Industry | Visual Effects |
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Founded | 1993 |
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Defunct | November 29, 2007 |
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Headquarters | , |
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Rainmaker was a visual effects and post-production company headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, with an office in Los Angeles, California, United States, which contributed to the final works for feature films, television shows, commercials and video games. It acquired and folded into Mainframe Studios in 2007.
Vancouver-based post-production firm Rainmaker Income Fund which owned Rainmaker Digital Effects announced its acquisition of a 62% stake in Mainframe Entertainment from IDT Corporation on 20 July 2006 for $13.8 million. [1] [2] The next month, Rainmaker announced it would acquire the remaining 38% of the company. [3] On 30 January 2007, Mainframe rebranded as Rainmaker Animation. [4] Rainmaker Income Fund announced on 29 August 2006, that RNK Capital L.P. would acquire the remaining 38% stake and merge into Rainmaker Income Fund. After the merger, Rainmaker announced on 31 January 2007 that Rainmaker Animation would rebrand as Rainmaker Entertainment. On November 29, 2007, Rainmaker Income Fund announced the sale of Rainmaker Visual Effects and Rainmaker Post to Deluxe Entertainment Services Group (now Deluxe Media), leaving only the animation business which it would fold into weeks later.
The company had three divisions: Rainmaker Animation, Rainmaker Visual Effects and Rainmaker Post.
Rainmaker created special effects scenes for films such as I, Robot , Armageddon , and The Da Vinci Code , as well as television series such as Stargate SG-1 , Stargate Atlantis and Smallville.
ReBoot is a Canadian computer-animated TV series that originally aired on YTV from 1994 until 2001. It was produced by Vancouver-based Mainframe Entertainment, Alliance Distribution and BLT Productions. The animated series was created by Gavin Blair, Ian Pearson, Phil Mitchell, and John Grace, with the visuals designed by Brendan McCarthy after an initial attempt by Ian Gibson. It is notable for being one of the first made-for-television CGI series.
Vantiva SA, formerly Technicolor SA, Thomson SARL, Thomson SA, and Thomson Multimedia, is a French multinational corporation that provides creative services and technology products for the communication, media and entertainment industries. Vantiva's headquarters are located in Paris, France. Other main office locations include Norcross (USA), Rennes (France) Edegem (Belgium) Seoul, Beijing (China), Chennai (India), Memphis (USA).
Mainframe Studios is a Canadian computer animation company owned by Wow Unlimited Media and based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Founded in 1993 as Mainframe Entertainment Inc. by Christopher Brough, Ian Pearson, Phil Mitchell, Gavin Blair and John Grace, the company established itself as a leading contributor to the introduction of computer-generated imagery (CGI) Live Action in animation, film and television.
Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio conglomerate that produces, acquires, and distributes filmed entertainment through multiple platforms.
Animal Logic is an Australian animation and visual effects digital studio based at Disney Studios in Sydney, New South Wales in Australia, Vancouver in Canada, and Rideback Ranch in Los Angeles, California. Established in 1991, Animal Logic has produced visual effects and animation for feature films such as the Academy Award-winning Happy Feet, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, Walking with Dinosaurs 3D,The Lego Movie andPeter Rabbit. The company was also recognised for its work as lead visual effects vendor on Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby, which won Outstanding Achievement in Visual Effects at the 3rd AACTA Awards ceremony. In 2018, Peter Rabbit was presented with a range of accolades, including the AACTA Award for Best Visual Effects or Animation, and Australian Production Design Guild Awards (APDG) in Visual Effects Design and Drawing, Concept Illustration & Concept Models for Screen. Most recently, the company has produced work for the Warner Animation Group's The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part and Marvel Studios' Captain Marvel. It is a subsidiary of Netflix.
