production

Canadian National, the main sponsor of the Canada Pavilion, asked the NFB to produce a film about transportation in Canada, in keeping with the fair's theme “Transportation and Communications”. The film's computer animation sequence was produced by the Centre d'animatique unit of the NFB's French animation studio, credited to Daniel Langlois, shortly before he left the NFB to found Softimage.

Projection

Transitions was projected on a 70 by screen at the pavilion's CN IMAX Theatre, to over 1.75 million people, during a six-month run.