In nuce: As the industry magazine Variety reported, game engine developer Unity is buying the VFX department of Peter Jackson’s Weta Digital. Weta Digital’s tool and technology park is thus being transferred to Unity – including 275 technicians who now have a new home at Unity’s Create Solutions. Unity is acquiring Weta Digital for 1.625 billion US dollars. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of 2021. Joe Marks, Weta’s Chief Technology Officer, will join Unity as Chief Technology Officer.
What’s behind the sale? The coup behind the deal: Unity wants to make Weta Digital’s tools available to everyone in the future. The software, which has already been used to bring Gollum from “The Lord of the Rings”, Caesar from “Planet of the Apes” and the Na’vi from “Avatar” to life, is to be published via a software-as-a-service model in the cloud. More details will be announced soon. Following the acquisition, Unity will continue to rely on the development of Weta Digital’s tools. Weta’s proprietary tools include: Manuka, Lumberjack, Loki, Squid, Barbershop, HighDef, Koru and CityBuilder. The acquisition also includes Weta’s data platform for the creation of 3D graphics and a library of thousands of assets.
Statements: In a statement made available to Variety, Peter Jackson emphasises the unlimited design possibilities of the tools from Weta Digital, and goes on to say: “Unity and Weta Digital are laying the foundation for any artist, regardless of industry, to use these powerful tools.” He goes on to emphasise that Weta Digital’s technology will also be made available to up-and-coming creatives. WetaFX, which employs around 1,700 people, will continue to be majority-owned by Jackson and led by CEO Prem Akkaraju.
According to a statement by Akkaraju, Weta Digital was initially concerned about making its tools widely accessible. Ultimately, however, the desire to inspire artists worldwide prevailed, according to Akkaraju. It is open to speculation that commercial interests were also at the forefront. Akkaraju continues: “Over time, cloud-based workflows will reduce operating costs.” As CEO, Akkaraju signed a contract with Amazon Web Services to develop a cloud-based VFX workflow for Weta. He also drove the bundling of cloud services for Autodesk’s Maya and SideFX’s Houdini.
The future of WetaFX: According to Variety, the VFX and animation teams at Weta Digital will continue to operate independently under the name WetaFX. According to Variety, WetaFX is expected to become Unity’s largest customer in the media and entertainment sector.
Click to continue: Read the full article by journalist Todd Spangler on Variety. In other Weta Digital news, Houdini went on holiday to Windy Wellington on 25 August and the company opened an in-house animation department on 22 June . Watch Weta Digital’s showreel to see what impressive VFXs are possible with the New Zealander’s technology. The next generation of visual effects is here!
