Five former R/Greenberg Associates’ (R/ Greenberg) artisans have come aboard New York-based Rhinoceros Visual Effects & Design (RVED), reuniting with executive producers/partners Rick Wagonheim and Michael Miller, who had also been mainstays at the now defunct R/Greenberg.
Four of the newcomers to RVED-visual effects supervisor Arman Matin, CG artist Natasha Saenko, animators Jeff Guerrero and Patrick Porter-had what turned out to be a relatively brief stay at the New York office of visual effects/animation house Kleiser-Walczak (KW), bicoastal and North Adams, Mass. Matin, Saenko, Guererro and Porter, who joined KW earlier this year (SHOOT, 2/25), now become senior digital artists at Rhinoceros’ expanded visual effects studio, which is slated to officially launch at the beginning of August.
The fifth artist, graphic designer Marc Steinberg, had been freelancing regularly at R/Greenberg as a designer/director prior to its closure in January, after New York-headquartered parent company R/GA Media Group decided to turn its full focus to interactive media (SHOOT, 11/26/99). He too comes to RVED in a senior digital artist’s capacity.
RVED represents a $2 million investment by Rhinoceros parent company Multi-Video Group, New York, and Gravity, its Tel Aviv, Israel-based investment partner. The Multi-Video Group family of companies includes Rhinoceros Editorial and Post, Cool Beans Digital Audio, Wax Music & Sound and Wall to Wall Productions, all in New York. RVED is positioning itself as a creative-driven studio, emphasizing the artists, which will work on commercials, features, music videos and broadcast design in both standard and high definition.
Wagonheim and Miller des-cribed the newly signed quintet as potentially being the first wave of former R/Greenberg talent to gravitate to RVED. Wagonheim expects to end up with a total of 20 artists, including nine ongoing Rhinoceros visual effects staffers who are being integrated with the new core of artisans being assembled.
"We are in negotiations with four other ex-R/Greenberg artists and there are other signings that look like they might happen this summer," said Wagonheim. "There has been a groundswell of interest from artists from other companies so we’ve also been meeting with them. But at this stage, it’s more important that we bring in people that we’ve had experience working with, and have other artists work on a freelance basis until we get to know them."
A couple of months ago, Wagonheim recalled that when news came of the plan to shutter commercial production, feature visual effects, broadcast design, CGI and digital post shop R/ Greenberg, the studio’s artists approached him and Miller to start a new visual effects company, which would ultimately be a re-creation of R/Greenberg. When Wagonheim and Miller joined Rhinoceros (SHOOT, 5/12), they decided to try to reunite many of their former colleagues.
As to why the former KW quartet joined RVED, Wagonheim related, "It wasn’t money that enticed them. It was the reunion … They’re coming back for a combination of very simple reasons-we worked very well together at Greenberg, and they liked the work I was bringing them. They also liked the support system and the production process that Miller had created at Greenberg. It’s one of those things you don’t realize you have until you go away."
Matin related that one of the factors that attracted the group was the attitude that Miller and Wagonheim had towards boosting the artists’ involvement in projects, involving them from start to finish in the creative process. In terms of equipment, Matin said that effort was put into making RVED as flexible as possible, which would also broaden the freelance base that they could bring in as support.
He cited RVED’s range of equipment that can maintain high bandwidth, high-definition and film work. "It is mainly NT-based in terms of CG, Mac-based on the design side and Inferno-based for the digital compositing element," explained Matin. "High-end servers will serve as the backbone as well as a host of powerful gigabyte fiber networks to ensure minimum bottlenecks. Software will include Alias Wavefront’s Maya, Avid’s Softimage, Play’s ElectricImage, Adobe After Effects and Side Effects’ Houdini."
KW president Jeff Kleiser told SHOOT that he was sorry to see the four artists leave and wished them well in the new venture. "They did some nice work for us on several different projects and they’re wrapping up the work they were involved with prior to leaving; they were four of 11 people in that office so we’ll be bolstering the team with some other people," said Kleiser. "Was it a big shock? We’re disappointed and did enjoy working with them but a big shock, no. We have between 55 and 60 people in the company between the three divisions. They [Matin, Saenko, Guerrero and Porter] wanted to stick together and work as a team. That’s fine; we hope they enjoy themselves."
In terms of replacement staff, Kleiser said that three of the company’s animators from the Los Angeles office are interested in moving to New York so the studio is currently looking into transferring them. However, he was not at liberty to discuss names because the artists, who have just recently worked on the feature film X-Men, are yet to make their final decision.
Matin spent three and a half years at R/Greenberg, starting as CG artist, then lead CG artist, senior effects artist and CG director. He joined the company after graduating from the Savannah College of Art and Design in ’95 with a degree in fine arts. Similarly, Saenko was on staff at R/Greenberg for three and a half years, serving as CG artist and lead CG artist on projects. She also graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design in ’95, where she earned a B.A. in computer art.
Guerrero joined the staff of R/Greenberg’s CG department in August ’99; before that, he freelanced at the company for three years as well as for the New York office of bicoastal Curious Pictures, and New York-based Alter Image. He is a ’97 graduate of the School of Visual Arts, New York, where he earned a degree in fine arts. Porter was hired on staff at R/Greenberg in September ’99. Prior to this, he spent two and a half years freelancing for R/ Greenberg, as well as for Boston-based NearLife and the aforementioned Curious Pictures. Porter graduated in ’96 with a degree in fine arts from Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y. Among the group’s credits at R/Greenberg were two Kool-Aid spots-"Beach Party" and "Snow & Skate"-out of Ogilvy & Mather, New York, for which Matin served as lead CG artist, Saenko as CG artist, and Porter as animator. The team also worked on the Orkin spots "Spy Guy" and "Stampede" via J. Walter Thompson, Atlanta. Matin was CG artist on both spots; Saenko was lead CG artist on "Spy Guy" and CG artist on "Stampede"; Guerrero was animator/modeler and Porter was animator.
Steinberg had freelanced as a designer/director at R/Greenberg from June ’99. Previously, he served on the agency side, including as head animator for Messner Vetere Berger McNamee Schmetterer/Euro RSCG, New York. While at R/Greenberg, he completed jobs for such clients as Nike, CNN and Cadillac.
