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VisionArt Design & Animation was a motion picture and television
visual effects Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production. The integration of live-action footage and other live-action foota ...
company, founded in the 1980s by David Rose and Todd Hess. Though originally a small Orange County company working primarily on cable TV advertisements and flying logos, VisionArt moved to Santa Monica in 1992, winning its first major effects work with '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine''. The studio originated in Santa Ana, California, later moved to
Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing t ...
, and closed its doors in 2000. (VisionArt is sometimes incorrectly cited as Vision Art or Vision Arts.)


Star Trek (1993–1999)


Star Trek: The Next Generation – 3D Shuttle (1993)

The first CGI ship ever used in the '' Star Trek'' franchise was created by Dennis Blakey and Dorene Haver. It was a 3D computer model of the " Runabout" shuttle for '' Star Trek: The Next Generation''. Previously, ''Star Trek'' had exclusively used physical models, which at the time were composited by Adam Howard and Steve Scott at Digital Magic. VisionArt's 3D model of the Runabout was primarily used for the stretching effect when it jumped to warp.


Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Odo Morphs (1993–1999)

Dennis Blakey, who headed the initial development and effects work for the shape-shifting character Odo, brought VisionArt its first prime-time Emmy Award for the pilot and initial episodes. Beginning with season 1, episode 11 "
Vortex In fluid dynamics, a vortex ( : vortices or vortexes) is a region in a fluid in which the flow revolves around an axis line, which may be straight or curved. Vortices form in stirred fluids, and may be observed in smoke rings, whirlpools in ...
," Odo morphs were animated by Ted Fay, with Blakey generating the intermediate blobular "goo" state of the shape-shifting character, and Dorene Haver providing the compositing. After Blakey's departure, Odo's "goo" was primarily animated by Carl Hooper and Daniel Kramer, with later Odo morphs animated by Richard Cook.


Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – 3D Starships (1993–1997)

The USS ''Defiant'' was the first full-fledged starship in the '' Star Trek'' franchise to have a CGI model used in regular production. It was first built and animated by Daniel Kramer and Carl Hooper. The CGI '' Defiant'' was featured heavily in the Season 4 episode '' Starship Down'', where it battled a CGI
Jem'Hadar ''Star Trek'' is a science fiction media franchise that began with Gene Roddenberry's launch of the original ''Star Trek'' television series in 1966. Its success led to decades of films, novels, comics, and spinoff series. A major motif of the ...
ship, designed by Robert Tom and built by Hooper, in a CGI gas giant's atmosphere. The probe in ''Starship Down'' was built by Vinh Le, with Ben Hawkins also providing animation. The gas giant atmosphere was created by Rob Bredow and Pete Shinners using ''Sparky'', a proprietary particle system developed by VisionArt. A further contribution came in season five, with the addition of 3D model of the
Jem'Hadar ''Star Trek'' is a science fiction media franchise that began with Gene Roddenberry's launch of the original ''Star Trek'' television series in 1966. Its success led to decades of films, novels, comics, and spinoff series. A major motif of the ...
battle cruiser built by Tony Sansalone.


Star Trek: Voyager (1995)

VisionArt won another Emmy Award for Best Individual Achievement in Effects for their work on ''
Caretaker Caretaker may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''The Caretaker'' (film), a 1963 adaptation of the play ''The Caretaker'' * '' The Caretakers'', a 1963 American film set in a mental hospital * Caretaker, a character in the 1974 film '' ...
'', the pilot episode of '' Star Trek: Voyager.'' Barry Safley created 3D animation for the episode's alien creature, which was revealed to have been hiding in the form of a young girl. The reveal was animated by Ted Fay, with compositing by Bethany Berndt-Shackelford.


Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

VisionArt created a 3D Vulcan starship for Star Trek: First Contact. The craft was and animated built by a team led by Daniel Kramer and Carl Hooper, with textures by Robert Tom, and composting by Bethany Berndt-Shackelford. The team also included Todd Boyce, Rick Cook, Celine Jackson, Jeff Pierce and others.


