Francisco Chaigneau and Matías Rivera were discovered by RCS at Siggraph last summer and recruited as a design team. They had founded CineFX, the first post-production house in Chile to provide 3D animation and visual effects solutions on the Mac.

"We met Matías and Francisco through a mutual industry friend," says RCS Co-Founder Andrew Heimbold. "The interesting thing about these guys is they had their own company in Chile. We find people that have experience running their own show really fit in here. They understand how to create graphics efficiently and effectively. These guys produce very high quality work and they were looking to come to the States. It was the right timing."

Francisco Chaigneau holds a degree in Advertising and Design from the University of Arts and Sciences of Communications in Chile. He got his start in design and animation working as a Multimedia Designer for the university and quickly moved into the professional market.

Matías Rivera studied Language and Hispanic Literature at the Universidad de Chile and got into the digital arts through Film Direction, Avid and Adobe workshops. Prior to co-founding CineFX with Chaigneau, Rivera worked as an Avid Editor on television commercials. Herecently won second prize in the Kent Explora Video Animation Contest for the short film Sinestesia.

The pair's Chilean advertising client list included Nestle, Coca-Cola, Procter and Gamble, Lever and Pepsi.

"They have a unique style," comments Heimbold. "A lot of times people work in the same town, the same industry, and everyone is used to seeing the same type of things. It's neat having someone from a different continent that has different influences. They have a very organic, grassroots look about their work. It's a nice addition to our repertoire of capabilities."

Heimbold feels that the globalization of his talent base is an acceleration of the industry trend to hire freelance artists that all speak a common language of graphics and software.

Also joining the studio is Judy Leise who will operate as Reality Check's Business Development Director. Leise moved to Hollywood from St. Louis, MO-based Alchemy Communications, which she grew into a million-dollar concern working with clients like Anheuser-Busch, Energizer and Ralston.

All the new hires will be housed in the expansive new RCS building purchased last year. The facility hoards over 30 graphics workstations, and a SGI Onyx 2 real time graphics system.

Recent RCS work to watch out for includes the 8-minute CG missile/fighter jet sequence in Behind Enemy Lines, and environmental graphics running on JumboTrons at the Super Bowl, the Olympics and a block-long screen on the new Lehman Bros. building in Times Square.

Webfiles:

Reality Check Studios> http://www.realityx.com.