VizWorld.com

Gravity FX has just opened  a new West Coast office in Santa Monica, lead by Karin Levinson, to work on some of their new contracts like ‘Arthur’ and ‘Crazy, Stupid Love’.  In particular, I find this comment about the recent VFX house failures a bit blunt.

Levinson told Daily Variety that Gravity will expand gradually, depending on its L.A. workflow, and said Gravity wants to avoid the fate of Asylum and CafeFX, California-based mid-sized vfx studios that folded recently.

“Our expansion plans are to evolve methodically and strategically so we remain fiscally responsible while growing our company,” she said.

I’m not sure rapid expansion was what killed those houses, rather I always thought it was incredibly slim margins and bad contracts.

via Effects house opens L.A. outpost – Entertainment News, Technology News, Media – Variety.

Update: I got a response from Gravity’s PR department mentioning a few “inaccuracies” in my coverage.

1. “Arthur” was awarded through Gravity’s NY office, not its Santa Monica office.
2. Karin Levinson wasn’t discussing failures re: Aslyum or CafeFX, but rather commenting on the economic climate and Gravity’s HAVING to be fiscally responsible in this decision to expand into the West Coast.  Gravity had an extremely high opinion of both CafeFX and Aslyum’s work, and it was sobering to see that those two houses could shutter their doors (given the caliber of what they produced) due to the economic climate –they had to make the tough decision.
3. Gravity’s expansion into LA has not been RAPID by any means. Karin did not imply, on any level, that Aslyum and/or CafeFX closed their operations due to any expansionary plans.

My only response is that if he didn’t imply it, then Variety sure wanted it to look like he did. Just look at what they wrote:

Levinson told Daily Variety that Gravity will expand gradually … wants to avoid the fate of Asylum and CafeFX, California-based mid-sized vfx studios that folded recently.

I wouldn’t put it past a clever reporter to start implying things that weren’t said, but I have to imagine that it was rolling around Levinson’s head, even if he didn’t say it out loud.

Graphics gravity

Some MySpace engineers have defected and taken their social network expertise to create a new web application called ‘Gravity‘ which attempts to determine your interests from your FaceBook and Twitter streams, and then help you connect with other like-minded individuals.

The company’s ultimate aim is twofold. For users, they can see who, in any given network, actually shares their interests. “For example, if a user tweets about an Interpol concert, the band would show up in their visualization, allowing them to connect to others that share that interest,” says Anand. (Just imagine the possibilities for a dating site.)

In particular, I like their graph visualizations that they call ‘Gravity Interest Graph’.  The real factor behind their success or failure, tho, probably lies in the accuracy of their predictions on Interests.

via Infographic of the Day: Gravity App Scours Twitter and Facebook to Predict Your Interests | Co.Design.

Science facebook, gravity, twitter

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.

Graphics gravity, rhinofx, vfx