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> Weta Digital’s 275+ engineers will join Unity. The VFX artists will be spun out into a new entity, “Weta FX”, which Peter Jackson will continue to own the maj
by karaterobot 5y ago
> Weta Digital’s 275+ engineers will join Unity. The VFX artists will be spun out into a new entity, “Weta FX”, which Peter Jackson will continue to own the majority of. The two companies expect to continue working together, with Unity noting that it sees Weta FX being one of their “largest customers in the Media and Entertainment space” moving forward.
So, Weta FX will continue doing effects for movies, and the engineers from Weta will work for Unity, likely continuing to develop the tools they've already got, as well as contributing to Unity proper.
- erichocean 5y agoWeta's internal tooling is really, really good.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- larsiusprime 5y agoHow good? My typical expectation of in house tools is they're extremely powerful but full of interlocking dependencies and hard for outsiders to use without considerable training. Is Weta significantly above the waterline here?
- tjpnz 5y agoBased on my experience there six years back it really was. It had to be given how many artists would be entering the company at a given time.
- mkl 5y agoThere is some kind of continuing relationship between the two: Weta FX will keep contributing assets to Weta Digital's (i.e. Unity's) asset library. Maybe that's in exchange for being able to continue to use the software? I haven't seen the deal spelled out anywhere. From the Unity blog post [1]: "Another exciting element of this acquisition is the asset library we’ll inherit from Weta Digital, which includes urban and natural environments, flora and fauna, humans, man-made objects, materials, textures, and more. The WetaFX team will continue their industry-leading VFX work for major film and TV productions and feed into this asset library for years to come." [1] https://blog.unity.com/news/welcome-weta-digital https://blog.unity.com/news/welcome-weta-digital
- drcode 5y agoIt kinda sounds like Unity is overpaying for Weta, once all these different parts of the businesses are carved out of the sale.
- Rodeoclash 5y agoWhen I was an extra on Lord of the Rings "Weta" was a distinct step of getting into the costumes. The three steps would be something like: 1. Weta (for the Urukai this would be the wetsuit-esque muscles outfit, armour and helmet/mask - before the combined them) 2. Wardrobe (The rags laid over the armour) 3. Makeup (not really needed for the Urukhai except I seem to remember they used to darken around our eyes) The order would be slightly changed for the elf costume with makeup playing a larger part (this also involved the wigs). It's hard to imagine what part the teams involved with this would be doing for Unity!
- sparky_z 5y agoSounds like you were working with Weta Workshop (props and costumes), not Weta Digital. As I understand it, they are separate companies.