GenArts, Inc. was a

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

-based developer of

visual effects Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated as VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production. The integration of live-action footage and other live-action fo ...

software for the

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

broadcast Broadcasting is the data distribution, distribution of sound, audio audiovisual content to dispersed audiences via a electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), ...

, and

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...

industries. GenArts's special effects software was used in the production of many

movies A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, since ...

commercials A television advertisement (also called a commercial, spot, break, advert, or ad) is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization. It conveys a message promoting, and aiming to market, a product, service or idea. ...

television shows A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming platfo ...

, newscasts, and

music videos A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

. By Mike Seymour, fxguide. �
GenArts’ Katherine Hays - the First 100 Days
” December 23, 2008. GenArts software and plugins integrated visual effects such as glows, lightning, fire, and fluids into post-production

video editing software Video editing software or a video editor is software used for performing the post-production video editing of digital video sequences on a non-linear editing system (NLE). It has replaced traditional flatbed celluloid film editing tools and analo ...

from companies like

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

Adobe Adobe (from arabic: الطوب Attub ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is use ...

Autodesk Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that provides software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Autodesk is headquarte ...

, and The Foundry. GenArts was initially known for its role in high-end post production environments. In 2008, product development and a series of acquisitions broadened GenArts's focus, product portfolio, and customer base. Subsequently, GenArts created plugins developed for smaller budget video editing tools typically used by smaller studios, the videographer market, or creators of content distributed online on websites like

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

.By Geoff Poister, DV.com. �
In Review: Effective Asset
” March 2010.By John Dickinson, MotionWorks. �
Unplugged 26: Steve Bannerman - GenArts
.” June 12, 2010. Many

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...

productions, like Little Krishna and Aladdin, have used software from GenArts. GenArts has been used in feature films like ''

X-Men The X-Men are a superhero team in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer/editor Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby, the team first appeared in Uncanny X-Men, ''The X-Men'' #1 (September 1963). Although initial ...

'', the ''

Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high fantasy novel written by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book ''The Hobbit'' but eventually developed into ...

'' Trilogy, several

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

movies, and the

Matrix Trilogy ''The Matrix'' is an American cyberpunk media franchise consisting of four feature films, beginning with ''The Matrix'' (1999) and continuing with three sequels, ''The Matrix Reloaded'', ''The Matrix Revolutions'' (both 2003), and ''The Matrix ...

. It's also used in newscasts, music videos by

Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known for her image reinventions and versatility across the entertainment industry, she is an influ ...

and

Beyoncé Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter ( ; born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and businesswoman. With a career spanning over three decades, she has established herself as one of the most Cultural impact of Beyoncé, ...

, and television shows like '' Lost'' and ''

CSI CSI may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media CSI franchise * ''CSI'' (franchise) ** '' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'', the original ''CSI'' television series, set in Las Vegas ** '' CSI: Miami'', the first spin-off series starring David ...

.'' The company has 29,000 customers, including

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

Lucasfilm Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company founded by filmmaker George Lucas in December 10, 1971 in San Rafael, California, and later moved to San Francisco in 2005. It is best known for creating and producing th ...

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television, free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the L ...

Televisa Grupo Televisa, S.A.B., simply known as Televisa, is a Mexican telecommunications and broadcasting company. A major Latin American mass media corporation, it often presents itself as the largest producer of Spanish-language content. In April ...

, and

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

.By Jay Rizoli, Mass High Tech. �
Hays brings massive media skills to GenArts
” October 31, 2008.

History

Karl Sims Karl Sims (born 1962) is a computer graphics artist and researcher, who is best known for using particle systems and artificial life in computer animation. Biography Sims received a B.S. in Life Sciences from MIT in 1984, and a M.S. in computer g ...

founded GenArts, Inc. as Genetic Arts in 1996 in

Cambridge, MA Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 U.S. census was 118, ...

as a developer of Discreet Spark Plugins. In 1997, Gary Oberbrunner joined GenArts as its second employee. The company name was changed to GenArts in June, 1999. GenArts's first office space was in Karl's barn. By 1999, three years after the company was founded, GenArts had achieved significant commercial success, a pace of growth that founder Karl Sims says he did not expect. Karl won the MacArthur "genius grant" in the '90s for his work on artificial evolution. Between 2000 and 2004, GenArts released Sapphire Plug-ins for Autodesk, Avid, After Effects, Shake, Final Cut Pro, Combustion, Premiere, Digital Fusion, Quantel with Synapse, and 844/x.GenArts Our Company
/ref> The company had 220

image processing An image or picture is a visual representation. An image can be two-dimensional, such as a drawing, painting, or photograph, or three-dimensional, such as a carving or sculpture. Images may be displayed through other media, including a pr ...

and synthesis effects by 2008. Prices for the software were also reduced. After creating plugins for video editing software, GenArts made the shift to supporting applications such as Avid, Final Cut Pro, and Adobe After Effects that support a broader market of video creators. In 2019, Karl Sims and Gary Oberbrunner each won an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

, recognizing their "outstanding achievement in engineering development" of Sapphire Plug-ins.

Leadership and corporate strategy

In 2008, GenArts received funding from

Insight Venture Partners Insight Venture Management, LLC (commonly referred to as Insight Partners and previously Insight Venture Partners) is a global venture capital and private equity firm that invests in high-growth technology, software, and internet businesses. The ...

and appointed a new CEO, Katherine Hays, to execute on a new growth strategy. That strategy involved consolidating a highly fragmented visual effects market into a standards-based, single vendor, off-the-shelf approach that Katherine believed would simplify visual effects for customers. The company also focused its own R&D on

standards Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object t ...

