R&H Design Talent Launch Eevolver

As bankrupt visual effects company Rhythm & Hues continues to shed staff and overhead, key members of its Design division have launched a new company called Eevolver [1].

R&H's Design division was a revenue-generating division within the company, responsible for creating concept art and prototypes to secure contracts for features and commercials. The new company allows other visual effects studios to hire the talent formerly attached exclusively to R&H.

The creation of Eevolver allows R&H to reduce staff and overhead costs, as many of the artists who had been design division staffers will move to the new entity, where they will be independent contractors rather than permanent full-time staff, according to a report by Variety [2].

The new company, which is already open for business, develops documents, artwork and models that can be handed off to any visual effects facility that's once the project is fully greenlit. R&H will continue to have an art department capable of doing some of the same work but Eevolver expects R&H to be one of its clients, Eevolver executive producer Stacy Burstin reportedly said.

“The overhead for upfront work for film and commercials has to be at a lower cost,” said Burstin, who was head of the R&H Design Division for some 15 years. Some of the art directors, designers and artists now affiliated with Eevolver had similarly lengthy service there.

One Design Division client who has shifted to working with Eevolver is Ross Bagdasarian, whose company controls Alvin and the Chipmunks. Eevolver artists were among those who helped develop the CG versions of the classic cartoon characters, and Rhythm & Hues supplied the CG visual effects for the recent Alvin and the Chipmunks features.

Read the full press release, below:

LOS ANGELES -- Eevolver Inc. wishes to thank Rhythm & Hues for endorsing and empowering us to bring key members of the former R&H design team together to offer one-stop design and creative solution services to our film, entertainment, advertising, and new media clients.

Members of the creative team who helped develop the groundbreaking imagery resulting in multiple Academy Award and CLIO Award accolades for films such as: Life of Pi, Snow White and the Huntsman and the soon to be released R.I.P.D., Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters has become an independent entity, Eevolver Inc. Eevolver Inc. now represents and produces many of the very creative and talented former Rhythm & Hues Design Division team comprised of art directors, designers, and artists who helped conceptualized the award-winning images, FX, environments, and characters that you see on the screen.

With over fifteen years of experience creating imagery for major studios, advertising agencies, and corporations at R&H, Eevolver now emerges as the premier "go-to" creative resource for conceptualizing and producing revolutionary imagery supported from development through post production – efficiently and cost effectively across media platforms.

As demand grows to deliver VFX work that is better, faster, and more cost effective Eevolver Inc. works with their clients to develop and establish key creative blueprints early on in a production that can easily save millions of dollars throughout the course of that production.

Eevolver, which is already open for business, creates the artwork and the look development assets that can be handed off to any production or visual effects facility once the project is fully green-lit. R&H will continue to have an art department capable of doing some of the same work but Eevolver expects R&H to be one of its clients.

Whether helping to create innovative digital environments as seen in Snow White and the Huntsman or the VES nominated The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and Life of Pi, helping to envision iconic characters in CG such as Alvin and the Chipmunks, or conceptualizing original FX for Hunger Games and X-Men: First Class, Eevolver's team supports clients by developing groundbreaking imagery for their global production needs.

Source: Eevolver Inc.