London, 23 March 2010. The Foundry, a leading developer of visual effects software whose products have been used to make movies including Avatar, Alice in Wonderland, District 9 and The Road is pleased to announce that MPC, one of the world’s largest visual effects and computer animation studios has invested in a Nuke site licence. MPC’s credits include the Harry Potter franchise, The Wolfman, Watchmen, and the last and forthcoming ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ projects.
MPC have been using Nuke successfully in their commercials department for some time producing spots including Kerry LowLow ‘Mouse’ which recently won MPC two VES nominations. The decision to switch their motion picture compositing pipeline to Nuke makes them one of the largest Nuke sites in the world.
Stephen Newbold, 2D VFX Supervisor for Commercials at MPC, said, “There were numerous factors which led to the decision to switch to Nuke as the primary compositing tool for CG heavy commercials at MPC. The raw speed of Nuke has been a huge benefit, the linear workflow merges seamlessly with our 3D pipeline and the 2D/3D environment has allowed our compositors to take on a lot of the set-extension and matte painting projection that would historically have had to be dealt with by the 3D department. Nuke has allowed us to maintain the quality of our compositing while tackling more complex jobs yet meeting the ever-tighter deadlines.”
Davie Johnston, Director of Technology at MPC, commented, “We have a long standing relationship with the Foundry and are looking forward to continuing this by - extending its use at MPC into the Film pipeline. It is refreshing to find a product that addresses some of the challenges we see across both the Film and Commercials sides of our business.”
Bill Collis, CEO, The Foundry, said, “We’re delighted that MPC’s experience of Nuke within their Commercials team was so positive that they’ve decided to invest in a site licence and extend its use to their Film team. We are very proud that such a hugely respected visual effects studio has chosen Nuke as their compositing solution of choice and look forward to seeing the fantastic work we have no doubt they will produce.”
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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 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.
© 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.
MPC (A technicolor company) leads the world in post production and visual effects for the Feature Film, Advertising, Digital and Television industries. MPC is based in Soho - London, Santa Monica - CA and Yale town - Vancouver. The facilities are centrally located, networked and have a dedicated digital infrastructure. Feature film credits include Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, The Wolfman, GI Joe, Narnia; Prince Caspian and each instalment of the Harry Potter franchise. The team were also responsible for the VFX behind the much applauded Evian ‘skating babies’ and Kerry LowLow commercials.
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