In accordance with its new emphasis on VFX, New York City-based Rhinoceros Visual Effects and Design has changed its name to rhinofx. In addition, the studio has added three of its freelance artists to the roster: Ronen Sharabani, Joseph Burrascano and Joshua Frankel.
According to partner/senior exec producer Rick Wagonheim, hiring freelancers works for both parties. "Team chemistry and collaboration is important at rhinofx." Some of the projects they have been working on at rhinofx include Dentyne Ice, L'Oreal, Baskin-Robbins, Scotch-Brite, Cadillac and Krylon.
Sharabani is a native of Israel. After serving in the Israeli army, he attended Duvnov in Tel Aviv studying painting and sculpture while he worked in television post-production at Israel's leading design studio, Gravity. In 1999, Ronen came to New York City, where he earned a degree in painting and sculpture at the New York Studio School in 2002. There, he collaborated with world renowned artist Michael Rovner creating video installations for museum exhibitions. While studying in New York, Ronen returned to post-production as a freelance inferno artist for rhinofx.
Frankel graduated with a B.A. in art from Williams College in June 2002. To ultimately earn a place on the rhinofx staff, he worked at various New York studios in 2000 and 2001 as a summer intern, learning Maya, SOFTIMAGE, After Effects and Adobe Premier. His projects included logo animation for Canadian Broadcasting Co. and spots for Citibank, AT&T, MTV, Time Warner and the SciFi Network.
Burrascano earned his B.F.A. at the School of Visual Arts in 2002, where he won the school's 3D Production Design Award. He then worked at Curious Pictures in New York City. He is skilled at Maya, After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, Final Cut Pro and Protools. While in school, he founded his own company, Underdog Studios, where he freelanced for studios, agencies and new media companies.
For more on Rhinofx call (212) 986-1577 or check out www.rhinofx.tv.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
