Wētā FX
 | |
| Formerly | Weta Digital (1993–2021) |
|---|---|
| Company type | Private |
| Industry | |
| Founded | 1993 |
| Founders | |
| Headquarters | Miramar, Wellington, New Zealand |
Key people | |
| Owner | Peter Jackson |
Number of employees | 1,500 (2024)[3] |
| Subsidiaries | Wētā FX Melbourne Wētā FX Vancouver[4] |
| Website | www |
Wētā FX, formerly known as Weta Digital, is a New Zealand–based digital visual effects and animation company based in Miramar, Wellington. It was founded by Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor, and Jamie Selkirk in 1993 to produce the digital special effects for Heavenly Creatures. The company went on to produce some of the highest-grossing films ever made, such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Avatar series. Considered one of the most influential film companies of the 21st century, Wētā FX has won several Academy Awards and BAFTAs.[5] The company is named after the New Zealand wētā, one of the world's largest insects, which was historically featured in the company logo.[6]
History
[edit]
The company was founded by Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor, and Jamie Selkirk in 1993 to produce the digital special effects for the film Heavenly Creatures.[7] As of 2024, Wētā FX has won seven Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), King Kong (2005), Avatar (2009), The Jungle Book (2016), and Avatar: The Way of Water (2022).[8]
The studio has developed several proprietary software packages to achieve groundbreaking visual effects. The scale of the battles required for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy led to the creation of MASSIVE, a program which can animate huge numbers of agents: independent characters acting according to pre-set rules.[9][10]
To recreate 1933 New York for King Kong, the company created CityBot, an application which could "build" the city on a shot by shot basis.[11] Kong's fur also required the development of new simulation and modeling software.[12] A set of tools that combined procedural and interactive techniques added wind to the five million individual strands of fur and modeled interaction with other surfaces. New shaders were written that accounted for the scattering of light from within each hair that added to the volumetric quality of the fur. Large chunks of fur were ripped out and filled in with scars, blood, and the mud of Skull Island. Each frame of fur took two gigabytes of data.[13]
For James Cameron's Avatar, Weta Digital modified MASSIVE to give life to the flora and fauna on Pandora, for which the company did most of the visual effects with Joe Letteri,[14] under a team led by executive and producer Eileen Moran.[15][16] The film is regarded as a landmark for visual effects.[17][18][19][20] By 2017, Weta Digital had started visual effects development for the sequels.[21][22][23][24]
In 2010, a texture painting application developed by the studio for Avatar called Mari has been bought by The Foundry Visionmongers.[25] For The Adventures of Tintin and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the studio developed a new grooming system called Barbershop where users can interactively manipulate digital hair. This tool received a Sci-tech award in 2015.[26] The Adventures of Tintin was Weta Digital's first fully animated feature film.[27]
For Rise of the Planet of the Apes in 2011, the company was able to develop their motion capture technique to be able to leave the studio for shooting on location.[28][29][30] The motion capture technology would be improved in the 2014 sequel Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.[31][32][33] This was further refined in War for the Planet of the Apes in 2017.[34][35][36][37]
On June 19, 2020, Weta Digital announced that it would be producing original animation content under the name Weta Animated.[38][39][40] The company also announced a new chief executive Prem Akkaraju, who comes from Los Angeles.[41][42][43] In September 2020, Weta was able to secure a multi-year deal with Amazon Web Services to use the Amazon cloud to forward its VFX and animation production.[44][45]
In December 2020, Weta Digital CEO Prem Akkaraju announced additional board members including Tom Staggs, Jeff Huber and Ken Kamins. They join current board members Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Sean Parker and Joe Letteri.[46]
