Compositing.fr : Effets visuels

GenArts a acquis les renommés plugins SpeedSix.

En anglais / In english :

 GenArts Inc., the leading provider of digital visual effects software for the film, broadcast and video industries, announced today it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire SpeedSix Software Limited. As of today, all SpeedSix employees will join the GenArts team and remain in the UK. In addition, SpeedSix's renowned Monsters and Raptors visual effects will be sold and supported in their current form alongside GenArts Sapphire, creating the industry's most compelling family of state-of-the-art image processing and synthesis effects software.

The acquisition is part of GenArts' aggressive growth strategy fueled by last year's investment from Insight Venture Partners of New York. CEO Katherine Hays took the reins in June, 2008 and announced her intent to accelerate the company's growth via acquisitions and strategic partnerships.

"We're excited to announce the acquisition of SpeedSix as an initial step in our growth plan," Hays said. "For over 12 years, GenArts has built a reputation for visual effects that inspire our customers to create the Academy Award-winning magic that has thrilled and delighted audiences around the world. We believe that the creativity and passion of our combined company will allow us to achieve new heights with our technology while leveraging our complementary businesses to create unequalled value for our customers in the years to come."

SpeedSix's Monsters and Raptors plug-ins feature powerful tools including retiming, particle effects, lens distortion matching, fire, and organic fluid backgrounds. Monsters and Raptors have been used throughout the film and video industry to create effects for some of the most popular movies, television and advertising produced in the industry.

Steve Hayes, Director of SpeedSix commented, "We've always admired GenArts and the outstanding reputation they have built over the last decade. We share their commitment to deliver the highest quality, most organic and most original visual effects tools in the world. We're proud to be joining the GenArts family and look forward to working together to create exciting new products that allow filmmakers and vídeo artists to explore the limits of their imagination and create the entertainment experiences that continue to amaze us all."

About GenArts
Founded in 1996 in Cambridge, Mass., GenArts, Inc. is the premier provider of digital visual effects for the film, broadcast and video industries. GenArts Sapphire equips digital artists with a collection of over 200 state-of-the-art image processing and synthesis effects such as: Glows, EdgeRays, LensFlare, Lightning, FilmEffect, Warps and Textures. The effects seamlessly integrate as software plug-ins into leading editing and compositing systems from Adobe, Apple, Avid, Autodesk, Assimilate, Digital Vision, Eyeon, FilmLight, The Foundry, Quantel and SGO.

Sapphire has become the industry standard for high-end visual effects creation by providing unrivaled image quality, a unique organic look, and ease of use. They have been used extensively in an array of television programs, music videos and feature films, including Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Hulk, Spider-Man 1, 2 and 3, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Star Wars - Episode I, II and III, Sin City, The Matrix trilogy, X-Men 1, 2 and 3, Titanic, Lostand CSI.   www.genarts.com.

ZDefocus de Sapphire: