The Foundry, a leading developer of visual effects software whose products have been used to make movies including District 9, Terminator Salvation and Transformers is pleased to announce that Framestore, the largest visual effects and computer animation studio in Europe, has invested in a Nuke site license.
Framestore won Academy and BAFTA Awards in 2008 in recognition of their VFX work on The Golden Compass and have been using Nuke on all their recent projects including Avatar, the widely acclaimed James Cameron movie being premiered tonight. Upcoming projects also tackled in Nuke include Where the Wild Things Are , Sherlock Holmes, Clash of the Titans, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows, The Prince of Persia, Nanny McPhee and The Big Bang.
Framestore now join Sony Pictures Imageworks, ILM and Weta Digital as Nuke site license holders.
Christian Kaestner, Head of Nuke Compositing at Framestore, said,
“The decision to invest in Nuke came down to speed and flexibility. Nuke is simply incredibly fast, interactive, and flexible, even in quite complex comps with several hundred nodes. The interactivity the artist gets from Nuke out of the box is quite impressive - it even allows the supervisor to sit down with the artist to do an ‘interactive’ session if needed. And when building Nuke into the pipeline, we were able to access existing Python scripts and modules that weren't even designed for use with Nuke.
Our artists adapted quickly to the Nuke workflow. The first full Nuke project was Quantum of Solace, which was one of the smoothest projects I have ever worked on and won us a VES nomination for 'outstanding compositing'.
Most recently, Avatar, required us to push technology to the limits - not just at the 3D or TD level but also at a compositing level - Nuke surpassed all of our expectations."
Kyle Goodsell, Head of 2d at Framestore, added:
“From every perspective Nuke, and the Foundry, provide us with the tools and support that we need for our compositors.
Compositors have been crying out for a suitable replacement for Shake for quite a long time. Having a site license not only provides us with future opportunities but also enables us to attract key talent to the team. This is not just in compositing, but also for FX, Lighting and Pipeline. Nuke is now, and very much the future.”
Bill Collis, CEO, The Foundry, said,
“It’s great news that Framestore have purchased a Nuke site license and that their experience with the software has been so good. We are very proud that such a hugely respected visual effects studio is using our software – and very excited by the movies it’s been used in, and will be used in going forwards.”
- ENDS -
About The Foundry
The Foundry is a world-leading innovator of visual effects and image processing technologies that boost productivity in motion picture and video post-production.
The Foundry has a well-established client base that includes leading visual effects facilities worldwide, such as Warner Bros, The Moving Picture Company, Weta Digital, Framestore, Sony Pictures Imageworks and Digital Domain. It is at the cutting edge of software development, marketing and sales for visual effects compositing.
In June 2009 The Foundry announced a management buyout for an undisclosed sum led by Advent Venture Partners. Advent backed The Foundry’s management team, led by CEO Dr Bill Collis and the original founders.
The Foundry is highly profitable and has more than doubled in size in the past two years.
The Foundry’s products support a wide range of award-winning host platforms including After Effects, Autodesk® Media and Entertainment Systems, Avid DS, , Nuke, Shake and Final Cut Pro. In 2007, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded a Sci-Tech Award® to The Foundry’s development team for the Furnace image processing suite – and the company now holds two products with AMPAS Sci-Tech Award® winning technology including high-end compositing system Nuke.
The Foundry is headquartered in London, and has offices in Los Angeles. For more information please visit: www.thefoundry.co.uk <www.thefoundry.co.uk>
Framestore has been working in digital film for over twenty years now, creating original and astonishing work that has helped make it the largest visual effects and computer animation studio in Europe.
Their teams have built up a formidable reputation across every imaginable digital discipline, from creatures to environments, from fur to feathers, from particles to characters.
2008 saw the Framestore recognised at the film industry's highest levels, as their work on The Golden Compass won both the Academy Award and the BAFTA for Achievement in Special Effects.
In 2009 their work on The Dark Knight was recognised with nominations for the Academy Award and the BAFTA for Achievement in Special Effects.
For further information please visit www.thefoundry.co.uk
Post your comments below
.gif)
