- Digital Domain
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Digital Domain Productions Type Privately held company Industry Visual effects, CGI animation Founded 1993 Founder(s) James Cameron, Scott Ross, Stan Winston Headquarters Venice, Los Angeles, California, USA Key people Michael Bay, John Textor, Cliff Plumer, Ed Ulbrich, Kevin Weston Parent Digital Domain Media Group Website digitaldomain.com Digital Domain is a visual effects and animation company founded by film director James Cameron, Stan Winston and Scott Ross. It is based in Venice, Los Angeles, California. The company is known for creating state-of-the-art digital imagery for feature films, television advertising, interactive visual media and the video game industry.
Contents
History
The company began producing visual effects in 1993, its first three films being True Lies, Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles, and Color of Night in 1994.
It has produced effects for more than 60 films including Titanic, Apollo 13, What Dreams May Come, The Fifth Element, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Armageddon, Star Trek: Nemesis and The Day After Tomorrow. More recent films include I, Robot, Flags of Our Fathers, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Transformers, Speed Racer, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Star Trek, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, 2012, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, The A-Team, Tron: Legacy, Thor, X-Men: First Class and most recently, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Real Steel.[1]
In October 2002, Digital Domain launched a subsidiary, D2 Software, to market and distribute its Academy Award-winning compositing software, Nuke.[2] The move was partially motivated by Apple's acquisition of a similar program, Shake.[2]
In May 2006, Digital Domain was purchased by an affiliate of Wyndcrest Holdings, LLC, a private holding company whose principals included Wyndcrest founder John Textor, director Michael Bay, former Microsoft executive Carl Stork, former NFL player and sports television commentator Dan Marino, and Jonathan Teaford.[3]
In 2009, a sister company Tradition Studios was opened in Florida to develop and co-produce original, family-oriented CG animated features that will rival films created by Disney, DreamWorks and Pixar. The studio is currently constructing a 115,000-square-foot (10,700 m2) facility, which is scheduled to open in Port St. Lucie in December 2011,[4] and is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs over the next few years.[5] The company, which has attracted many talents, including Aaron Blaise, the director of Brother Bear, and Brad Lewis, the co-director of Cars 2,[4] is currently developing an animated feature film The Legend of Tembo[6] for a 2014 release[5] with Aaron Blaise and Chuck Williams directing it. Tembo will tell a story of a young African elephant who is captured and separated from his family and taken to India where he has to become a fierce, battle elephant.[7]
The studio has partnered in 2011 with Reliance MediaWorks, a division of the Indian media conglomerate Reliance ADA Group, to open studios in London and Mumbai to provide post-production services for movies, TV shows and commercials. The facilities will be owned by Reliance, which has existing post-production facilities in London and Mumbai, and will be managed by Digital Domain.[8]
Awards
Digital Domain's business units have been recognized with awards from many top industry organizations.
As of March 2009, Digital Domain has won seven Academy Awards: three for Best Visual Effects (Titanic, What Dreams May Come, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button);[9] and four for Scientific and Technical Achievement for its proprietary technology—i.e., for Track (proprietary tracking software),[10] for Nuke (proprietary compositing software),[11] for Storm (proprietary volumetric renderer),[12] and for its proprietary fluid simulation system.[13]
The company has also been nominated for three other Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects (Apollo 13, True Lies, I, Robot). In addition, its excellence in digital imagery and animation has earned Digital Domain multiple British Academy (BAFTA) Awards, and Prix Ars Electronica and Prix Pixel INA awards.[14]
Digital Domain's Commercials division provides digital imagery and animation for television commercials, working with top commercial directors. To date, it has been awarded 34 Clio Awards, 22 AICP awards, 8 Cannes Lion Awards and numerous other advertising honors. The Commercials division has also produced multiple music videos working with artists that include The Rolling Stones, Faith Hill, Creed, Janet Jackson, Busta Rhymes, Björk, Celine Dion, Michael Jackson and Nine Inch Nails, and has earned Grammy and MTV "Music Video of the Year" Awards.[14]
References
- ^ "Digital Domain Announces Vancouver Leadership Team". Digital Domain. 2010-01-12. http://www.awn.com/news/visual-effects/digital-domain-announces-vancouver-leadership-team. Retrieved 2010-02-02.
