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A Scorecard of Key Players

A new director, a darker turn and a new vfx direction underlie the third Harry Potter installment. Mary Ann Skweres reports.

By Guest (not verified) | Friday, July 2, 2004 at 12:00am

Founded in 1997, Wicked Pixels has produced more than 600 television commercials and created on-air imaging and branding for many of Africas broadcasters. The company is now moving into TV series and film after gaining international recognition that culminated in a Gold Lion award at Cannes for its work with BMW, MTV, Smirnoff, Guinness, VW, Gauloises, Shell, Red Bull and others.

The Refinery put out a shingle a year later, the result of a merger between Digital Directions and Six Street Studios. The company, which has more than 80 staffers, is primarily a post-production facility for commercials (including two for internationally acclaimed director Tarsem Sing that were recently completed).

Key Refinery projects for Investec, director Miles Goodall, Suburban Films and @Radical-Media have won numerous awards for cinematography and visual effects at The Clios, New York Film Festival, AEAF and Stone Awards, while this year the firm had a number of spots being submitted to the various festivals, including Cannes. Now in production is The Quest for Dragons, a 90-minute documentary for the History Channel.

Three animators from a company called the WORx who decided to form a high-end character animation house known for impeccable realism and vfx founded Luma Animation in October 2001, which now has 13 employees.

Notable Luma projects have included two film shorts for a childrens show called Takalani Sesame and an animated series called Speedy based on a comic strip published in The Daily Sun. Commercials have been done for Raid (a cartoon shader was used to render the bugs), Teejel (the creation of a realistic female hand won it the Silver Loerie advertising award) and Cricket World Cup (featuring a realistic cricket ball interacting with live-action background plates).