Lois & Clark (1993)

VisionArt pioneered the use of full-body human 3D animation for pilot of '' Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'' for which Rob Bredow, Ted Fay, Carl Hooper, Daniel Kramer, and Pete Shinners, demonstrated the seamless
morphing Morphing is a special effect in motion pictures and animations that changes (or morphs) one image or shape into another through a seamless transition. Traditionally such a depiction would be achieved through dissolving techniques on film. Sinc ...
between a human actor and a photorealistic CGI model of the actor.


Northern Exposure (1993/1994)

In 1993, Ted Fay created the first photorealistic talking dog for '' Northern Exposure'', a technology that was further advanced for the film version of ''
Dr. Dolittle Doctor John Dolittle is the central character of a series of children's books by Hugh Lofting starting with the 1920 ''The Story of Doctor Dolittle''. He is a physician who shuns human patients in favour of animals, with whom he can speak in the ...
''. The talking dog was created for season 5, episode 12 entitled ''Mr. Sandman'', which aired January 10, 1994. "The CBS hit series is known for its offbeat scripts and quirky guests, and next week's episode is no exception," observed E! News Daily's Bianca Ferrare, adding "The dog talking here in fluent French-Canadian is a figment of the character's imagination, but the process of giving the dog life is the brainstorm of animators at VisionArt" "Talking animals are nothing new, by 'Mr. Ed' this isn't," added Ferrare. "With 'Mr. Ed' you have the horse that you fed the peanut butter," noted animator Ted Fay, "which they did actually with the dog, but it wasn't at all convincing." "Recent CGI attempts, on the other hand, have offered the believability of being able to sync the mouth positions with dialogue, but at the expense of the photorealism." VisionArt had developed a reputation for "pushing the envelope" with CGI and morphing techniques, and the produces of Northern Exposure were "ecstatic" with the results. The 2D animation approach used a specially customized version of Elastic Reality, a morphing software which VisionArt had agreed to co-develop with ASDG in exchange for not developing their own system in-house, and having a site-license in perpetuity, with a six-month exclusive on features contributed by VisionArt. Paul Miller, the lead developer for the
Silicon Graphics Silicon Graphics, Inc. (stylized as SiliconGraphics before 1999, later rebranded SGI, historically known as Silicon Graphics Computer Systems or SGCS) was an American high-performance computing manufacturer, producing computer hardware and sof ...
version of Elastic Reality, provided Fay with new features on the afternoon that he requested them, allowing for rapid innovation of a first-of-a-kind approach on an episodic television schedule. Elastic Reality was later sold to
Avid Technology Avid Technology is an American technology and multimedia company based in Burlington, Massachusetts, and founded in August 1987 by Bill Warner. It specialises in audio and video; specifically, digital non-linear editing (NLE) systems, video edi ...
.


Independence Day (1996)

