MPC Promotes Bryan To Animation Director
Moving Picture Company’s (MPC) London studio has promoted award-winning animator David Bryan to the role of animation director. As a key member of the senior creative team, he will be responsible for ensuring consistency, quality and supervision across MPC’s major animation projects.

Bryan joined MPC in 2013, exhibiting his talent for crafting unique, photo-real animals with a careful balance of personality and realism. He has helped bring to life some of MPC’s most defining creature and character work including Samsung’s “Ostrich” which won two Cannes Gold Lions, John Lewis’ double Silver Lions recipient “Buster the Boxer,” and Volkswagen’s “Born Confident” which earned Silver British Arrows. Bryan’s animation work has also seen him take home three consecutive personal VES Awards.

When They See Us Features Work From FuseFX
FuseFX provided visual effects for When They See Us, the four-episode series created, directed, co-written and executive produced by Ava DuVernay. The Netflix show tells the story of five teens from Harlem who become trapped in a nightmare when they’re falsely accused of a brutal attack in New York’s Central Park. Otherwise known as “The Central Park Five,” the teens (now men) were exonerated in 2002, and reached a settlement with NYC in 2014. The case continues to generate high-profile national media attention.

Among the VFX challenges for FuseFX was recreating New York City, circa 1989-2003, with work ranging from signage, street, and storefront replacement to creating period-correct CG cars and buildings in several scenes. In the early wide shots, DuVernay was very specific about the importance of establishing the look and chaotic vibe of Harlem in 1989. To achieve this, FuseFX not only tripled the number of cars in the scene but added CG and green-screen pedestrians, with period-appropriate wardrobe and ethnicities of the neighborhood at that time.

FuseFX completed approximately 300 shots over five months, November 2018 to April 2019. The largest environmental shots were started at the beginning of the schedule, while the other less-intensive shots were begun as the edits started locking. 3DS Max and Vray were used to create all the CG elements, while Nuke was the compositing tool.  

Greg Anderson, FuseFX sr. VFX supervisor, shared, “This project was extremely personal to me. I remember when the event happened, as I was a senior in high school at the time. When I heard that the project was being made with Ava DuVernay at the helm, I was determined to find a way to work on the project.

FuseFX’s flagship office is in L.A. with additional studios in NY and Vancouver.

Jamm Partners With IMAX, TBWA\Chiat\Day On Short Film
Through a new short film titled Infinite Worlds, IMAX Corporation set out to showcase how the company creates an immersive, in-theatre experience that invites audiences to push beyond the ordinary and always seek the fullest experiences. IMAX, TBWA\Chiat\Day and director Espen Sandberg via production company (twenty)2 Films collaborated with Santa Monica-based creative studio JAMM, culminating in an immersive journey through six unique worlds. JAMM’s CG expertise complements the live action scenes that were strategically filmed with high-resolution IMAX cameras. 

The CG work helps transport audiences into complex environments including an otherworldly forest with neon glowing trees, a dystopian city with post-apocalyptic doom as well as an action-packed battle scene, vast galaxies in space and much more.

The film will play exclusively in IMAX theaters because only in the innovative IMAX theatre design can audiences have the fullest experience--larger curved screens, stadium seating, multi-channel sound, and IMAX projection systems.