LONDON and CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – February 16, 2010 – GenArts Inc., the premier provider of specialized visual effects software for the film, television and video industries, and The Foundry, the world-leading visual effects software developer, today announced they have entered into a broad strategic alliance. Under the terms of the agreement, GenArts will acquire The Foundry’s Tinder and Tinderbox plug-ins business and the two companies will enter into an arrangement to collaborate closely to expand the capabilities of the Nuke platform.
A well-established suite with a loyal customer following, Tinder and Tinderbox have been stalwarts in the visual effects plug-ins market for many years. GenArts will immediately assume all development, sales, marketing and customer support of Tinder and Tinderbox as they work to breathe new life into the venerable Tinder brand.
The strategic alliance allows the development teams from The Foundry and GenArts to work closely together to fully maximize the functionality of their future products. This collaboration opens the door to more effective delivery of new technology as the host platform and plug-in development can be more synchronized.
“Both GenArts and The Foundry deliver technologies that are essential to the compositing pipeline at Method,” said Janelle Croshaw of Method Studios. “Host platform development is often independent from the features and schedules of plug-in development. We’re very pleased to see that GenArts and The Foundry understand that the way we use their products is extremely intertwined. This collaboration allows us to provide more seamless solutions to clients as we continue to deliver visual effects that push the limits of our audience’s imagination.”
As part of the alliance, GenArts will become the flagship partner in The Foundry’s new third-party partner program for Nuke. GenArts will have an exclusive co-marketing relationship with The Foundry as a provider of visual effects plug-ins for Nuke and Nuke customers will have the option to install trial versions of GenArts plug-ins on initial installation.
“The Foundry is very pleased to have come to this new arrangement with GenArts,” said Bill Collis, CEO, The Foundry. “We believe that it’s in the best interest of our customers for Tinder to be looked after by GenArts, while The Foundry concentrates on developing complex, problemsolving, image-processing plug-ins including further work on its award-winning Furnace and Ocula toolsets and new products based on our 3D scene technology. We hope our new third party program, launched today, with GenArts as our first provider, will bring a variety of plug-ins to the attention of Nuke users enabling them to do even more within the platform.”
“GenArts’ portfolio enjoys an unquestioned pedigree as the go-to tools in the arsenal of the world’s best visual effects artists and editors,” said Katherine Hays, CEO of GenArts. Our alliance with The Foundry presents a unique opportunity to deliver value to Nuke users as the platform continues to gain momentum. Customers across the film, broadcast and commercial industries tell us that they highly value the benefits of standardizing their compositing pipeline on a common
toolset from a trusted partner. The GenArts portfolio including Sapphire™, Monsters™, Raptors™, wondertouch™ and now Tinder offers the most comprehensive suite of visual effects in the industry for our current and future customers. This strategic alliance with the Foundry further supports Nuke’s growth into markets where GenArts software is a must-have.”
For additional information, please refer to our FAQs:
http://genarts.com/aboutus/newsmedia/press/genarts-foundry-strategic-alliance-faq
About GenArts
GenArts, Inc. is the premier provider of specialized digital visual effects for the film, broadcast and video industries. The GenArts Sapphire™, Monsters™ and Raptors™ portfolio equips digital artists with a collection of state-of-the-art image processing and synthesis effects such as glows, light rays, lens flares, lightning, film damage, fire and fluid effects. The effects seamlessly integrate as software plug-ins into leading editing and compositing systems from Adobe, Apple, Avid, Autodesk, Assimilate, Eyeon, FilmLight, The Foundry, Quantel and SGO.
In November 2009 GenArts acquired wondertouch, an award-winning software developer specializing in particle effects. Their flagship product, particleIllusion™, is considered one of the most popular solutions for particle effects creation, enabling artists to create natural effects such as smoke, fire, sparkles, fireworks and countless abstract effects. GenArts was founded in 1996 in Cambridge, Mass. www.genarts.com.
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 wellestablished 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.
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