VisionArt's claim to fame on the big screen was arguably its creation of the majority of the dogfight sequences for '' Independence Day'', which won the
Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
for Best Visual Effects. Sparky, a dynamics/simulation software developed by Rob Bredow, director of research and development, along with Pete Shinners, was heavily expanded to provide for near-real-time animation of large groups of F-18 jet fighters, alien attackers, missiles, smoke trailers, shields, etc. While previous shots of similar complexity animated by other means had taken about one month each, Sparky was also able to render the frames in hardware anti-aliased at film resolution at just one minute per frame, allowing the delivery of two shots per day. While traditional animation was effective when a handful of aircraft were involved, digital effects supervisor Tricia Ashford noted that the technique would be "too laborious for the frenetic dogfight that concludes ''Independence Day''." "The final air battle takes place around a fifteen-mile-wide destroyer," remarked Ashford, "and Roland wanted to see hundreds of F-18's and attackers duking it out with missiles, light balls, and tracer fire. It was really an enormous challenge; and the only way it could be accomplished was through an advanced procedural system that could automatically calculate and render the interaction between all these different elements." VisionArt demonstrated just such a system to Roland Emmerich and his team, and they loved it. "VisionArt had a tremendous system to begin with," stated Ashford, "and then they were able to adapt it to meet the needs of our show." In a 1996 interview for SIGGRAPH, writer
Dean Devlin Dean Devlin (born August 27, 1962) is an American screenwriter, producer, director, and actor of film and television. He is best known for his collaborations with director Roland Emmerich, and for his work on the The Librarian (franchise), ''Li ...
stated "When we were shown the software that was developed at VIsionArt, where we could literally just slide a little bar and add more F-18's and more alien attackers... the ease in which were able to create these shots, and the flexibility – I don't think that we could have done these sequences without it." Rob Bredow modified ''Sparky'' "to simulate the behavioral characteristics of an aerial dogfight involving hundreds of planes and attackers." Initially, the
US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
was open to providing data on the flight characteristics of the
F-18 The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is an all-weather, twin-engine, supersonic, carrier-capable, multirole combat aircraft, designed as both a fighter and attack aircraft (hence the F/A designation). Designed by McDonnell Douglas (now part ...
, but the Pentagon wanted Emmerich to strike all reference to
Area 51 Area 51 is the common name of a highly classified United States Air Force (USAF) facility within the Nevada Test and Training Range. A remote detachment administered by Edwards Air Force Base, the facility is officially called Homey Airport ...
from the film. Given the centrality of Area 51 to UFO folklore, Emmerich refused. Fortunately, the
Royal Australian Air Force "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...
had no qualms about references to Area 51, and happily provided the needed data. Director Roland Emmerich and writer Dean Devlin then provided the equivalent fictional characteristics for the alien attackers. "Once the capabilities of the planes and alien attackers were established, Bredow and software engineers Randi Stern and Brian Hall developed a range of prioritized objectives for each. an F-18, for example, might have the objective of attacking the destroyer, unless an alien attacker entered a zone that triggered evasive action." Rules were also established so that planes and attackers would bank away from and keep clear of the 3D space that would be occupied by the destroyer once it was composited into the shot. In the end, ''Independence Day'' shattered box office records, grossing over US$817 million worldwide, and won the 1996
Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
for Best Visual Effects.


Godzilla (1998)

VisionArt's sister company FutureLight, headed by Rob Bredow (who later became the head of Industrial Light & Magic), created the first real-time tetherless optical motion capture ( mocap) system in the industry. FutureLight's mocap was used by VisionArt to allow director Roland Emerich to conceptualize the hero CG character for 1998's ''
Godzilla is a fictional monster, or '' kaiju'', originating from a series of Japanese films. The character first appeared in the 1954 film '' Godzilla'' and became a worldwide pop culture icon, appearing in various media, including 32 films prod ...
''. It was also used in conjunction with ''Sparky'' for a number of key ''Babyzilla'' shots, including 885 babies. "With those kinds of numbers, key frame animation was impossible, so VisionArt's Rob Bredow, Brian Hall and Pete Shinners developed sophisticated flocking software that the babies a kind of artificial intelligence. With their flocking software, the babies had a set of animations to choose from, knew their environment, and knew parameters for moving." The visual effects for
Godzilla is a fictional monster, or '' kaiju'', originating from a series of Japanese films. The character first appeared in the 1954 film '' Godzilla'' and became a worldwide pop culture icon, appearing in various media, including 32 films prod ...
were particularly notable in that it was the first major feature film to employ CG animation integrated into a large volume of handheld camera footage, accounting for roughly 80% of the film's 400 visual effects shots. VisionArt employed a Zeiss Rec Elta RL-S reflectorless laser survey head (SN 702706-0000.720 217012) to obtain precise on-set 3-D measurements for the large scale street scenes such as those filmed in Manhattan, then coupled that data with custom developed 2D to 3D camera tracking software which allowed CG characters and debris to be seamlessly integrated into the erratic hand-held camera shots. VisionArt completed 135 of the film's visual effects shots in-house, nearly one-third of the total, and provided the camera tracking to Centropolis Effects,
Sony Pictures Imageworks Sony Pictures Imageworks Inc. is a Canadian visual effects and computer animation studio headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, with an additional office on the Sony Pictures Studios lot in Culver City, California. SPI is a unit of Sony Pi ...
, Digiscope and Pixel Liberation Front, which created the remainder of the shots.


