Nitrogen Studios
Parent Cinesite | | |
Cinesite Vancouver (formerly known as Nitrogen Studios Canada, Inc., commonly referred to as Nitrogen Studios) is a Canadian animation company founded by husband and wife duo Greg Tiernan and Nicole Stinn. The company was founded in October 2003, in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Cinesite Vancouver was best known for animating the long-running British television series Thomas & Friends, which first began in the 12th season in 2008. While still using models provided by Shepperton Studios until 2009, Nitrogen began animating the twelfth series by implementing CGI animation onto the models. The models had their faces removed for the tracking sensors. The humans, animals and other specific scenery were tracked and animated by Nitrogen. However, scenes without the CGI are present as the tracking wasn't able to be done in certain angles.
In 2009, the full switch to computer-animation was made by
Nitrogen had also provided CGI animation and concept art for a planned second theatrical Thomas & Friends film with the title The Adventures of Thomas, before it was cancelled by Mattel in 2012 after their acquisition of HIT Entertainment.[1]
Before animating Thomas & Friends, they animated the 2006 CGI family comedy film
For television, they also produced Dan Vs.. They provided lip-sync for 27 episodes, spanning from February 26, 2011, to June 23, 2012. They animated two episodes of the Netflix series Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia, with the first airing on December 23, 2016, and the 2nd airing on May 25, 2018.
The company's other projects are God of War, a 2005 action-adventure game developed by Santa Monica Studio, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment, Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, a 2008 role-playing game developed by BioWare, published by Sega for the Nintendo DS, and Kodee's Canoe, a 2010 interactive app series.
On March 7, 2017, it was acquired by British visual effects and feature animation studio company Cinesite, becoming their Vancouver operations.[2]
Filmography
Feature films
Theatrical
| Year | Title | Co-production | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Happily N'Ever After | Vanguard Animation Berlin Animation Film Berliner Film Companie Odyssey Entertainment Lionsgate |
Additional animation with The LaB Sydney Mr. X Bardel Entertainment Elliot Animation Quadriga FX |
| 2016 | Sausage Party | Point Grey Pictures Annapurna Pictures Columbia Pictures |
[3] |
| 2019 | The Addams Family | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Cinesite Studios The Jackal Group United Artists Releasing Bron Creative United Artists Releasing |
|
| 2021 | Extinct | Netflix China Lion HB Wink Animation Huayi Brothers Huayi Tencent Entertainment Tolerable Entertainment Cinesite Timeless Films |
Additional animation |
| The Addams Family 2 | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer BermanBraun Glickmania Bron Creative Cinesite United Artists Releasing |
||
| 2022 | Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank | Brooksfilms Flying Tigers Entertainment GFM Animation Cinesite HB Wink Animation |
Additional pre-production |
| TBA | Hitpig | Aniventure Cinesite |
Additional animation |
| Animal Farm |
Aniventure |
Additional pre-production |
Direct-to-Video
| Year | Title | Co-production |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Hero of the Rails
|
HIT Entertainment |
| 2010 | Misty Island Rescue
| |
| 2011 | Day of the Diesels
| |
| 2012 | Blue Mountain Mystery
|
Television
| Premiere Date | End Date | Title | Channel | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 25, 2010 | December 25, 2012 | Thomas & Friends | Channel 5
Treehouse TV |
80 episodes: CGI series; co-produced with HIT Entertainment |
| February 26, 2011 | June 23, 2012 | Dan Vs. | Hub Network
|
27 episodes: Starz Media
|
| December 23, 2016 | May 25, 2018 | Trollhunters | Netflix | 2 episodes: co-produced with DreamWorks Animation and Double Dare You |
| February 28, 2024 | Iwájú | Disney+ | animation service work: co-produced with Walt Disney Animation Studios, Kugali and Cinesite | |
Other projects
| Year | Title | Medium |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | God of War (uncredited) | Video game with Sony Computer Entertainment, and JP: Capcom
|
| 2008 | Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood | Video game with Bioware and Sega
|
| 2010 | Kodee’s Canoe | Interactive app series |
| 2021 | Mila | Short with Peppermax films, Pixel Cartoon, IbiscusMedia, Cinesite, and Aniventure |
Controversy
Several days after the release of Sausage Party, allegations of poor treatment of Nitrogen Studios employees surfaced in the comments section of an interview with Tiernan and co-director
have picked up the story.References
- ^ Fleming, Mike Jr. (June 8, 2011). "'9' Helmer Shane Acker Boards Feature Based On The Thomas The Tank Engine Toys". Deadline. Retrieved November 22, 2022.
- Kidscreen. Retrieved March 7, 2017.
- ^ Burns, Elias; Vlessing, Etan (August 16, 2016). "'Sausage Party' Animators' Pay Dispute Surfaces After Big Opening". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 21, 2017.
- ^ Sausage Party's Animators Were Treated Like Shit
- ^ 'Sausage Party' Directors Conrad Vernon & Greg Tiernan On Making 2016’s Most Outlandish Animated Film
- ^ The working conditions for some ‘Sausage Party’ animators were pretty terrible
- ^ 'Sausage Party' anything but a good time at work, some animators say
- ^ 'Sausage Party' Allegedly Forced Animators to Work Overtime for Free, Refused to Credit Artists
External links
- Nitrogen Studios info on VFX World Map
- Nitrogen Studios Canada, Inc. on Internet Movie Database
- Nitrogen Studios' Vimeo
- Official Twitter page