Visual effects plug-in software company GenArts Inc. deepened its long-standing relationship with Lucasfilm in an effort to “advance the state of the art of technology for visual effects and compositing across a wide range of entertainment media.”

“As visual effects have become ever more essential to the art of modern-day storytelling, GenArts technology strives to inspire the world’s greatest artists to bring our favorite stories to life,” said GenArts CMO Steve Bannerman. “We’re thrilled to collaborate with Lucasfilm to drive toward our shared vision of delivering a cinematic audience experience

GenArts Steve Bannerman

GenArts Steve Bannerman

across new media frontiers such as animation and games.”

The new agreement between the two companies has three components:

• Lucasfilm companies–including Industrial Light + Magic, Lucasfilm Animation and Lucasfilm Animation Singapore–will deply GenArts software across compositing host systems, including it as a standard component of their compositing pipeline.

• The two companies intend to explore opportunities to expand the use of GenArts software across film, television, animation, games and other media.

• GenArts and Lucasfilm will exchange ideas to advance the state of the art of specialized visual effects technology across all Lucasfilm divisions.

“GenArts software delivers incredible consistency for the artists’ experience across a wide range of compositing systems”, said Richard Kerris, CTO of Lucasfilm. “This makes it the ideal choice to help Lucasfilm achieve our goal to deliver visual continuity across feature films, television, games and future entertainment mediums”.

Since the company’s founding in 1996, GenArts software has contributed to the production of dozens of Lucasfilm projects including Star Wars Episode I, II and III, Pirates of the Caribbean and Iron Man.

“We’re pleased that Lucasfilm has selected GenArts software to be a standard component of their compositing vocabulary,”’ said Katherine Hays, CEO of GenArts. “We’re excited about the opportunity to collaborate with some of the world’s leading compositing artists to better understand their needs as we continue to drive innovative tools into broader entertainment markets.”