German-headquartered visual effects company Pixomondo–which has offices in Berlin (Studio Babelsberg), Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, London, and Shanghai–just announced the opening of a new flagship studio in Los Angeles.thilo-kuther

The California location, situated in Venice Beach, provides greater convenience and accessibility for Pixomondo’s studio clients in Hollywood and allows the company to tap into the talent pool of the L.A. market. CEO Thilo Kuther, who founded Pixomondo in 2001, will continue to oversee the company’s global visual effects and production operations in L.A. Recently appointed are managing producer John Parenteau and executive producer/head of business development Joni Jacobson. Both are veteran visual effects experts.

The move to Los Angeles also provides Pixomondo a boost in fulfilling–and gaining more–feature film work. The company has been awarded “substantial work” on Roland Emmerich’s 2012 and recently delivered NINJA ASSASSIN for director James McTeigue. Both films are set to release in late 2009.

Pixomodo actually set up a small “stealth unit” in Venice in 2008 after winning more than 700 previsualization shots on 2012. When Pixomondo was awarded a share of the film’s visual effects sequences in November, the company decided to commit to the location as a permanent flagship for its future feature film operations.

“The economic climate provided us with the opportunity to have not just a presence here, but to take advantage of the tremendous artistic and technical talents the city has to offer,” said Kuther. “All of us at Pixomondo are excited about the future and the opportunity to work on great films.”

Pixomondo offers concept, design and sequence visualization, with a unique brand of dynamic pre-visualization that was used extensively on 2012. With its global reach, Pixomondo offers 24/7 visual effects production and supervision, CG character creation, 3D animation and pre-visualization for the feature film, television and commercial industries.