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A new book pulls back the curtain on the vfx industry and offers a somber, if not fascinating, read on the current state of the business.

The post Review: ‘Inside VFX’ Goes Far Beyond The Usual VFX Industry Debate appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

China's visual effects industry will benefit from the expertise of a major American visual effects producer.

The post Rhythm & Hues Co-Founder John Hughes To Launch Major Chinese VFX Studio appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

China's visual effects industry will benefit from the expertise of a major American visual effects producer.

The post Rhythm and Hues Co-Founder John Hughes To Launch Major Chinese VFX Studio appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

The Oscars just did a little segment on their Scientific and Technical Awards. Among the the winners of the Technical Achievement Award this year was Rhythm & Hues for its proprietary Voodoo software.

The 30-minute "Life After Pi" documents last year's financial collapse of vfx house Rhythm & Hues.

Visual effects house Method Studios, with nine offices worldwide, has announced the hiring of Erik-Jan de Boer, James Jacobs and Keith Roberts. The studio’s recent projects include Iron Man 3, Argo, Men in Black 3 and Cloud Atlas.

Erik-Jan de Boer, (seen above, 2nd from the left) formerly of Rhythm & Hues, where he helped them earn Academy Awards for visual effects on Life of Pi, will be coming aboard Method’s Vancouver office as Animation Supervisor.

“Joining Method presents a great opportunity for me to be part of a multi-facility visual effects house” says de Boer, “There are some impressive projects on the horizon and working on these in an artist-driven environment is an exciting prospect.”

James Jacobs, who received a 2013 Scientific and Engineering Academy Award for helping build Weta Digital’s character simulation software used in Avatar, will join de Boer in the Vancouver office as Creature Supervisor. Meanwhile, Keith Roberts, a veteran of Rhythm & Hues, will serve as Animation Supervisor in Los Angeles.

“We are thrilled to have Erik, James and Keith join our team,” said Christian Kubsch, Method’s President. “Their arrival couldn’t have come at a better time, as Method Studios is in the process of expanding the character animation talent across our global network.”

Variety is reporting that bankrupt American animation/visual effects studio Rhythm & Hues has been acquired at auction by Indian company Prana Studios. The Variety article mentions that Prana’s credits include Hoodwinked and Disney’s upcoming Planes.

Prana also created the animation for Koochie Koochie Hota Hai. The film, which its producer has described as a “love story between three dogs,” has been finished for over three years, but it is filled with so much amazing that it cannot be released into theaters without sending audiences into a dangerous state of ecstatic euphoria. In the meantime, Prana should spend some time getting their new Rhythm & Hues subsidiary up to speed on how to create mindbending computer-generated visuals.

A little over a month after Life of Pi VFX studio Rhythm & Hues declared bankruptcy and laid off hundreds of employees at its Los Angeles studio, the China Post reports that its new Taiwan outpost is offering 200 job openings.

Rhythm & Hues recently had a booth at a job fair at Taichung’s National Chung Hsing University, where it was recruiting special effects engineers, 3D animation artists and other creative personnel. Starting salaries for new graduates at the Taiwan studio are roughly in the range of $250-per-week, according to the China Post.

Last night during the Oscars, the Academy organizers interrupted Life of Pi winner Bill Westenhofer’s speech just as he was about to address the crisis in the visusal effects community. The timing of the cut-off may not have been coincidental, as Variety’s David S. Cohen pointed out on Twitter:

Hollywood’s desire to silence the animation/vfx community is made more poignant by the VFX industry demonstrations that happened earlier on Sunday in Hollywood. Westenhofer supervised the visual effects of Life of Pi at Rhythm & Hues, which has already declared bankruptcy and is among the studios hit hardest by the recent industry turmoil.

Westenhofer spoke backstage at the ceremony with animation journalist Bill Desowitz, where he explained the message he wanted to deliver to Hollywood:

“At a time when visual effects movies are dominating the box office, [the] visual effects companies are struggling. And I wanted to point out that we aren’t technicians. Visual effects is not just a commodity that’s being done by people pushing buttons. We’re artists, and if we don’t find a way to fix the business model, we start to loses the artistry. If anything, Life of Pi shows that we’re artists and not just technicians.”

If there’s any silver lining to yesterday’s awful news about Rhythm & Hues, it’s that other companies hunger for the services of Rhythm & Hues’ respected crew. Reel FX is among the companies that has been most vocal about its desire to hire some of the hundreds of R&H employees who are expected to be laid off.

The Santa Monica and Dallas-based Reel FX, which is brashly entering the world of CG feature films by simultaneously producing two major pictures—Jimmy Hayward’s Turkeys and Jorge Gutierrez’s Book of Life—posted a special recruitment page for unemployed Rhythm & Hues artists. It included the following note:

This recruiting tab was created for those Rhythm and Hues [artists] who have been affected by their recent situation. Please know our thoughts are with you.

Thumbs up to Reel FX for doing its part to create a positive impact out of an unfortunate situation.

[Disclosure: I'm sorry to inform you that the girl in the photo above does not work at Reel FX, but I had to stick their company logo somewhere. Photo via Shutterstock.]

(story via Deadline)

Developing…
Animation studio Rhythm & Hues began informing its employees tonight that they will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday morning. According to a report on Deadline, the studio can no longer pay its employees and they are being asked not to come into work on Monday at the studio’s West LA headquarters.

The legendary CG animation studio has been in business since 1987. They have been responsible for such projects as Babe, Stuart Little, The Golden Compass, the Coca-Cola “Polar Bear” commercials, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom attraction “It’s Tough to be a Bug.” The studio won a BAFTA yesterday for its visual effects work on Life of Pi.

The company had been struggling financially in recent months, and had expected to be acquired by Indian company Prime Focus. Variety notes that while the Prime Focus deal has fallen through, “several buyers reported interested in acquiring the company out of bankruptcy.”

If your job has been affected and you would like to submit news confidentially, please contact me HERE.

Yes, there are some real penguins in this teaser for Mr. Popper’s Penguins, but the majority of shots in the final film will be hybrid CGI from Rhythm and Hues – with most of the animation handled out of their Indian studio.

Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation | Permalink | 4 comments | Post tags: Mr. Popper's Penguins, Rhythm & Hues