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Note: in particular, this is effectively "reversing" the aquisition of the Weta Digital people who were hired in Jan 2022 (Purchase of Weta Digital happened Dec

Note: in particular, this is effectively "reversing" the aquisition of the Weta Digital people who were hired in Jan 2022 (Purchase of Weta Digital happened December 2021), as well as the Software IP that Weta Digital R&D had written over the years that they took over rights to at the time. Disclaimer: I'm one of those affected.

halfer53 3y ago
The contract has been signed already. How do they even end the software ip purchased from weta?
- slavik81 3y ago
  They don't. As per Weta's statement [1] > Unity will continue to own the technology it acquired and will evaluate the best way to enhance its offerings over time. [1]: https://www.fxguide.com/quicktakes/unity-software-with-a-company-reset-walks-away-from-film-vfx-and-the-weta-deal/ https://www.fxguide.com/quicktakes/unity-software-with-a-com...
FirmwareBurner 3y ago
Are they firing all of Weta staff?
- pixelesque 3y ago
  I can't say anything that's not public information yet, but note that we were all still doing work WetaFX wanted (as we were before we joined Unity), it was just that via the services agreement we were then Unity employees and Unity were paying our salary.
  - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
    Any news on VFX workers unionizing? I knew they were all underpaid but I'm not sure how it works with Weta as they're in NZ, right?
    - pixelesque 3y ago
      I haven't really been following that closely... I think in the US some (a very limited number) of on-set VFX artists have unionised, but in practice those aren't the people doing the majority of the post-production VFX at ILM, DNeg, Framestore, MPC, Weta, etc... One of the complications is many of the VFX facilities have offices in many different countries, and in the past have been chaising subsidies (Canada was a strong location 10 years ago or so), and different locations have different laws as to what's possible. i.e. in London, overtime wasn't generally paid (but artists often still had to do it), although I believe DNeg London started paying it more recently (not in India though), and I seem to remember people saying Vancouver didn't generally pay overtime, but Montreal did but I don't know how accurate that is more recently...
      - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
        Can't the former Weta employees (both laid off and otherwise) splinter off from Unity into their own VFX spin-off? Surely they have enough industry contacts and street cred so that getting projects wouldn't be a problem.
wdb 3y ago
That's a shame. The Weta Digital tech looks great
johnnyanmac 3y ago
My condolences. I thought me getting cut in the first round was to keep that whole deal afloat when the economy went south. But no one is safe, it seems.

halfer53 3y ago

The contract has been signed already. How do they even end the software ip purchased from weta?

slavik81 3y ago
They don't. As per Weta's statement [1] > Unity will continue to own the technology it acquired and will evaluate the best way to enhance its offerings over time. [1]: https://www.fxguide.com/quicktakes/unity-software-with-a-company-reset-walks-away-from-film-vfx-and-the-weta-deal/ https://www.fxguide.com/quicktakes/unity-software-with-a-com...

FirmwareBurner 3y ago

Are they firing all of Weta staff?

pixelesque 3y ago
I can't say anything that's not public information yet, but note that we were all still doing work WetaFX wanted (as we were before we joined Unity), it was just that via the services agreement we were then Unity employees and Unity were paying our salary.
- FirmwareBurner 3y ago
  Any news on VFX workers unionizing? I knew they were all underpaid but I'm not sure how it works with Weta as they're in NZ, right?
  - pixelesque 3y ago
    I haven't really been following that closely... I think in the US some (a very limited number) of on-set VFX artists have unionised, but in practice those aren't the people doing the majority of the post-production VFX at ILM, DNeg, Framestore, MPC, Weta, etc... One of the complications is many of the VFX facilities have offices in many different countries, and in the past have been chaising subsidies (Canada was a strong location 10 years ago or so), and different locations have different laws as to what's possible. i.e. in London, overtime wasn't generally paid (but artists often still had to do it), although I believe DNeg London started paying it more recently (not in India though), and I seem to remember people saying Vancouver didn't generally pay overtime, but Montreal did but I don't know how accurate that is more recently...
    - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
      Can't the former Weta employees (both laid off and otherwise) splinter off from Unity into their own VFX spin-off? Surely they have enough industry contacts and street cred so that getting projects wouldn't be a problem.

wdb 3y ago

That's a shame. The Weta Digital tech looks great

johnnyanmac 3y ago

My condolences. I thought me getting cut in the first round was to keep that whole deal afloat when the economy went south. But no one is safe, it seems.