On June 17, 2021, Weta Digital announced they have partnered with Autodesk to productize Weta's proprietary tools based in Autodesk Maya for a cloud service called WetaM.[47] It will first be released in Q4 as a private beta.[48]
On August 23, 2021, Weta Digital announced a collaboration with SideFX for a cloud service combining the studio's proprietary tools within SideFX's Houdini called WetaH.[49][50]
On November 9, 2021, Jackson sold the company's VFX tools development division to video games software company Unity Technologies for US$1.625 billion.[51][52][53] Unity's acquired tech assets of Weta will be called Weta Digital, while the visual effects company remained separate and renamed as Wētā FX.[54][55] The acquisition was completed in December 2021.[56] In April 2022, Wētā FX opened a new studio in Vancouver. It is the company's first dedicated VFX studio outside New Zealand.[57][58]
For Avatar: The Way of Water in 2022, Wētā worked on 3,240 visual effects shots, 2,225 of which involved water.[59] The studio developed new performance capture technology for the film's underwater sequences.[60][61][62] The digital water in the film was created by artists using Wētā's latest Loki simulation software.[63] Wētā also refined their Facial Action Coding System (FACS) from Alita: Battle Angel for its use in Avatar: The Way of Water.[64][65][66][67] The company eventually ended up rendering close to 3.3 billion thread hours.[68] Letteri won his fifth Academy Award for his work on the film.[69]
On November 25,, 2023, Unity and Wētā FX mutually agreed to terminate Unity’s service agreement with Wētā FX effective December 10, 2023; this comes after Unity laying off the entire Wētā Digital staff in a "company reset".[70][71] Unity will continue to own the software from the Wētā Digital acquisition (with Wētā FX being able to continue using them), but the Wētā Digital name and related intellectual property will be transferred back to Wētā FX with no current plans to use the old Wētā Digital name. Wētā FX will be extending offers to as many of the Digital team as possible "as it looks to expand its research, development and support functions".[71]
Workplace culture
[edit]An investigation into Wētā's workplace culture by Kiwi public TV broadcaster 1 News, begun in June 2020 following a social media post by former Wētā Workshop employee Layna Lazar, resulted in more than 40 current and former Weta Digital employees anonymously sharing accounts of "sexism, bullying and harassment" in September 2020.[72][73][74]
In their testimonies, workers identified the existence of a male-only pornographic mailing list called "Caveman", which originated in 2002 following a company-wide tradition known as Porn Friday, and continued to circulate until 2015.[72] Several reports also alleged that the company's IT systems required upgrades in order to accommodate the volume of pornographic content hosted on the company intranet, in addition to numerous allegations of sexual harassment, bullying, intimidation, misogyny and homophobia.[72][75]
In response to these allegations, Wētā owners, including Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and chief executive officer Prem Akkaraju, commissioned an independent review from barrister Miriam Dean, who stated in her report that she received 80 complaints of bullying behavior, 120 complaints of inappropriate conduct and 19 complaints of sexual harassment from amongst the company's 1,500 employees.[76][77][78]
Dean put forward 17 recommendations for internal reform, including the establishment of a code of conduct, restricting the executive team, expanding the diversity and inclusion program, and reviewing the company's pay structure.[76][79] Her review also stated that the existing management systems were not sufficient to protect workers "from bullying, sexual harassment, sex discrimination and other inappropriate conduct".[76][80][81]
Films
[edit]1990s
[edit]| Year | Films | Studio(s) and Distributor(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Heavenly Creatures[82] | Miramax Films |
| 1995 | Forgotten Silver | TBC |
| 1996 | The Frighteners | Universal Pictures |