Dr. Dolittle (1998)

VisionArt created 80 talking animal shorts for the 1998's ''
Dr. Dolittle Doctor John Dolittle is the central character of a series of children's books by Hugh Lofting starting with the 1920 ''The Story of Doctor Dolittle''. He is a physician who shuns human patients in favour of animals, with whom he can speak in the ...
'', most of which involved blending 3D elements integrated with 2D animation of the live-action animal, involving everything from muzzle replacement to full head replacement on a given animal actor. VisionArt believed that key to creating successful talking animals was keeping a real animal's eyes, even when much of the animal's face was CG: "The eyes are so much of what brings them to life," said Josh Rose, executive vice president of VisionArt, adding "On many of the close-up shots of Rodney the guinea pig, we ended up doing muzzle replacements; almost two-thirds of his head was 3-D, but we kept his real eyes. For the cat, the real eyes were also kept — the computer graphics feathered off about half an inch all the way around the mouth. The only animals we did CG eyes for were the sheep, because they were chewing so much and their entire bodies moved. We had to replace large enough portions of them so you wouldn't see our CG animation sliding over their real bodies." "I had reservations about getting into 3-D because I'd never seen it done successfully with living characters," recalls Jon Farhat, the film's vfx supervisor, "We didn't want overanimation. we wanted very subtle, precise movements – like our animals were impeccably trained." VisionArt's Ted Fay had come up with an approach that included developing a process to turn 3D wireframe animation into animated 2D Elastic Reality shapes, so that the 3D mouth area could be seamlessly blended into the animals live-action face, while also allowing for additional animation and enhancement of the animal's eyebrow expressions. One of VisionArt's most challenging creations was a Spanish-speaking orangutan. Rose recalls, "Jon Farhat tended to find out what Betty and the producers were most excited about at the time, and then just embellish it. They were loving the orangutan, so Jon came in and grilled us really hard on that. Betty really wanted to see the sensitivity and the specularity and the rolloff of the light on those big, wet lips. The orangutan's whole muzzle area and the meaty part of his mouth were all 3-D. Stirling Duguid, our 3-D animation supervisor, built in all of these really insane little details — the crevices and wrinkles in the skin — and then added really big, sweeping meaty lips and a big tongue. He got a lot of articulation in there. There was a desire to give the orangutan a stoned, Cheech and Chong-style appearance, so Ted Fay, our 2-D supervisor, created that heavy-lidded look by warping his expressive eyes using Avid's Elastic Reality. In the end, it came out looking great." Other artists involved were Jon-Marc Kortsch, Chad Carlberg, Todd Boyce, Bethany Berndt-Shackelford, Kristen Branan, Mike Bray, Richard Cook, Shellaine Corwel, Robert D. Crotty, John Campuzano, Archie Donato, Christina Drahos, Chris Greenberg, Dorene Haver, Hillary Hoggard (Covey), Jimmy Jewell, Anne Putnam Kolbe, Daniel Kramer, John Lafauce, Toan-Vinh Le, Jim 'Big Dog' McLean, Daniel Naulin, Jeremy Nelligan, John Peel, Joshua D. Rose, Barry Safley, and Jeremy Squires.


"Transparent" visual effects

In addition to being known for science fiction work like ''Independence Day'', ''Star Trek'', and ''Godzilla'', VisionArt specialized in "transparent" effects: removing, replacing, or modifying a wide range of objects in a scene to help tell the story, fix a mistake, or recreate worlds that no longer exist or never did.


Closure

VisionArt closed their doors in 2000, selling most of their assets to Digital Art Media. Many of the key staff moved to
Sony Pictures Imageworks Sony Pictures Imageworks Inc. is a Canadian visual effects and computer animation studio headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, with an additional office on the Sony Pictures Studios lot in Culver City, California. SPI is a unit of Sony Pi ...
, Industrial Light & Magic,
Digital Domain Digital Domain is an American visual effects and digital production company based in Playa Vista, Los Angeles, California. The company is known for creating digital imagery for feature films, advertising and games from its locations in Californ ...
, and other
VFX Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production. The integration of live-action footage and other live-action foota ...
facilities.


