Since 1998, TRIXTER has been creating outstanding visual effects and digital character animation for feature films, television and commercials. From the early days, TRIXTER established itself as a major player in the field of emotive character animation, both for fully computer generated animated features as well as live-action productions. Over the past few years, TRIXTER has expanded its expertise by branching out into visual effects and has recently accomplished some outstanding work for German and international projects such as Ninja Assassin, Percy Jackson, Lilly The Witch, Iron Man 2, X-Men: First Class, Captain America and many more.
Today, TRIXTER is unique in its ability to provide quality digital production for live action or animated features, in mono or 3D stereo. Whether it be key framed computer generated characters or motion capture driven performances, matte paintings or FX work, TRIXTER has the experience and talent to deliver work of the highest standards. Its community of innovative digital artists and computer technologists collaborate creatively with filmmakers, helping them to bring their vision from the storyboard to the theater and delight audiences around the globe. TRIXTER has offices in Munich and Berlin, Germany and has recently opened an office in Los Angeles.
TEAM Michael Coldewey, CEO, Managing Director Michael Coldewey started his film career assisting Wolfgang Urchs on the animated feature Peterchens Mondfahrt (Peter in Magicland). He taught cel animation at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and computer animation at the Fachhochschule in Augsburg. After several commercials and supervising a TV pilot, he directed the animated feature The Fearless Four (Warner Bros.) and Kevin Eastman’s Heavy Metal 2000 (Columbia Tristar). Michael founded TRIXTER in 1998 and TRIXTER Productions in 2002 together with Simone Kraus. He produced 26 half hour episodes of the TV series Lilly The Witch and co-produced Dragon Hunters (Universum Film) with Futurikon, France. Michael went on to produce the first Walt Disney live action movie Lilly The Witch – The Dragon and the Magic Book, and has recently completed post-production on the sequel, Lilly The Witch – The Journey to Mandolan. In 2008 Michael won the Bavarian TV Award, the German TV Award and got nominated in 2009 for the German Film Award for best family entertainment. Between 2007 and 2009 Michael served as President of the German Animation Association. Michael successfully expanded his TX Production company, with new premises in Berlin. Simone Kraus, CEO, Animation Supervisor Simone Kraus has worked in the animation and visual effects industry for the past 15 years. She was the Animation Supervisor for many feature films such as TRIXTER's work on Jon Favreau's Iron Man 2 (Paramount), Chris Columbus' Percy Jackson (Fox), the latest Wachowski Brother's Ninja Assassin (Warner Bros), as well as the overall Animation Supervisor on Lilly The Witch 1 and 2, (Walt Disney), Hui Buh (Constantin Film) and Dragon Hunters (Universum Film). She has been the co-owner of TRIXTER since 1998, and in 2008 won the German TV Award for the film Wonder Of Loch Ness. Over the past few years, TRIXTER has expanded into the field of high end visual effects for live action feature films; recent projects include Narnia: Voyage of the Dawntreader and The Green Hornet. Simone is currently heading up the Los Angeles office. Her talent for breathing life into characters coupled with her dedication and enthusiasm and her expertise at leading teams of artists and producers make her the ideal person to bring TRIXTER to America and give US clients a local presence with a truly global reach. She has recently successfully secured prestigious projects like Priest, X-Men: First Class, Journey 2 - The Mysterious Island and The Green Lantern for TRIXTER. Silvio Astarita, CEO, Managing Director TX CAN
Silvio Astarita began his career in the entertainment industry with Dai-Ichi Entertainment in Los Angeles in the film acquisitions department. He represented such companies as Dong A Export, Woo Gin and Shin Han in Korea, Long Shong in Taiwan and TV Tokyo in Japan. During that time, he distributed over 200 titles such as Total Recall, Dances with Wolves, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, Cliffhanger, Tombstone, Die Hard III and Basic Instinct to name a few.
In 1994, Silvio decided to return to Toronto to work hands on in producing; the area that intrigued him most. He partnered and formed Silhouette Media Group and the company worked on Mia – Child of Hollywood for Fox Television Network, co-financed, co-produced and/or executive produced Starhunter (TV series), Rave MacBeth, The Company directed by Robert Altman, Eulogy starring Ray Romano, Out of Season with Dennis Hopper, Digital Jesus starring Armand Assante and Modigiani starring Andy Garcia.
Silvio launched TRIXTER CANADA in Toronto to acquire and utilize his industry experience and contacts. Maike Timmann, Head Of Production, VFX Producer Maike burst onto the Animation and VFX scene in 2006 and immediately made a big impact. Her first two projects were the animated features Jasper – Journey to the End of the World and Mullewapp – Friends Forever; both of them international Co-productions. Then she moved into the glamorous world of advertising for a brief spell and produced VFX for a number of commercials. She was then lured off to faraway Iceland as production manager on the much acclaimed The Legends of Valhalla: Thor; the nation’s first CG animated feature and one of Europe’s first stereoscopic features to boot.
