written like an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . october 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message genarts inc. type private industry software founded 1996 founder karl sims headquarters cambridge ma usa area served worldwide key people karl sims founder gary oberbrunner chief scientist products visual effects plug ins website genarts.com genarts inc. is a cambridge massachusetts based developer of visual effects software for the film broadcast and advertising industries . the majority of traditional video content such as movies commercials television shows newscasts and music videos include at least some special effects created in a genarts product . 1 2 genarts creates visual effects software and plugins that integrate visual effects such as glows lightning fire and fluids into post production video editing software from companies like apple adobe autodesk and the foundry . genarts is best known for its traditional role in high end production environments where high budget and broadly distributed video content is being created by a large corporation . this has changed since 2008 when new leadership product development and a series of acquisitions broadened genarts focus product portfolio and customer base . genarts now creates plugins developed for smaller budget video editing tools typically used by smaller studios the videographer market or creators of content distributed solely online on websites like youtube . 1 2 3 contents 1 history 2 leadership and corporate strategy 3 software 4 breadth of use 5 references 6 external links history edit karl sims barn and the first genarts office space karl sims founded genarts inc. as genetic arts in 1996 in cambridge ma as a developer of discreet spark plugins . 1 in 1997 gary oberbrunner joined genarts as its second employee . 4 the company name was changed to genarts in june 1999 . 5 genarts first office space was in karl s barn . 6 by 1999 three years after the company was founded genarts had achieved significant commercial success a pace of growth founder karl sims says he did not expect . 1 karl won the macarthur genius grant in the 90s for his work on artificial evolution . 7 between 2000 and 2004 genarts released plug ins for autodesk avid after effects shake final cut pro combustion premiere digital fusion quantel with synapse and 844 x. 8 the company had 220 image processing and synthesis effects by 2008 . prices of the software was also reduced . 1 after creating plugins for the video editing software genarts has made the shift to supporting applications such as avid final cut pro and adobe after effects that support a broader market of video creators . 3 leadership and corporate strategy edit in 2008 genarts received funding from insight venture partners and appointed a new ceo katherine hays to execute on a new growth strategy . that strategy involves consolidating a highly fragmented visual effects market into a standards based single vendor off the shelf approach katherine believes will simplify visual effects for customers . the company has also focused their own r & d on standards often acquiring popular plugins for a specific video editing software and developing it for other systems . after being a single product company sapphire for over a decade the new ceo appointment and growth strategy kicked off a series of acquisitions and new partner relationships . 1 9 10 11 12 13 june 2008 katherine hays took office as ceo and founder karl sims moved to a new role on the company s board of directors . 1 january 2009 genarts acquired uk based speedsix which brought genarts the monsters and raptors brand plugins . genarts planned to extend those plugins to avid and after effects users . 13 may 2009 the open effects association was formed with genarts as one of seven founding members striving to create open industry standards across the visual effects community . 14 genarts chief scientist gary oberbrunner is a director of the association . 15 june 2009 genarts partnered with lucasfilm to make digital effects for video games that are more consistent with the effects in the movies the games are based on . 7 november 2009 genarts acquired wondertouch producers of a sprite based particle emitter visual effect product called particleillusion used to create fire water explosions comets clouds pixie dust fog and other natural phenomena . wondertouch had 10 000 customers . 11 16 early 2010 genarts acquired the tinder plugins from the foundry leaving the foundry with their remaining furnace keylight and ocula plugins . the brand had a 90 % market penetration of autodesk users . genarts intended to expand tinder to adobe after effects and other platforms . 10 17 2010 genarts expanded the availability of different plugins on various editing software systems . monsters became available on adobe after effects autodesk nuke and ofx . sapphire 5 became available on adobe after effects final cut pro nuke avid smoke and ofx . particleillusion is released for adobe after effects on pc and macintosh computers . 18 march 2011 former artisan entertainment ceo amir malin was appointed to the board of directors . 19 april 2011 genarts partners with usc to provide their plugins to video arts students . 