Multimedia
Blogs
Forum
Affordable HD
Whitepapers
Newsletters
Events
Advertisers
Blogcast
MillimeterWimze Studios Opens Its Doors
Oct 8, 2004 10:23 AM
Multi-award winning animator Cleber Redondo has launched Wimze Studios, a full-service animation house sspecializing in 3D character animation for the TV programming, home video, commercial, web, and game markets. Redondo will head the new Fairview, N.J.-based turnkey flagship studio, which has brought together a world-class team of animators uniquely qualified to take an animation project from concept through completion.
Wimze Studios provides a complete roster of preproduction, layout, keyframes, rendering, editing, and compositing services, while also drawing upon a network of the industry’s top composers, voiceover talent, sound mixers, and casting directors to create a one-stop resource for high-end animated projects.
Also committed to developing original animated children’s programming for both the United States and international markets, Wimze is currently in production on the pilot for the studio’s first project, The Firecrackers. This 26-episode animated children’s series showcases the studio’s groundbreaking new style in a culturally diverse storyline geared to an 8- to 12-year-old audience. Also in production is the second of Wimze’s own properties, Dinomites, about a cartoon-style family of dinosaurs and targets a preschool audience.
“Wimze’s mission is to raise the bar for television and direct-to-video animation,” says Redondo, “as well as to offer top-caliber services to outside projects. We’ve brought together the best talent and technology the industry has to offer, and our commitment to R&D allows us to further increase our capabilities with proprietary software. All of these resources combine to create a fresh style of animation and a new look that people haven’t seen before.”
The studio features numerous Alias Maya seats running on SGI and BOXX Technologies workstations, as well as an extensive PC-based render farm running Maya and Mental Ray, maintained by chief engineer Marc Glenn. In addition, the studio’s proprietary animation and rendering software, developed by an inhouse team of technical directors, solves the next level of creative challenges with innovative solutions that go well beyond conventional out-of-the-box tools. When needed, Wimze calls upon its network of affiliated global resources to expedite efficient, high-volume animation production.
As Wimze’s president and animation director, Cleber Redondo builds on a distinguished animation career that spans two continents. A native of Sao Paulo with a degree in Fine Arts, he immersed himself in cel animation working on spots for Brazil and Latin America’s leading advertising agencies. He immigrated to the United States in 1988 and quickly found work as an animator for several production houses and television networks. At the time, the demand for 3D animation was accelerating so Redondo mastered the latest in 3D technology and went on to give instruction on Maya at New York University. Redondo landed a position as an animation director at 20th Century Fox Television in New York City where he remained for the next four years.
He struck out on his own in 1996 and launched Clever Image, which attracted a steady stream of high-end projects such as Walt Disney Interactive games; effects and 3D animation for The Cat In The Hat: The Ride in the Seuss Landing attraction at Universal Studios Orlando; and five 30-minute English and Portuguese-language episodes of Monica’s Gang for Brazil’s Mauricio de Sousa Produções, for the home video market.
Just before launching Wimze Studios, Rendondo completed production on four 30-minute episodes of The Story Teller Cafe for CBN under the Cleber Images banner. The series, which features tales about Biblical heroes, such as Jonah and David, earned 2000, 2001, and 2003 Telly Awards for Best Children’s TV Program, the 2000 Axiem Award for Best Children’s Animation, and the 2000 Omni Intermedia Award for Best Animation. After airing as cable specials, the programs went on to become best sellers in the home-video market.
”Wimze Studios has a clear and simple vision: to redefine the look of 3D animation in a turnkey environment that can take a project from concept through completion,” Redondo concludes. “We want to be considered an international resource for clients while continuing to develop original and innovative programming of our own.”
For additional information about Wimze Studios go to www.wimze.com or call Cleber Redondo at (210) 941.9652.
Continue the discussion on Crosstalk the Millimeter Forum.