About
This is what you should know about Cinematics:
We are animators, artists, game developers and filmmakers. We concept, animate, build, map, write, play, compose, direct, plan, render and whatever else you would think a team like us would do. We teach, speak, think, consult, hire locally, and do what we think is best for our community and industry. We are creative. We treat people well. We believe in paying people fairly and giving our clients a good deal. We love meeting new people, talking about geeky stuff and finding our what kinds of interesting projects we can work on. Unless you totally suck, we probably want to meet you and find out more about you.
We have a big studio full of computers, mixing boards, microphones, editing stations, printers, tablets, sketchbooks, pens, scanners, toys, comic books, cameras, phones, desks, chairs, projectors, and a team that knows how to use it all. We like to show it to people, so again, unless you totally suck, we probably want you to come by and say hi.
We are all across the board in disciplines and experience. Some of us have been in games since the Super Nintendo. Some of us are still in or just graduated school. Some of us have worked on feature films. Some have worked at Pixar, Dreamworks, Laika, Activision, 3DO, EA and other big companies. Some have worked in smaller, boutique studios. We don’t have a “B” team, nor do we have “B” clients. People really seem to enjoy working here and clients really seem to enjoy working with us.
So, with that in mind…How can we help you?
SERVICES
We are craftsmen seeking perfection. Everything we produce, from the most complex cinematic production, to the most simple, low poly flower, is a direct reflection of this identity. Every keyframe we lay down is an act of devotion. Every vertex is sacred. Every file important. Every sketch, schedule, proposal, script, styleguide, is an attempt at absolute perfection.
We search for perfection in our service. Not only to our clients, but to our artists, managers, students, interns and anyone else we come into contact with. This is the experience of working with us. Hopefully it’s infectious.
We know perfection can never be reached. We make mistakes. Everyone does. The point is to continue trying to reach it, every day. In this attempt we become better artists, better managers and better people. Maybe someday it will lead to enlightenment. Or the perfect cheeseburger. In the meantime, it makes for one hell of a studio.
REALTIME CINEMATICS
It’s official. Stiff, awkward, badly directed, and badly acted in-game cut scenes are dead. Well directed, beautifully framed cinematic sequences are alive and well. These are the days of cinematics, where Film and Games become one. This is our time. Our cinematics are directed and shot by filmmakers. Whether it’s dramatic, scary, suspenseful or comedy – and boy do we know comedy – we shoot it the way it’s supposed to be shot. We’ll shoot in Max. We’ll shoot in Maya. We’ll shoot in the dark, dirty, greasy depths of your engine, and we won’t come out till a real movie is made.
PRERENDERED CINEMATICS
What’s that? You need a showstopper? You want to tell your story with the biggest bang possible? You want rivers of blood? Explosions hot enough to get third degree burns on your eyeballs? You want a monster walrus and unicorn fighting in volcano of molten rainbows? Well, my friend, you’ve come to the right place. How do you feel about us rendering it all in such stunning high def that you can make out every trembling nose hair on the dying walrus? You’re okay with that? Great! Oh yeah, of course the unicorn wins. Duh.
GAME ANIMATION
We’re really good. There. I said it. It’s true. We have been praised by the best. There is a reason for that. We are perfectionists. We work hard. We study. We film ourselves. We get up out of our desks and move. We animate to make the player feel something. We make them feel big, fast, like they can do anything. We make enemies strong, scary, intimidating, so that when they go down, they go down BIG. We animate everything. If we can’t animate it, then it aint supposed to move. Of course we can talk about this till the internet fails. Or you can check out our work.
ASSETS AND CHARACTERS
We model and texture assets and characters. Max, Maya, Zbrush, Mudbox, low poly characters, high resolution characters, in game assets and environments. Some of us have been doing this a very long time. Some of us started the first art studios in the industry. Some of us have been doing this since the early nineties. So what? A lot of people can create assets. A lot of people overseas can do it very cheap. That may be the best way to go, depending on your needs, budget, language and patience level. You would only choose us for the following reasons: You need a lot of them soon, but they need to be perfect. You don’t want to manage thirty artists individually. You don’t want to have to fix or redo any of them. You want them to look as good as your in-house art. You want them to go straight into the game, no hassles. You want them on time. You want to talk to someone in person. You want to reach us during your work hours. You want us to be at your office in less than 24 hours notice. These are the reasons you would want to work with us.
CONCEPTS AND PREVISUALIZATION
We are insane for previsualization. Nothing goes into production without storyboards or animatics. Good previs can save a project from countless revisions and unforeseen issues. If you happen to already have a production house you’re comfortable with but you need good, quality storyboards, let us know. We love to do them. We’re also crazy for the concepts. Characters, props, environments, vehicles, monsters, babies, weasels, nothing is safe from our concept artists and illustrators. From rough sketches to full finished digital paintings we’ll make your game fully realized before you even touch a lick of code.