- ^ a b "Digital Domain launches software unit". 2002-10-10. http://www.allbusiness.com/services/motion-pictures/4862009-1.html. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
- ^ "Digital Domain Hires Three Creative Senior Executives from Visual Effects Industry". Computer Graphics World. 2006-09-21. http://www.cgw.com/Press-Center/News/2006/Digital-Domain-Hires-Three-Creative-Senior-Execu.aspx. Retrieved 2011-05-30.
- ^ a b Giardina, Carolyn (2011-06-29). "'Cars 2' Co-Director Brad Lewis Joining Digital Domain's Animation Studio". The Hollywood Reporter. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cars-2-director-brad-lewis-206886. Retrieved 2011-06-29.
- ^ a b Howk, Alexi (2011-05-27). "Port St. Lucie's Digital Domain positioning itself to rival Disney, Pixar". tcpalm.com. http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2011/may/27/digital-domain-positioning-itself-to-rival-pixar/. Retrieved 2011-06-29.
- ^ Giardina, Carolyn (2011-08-10). "Aaron Blaise and Chuck Williams will direct the film, currently in development.". The Hollywood Reporter. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/legend-tembo-be-tradition-studios-221461. Retrieved 2011-08-11.
- ^ Howk, Alexi (Autugst 11, 2011). "Digital Domain's Tradition Studios' 1st feature film to debut fall 2014 | Exclusive 1st look". TCPalm. http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2011/aug/11/digital-domains-tradition-studios-announces-film/. Retrieved August 16, 2011.
- ^ Verrier, Richard (2011-07-11). "Reliance and Digital Domain partner to open new studios in U.K. and India". Los Angeles Times. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/07/reliance-digital-domain-india.html. Retrieved 2011-07-12.
- ^ Giardina, Carolyn (2009-02-23). "'Benjamin Button' is VFX's Holy Grail". Hollywood Reporter. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/benjamin-button-vfxs-holy-grail-79676. Retrieved 2011-05-30.
- ^ (Recipient) Roble, Dr. Douglas R. (1999-02-27). "1998 Scientific and Technical Academy Awards: Technical Achievement Awards". AMPAS. Archived from the original on 2007-12-08. http://web.archive.org/web/20071208130140/http://www.oscars.org/scitech/1998/winners.html. Retrieved 2011-05-30.
- ^ (Recipients) Spitzak, Bill; Paul Van Camp; Jonathan Egstad; and Price Pethel (2002-03-02). "2001 Scientific and Technical Academy Awards: Technical Achievement Awards". AMPAS. Archived from the original on 2008-01-13. http://web.archive.org/web/20080113143101/http://www.oscars.org/scitech/2001/winners.html. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
- ^ (Recipient) Kapler, Alan (2005-02-12). "2004 Scientific and Technical Academy Awards: Technical Achievement Awards". AMPAS. Archived from the original on 2008-02-13. http://web.archive.org/web/20080213212607/http://www.oscars.org/scitech/2004/winners.html. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
- ^ (Recipients) Roble, Dr. Douglas R.; Nafees Bin Zafar; and Ryo Sakaguchi (2008-02-09). "2007 Scientific and Technical Academy Awards: Scientific and Engineering Awards". AMPAS. Archived from the original on 2008-04-22. http://web.archive.org/web/20080422193305/http://www.oscars.org/scitech/2007/winners.html. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
- ^ a b "Digital Domain Recruits ILM Trio". VFXWorld. 2006-09-20. http://www.vfxworld.com/?atype=news&id=17991. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
Further reading
- Bizony, Piers. (2001) Digital Domain: the leading edge of visual effects, London: Aurum. ISBN 1-85410-707-0
External links
- Official website : Film and Commercial production
- D2 Software Official Web site : Software sales for products such as Nuke
- Digital Domain at the Internet Movie Database
Categories:- American animation studios
- Best Visual Effects Academy Award winners
- Computer animation
- Special effects companies
- Television and film post-production companies
- Visual effects companies
- Companies based in Los Angeles, California
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