After successfully delivering the VFX shots for The Green Hornet and Priest, as her first two projects for TRIXTER, Maike played a key role in establishing the LA office the last couple of months. She's now back in Munich to tackle new ambitious projects.
Alessandro Cioffi, VFX Supervisor Architect, designer and illustrator, Alessandro Cioffi has built his VFX expertise working in the UK, Germany and Italy. Alessandro's compositing skills and techniques were applied on major productions such as Sweeney Todd, 300, Kingdom Of Heaven and Troy. He joined TRIXTER in 2007 and is now a VFX Supervisor and the Head of Compositing, bringing with him a talent for leading a team and dealing with clients, as well as great artistic skills and a keen eye. He was TRIXTER's VFX Supervisor on Ninja Assassin as well as Percy Jackson And The Lightning Thief and Compositing Supervisor on Lilli the Witch 1 and 2. Recently, Alessandro took on the VFX Supervision of Death of a Superhero. Jan Stoltz, VFX Supervisor Jan Stoltz studied animation and digital effects at Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg. From 2001 to 2003 he established the visual effects department for ELEKTROFILM GmbH. From 2004 he continued working as Character Animator for film such as I, Robot, Hui Buh and as Character Lead for Bully's Lissi und der wilde Kaiser. As VFX Supervisor he was in charge of over 440 shots of animation and effects in the feature Lilly the Witch - The Dragon and the Magic Book, Walt Disney Pictures' first European movie. Besides being in charge of the visual effects for Vorstadtkrokodile he contributed to the visual effects work of Bully's successful Vicky the Viking and completed over 300 VFX shots on the sequel Lilly the Witch - The Journey to Mandolan. Jan was also involved as VFX Supervisor in The Raven and Stereoscopic Supervisor in the high end 3D conversion of complex sequences for Narnia, The Green Hornet, Green Lantern and Captain America: The First Avenger. Dietrich Hasse, VFX Supervisor
Dietrich has worked for a wide variety of feature films and television productions since 1998 holding positions such as Sequence Animation Lead at Weta Digital for King Kong, Previz Supervisor and Animation Lead for Bully's Lissy und der wilde Kaiser and Animation Supervisor at VFX Production Company/Los Angeles. Transferring his expertise as an industrial designer into animation and VFX, he very quickly became a missing link between creative and technical aspects within CG productions. In 2007 he joined TRIXTER as a VFX and CG Supervisor with an additional responsibility for 3d pipeline development. Dietrich was recently in charge of the VFX Supervision on Journey 2: The Mysterious Island and the Stereoscopic Supervision on the complex 3D conversion of shots from Narnia 3, The Green Hornet and Priest. Mihaela Chifor, Production Manager After acquiring a law degree, Mihaela began her professional career as a legal advisor. Her foray into the exciting world of animation and CGI began in 2002, when she worked as a production assistant on the animated children’s series Tractor Tom I, produced by Contender Entertainment and HRTV in London. Before long, she was coordinating her first short series, BrushHead, for The Disney Channel, which won the 2004 BAFTA award. She served as Production Manager for Bravo Studios in Romania, where she managed half a dozen productions for networks like National Geographic and The Disney Channel. In 2005 she transitioned to the feature film world, serving as vfx production manager on the London-Bucharest co-production, Gun of the Black Sun. She has since managed countless projects of various size and scope, before arriving at TRIXTER in 2011, where she managed one of the biggest Hollywood blockbusters of the year, Captain America. She is currently working on the much anticipated follow-up, The Avengers. Sophie Pruzsinszky, Coordinator / Junior VFX Producer After graduating with a diploma degree in Information Management and gaining two years of in-depth work experience in the field of management accounting, Sophie headed towards Los Angeles to study Character Animation at the California Institute of the Arts. Successfully combining her economic and creative skills in her role as Production Coordinator and Junior VFX Producer at TRIXTER, Sophie proved to be a highly reliable, competent and efficient member of our team. She was responsible for the coordination of several conversion projects like Narnia 3, Green Hornet and Priest as well as the visual effects and animation coordination for Death of a Superhero and Journey 2. Corinna Ringer, HR Manager Corinna started out in the film business as a second camera assistant, working on more than 20 feature films, TV and commercial productions. She expanded her knowledge at PICTORION das werk, one of Germany's biggest postproduction facilities, working there as a Junior In-house Producer. She successfully completed a two-year vocational training as a Media Commerce Professional and is currently pursuing her Bachelor Professional in HR Management. Corinna joined TRIXTER in 2009 to coordinate the production of Lilly The Witch - The Journey to Mandolan. She is now managing Human Resources, always eager to meet new talents and assembling the most suitable team for upcoming shows.