GAME CAPTURES
We have done quite a few attract screens and trailers that involve game captures. Not only do we capture it at the highest quality but the things we can do with editing and post…seriously. We’re pretty good at it.
AUDIO SERVICES
We are endowed with some of the best audio toys in the business. Soundproof recording booths, editing suites, the best mics money can buy and a network of every voice actor on the west coast. We are crazy for the audio over here and have spent a considerable amount of time finding the right composers to partner up with. Whether you need us to handle audio for one of our cinematics projects or need a great audio team for VO, game soundtracks or FX you know where to find us.
HELLO WE’RE FROM OREGON
Cinematics is located in historic Oregon City, Oregon, just few miles south of Portland. Though close enough to be a suburb of Portland, Oregon City is unmistakably its own character. Its wild west past is still prevalent in the landscape and architecture of downtown and if you listen closely you can still hear the sound of horse hooves and wagon wheels amid the rings tones and espresso machines. In fact, dichotomy is the running theme of the city and all it takes is a stroll down Main Street on a balmy Sunday in July when the city plays Christmas tunes on loud speakers. It kind of makes you feel as if David Lynch is directing the whole thing.
Drive north a few miles and you are in Portland, one of the most creatively charged cities in the world. If you aren’t an artist, musician or craftsperson when you arrive, you will be after a day or two. Its infectious. And if your tastes tend towards the physical, you’ll be bike riding, snow boarding, river rafting, skateboarding, box car racing, roller derby-ing or strip club hopping (hey, when in Rome). Oh, and did we mention Twilight was filmed here? OMG!
WELCOME TO OUR STUDIO
Cinematics is located on the top floor of the historic MacCauld building on the Main Street. Our studio is big, open and colorful. It’s a great place to work.
Just underneath us is the media empire known as funnelbox. They are film production geniuses and a great team to collaborate with on projects. Because of them we have access to some of the best editing and audio resources available to mortals. Right next to them is Clink, a motion graphics boutique so good Wacom practically showers them with the latest products. We are lucky to be surrounded by this caliber of talent.
MANAGEMENT
ROBB CROCKER | CEO | FUNNELBOX INC.
His title says CEO, but Robb’s really the head coach at funnelbox, (Cinematics’ parent company) because he likes nothing more than seeing his crew invent, grow and succeed without him. Loves it as much as blending music, sound, action and images in this art called moving pictures. That’s why he founded funnelbox over ten years ago, because there’s great satisfaction in the work. Even more if it airs on the Super Bowl (and it has). When not working Robb enjoys…nevermind, he’s always working.
PAUL CULP | STUDIO DIRECTOR | CINEMATICS
Paul brings over 15 years of game industry knowledge and experience as an Art Director, Producer, Creative Director and Outsourcing Director to Cinematics. Prior to Cinematics, Paul co-founded Liquid Development, one of the first and largest art outsourcing studios in the industry where he helped develop many of the standards used in art outsourcing today. As Liquid’s founder and Creative Director, Paul Produced and Art Directed many game titles, including Shiny’s Enter the Matrix, EA’s Ultima Online and Microsoft’s Mech Assault, to name a few. Paul cut his art directing teeth in 1995 at a small developer in San Francisco called Blam, where he art directed and wrote original game designs for companies like EA, Stormfront and Mindscape. Paul channels all his available energy into making the studio an evolutionary sanctuary for the next generation of game artists. The success of which has been confirmed by a flock of UFO’s spotted over the studio early this summer.
BRYAN PROVENCHER | ANIMATION DIRECTOR
Bryan graduated magna cum laude the Art Institute of Portland, half-way to realizing his lifelong dream of being a professional animator. As Animation Director of Cinematics, Bryan has not only realized that dream, but is helping others achieve it as well. Bryan is a great animator and a passionate teacher, working closely with his team and AI students to shape them into masters of motion. It is Bryan’s talent, hard work and ability to teach and manage others that allows Cinematics to produce the kind of high quality, high volume work that projects like Sam and Max and Monkey Island demand. When not being reprimanded for working too much, Bryan enjoys running (from what we aren’t sure) and shooting things in Half-Life and Team Fortress.
JULIUS JOCKUSCH | TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
Julius is the IT Manager, render technician, compositor and overall effects guy at Cinematics. Not only does he rig, model and animate in 2D and 3D, he’ll even re-system a computer to achieve the best effect. He once turned a 30-jointed invasive crustacean into General Mittencrab. And he still gets choked up watching the beautiful, tactile garbage dumps of WALL-E. When not doing techy geeky stuff at work he enjoys…well, doing techy geeky stuff at home.