VisionArt selected filmography

* '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' (1993) * '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' (1993) * '' Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'' (1993) * '' Northern Exposure'' (1993) * ''Galaxy Beat'' (1994) * ''
Attack of the 5 Ft. 2 In. Women ''National Lampoon's Attack of the 5 Ft. 2 In. Women'' is a 1994 Showtime television film that parodies two sensational news stories from the 1990s: the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan incident, and the John and Lorena Bobbitt incident. The film is ...
'' (1994) * '' M.A.N.T.I.S.'' (1994) *'' The Paper'' (1994) * ''
Goldilocks and the Three Bears "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" (originally titled "The Story of the Three Bears") is a 19th-century English fairy tale of which three versions exist. The original version of the tale tells of an obscene old woman who enters the forest home ...
'' (1995) * '' Star Trek: Voyager'' (1995) * ''
Virtuosity ''Virtuosity'' is a 1995 American science fiction action film directed by Brett Leonard and starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. Howard W. Koch Jr. served as an executive producer for the film. The film was released in the United Stat ...
'' (1995) * ''
Executive Decision ''Executive Decision'' is a 1996 American action film directed by Stuart Baird in his directorial debut. The film stars Kurt Russell, Steven Seagal, Halle Berry, John Leguizamo, Oliver Platt, Joe Morton, David Suchet, and B.D. Wong. It depicts t ...
'' (1995) * '' Independence Day'' (1996) * ''
Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...
'' (1996) * '' Jingle All the Way'' (1996) * '' Star Trek: First Contact'' (1996) * '' Jingle All the Way'' (1996) * '' Daylight'' (1996) * ''
Men in Black In popular culture and UFO conspiracy theories, men in black (MIB) are purported men dressed in black suits who claim to be quasi- government agents, who harass, threaten, or sometimes even assassinate unidentified flying object (UFO) witnesse ...
'' (1997) *''
McHale's Navy ''McHale's Navy'' is an American sitcom starring Ernest Borgnine that aired 138 half-hour episodes over four seasons, from October 11, 1962, to April 12, 1966, on the ABC television network. The series was filmed in black and white and originate ...
'' (1997) * ''
Stargate SG-1 ''Stargate SG-1'' (often stylized in all caps, or abbreviated ''SG-1'') is a military science fiction adventure television series within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's ''Stargate'' franchise. The show, created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner, ...
'' (1997) * ''
Godzilla is a fictional monster, or '' kaiju'', originating from a series of Japanese films. The character first appeared in the 1954 film '' Godzilla'' and became a worldwide pop culture icon, appearing in various media, including 32 films prod ...
'' (1998) * ''
Doctor Dolittle Doctor John Dolittle is the central character of a series of children's books by Hugh Lofting starting with the 1920 '' The Story of Doctor Dolittle''. He is a physician who shuns human patients in favour of animals, with whom he can speak in th ...
'' (1998) * ''
Virus A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Since Dmitri Ivanovsk ...
'' (1999) * '' The General's Daughter'' (1999) * ''
Mystery Men ''Mystery Men'' is a 1999 American superhero comedy film directed by Kinka Usher (in his feature-length directorial debut) and written by Neil Cuthbert, loosely based on Bob Burden's '' Flaming Carrot Comics'', and starring Ben Stiller, Hank Azar ...
'' (1999) * ''
Baby Geniuses ''Baby Geniuses'' is a 1999 American family comedy film directed by Bob Clark and written by Clark and Greg Michael based on a story by Clark, Steven Paul, Francisca Matos, and Robert Grasmere, and starring Kathleen Turner, Christopher Lloyd, Kim ...
'' (1999) * '' Deep Blue Sea'' (1999) * ''
The Omega Code ''The Omega Code'' is a 1999 apocalyptic thriller film directed by Rob Marcarelli, written by Stephen Blinn and Hollis Barton, and starring Casper Van Dien, Michael York, Catherine Oxenberg and Michael Ironside. The premillennialist plot revolve ...
'' (1999) * ''
House on Haunted Hill ''House on Haunted Hill'' is a 1959 American horror film produced and directed by William Castle, written by Robb White and starring Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Richard Long, Alan Marshal, Carolyn Craig and Elisha Cook Jr. Price plays an ...
'' (1999) * '' Anna and the King'' (1999) * '' Nutty Professor II: The Klumps'' (2000) * ''
Little Nicky ''Little Nicky'' is a 2000 American fantasy comedy film directed by Steven Brill, written by Brill, Adam Sandler, and Tim Herlihy, and starring Sandler in the title role, Patricia Arquette, Harvey Keitel, Rhys Ifans, Tommy "Tiny" Lister Jr., ...
'' (2000)


References

{{Animation industry in the United States Visual effects companies American animation studios