![]() ![]() All told, Weta Digital’s software assets comprise some 50 million lines of computer code. Weta Digital’s tools provide a range of features including advanced facial capture and manipulation, anatomical modeling, advance simulation and deformation of objects in movement, and procedural hair and fur modeling. Akkaraju joined as CEO of Weta Digital in early 2020, after previously serving as chief exec of SR Labs, the streaming company formerly known as Screening Room, which he co-founded with tech entrepreneur and Napster founder Sean Parker.īased in Wellington, New Zealand, Weta Digital is the largest single-site VFX studio in the world, employing artists from more than 40 countries. As CEO, he inked a deal with Amazon’s AWS to create a cloud-based VFX workflow for Weta, and also signed cloud-services bundling deals for Autodesk’s Maya and SideFX’s Houdini. Weta Digital previously evaluated commercializing the tools itself but concluded that selling the technology assets to Unity, with its scale and cloud-oriented strategy, was the best way to bring them to market, according to Akkaraju.īy divesting the technology and tools division, WetaFX will be able to fully focus on the creative side of the business and, over time, will see operating costs drop with cloud-based workflows, according to Akkaraju. We think this world has many, many more Jimi Hendrixes.” But that was outweighed by what he said has been Weta’s goal of inspiring other creators: “We’re Jimi Hendrix, and now we’re selling guitars. Within Weta, at first there was “almost an apprehension” about making its tools available to the wider market, Akkaraju said. Unity raised full-year 2021 revenue guidance to $1.08 billion-$1.085 billion, which would be up 40% from last year. Unity posted Q3 revenue of $286.3 million (up 43% year over year), topping Wall Street forecasts, and a net loss of $115.2 million (or a net loss of 41 cents per share, missing expectations. The drop came after shares closed up 5.2% in regular trading and hit all-time highs during the session. Unity’s stock price was down more than 8% in after-hours trading Tuesday after the company announced the Weta Digital deal and reported third-quarter 2021 financial results. The proposed deal is expected to close before the end of 2021, subject to regulatory approvals. WetaFX, with about 1,700 employees, will remain majority-owned by Jackson and led by CEO Prem Akkaraju. Weta Digital’s VFX and animation teams will continue to exist as a standalone entity, known as WetaFX, which is expected to become Unity’s largest customer in the media and entertainment space. ![]() Joe Marks, Weta’s chief technology officer, will join Unity as CTO of Weta Digital. ![]() Under the terms of the agreement, Unity will acquire Weta Digital for $1 billion in cash and $625 million in stock. Offering aspiring creatives access to Weta Digital’s technology will be nothing short of game changing, and Unity is just the company to bring this vision to life.” Together, Unity and Weta Digital can create a pathway for any artist, from any industry, to be able to leverage these incredibly creative and powerful tools. Chris and Wip also used a double sided unlit shader on the models, so that they could be flipped in the game.Jackson said in a statement provided to Variety, “Weta Digital’s tools created unlimited possibilities for us to bring to life the worlds and creatures that originally lived in our imaginations. Where they could, they used Mesh Baker to convert the multiple meshes per model into one mesh and sprite sheet to cut down draw calls. After that, they trimmed the animations in the import setting and added scripts to the animation timeline to control events and sounds. Then they imported the FBX files into Unity. It was created in part by Chris O’Shea with illustration & character design by Nick Stoney, animation by Wip Vernooij and sound by Resonate.įirst step of Cowly Owl’s workflow was rigging and animating the characters in Anime Studio Pro. #ANIME STUDIO PRO 9 UNITY FULL#Monster Mingle is Cowly Owl’s digital toy that lets children create their own monster, exploring a magical world full of creatures and surprises. Chris shared with us his team’s Anime Studio and Unity workflow. Using animated files, Cowly Owl added expressive, fluid movement to the game. The team decided to use Anime Studio Pro on this project, because the new FBX export feature allowed them to bring the animations into Unity using rigged skinned meshes, rather than sprite based frames. When Chris O’Shea and the team at Cowly Owl had the idea for their recent game Monster Mingle, they realized that their vision requires really powerful animation tools. ![]()
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