VANCOUVER - Rainmaker Limited Partnership president, Barry Chambers, recently announced the creation of Rainmaker Animation & Visual Effects, a new division that will be headed up by veteran VFX producer/studio executive Warren Franklin.
Franklin, who will serve as president of the new venture, had been in search of the perfect location to establish a new computer animation studio in conjunction with his feature animation development and production company. After selecting Vancouver, he saw a good foundation in Rainmaker.
Franklin brings a wealth of knowledge and managerial skills to his new position. He got his start as a production coordinator at Industrial Light & Magic in 1979 and was asked to lead the company as VP/GM in 1984. After creating Lucasfilm Entertainment Group in 1989, he managed the group's six divisions including ILM, LucasArts Games and Skywalker Sound. In 1992 he made a move to Colossal Pictures to oversee the company's animation studio, television/feature film, new media and commercial divisions. There he supervised development of one of the first realtime digital characters for the Cartoon Network, as well as MTV's "Liquid Television" and "Aeon Flux." Franklin held subsequent positions at Cinesite and Pinnacle Studios.
Plans for the new division include building a feature animation studio at Rainmaker (www.rainmaker.com) to handle production of CGI films in collaboration with Franklin's development and production company. He will work closely with Barry Chambers and Rainmaker's director of visual effects, Brian Moylan, to expand the studio?s award-winning television effects team and to continue Rainmaker's growth in visual effects for feature films.