| 1997 | Contact | Warner Bros. |
2000s
[edit]| Year | Films | Studio(s) and Distributor(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | New Line Cinema |
| 2002 | The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | |
| 2003 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | |
| 2004 | Van Helsing | Universal Studios |
| I, Robot | 20th Century Fox | |
| 2005 | King Kong | Universal Studios |
| 2006 | X-Men: The Last Stand | 20th Century Fox |
| Eragon | ||
| 2007 | Bridge to Terabithia | Walt Disney Pictures |
| Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer | 20th Century Fox | |
| Enchanted | Walt Disney Pictures | |
| The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep | Columbia Pictures | |
| 30 Days of Night | ||
| 2008 | Jumper | 20th Century Fox |
| The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian | Walt Disney Studios | |
| The Day the Earth Stood Still | 20th Century Fox | |
| 2009 | District 9 | TriStar Pictures |
| The Lovely Bones | Paramount Pictures DreamWorks Pictures | |
| Avatar | 20th Century Fox |
2010s
[edit]2020s
[edit]Upcoming
[edit]| Year | Films | Studio(s) and Distributor(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Better Man | Paramount Pictures |
| 2025 | Captain America: Brave New World | Walt Disney Studios |
| Avatar: Fire and Ash | 20th Century Studios | |
| 2029 | Avatar 4 | |
| 2031 | Avatar 5 | |
| TBA | In the Blink of an Eye | Searchlight Pictures |
Animation
[edit]| Year | Films | Studio(s) and Distributor(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Meerkat[86] | Epic Games |
| 2022 | Overwatch 2: The Wastelander[87] | Blizzard Entertainment |
| 2023 | War Is Over! | ElectroLeague |
Television
[edit]1990s
[edit]| Year | Series | Network |
|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Tales from the Crypt (Season 6) Episode: "You, Murderer" |
HBO |
2010s
[edit]| Year | Series | Network |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Game of Thrones (Season 7) | HBO |
| 2019 | Game of Thrones (Season 8) | |
| The Umbrella Academy (Season 1) | Netflix |
2020s
[edit]Television films & specials
[edit]| Year | Films | Network |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special[90] | Disney+ |
See also
[edit]References
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- ^ "Kevin Sherwood". Wētā FX. Wētā FX.
- ^ "About". Wētā FX. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
- ^ "About". Wētā FX. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
- ^ "Another visual effects Oscar for Weta Digital?". Wellington.scoop. Retrieved 17 January 2010.
- ^ "The VFX of WETA Digital". RocketStock. 27 August 2015.
- ^ Gray, Tim (22 October 2014). "Weta Digital: Peter Jackson's VFX Company is About 'Immersive Filmmaking'". Variety.
- ^ "Awards". Wētā FX. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
- ^ "Massive Software". Massive Software. Retrieved 17 January 2010.
- ^ "How 'Lord of the Rings' Used AI to Change Big-Screen Battles Forever". CNET. 4 September 2022.
- ^ "Interview with Chris White on King Kong". cgarchitect. Retrieved 17 January 2010.
- ^ "How 'King Kong' Movies Changed VFX History, Over And Over Again". Inverse. 28 February 2017.
- ^ "Bigger and Badder: How Weta Digital Bulked Up for King Kong". Studio Daily. December 2005. Retrieved 17 January 2010.
- ^ Alex Ben Block (10 December 2009). "The creatures of 'Avatar' were 15 years in the making". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 4 January 2010.
- ^ Barnes, Mike (3 December 2012). "Top Visual Effects Producer Eileen Moran Dies in New Zealand; Worked on 'Avatar,' 'The Hobbit'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
- ^ "MASSIVE Is On The Gallop Again". VFX Voice. 21 August 2017.
- ^ "'Avatar': The Game Changer". Animation World Network. 21 December 2009.
- ^ "Avatar: 10 Ways The Original Movie's Special Effects Were Groundbreaking". Screen Rant. 4 September 2022.
- ^ "Critic's Picks: 10 Landmark CGI-Meets-Live-Action Movies". The Hollywood Reporter. 15 April 2016.
- ^ "From 'Avatar' to 'Jurassic Park' : 10 Great Films That Have Timeless Visual Effects". Collider. 30 June 2022.
- ^ "'Avatar' Sequels Progress to Next Level as Weta Digital Begins Visual Effects Work". Variety. 30 July 2017.