PROCESS & FORMULAEvery recipe has carefully chosen ingredients; the same logic applies to being able to offer premium services and platforms. Over the course of 10 years, we have refined and cultivated our interactive ingredients to ensure we have the shortest development cycles with the highest quality outcome. Here are some key ingredients to our formula: Passionate EmployeesThe international team of artists at TRIXTER is an essential part of what drives the energy of the studio. Our employees are passionate about their work and always try to achieve the most outstanding results, both for our clients but also for themselves, by pushing the bar higher on every project. The cosmopolitan blend of cultures in the team is an additional element that brings a creative edge to our work. Vast ExperienceTRIXTER's outstanding achievements are a direct result of the many years of experience we have in the field. TRIXTER has been involved in all forms of creation: From model making, drawing and cel animation through to computer generated animated characters, complex visual effects and stereoscopic imagery the team at TRIXTER understands every stage of production and gives the clients the necessary solutions for their visual needs. Elite ClienteleTRIXTER is dedicated to the market of high end visual effects. Our current clientele includes both German and international companies with major box office projects attached to their name. Our client list includes 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., Marvel, Walden Media, Sony, Columbia Tristar, Walt Disney, Constantin Film, Rat Pack and many more. Quality ExecutionOver the last 10 years TRIXTER has provided quality visual effects and character animation for major feature film projects, both for television and the silver screen as well as high end commercial projects. Using a highly developed pipeline, we carefully control all aspects of our work so our clients receive the highest quality results without compromising their vision, deadline and budget. State of the Art TechnologyTRIXTER is continuously updating its facilities to utilize state-of-the-art technology in every project. The computer animation unit predominately works with Maya, XSI, Mari, 3D Equalizer and RenderMan. Compositing is executed in Nuke and After Effects. We also run a full ANIMO suite for traditional 2D cel animation.
TRIXTER has also built its own stereoscopic workflow in order to accommodate complex stereo projects as well as conversion of existing 2D films into stereoscopic images. Our cinema is equipped with a stereoscopic Christie Mirage projection system.
SERVICESWhether animating a 3D character or developing unique VFX, TRIXTER looks after every last detail. For each project, a carefully assembled TRIXTER team ensures that the client's experience is excellent from start to finish. A carefully balanced combination of the creative needs and technological solutions is tailor made to the requirements of each individual project without compromising performance. Our services include: Storyboard After script meetings we create the storyboard. There are two different kinds of boards:
The production storyboard, which is used only for in-house production and for corresponding with the director and the director of photography.
The presentation storyboard (sometimes in color), which is used for presenting the film to the client.
The storyboards are created to be as close to the final look as possible.
A storyboard in motion is called an Animatic and is put together using the stylized frames from the storyboard in a sequence and adding sound to it.
This gives the client a better overview of the sequence. Character Design Projects require a wide variety of characters. They may have to perform roles that are not based in reality, using a recognizable voice, personality or physical attribute; they may be a slightly altered version of a known creature or they may be photo realistic, indistinguishable from existing animals. Using our team of in house creatives as well as internationally acclaimed freelance designers, we create the best character design to fit the story. Whatever your needs are; whether the character has to be a traditionally cel animated one, a photo realistic CG monster, or a totally believable animal, we will supply the right one! Set Supervision We work in consultation with producers, directors and DOPs in technical breakdown meetings to maximize CG potential to suit script, budget and timing issues. We are always very involved in finding creative and practical solutions. Turn a problem around long enough and a solution will always fall out. To combine animation with life action, we also supervise the film shooting. We measure the sets and camera positions and also take digital HDR pictures of the lighting environment.
Our emphasis on set is efficiency, accuracy and support. Animation and FX Cel Animation (2D Cartoon Animation):
Following the school of Disney, we animate characters in the traditional cel animation process using pencil or line tests for approvals. The cleanup drawings are scanned and colored by a digital Ink&Paint system and rendered for all formats, including FLASH, video or HD for theatrical 35mm prints.
3D Animation:
Combined with the many years of CG experience of the TRIXTER team, we continually source international know-how from the world of 3D animation to provide up to date modeling, rigging and animation solutions for every need. We use MAYA and SOFTIMAGE XSI and write our own plug-ins and scripts to continually improve our pipeline workflow and animation controls. Compositing Using Nuke, Shake and Adobe After Effects, we cover all compositing needs: From rotoscoping to retouching; from camera tracking to projection mapping; from character to set extension integration; from matte painting to complex multi layered compositing, everything is included in the workflow. If you can imagine it, we can comp it and make it look real! Stereo 3DTRIXTER has developed a highly efficient process to convert 2D images into 3D. Because of our understanding of visual storytelling and VFX techniques we are in a unique position to offer our clients not only an incredibly efficient pipeline but also a new approach in this cutting edge medium. Using the VFX tricks we've learned, we create a stereo volume which helps the narrative or mood of a scene, always working within the budget whilst exceeding our client's expectations. TRIXTER successfully converted the (…) full length feature film Hybrid and also - most recently - complex sequences from Narnia 3 and The Green Hornet.
TRIXTER also creates stereoscopic visual effects for live-action movies, rendering and compositing in a dual stream workflow. We always use the stereo volume to best tell the story and constantly create new tools and finesse our workflow to stay ahead of the game. Artists are equipped with 3D stereo monitors and our large screen projection room is equipped with a 3D stereo projector for reviewing work in Dailies and with clients. It doesn’t matter whether we get double lens or single lens material, we always create the highest quality for all stereoscopic projection systems. |
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