London, 6 July 2009. Leading visual effects software developer, The Foundry (www.thefoundry.co.uk), today announced that Weta Digital, New Zealand’s premier multi-award winning VFX studio, has purchased a site license of Nuke to enhance their in-house pipeline.
Weta Digital was formed in 1993 by a group of young New Zealand filmmakers including Peter Jackson to create effects for his Heavenly Creatures project. Since receiving critical acclaim for their VFX work on this project, the company has gone from strength to strength producing astonishing effects for Peter’s subsequent blockbusters King Kong and The Lord of The Rings Trilogy. Their talents have also been employed by many other Hollywood directors and can be seen on box office hits including I, Robot, X-Men: The Last Stand, The Day The Earth Stood Still and Jumper. In total their efforts have netted them five Academy Awards® for Best Visual Effects.
Paul Ryan, Chief Technology Officer at Weta Digital, comments: "With ambitious projects on the slate, we need to ensure we have the best tools at our disposal. Our long-standing relationship with The Foundry and our faith in their product development, support and focus on producing a truly useful artist tool set has given us the confidence to make this investment. We have a lot of challenges ahead and are looking forward to seeing the difference that Nuke makes to our workflow."
Matt Welford, Head of 2D at Weta Digital, adds: "We have been employing The Foundry’s software here at Weta since purchasing Furnace for work on The Lord of The Rings Trilogy. Since taking on the development and support of Nuke, The Foundry has demonstrated the same commitment they have always applied to their plug-in business. Nuke is a great compositing tool that extends the parameters that a 2D Artist usually works within. My team and I are looking forward to putting it through its paces on a large project."
Bill Collis, CEO of The Foundry, commented, "Weta are one of a few studios that set the bar when it comes to VFX. The Foundry has been lucky enough to enjoy a very collaborative working relationship with them for many years. Their work on Avatar has been key in helping us develop our stereo plug-in set Ocula and we are delighted that, having been using Nuke on a smaller scale, they have taken the decision to roll it our across their site."
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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 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.
© The Foundry, its logo and product names are registered trademarks in the UK, USA and/or other countries. Academy Award is a registered trademark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
For further information please visit www.thefoundry.co.uk, or contact:
Cordelia Meacher, IF Communications, T: +44 (0)7961 311080, E: cordelia@if-communications.com
Lucy Cooper, The Foundry, T: +44 (0)20 7434 0449, E: lucy.cooper@thefoundry.co.uk