Shop Adds CG Artisans Robert Sethi, Yafei Wu, Producer Jay Lichtman
By Robert Goldrich
SANTA MONICA --Brickyard VFX, with bases of operation in Boston and Santa Monica, has launched a CG division, broadening the company’s palette to include character modeling, animation and rendering in full 3-D. The diversification also entails the hiring of CG artisans Robert Sethi and Yafei Wu, and effects producer Jay Lichtman.
Lichtman and Wu come over from Glassworks, London, where the former was head of production and Wu served as senior 3-D lead artist. Sethi joins Brickyard from U.K. feature film/TV effects house Double Negative, where he most recently worked as lead character animator and a technical director on the movie Batman Begins.
From its inception in 1999, Brickyard has been involved in sophisticated compositing, often utilizing CG elements. Company co-owner Geoff McAuliffe said, “Establishing our own CG division to bring character modeling and animation capabilities in house was a logical next step, thus affording us more control over the elements and offering a better and more complete service to our clients.” The CG operation will help Brickyard to not only build on its spot visual effects base but also to move into longer form entertainment genres.
During his six years at Glassworks, Lichtman produced campaigns and projects for such clients as Hewlett-Packard, adidas, Pepsi, Stella Artois, Hugo Boxx, Ford, Nissan, Nike, Aquafresh and the Discovery Channel. Meanwhile Wu’s credits include work for Pepsi, Vodaphone, Sky Plus, Guinness, MTV and Electronic Arts. Prior to Glassworks, Wu was senior/lead 3-D operator at Visual Art in Stockholm, Sweden.
At Double Negative, Sethi created previs, animation and motion control animation for The da Vinci Code; modeled, lit and created elements and particle effects for Doom; and designed facial animation and layouts/textures for Chronicles of Riddick.
Brickyard has also expanded its toolset via the new division. An existing suite, highlighted by Autodesk Discreet Flame HD systems and 2d3 boujou tracking software, will be complemented by such additions as Alias Maya, Adobe AfterEffects, Apple Sheka and a full, film-capable render farm running Pixar Renderman and Mental Images’ Mental Ray.
Lichtman, Sethi and Wu will be based at Brickyard’s Santa Monica shop. They are set up to work on projects from any point of origin, including the East Coast via the company’s Boston facility.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More