LOS ANGELES — Deluxe Entertainment’s (bydeluxe.com) global visual effects brand, Method Studios (methodstudios.com) has announced the expansion of its artistic leadership and animation depth with key new hires based in Los Angeles and New York. New talent includes supervising art director and head of art department Olivier Pron, commercials VFX supervisor and creative director Jesse Bradstreet, commercials VFX supervisor James Rogers, animation supervisors Daryl Sawchuk and Tim Ranck and VFX supervisor Gong Myung Lee.
“It’s nearly impossible to extoll the individual virtues these artists bring to the team,” says Ed Ulbrich, president of Deluxe Visual Effects. “Method has long enjoyed a reputation for excellence in effects, and with Olivier, Jesse, James, Daryl, Tim and Myung helping to anchor our talent base, we’re able to extend our expertise to better serve clients at every phase of production.”
With this expansion, Method underscores its commitment to raising the bar in VFX and animation across features, advertising and all mediums. Method’s upcoming feature film VFX projects opening this fall include Terrence Malick’s Voyage of Time, Marvel’s
Doctor Strange and Warner Bros’
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The studio also completed the 2016 AICP Sponsor Reel, which has gone viral with more than 34 million YouTube views, GE’s “Raining Octopuses,” and the 2016 E3 trailer for Bethesda Softworks’ “Quake Champions,” among others.
Extending Method’s art and design team is concept artist Olivier Pron, who joins Method Los Angeles from the studio’s London office. There he led the teams crafting pre-production visuals for VFX-heavy films including Iron Man 3,
Cloud Atlas and
Guardians of the Galaxy, which earned him a 2015 Art Directors Guild Award for Excellence in Production Design. Prior to Method, he held senior level creative and design posts at MPC and BUF.
With an extensive background in commercial VFX, Jesse Bradstreet comes to Method from Sydney, where he worked with a noteworthy roster of high-profile brands including Pepsi, Samsung and Vodafone. He earned a Silver Clio in the Animation category for a Honda Jazz “Imagination,” spot among other accolades. Bradstreet began his VFX career as an animator on X-Men and later as a VFX supervisor and director at Prodigy Films and Animal Logic.
James Rogers has been in a guiding role at Method in Sydney since 2010, serving as VFX supervisor for CG-heavy features such as Gods of Egypt and
The Wolverine as well as overseeing VFX for last year’s Target “Holiday Odyssey” campaign for 72andSunny. At Method Los Angeles, Rogers will extend the studio’s capacity for top commercial VFX, enabling a higher volume of CG-intensive projects to run simultaneously.
Prior to joining Method, Daryl Sawchuk was head of animation for MPC, helping to establish and grow its Vancouver facility. His credits include the Academy Award-winning Life of Pi,
Edge of Tomorrow and
Man of Steel, and he served as animation director for an upcoming Paramount feature releasing in 2017. His CG animated feature credits include
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,
Everyone’s Hero and
The Wild.
On Method’s animation team is skilled character animator Tim Ranck, one of the CG minds behind VFX blockbusters including Iron Man 3,
I, Robot and
Real Steel. A technical and artistic problem-solver, he has extensive experience in motion capture direction and developing animation pipelines. Prior to Method, Ranck worked on film, video game and commercial projects at Digital Domain, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Zoic Studios, Psyop and Blur Studio.
Gong Myung Lee brings her intuitive eye for detail to Method New York. Lee was previously VFX supervisor/head of CG at Mr. X Gotham, and has held various supervising roles at The Mill and Charlex. Recent credits include Ang Lee’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,
Zoolander 2 and
The Finest Hours, and TV series
The Strain,
Vikings,
Narcos and
Marco Polo.