Veteran creative director/VFX supervisor/Flame artist Simon Mowbray has joined Zoic Studios, a visual effects house which maintains studios in Culver City and Vancouver, B.C. Mowbray comes over to Zoic from Pixomondo where he served as a creative director.
Bringing 25 years of VFX experience to his new roost, Mowbray has to his credit spots for such brands as BMW, Target, Nike, Microsoft and Volkswagen as well as music videos for Kanye West, DMX, Missy Elliot and Rihanna, among other artists. His work has garnered assorted awards over the years, including a 2008 PromaxBDA Award in Digital Effects for his work on the spot “GMC Yukon–Dot Matrix” as well as several International Monitor Awards.
Mowbray began his visual effects career in 1987, working at a number of top visual effects shops in Sydney amid the emerging years of CG and compositing. In 1991, he moved to Montreal where he worked as a product specialist for Softimage. From there, he helped found Discreet Logic in 1992, where he served as a creative director. Two years later, he began as an effects artist at Western Images/Good Pictures, remaining there until opening Radium in 1996 with Jonathan Keeton. The duo sold the boutique design and visual effects company to Reel FX in 2007.
While at Radium, Mowbray contributed as creative director to hundreds of film, music video and commercial projects including several MTV Award-nominated music videos. In 2007, he moved over to Ntropic where he worked as creative director/VFX supervisor before heading to Pixomondo in 2011 as creative director where he developed and executed concepts for commercial projects.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More