Sony Pictures Animation Inc. is an American animation studio owned by Sony Entertainment's Sony Pictures Entertainment through their Motion Picture Group division and founded on May 9, 2002. Most of the studio's films are distributed worldwide by Sony Pictures Releasing under their Columbia Pictures label, while all direct-to-video releases are released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
Vancouver Film School (VFS) is a private entertainment arts school located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Founded in 1987, it has achieved international recognition. The Vancouver Film School has campus locations around Downtown Vancouver and comprises six buildings. As part of the school's 20th anniversary in 2007, in August 2006 one million dollars was set aside in scholarships for new students. In March 2008, Vancouver Film School and YouTube launched a competition for three full-tuition scholarships for the creators of the three videos submitted and voted as favorites by the YouTube community.
Starz Distribution, formerly IDT Entertainment and Starz Media is the distribution arm of Starz Inc., a subsidiary of Lionsgate, established in 2003. It develops, produces and acquires original programming content branded as Starz Originals, feature films and other audiovisual programming for distribution across television, home video and streaming media.
GVFX, initially Gajdecki Visual Effects, was a visual effects company initially based in Toronto, founded in the spring of 1991 by John Gajdecki. The company is notable for being one of the first visual effects companies in Canada. A second branch of the company based in Vancouver was started in 1998. Gajdecki left the company in 2002, leaving corporate executive Ron O'Brien as president and CEO. A year later, the company's Los Angeles branch closed in the summer, with the Toronto office closing in September, leaving the company consolidated to its Vancouver branch. The company was in financial trouble at that point, with employees being owed back wages, and Gajdecki stating that "this company didn't have enough money to cover its expenses". Carrying the high capital costs of visual effects equipment proved too much, and he has since liquidated much of his corporate and personal assets to cover the outstanding bills. The Vancouver branch was restructured in 2004.
Cinesite is an independent, multinational business which provides services to the media and entertainment industries. Its head office in London opened for business in 1994, initially offering services in visual effects for film and television, subsequently expanding to include animation.
Jam Filled Entertainment is a Canadian animation studio based in Ottawa, Ontario with additional facilities in Toronto and Halifax and is a division of Boat Rocker Media. It is best known for animating Thomas & Friends between 2013 and 2021 and Nicktoons such as The Loud House, and its spinoff The Casagrandes.
Nerd Corps Entertainment was a Canadian animation studio located in Vancouver, British Columbia. Founded by former Mainframe Entertainment producers Asaph Fipke and Chuck Johnson in 2002, it specialized in CGI animation, computer animation, and Flash animation.
Company 3 (CO3) is an American post-production company founded in 1997 by colorists Stefan Sonnenfeld and Mike Pethel and visual effects artist/supervisor Noel Castley-Wright. Rob Walston brought the team of artists together and funded Company 3 under 4 Media Company (4MC). Company 3 provides post production, color grading and location services for feature films, commercials, music videos and television.
Method Studios is a visual effects company launched in 1999 in Los Angeles, California with facilities in New York, Atlanta, Vancouver, San Francisco, Melbourne, Montreal, and Pune. The company provides production and post-production services including conceptual design, look development, on-set supervision, 3D animation/CGI, matte painting, AR/VR, compositing and finishing.
DreamWorks Pictures is an American film studio and distribution label of Amblin Partners. It was originally founded on October 12, 1994, as a live-action film studio by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen, of which they owned 72%. The studio formerly distributed its own and third-party films. It has produced or distributed more than ten films with box-office grosses of more than $100 million each.
Prana Studios, Inc. was an American computer animation and visual effects company, founded in 2005 in Los Angeles, United States, with a wholly owned subsidiary in Mumbai, India.
ReBoot: The Guardian Code is a Canadian teen drama science fiction live-action/CGI-animated television series produced by Mainframe Studios. Originally announced in 2013, the first ten episodes debuted on Netflix worldwide on March 30, 2018. YTV aired all twenty episodes from June 4 to July 5, 2018.
Cinesite Vancouver is a Canadian animation company founded by husband and wife duo Greg Tiernan and Nicole Stinn. The company was founded in October 2003, in Vancouver, British Columbia.
WildBrain Studios is the in-house television studio arm of Canadian entertainment company WildBrain based in Vancouver, British Columbia, which was established in 2016 as DHX Studios.