, often acquiring popular plugins for specific video editing software and developing them 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.By Walter Schoenknecht, NAB Show Daily. �
The Storyteller’s Secret: Visual Effects
.” April 12, 2011.By Galen Moore, Mass High Tech. �

.” February 16, 2010.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.By Beth Marchant, Studio Daily. �

” January 30, 2009. * June 2008: Katherine Hays took office as CEO and founder Karl Sims moved to a new role on the company's board of directors. * 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. * 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.By Annemarie Moody, AWN. �
Open Effects Associations Formed at NAB 2009
” May 20, 2009. GenArts’s Chief Scientist Gary Oberbrunner oversaw as Director of the Association.Gary Oberbrunner on LinkedIn
/ref> * June 2009: GenArts partnered with

to make digital effects for video games more consistent with the movie effects the games were based on.By Lewis Wallace, WIRED. �
GenArts Team up to Bring Hollywood-Style VFX to Games
” June 8, 2009. * 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 at the time.By A.J. Wedding, Microfilmmaker Magazine. �

” January 1, 2011 * 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.By Mike Seymour, fxguide. �
GenArts Buys Tinder Plugins from the Foundry
” February 16, 2010. * 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 was also released for Adobe After Effects on PC and Macintosh computers.Multiple Press Release
hereherehere
an

/ref> * March 2011: Former

Artisan Entertainment Artisan Entertainment (formerly known as U.S.A. Home Video, International Video Entertainment (IVE) and LIVE Entertainment) was an American film studio and home video company. It was considered one of the largest mini-major film studios until i ...

CEO Amir Malin was appointed to the board of directors.By Carolyn Giardina, Hollywood Reporter. �
Amir Malin Named to GenArts Board of Directors
” March 23, 2011. * April 2011: GenArts partnered with

USC USC may refer to: Education United States * Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Santurce, Puerto Rico * University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina ** University of South Carolina System, a state university system of South Carolina * ...

to provide their plugins to video arts students.By Audrey Doyle, Digital Content Producer. �
Motion Graphics for the Masses
” June 1, 2004. * January 2013: Genarts partnered with Vimeo to create Vivoom, allowing Vimeo users to apply Sapphire-type filters to their videos. * April 2016: Katherine Hays departed GenArts to spin off Vivoom and was replaced by George Naspo as CEO. * September 2016: Genarts was sold to

Boris FX Boris FX is a visual effects, video editing, photography, and audio software plug-in developer based in Miami, Florida, USA. The developer is known for its flagship products, Continuum (formerly Boris Continuum Complete/BCC), Sapphire, Mocha, an ...

Software

GenArts supported

Adobe After Effects Adobe After Effects is a digital visual effects, motion graphics, and compositing application developed by Adobe Inc.; it is used for animation and in the post-production process of film making, video games and television production. Amo ...

Adobe Premiere Pro Adobe Premiere Pro is a video editing application developed by Adobe Inc. and is distributed as part of the Adobe Creative Cloud suite. It is primarily used for producing high-quality videos across various industries. History Original A ...

Apple Final Cut Pro Final Cut Pro (often abbreviated FCP or FCPX) is a professional non-linear video-editing application initially developed by Macromedia, and, since 1998, by Apple as part of its pro apps collection. Final Cut Pro allows users to import, edit, a ...

, Avid Systems,

systems,

Nuke A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either nuclear fission, fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and nuclear fusion, fusion reactions (thermonuclear weap ...

, OFX platforms, and

Sony Vegas Pro Vegas Pro (stylized as VEGAS Pro, formerly known as Sony Vegas) is a professional video editing software package for non-linear editing (NLE), designed to run on the Microsoft Windows operating system. The first release of Vegas Beta was on 1 ...

. GenArts’s product lines included the Sapphire, Sapphire Edge, and Sapphire Accents brands. The acquired particleIllusion and Monsters GT brands were consolidated under Sapphire Accents:Supported host platforms and some of the product details are collected from various product pages a
genarts.com
/ref> * Sapphire: Had 220 effects in nine categories: Adjust, Blur & Sharpen, Composite, Distort, Lighting, Render, Stylize, Time, and Transitions.By

David Basulto David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Damas ...

, Post Magazine. �
Genarts Monsters GT for AE
” September 1, 2010. * Sapphire Accents: A package of extra visual effects from the Monsters GT and particleIllusion products. The Monsters GT product had 50 effects that were similar to Sapphire—like fire, fluids, lightning, and blurs—but with specific, unique looks to those effects. particleIllusion was designed for particle effects and used by itself or as an After Effects plugin. Effects in particleIllusion were created through parameters in such a way that there are an infinite number of particle-based effects that were possible.By Michael Burns, Macworld. �
Monsters GT V6 review
” October 8, 2010.FlashValley.
Wondertouch particleIllusion 3.0 Part 1
" * Sapphire Edge: Used the same visual effects engine as the Sapphire product, but was designed for ease-of-use and only available for Sony Vegas Pro and Final Cut Pro. * FX Central: An online library of pre-built, pre-configured looks that were updated each month.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Genarts, Inc. Software companies established in 1996 Software companies disestablished in 2016 Visual effects companies Film and video technology Special effects companies Software companies based in Massachusetts Defunct software companies of the United States 2016 mergers and acquisitions