January 5 NEW YORK – Flame artist/VFX supervisor Kevin Quinlan has signed with Rhinofx. He brings with him nearly 15 years of experience across media platforms and production avenues. The hire continues Rhino's effort to broaden its in-house expertise and build a team that can handle any project, be it broadcast, feature film or emerging media.  

January 5 PHILADELPHIA - Visual effects artist and compositing supervisor Ed Mendez has joined Dive, a Shooters Post & Transfer division that specializes in VFX and post production supervision for feature films.  

January 5 LOS ANGELES - VFX and design company Asylum has signed animation director Piotr Karwas to its team. He brings with him more than 10 years of experience in the film industry, having worked with Digital Domain on a number of features, including The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring; I, Robot; and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
 

January 5 NEW YORK – Editorial and visual effects house Version2 will close its doors on February 1st, after completing all of its open projects and meeting financial obligations. While the company saw an overall growth in billings in 2008, owner Vito DeSario felt that the business model he created in 1988 was no longer viable for him personally or professionally.  

December 18 NEW YORK - CA Square (www.ca-square.com) recently created a new logo, as well as on- and off-air graphics packages, for Miami-based Cinelatino, the Spanish-language premium movie channel that will relaunch its brand in January.  

The availability of lower cost, high resolution LCD panels is becoming more and more important in delivering enhanced image quality for professionals, enthusiast gamers and casual users alike. As panel resolution and color depth increase, the bandwidth required to drive these panels also increases; hence the need for a new display interface.  

LOS ANGELES - The mark of a successful compositing session is when a client looks at the screen and says, "I don't even remember shooting that scene." Freelance artist Alison Andoos remembers hearing a line just like that after she finished working on a music video for Grammy Award-winning hip-hop artists Bone Thugs-N-Harmony (Young Thugs) at the brand new Los Angeles facility In A Place Productions.  

LA-based creative collective Psychic Bunny (www.psychicbunny.com) recently partnered with TimePlay to create  an interactive, poker-themed stage show that takes place at The Venetian hotel and casino in Las Vegas.