The Foundry and Luxology announce merger
VFX technology innovator The Foundry and 3D modelling/rendering specialist Luxology have joined forces. The merger was announced this morning by Bill Collis CEO of The Foundry and Brad Peebler, President of Luxology.
“The Foundry and Luxology are a joint entity as of today,” said Collis. “Luxology shares our desire to build products that address genuine industry need,”
According to Collis, The Foundry, with its stable of 2D and 3D VFX software, including compositor NUKE, sees Luxology’s 3D modelling and rendering technology and its flagship product, modo, as a natural addition.
Collis added that the companies shared numerous clients in the VFX space, including Smoke & Mirrors, Double Negative and The Embassy.
“The Foundry has an impressive pedigree in the visual effects industry, where its products and attention to customers are second to none,” said Luxology’s Brad Peebler. “Creative industries are converging in terms of media, quality and deliverables. Joining forces with The Foundry will allow us to accelerate the development of modo, ushering in a new era for our customers. We simply can not wait to leverage our combined strength to change the landscape for content creators everywhere.”
The Foundry has 160 staff, Luxology has 30, and the companies said they planned to add new resources, with hiring taking place now. Peebler will take on the bigger role of ‘President of the Americas’ for the larger organisation, which means he will be responsible for both companies joint operations in North and South America, reporting directly to Bill Collis, CEO of The Foundry.
The existing support setup for both will remain in place and existing developer contracts will remain the same. Development of integration between product lines has been going on in the background pre-announcement and will continue to do so.
The merger was prompted by customer demand, said the companies, with its roots at a chance meeting organised by ILM a year ago. John Knoll Visual Effects Supervisor at ILM apparently threw down the challenge of integrating products from both companies. This initially sparked the idea that the two companies could be a greater force together than apart and the merger idea snowballed from there.
An online Q&A sets out the full business case for the merger: “Both companies are very good at what they do and have successfully addressed the needs of customers for many years in a diverse set of markets. The Foundry and Luxology have both prospered by putting customers at the core of their business and keeping very open channels of communication at all levels. The product portfolios of the two companies are incredibly complementary – with no product overlap- making for a natural fit in technology and ethos. With this enhanced scale and community-friendly attitude, we want to offer the design and entertainment industries a powerful new choice.”
The Q&A further states the two companies had “cultivated user communities which are today reasonably distinct, but could both benefit hugely from technology adapted from the existing products of the other company. This gives the new entity the opportunity to use its combined development resources to greatly improve product offerings for all customers.”
“I am a big fan of both Luxology and The Foundry having been using modo for quite a while and KATANA here at ILM in the last 18 months,” said John Knoll. “Their marriage is really exciting for the VFX community. Their combined technology and similar approach to working with customers is a very interesting development. I’ll definitely be keeping my eyes on them.”
For more information visit The Foundry or Luxology
View more about The Foundry on Fired By Design
View more about modo and Luxology on Fired By Design