20 january 2013 genarts partners with vimeo to create vivoom allowing vimeo users to apply sapphire type filters to their videos . the average person has 20 videos on their phone that they ve captured but they re not willing to share estimates katherine hays ceo of the cambridge based visual effects software company genarts which is used by several leading tv and movie production companies . there hasn t been a convenient way to make improvements to videos . software edit genarts supports adobe after effects adobe premiere pro apple final cut pro avid systems autodesk systems nuke ofx platforms and sony vegas pro . 2 3 genarts product lines include the sapphire sapphire edge and sapphire accents brands . the acquired particleillusion and monsters gt brands are consolidated under sapphire accents 21 sapphire this product line has 220 effects in nine categories adjust blur & sharpen composite distort lighting render stylize time and transitions . 22 sapphire accents a package of extra visual effects from the monsters gt and particleillusion products . the monsters gt product has 50 effects that are similar to sapphire like fire fluids lightning and blurs but with specific unique looks to those effects . particleillusion is designed for particle effects and used standalone or as an after effects plugin . effects in particleillusion are created through parameters in such a way that there are an infinite number of particle based effects that are possible . 23 24 25 sapphire edge uses the same visual effects engine as the sapphire product but is designed for ease of use and only available for sony vegas pro and final cut pro for now when . 21 fx central an online library of pre built pre configured looks that is updated each month . breadth of use edit some examples of effects created with genarts products include the lightning created by superhero storm in x men iii ironman s glowing palm and chest and the fire in his jet boots and the emperor s lightning type effect in star wars episode iii . sapphire was also used to create the diamond girl character in x men origins wolverine . 26 many bollywood productions like little krishna and aladin have used software from genarts . 27 genarts software has been used on at least one academy award nominated film from 1996 2012 . 26 28 29 genarts has been used in a large number of feature films like x men the lord of the rings trilogy several star wars movies and the matrix trilogy . it s also used in newscasts music videos by lady gaga and beyonc and television shows like lost and csi the company has 29 000 customers including disney lucasfilm paramount pictures mtv univision televisa and warner brothers . 17 30 references edit a b c d e f g by mike seymour fxguide . genarts katherine hays the first 100 days . december 23 2008 . a b c by geoff poister dv.com . in review effective asset . march 2010 . dead link cite error invalid ref tag ; name ten defined multiple times with different content see the help page . a b c by john dickinson motionworks . unplugged 26 steve bannerman genarts . june 12 2010 . by wade roush xconomy . genarts inks major visual effects software deal with lucasfilm . june 8 2009 . businessweek profile press release . genarts oscar streak grows to 12 consecutive years . a b by lewis wallace wired . genarts team up to bring hollywood style vfx to games . june 8 2009 . genarts our company by walter schoenknecht nab show daily . the storyteller s secret visual effects . april 12 2011 . a b by galen moore mass high tech . genarts acquires visual effects from the foundry . february 16 2010 . a b by david cohen variety . genarts deal steps up its software use . november 3 2009 . by wade roush xconomy . in wondertouch acquisition genarts adds fizz to its fx . november 3 2009 . a b by beth marchant studio daily . q & a genarts ceo katherine hays . january 30 2009 . by annemarie moody awn . open effects associations formed at nab 2009 . may 20 2009 . gary oberbrunner on linkedin by a.j. wedding microfilmmaker magazine . software review particleillusion 4 for after effects . january 1 2011 a b by mike seymour fxguide . genarts buys tinder plugins from the foundry . february 16 2010 . multiple press releases here here here here here and here by carolyn giardina hollywood reporter . amir malin named to genarts board of directors . march 23 2011 . by audrey doyle digital content producer . motion graphics for the masses . june 1 2004 . a b supported host platforms and some of the product details are collected from various product pages at genarts.com by david basulto post magazine . genarts monsters gt for ae . september 1 2010 . by michael burns macworld . monsters gt v6 review . october 8 2010 . toolfarm profile on monsters & raptors flashvalley . wondertouch particleillusion 3.0 part 1 . a b by corey boutilier independent film . genarts at the 2009 nab show in las vegas . april 26 2009 . genarts 2010 and 2011 reels by corey boutilier independent film . genarts visual effect software . june 21 2010 . press release . genarts lends visual cache to vfx oscar nominees for 14th consecutive year . february 28 2011 . by jay rizoli mass high tech . hays brings massive media skills to genarts . october 31 2008 . external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title genarts inc. & oldid 724704428 categories companies established in 1996technology companies of the united statesvisual effects companiesfilm and video technologyspecial effects companiesfilm productionsoftware companies based in massachusettshidden 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