GenArts, Inc.

Last updated
GenArts, Inc.
Type Private
Industry Software
Founded1996
Founder Karl Sims
Headquarters Cambridge, MA, USA
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people
Karl Sims
(Founder)
Gary Oberbrunner
(Chief Scientist)
ProductsVisual Effects Plug-ins
Website genarts.com

GenArts, Inc. was a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based developer of visual effects software for the film, broadcast, and advertising industries. Genarts special effects software was used in the production of many movies, commercials, television shows, newscasts, and music videos. [1] GenArts software and plugins integrated visual effects such as glows, lightning, fire, and fluids into post-production video editing software from companies like Apple, Adobe, Autodesk, and The Foundry.

Contents

GenArts was initially known for its role in high-end post production environments. In 2008, product development and a series of acquisitions broadened GenArts's focus, product portfolio, and customer base. Subsequently, GenArts created plugins developed for smaller budget video editing tools typically used by smaller studios, the videographer market, or creators of content distributed online on websites like YouTube. [1] [2] [3]

Many Bollywood productions, like Little Krishna and Aladdin, have used software from GenArts. [4] GenArts has been used in feature films like X-Men , the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, several Star Wars movies, and the Matrix Trilogy. It's also used in newscasts, music videos by Lady Gaga and Beyoncé, and television shows like Lost and CSI. The company has 29,000 customers, including Disney, Lucasfilm, Paramount Pictures, MTV, Univision, Televisa, and Warner Brothers. [5] [6]

History

Karl Sims's barn and the first GenArts office space Barn-cc.jpg
Karl Sims's barn and the first GenArts office space

Karl Sims founded GenArts, Inc. as Genetic Arts in 1996 in Cambridge, MA as a developer of Discreet Spark Plugins. [1] In 1997, Gary Oberbrunner joined GenArts as its second employee. [7] The company name was changed to GenArts in June, 1999. [8] GenArts's first office space was in Karl's barn. [9] By 1999, three years after the company was founded, GenArts had achieved significant commercial success, a pace of growth that founder Karl Sims says he did not expect. [1] Karl won the MacArthur "genius grant" in the '90s for his work on artificial evolution. [10]

Between 2000 and 2004, GenArts released Sapphire Plug-ins for Autodesk, Avid, After Effects, Shake, Final Cut Pro, Combustion, Premiere, Digital Fusion, Quantel with Synapse, and 844/x. [11] The company had 220 image processing and synthesis effects by 2008. Prices for the software were also reduced. [1]

After creating plugins for video editing software, GenArts made the shift to supporting applications such as Avid, Final Cut Pro, and Adobe After Effects that support a broader market of video creators. [3]

In 2019, Karl Sims and Gary Oberbrunner each won an Emmy Award, recognizing their "outstanding achievement in engineering development" of Sapphire Plug-ins.

Leadership and corporate strategy

In 2008, GenArts received funding from Insight Venture Partners and appointed a new CEO, Katherine Hays, to execute on a new growth strategy. That strategy involved consolidating a highly fragmented visual effects market into a standards-based, single vendor, off-the-shelf approach that Katherine believed would simplify visual effects for customers. The company also focused its own R&D on standards, often acquiring popular plugins for specific video editing software and developing them for other systems. After being a single product company (Sapphire) for over a decade, the new CEO appointment and growth strategy kicked off a series of acquisitions and new partner relationships. [1] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]

Software

GenArts supported Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro, Avid Systems, Autodesk systems, Nuke, OFX platforms, and Sony Vegas Pro. [2] [3] GenArts’s product lines included the Sapphire, Sapphire Edge, and Sapphire Accents brands. The acquired particleIllusion and Monsters GT brands were consolidated under Sapphire Accents: [24]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 By Mike Seymour, fxguide. “GenArts’ Katherine Hays - the First 100 Days.” December 23, 2008.
  2. 1 2 By Geoff Poister, DV.com. “In Review: Effective Asset.” March 2010.
  3. 1 2 3 By John Dickinson, MotionWorks. “Unplugged 26: Steve Bannerman - GenArts.” June 12, 2010.
  4. ↑ GenArts 2010 and 2011 reels
  5. 1 2 By Mike Seymour, fxguide. “GenArts Buys Tinder Plugins from the Foundry.” February 16, 2010.
  6. ↑ By Jay Rizoli, Mass High Tech. “Hays brings massive media skills to GenArts.” October 31, 2008.
  7. ↑ By Wade Roush, Xconomy. "GenArts Inks Major Visual Effects Software Deal with Lucasfilm." June 8, 2009.
  8. ↑ BusinessWeek Profile
  9. ↑ Press Release. "GenArts' Oscar Streak Grows To 12 Consecutive Years."
  10. 1 2 By Lewis Wallace, WIRED. “GenArts Team up to Bring Hollywood-Style VFX to Games.” June 8, 2009.
  11. ↑ GenArts Our Company
  12. ↑ By Walter Schoenknecht, NAB Show Daily. “The Storyteller’s Secret: Visual Effects.” April 12, 2011.
  13. 1 2 By Galen Moore, Mass High Tech. “GenArts acquires visual effects from The Foundry.” February 16, 2010.
  14. 1 2 By David Cohen, Variety. “GenArts Deal Steps up its Software Use.” November 3, 2009.
  15. ↑ By Wade Roush, Xconomy. “In Wondertouch Acquisition, GenArts Adds Fizz to its FX.” November 3, 2009.
  16. 1 2 By Beth Marchant, Studio Daily. “Q&A: GenArts CEO Katherine Hays.” January 30, 2009.
  17. ↑ By Annemarie Moody, AWN. “Open Effects Associations Formed at NAB 2009.” May 20, 2009.
  18. ↑ Gary Oberbrunner on LinkedIn
  19. ↑ By A.J. Wedding, Microfilmmaker Magazine. “Software Review: particleIllusion 4 for After Effects.” January 1, 2011
  20. ↑ Multiple Press Releases here, here, here, here, here and here
  21. ↑ By Carolyn Giardina, Hollywood Reporter. “Amir Malin Named to GenArts Board of Directors.” March 23, 2011.
  22. ↑ By Audrey Doyle, Digital Content Producer. “Motion Graphics for the Masses.” June 1, 2004.
  23. ↑ "Boris FX | Boris FX and GenArts Announce Significant Merger of Industry-Leading Visual Effects Software Companies". borisfx.com. Retrieved 2018-07-05.
  24. 1 2 Supported host platforms and some of the product details are collected from various product pages at genarts.com
  25. ↑ By David Basulto, Post Magazine. “Genarts Monsters GT for AE.” September 1, 2010.
  26. ↑ By Michael Burns, Macworld. “Monsters GT V6 review.” October 8, 2010.
  27. ↑ Toolfarm profile on Monsters & Raptors
  28. ↑ FlashValley. "Wondertouch particleIllusion 3.0 Part 1."
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