- ^ "Weta Digital Underway On James Cameron's Four 'Avatar' Sequels". Deadline Hollywood. 31 July 2017.
- ^ "Weta Working on "Even More Ambitious" 'Avatar' Sequels". The Hollywood Reporter. 31 July 2017.
- ^ "'Avatar': Weta Begins Innovative VFX on James Cameron's Four Planned Sequels". IndieWire. 31 July 2017.
- ^ Seymour, Mike (29 March 2010). "Exclusive: Foundry NAB Preview". fxguide. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
- ^ Seymour, Mike (29 January 2015). "Barbershop at Weta: Sci-tech winner explained". fxguide. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
- ^ "THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN: Matt Aitken – VFX Supervisor – Weta Digital". Art of VFX. 21 December 2011.
- ^ Allen, Danny (5 August 2011). "Giz Interviews Weta Digital's Effects Guru, Joe Letteri". Gizmodo. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
- ^ "RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES: Dan Lemmon – VFX Supervisor – Weta Digital". Art of VFX. 23 September 2011.
- ^ "Rise of the Planet of the Apes: Behind the Scenes with Andy Serkis". Popular Mechanics. 14 April 2011.
- ^ Staskiewicz, Keith. "'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes': See Andy Serkis and others go ape in this side-by-side special-effects video -- EXCLUSIVE". Entertainment Weekly. Entertainment Weekly Inc. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
- ^ "How 'Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes' Turned Actors Into Apes". Forbes. 19 November 2014.
- ^ "How outdoor motion capture brought Dawn of the Planet of the Apes to a new level". Digital Trends. 17 February 2015.
- ^ "How the lifelike visual effects in 'War for the Planet of the Apes' were created". ABC News. 13 July 2017.
- ^ "How 'War for the Planet of the Apes' Was Made". Popular Mechanics. 13 July 2017.
- ^ "Weta Digital Takes Third 'Planet of the Apes' VFX to a New Level". Variety. 18 February 2018.
- ^ "How the 'War for the Planet of the Apes' FX team created a realistic ape army". Digital Trends. 3 March 2018.
- ^ "Peter Jackson's Visual Effects Company Weta Digital Launches Animation Division". Variety. 18 June 2020.
- ^ "Peter Jackson's Weta Launches Animation Studio". The Hollywood Reporter. 18 June 2020.
- ^ "Peter Jackson Launching Weta Animated". Empire. 19 June 2020.
- ^ "Peter Jackson's Weta Digital Launches Weta Animated, Names Prem Akkaraju As CEO". Forbes. 18 June 2020.
- ^ "Weta Digital Launches Original Animated Content Division". IndieWire. 18 June 2020.
- ^ "Weta Digital Launches Weta Animated Original Content Business". Animation World Network. 18 June 2020.
- ^ "Weta Digital Pacts With Amazon Web Services For Cloud-Based Visual Effects And Animation". Deadline Hollywood. 2 September 2020.
- ^ "Weta Inks Deal With Amazon To Expand VFX and Animation in the Cloud". The Hollywood Reporter. 2 September 2020.
- ^ Flint, Joe. "Peter Jackson's Special-Effects Firm Looks to Become a Content Producer". Wall Street Journal.
- ^ Bosselman, Haley (17 June 2021). "Weta Digital-Autodesk Partnership to Offer New Creative Cloud Production Pipeline". Variety. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
- ^ Grobar, Matt (17 June 2021). "Weta Digital Partners With Autodesk To Launch Next Generation Creative Cloud Service, WetaM". Deadline. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
- ^ "Weta Digital & SideFX Collaboration Enhances Cloud Production with Houdini". Computer Graphics World. 25 August 2021. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
- ^ "Weta Digital and SideFX Team on Houdini in Cloud". postPerspective. 23 August 2021. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
- ^ Hayes, Dade (9 November 2021). "Peter Jackson Selling Weta Digital's VFX Tech Division To Unity For $1.625 Billion, with the Visual Effects division renamed to Weta FX". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on 10 November 2021.
