MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA & LONDON — What started as a conversation about a year and a half ago has turned into a merger between two well-respected companies in the industry — The Foundry and Luxology. The Foundry (www.thefoundry.co.uk), based in the UK, offers 2D and 3D VFX software, including the popular compositing application Nuke. Luxology’s (www.luxology.com) flagship product is Modo, a 3D modeling and rendering technology. The companies are keeping the financial terms of the deal private at this time and are hoping to reassure clients on both sides that continuity will be maintained moving forward.
“Our customers are extremely loyal — we don’t want anyone to wake up in morning and say, ‘Everything has changed,’” notes The Foundry’s chief scientist/co-founder Simon Robinson. “Continuity is really important to us. A merger is a way of keeping all these plates spinning. The best strengths of both companies will drive development.”
The companies connected through a chance meeting organized by ILM. John Knoll challenged them with integrating their products, which sparked the idea that the two companies could be a greater force together than apart.
“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,” explains Knoll, who is a VFX supervisor at ILM. “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.”
“The intriguing thing from side of the post community is The Foundry has been growing toward different parts of pipeline,” notes The Foundry’s CEO Bill Collis. “What we stayed away from was modeling, animation and rendering because it’s a specialty. We are excited because Modo represents what we can offer to people in the visual effects and animation pipeline. The truth is there are no more single-model pipelines — there are lots of ideas from lots of companies.”
“I would add that a lot of Luxology Modo users are After Effects users and we’ll continue to support After Effects and other compositing systems and painting systems,” says Luxology co-founder Brad Peebler. “As we’ve been talking with The Foundry, I saw they had the same philosophy and want us to do that. We have this ‘plays well with others’ mantra and The Foundry has the same [belief]. We are not trying to create a walled garden in which we trap our customers. We want to allow users to be able to get out of our application and back in.”
The Foundry’s Robinson adds that the company is growing as a result of the merger and not shrinking. “No resources are being taken off of anything. Everything is getting more,” he states. (pictured are, L-R, Bill Collis, Brad Peebler, and Simon Robinson).
While neither The Foundry or Luxology would comment on upcoming developments, the representatives said the post community could see the results of their collaboration in as soon as six months.
The company issued a Q&A that answers many of the questions customers might have. Download the PDF file by
CLICKING HERE.