By SHOOT Staff

Fancy FX Sets Up Shop at Goldcrest Post
Fancy FX, a visual effects studio targeting television, film and advertising projects, has launched as a sister company to Goldcrest Post. Led by veteran executive creative director/visual effects supervisor Randie Swanberg and sr. Flame artist/visual effects supervisor Mario Caserta, the studio offers complete solutions for the design, execution and delivery of high-caliber visual effects. Along with a physical base within Goldcrest Post’s facility in Manhattan, Fancy VFX supports a secure virtual pipeline, allowing it to quickly add talent and resources to meet specific project requirements.

Fancy VFX will team with Goldcrest Post to provide packaged visual effects and post services for episodic TV, indie film and similar projects. It will also pursue projects independently, especially in the advertising realm. “We were presented with an irresistible opportunity to team with some of the industry’s most talented and accomplished visual effects pros,” says Goldcrest Post managing director Domenic Rom. “This partnership allows us to offer our clients a single-source solution for postproduction, encompassing editorial, sound, dailies, color, finishing and, now visual effects.”

Along with Swanberg and Caserta, Fancy VFX’s lead staff includes CG supervisor Todd Peleg, head of production Alex Tracy and EP/director of sales Graham Dunglinson. The studio occupies an entire floor at Goldcrest’s facility, which is equipped with VFX and CG workstations, storage systems and other gear set up in separate pipelines for advertising and entertainment projects. The studio is also leveraging the latest cloud and virtual machine technology to support remote production.

Michael Root Named CTO At Tippett Studio
Berkeley, Calif.-based Tippett Studio, founded by two-time Academy Award® winning artist, animator and filmmaker Phil Tippett, has promoted current director of technology Michael Root to chief technology offier. Additionally, Dale Taylor has been upped to head of production. 

Root began at Tippett Studio in 2007 as a compositor/pipeline engineer/graphics software engineer before being promoted to head of R&D in 2010, and then director of technology in 2015.  He has used his experience as both an artist and a programmer to modernize Tippett’s infrastructure and pipeline at every level while ensuring that multiple concurrent productions all finish on schedule.  Before joining Tippett Studio, Root helped start Tweak Films/Tweak Software in 2001 (sold to Autodesk in 2015).  Root also worked at Weta Digital on the films Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003) and King Kong (2005) as a compositor and lead lighting technical director, respectively. 

Meanwhile Taylor was previously VFX producer at Tippett Studio.  Prior to Tippett, Taylor worked for ILM and Atomic Fiction on projects including Star Trek Into Darkness, Star Wars: Episodes 2 & 3, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and War of the Worlds. 

Woodblock Secures Pair of EPs
Berlin-based animation and content studio Woodblock has appointed Luiza Cruz-Flade and Crystal Campbell as exec producers. Cruz-Flade will be based in London, while Campbell will work from Woodblock’s headquarters in Berlin.

Cruz-Flade previously worked as head of post at AMV BBDO, producer at The Mill, and most recently head of new business at Passion Animation Studios. 

Campbell has worked at such studios as 1stAveMachine, Psyop and Roof Studio, collaborating with brands including Coca Cola, IBM, Burger King and Google. Campbell moved from New York to join Woodblock’s Berlin headquarters. As EP, she will work closely with head of production Christian Zehetmeier and Woodblock’s management team to optimize processes and set up the studio for its next phase of growth.

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