Over the last few weeks, I’ve received several press released from the former VFX house ‘RhinoFX’.  First off, they changed their name to the much cooler sounding ‘Gravity‘.

As part of the Gravity rebranding, the company has devised a new brand theme that poses the question, “What Kind of World Do You Want?”  Building on this theme, Gravity has developed a new website, www.GravityWorld.com, which highlights the company’s strength in digital and its continued commitment to cutting-edge commercial and feature film effects.

That alone was neat, but I passed it over.  Maybe I shouldn’t have.  Since then, they’ve opened a new west-coast studio.

Gravity (formerly known as RhinoFX), the recently re-launched and rebranded international visual effects, design, creative content and brand communications company, has expanded into the West Coast, establishing a new Los Angeles office which is fully integrated with the company’s New York and Tel Aviv operations.

But they didn’t stop there.  They then brought out industry heavyweight Bob Samuel as Executive Producer and Chief Marketing Officer.

“Gravity is taking a giant step forward by streamlining the company’s three groups, and I’m excited to be a part of it,” said Samuel. “The rebranding and investment in integration for digital, commercials, features, and strategy allow Gravity to take on more ambitious and international projects.”

And then today they announce that they’ve promoted Shemi Levi to Chief Digital Officer, bringing his expertise in virtual worlds and other digital media.

Levi will be responsible for global digital leadership for all Gravity clients. In his new role, he will oversee and implement the newly rebranded company’s Digital offering and complement the company’s other key groups – Features and Commercials. He joined the recently re-launched company as Vice-President of Digital in early 2009.

If you’re not familiar with the new Gravity, formerly RhinoFX, they used to be a VFX firm based in New York and Tel Aviv, with work like “The Sopranos”, “Sex and the City”, and “Salt” under their belt, among many others.  The new expansions and hires come at a surprising time, during the recession and with many VFX houses crumbling under economic pressure and studio demands.

Sounds like Gravity may have a good chance of pulling through the VFX industry quagmire, and being one of the few studios to actually grow during the downtime.

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