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- ^ "Peter Jackson Selling Weta Digital's VFX Tech Division to Unity for $1.625 Billion". Variety. 9 November 2021.
- ^ "Peter Jackson's Weta Digital Renamed WetaFX After Tech Assets Are Sold For $1.625 Billion To Unity". TheRonin.org. 10 November 2021.
- ^ "WETA DIGITAL IS NOW WĒTĀ FX". WĒTĀ FX. 14 March 2022.
- ^ "It's Done: Unity Completes Weta Digital Acquisition". Animation World Network. 2 December 2021.
- ^ "Weta FX Opens Vancouver Office Amid Global Expansion". The Hollywood Reporter. 4 April 2022.
- ^ "Wētā FX Opens Vancouver Studio". Animation World Network. 4 April 2022.
- ^ "How 'Avatar: The Way of Water' Solved the Problem of Computer-Generated H2O". The New York Times. 16 December 2022.
- ^ "Exclusive: James Cameron Explains How He's Shooting Underwater Mo-Cap for 'The Avatar Sequels'". Collider. 21 November 2017.
- ^ "Avatar: The Way of Water': How They Shot the Breathtaking Underwater Footage". IndieWire. 15 December 2022.
- ^ "Why the CG water in 'The Way of Water' looks so good". befores & afters. 21 December 2022.
- ^ "How James Cameron Executed Complex VFX in 'Avatar: The Way of Water'". The Hollywood Reporter. 20 February 2023.
- ^ "How Avatar: The Way of Water Is Evolving Visual Effects". Gizmodo. 21 December 2022.
- ^ "Exclusive: Joe Letteri Discusses Wētā FX's new Facial Pipeline on Avatar 2". fxguide. 21 December 2022.
- ^ "Joe Letteri Talks 'Avatar: The Way of Water'". Animation World Network. 22 December 2022.
- ^ "How they did it: the visual effects team on Avatar: The Way Of Water gives us the 101". The A.V. Club. 26 December 2022.
- ^ "'Like seeing the first images from the moon': How Wētā gave Avatar 2 its visual wow factor". The Spinoff. 8 December 2022.
- ^ "'Avatar: The Way of Water' Delivers Fifth VFX Oscar to Weta's Joe Letteri". The Hollywood Reporter. 12 March 2023.
- ^ Tong, Anna. "Unity Software to cut 3.8% of staff in 'company reset'". Reuters. Archived from the original on 30 November 2023. Retrieved 30 November 2023.
- ^ a b Seymour, Mike. "Unity Software with a 'company reset' walks away from film VFX and the Wētā Deal". fxguide. Archived from the original on 30 November 2023. Retrieved 30 November 2023.
- ^ a b c Hall, Kristin (8 September 2020). "'World's most beautiful toxic waste dump' - Weta Digital employees claim sexism, bullying and harassment". 1 News. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
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- ^ "Weta Digital review shows company had misogynist culture, union boss says". Radio New Zealand. 24 December 2020.
- ^ "The Birth of Weta", 1994, "The Edge" TV series, S2E7
- ^ Murphy, Mekado (31 July 2017). "Inside Avatar, the Theme Park Version". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 August 2017.
- ^ "Nyad". Wētā FX. 25 August 2024. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
- ^ "Woaca". Wētā FX. 25 August 2024. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
- ^ "Meerkat". Wētā FX. 25 August 2024. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
- ^ "Overwatch 2: The Wastelander". Wētā FX. 25 August 2024.
- ^ "The Wilds". Wētā FX. 25 August 2024. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
- ^ "The Umbrella Academy – The Final Season". The Art of VFX. 24 July 2024. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
- ^ Frei, Vincent (26 October 2022), "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special", Art of VFX, archived from the original on 31 October 2022, retrieved 3 November 2022