Carbon Chicago VFX opens with international team

Chicago’s media and entertainment industry has acquired an international flavor with the official opening this week of the Chicago office of Carbon VFX, the London-headquartered design and effects division of Whitehouse Post.

A duo of former London graphics experts — executive producer Phil Linturn and creative director Liam Chapple — are leading Carbon Chicago’s nine-person staff of CGI and artists, who have been assembled here from London, Amsterdam, Madrid and Paris along with top talent from Chicago and cities across the US.

Linturn made the move from Glassworks, a high-end, London-based design and animation studio, where he spent 13 years, the last three heading its Barcelona office, rising from EP to COO. Chief creative director Liam Chapple is an 11 year veteran of Mainframe, another leading London design and animation studio.

Both were both hired by Whitehouse Post managing partner David Brixton, who says, “I am pleased to have such a strong, visionary leadership to launch the newest branch of our international creative network.”

Carbon's Liam Chapple and Phil LinturnLinturn was the first to arrive at his new post last February, after spending a three-month stint at Carbon’s LA office where he began building the team for Chicago. Chapple came aboard in late March.

“With the range of skills we’re bringing together, we can offer complete start-to-finish service and guide clients through the whole process, from design through post production to color and finishing,” Linturn notes.

Starting the first of April, Carbon Chicago began its monthlong build-out of 2,500-sq. ft. of space, on the east end of Whitehouse’s fifth floor office. “It was completed a week ago,” says Linturn. “We flew in our entire engineering staff from our other offices, working 14 hours a day, to put all the equipment in place.”

On the equipment list were four Flames for two Flame suites, new Nuke compositing software, the highest-spec DaVinci Resolve color-grading suite, Dolby with 5.1 surround sound, Maya, 3D Mac and Cinema 4D and SynthEyes tracking software.

“The new studio is an amazing opportunity to help mold the future of a dynamic brand,” says Chapple. “We will deliver Carbon’s high standards of VFX and color while broadening our horizons to encompass creative direction and design lead projects.”

Carbon is located at 54 W. Hubbard; phone, 312/822-0888.