Senior Flame artist Chris Ryan?whose eye-popping list of Hollywood blockbusters includes “300” and “Titanic”?has set up Chaos Studios, a viral collective of some of the best 2D and 3D artists in the business.
“We work with the same hardware and software you’ll find at any large post house,” said Ryan of his associates.
But the big difference is, “We’re home-based for now. I have a fully-equipped studio in my basement and my partners?who I’ve freelanced with for the past 15 years?work the same way,” he said.
Chaos specialized menu offers high end visual effects, post, design, supervision and original music for commercials, features and new media markets. No job is out of their realm, said Ryan?new media, standard def, HD, 2K or 4K.
“We do it all,” Ryan said. “We’re positioned to help budgets. No giant staff and overhead to contend with.” Ryan returned to Chicago in 2000 after six years in Hollywood as a Flame artist and often visual supervisor on 35 movies that include audience-pleasers “Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl,” “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift,” “Smokin’ Aces,” “The Matrix Revolution,” “Oceans 12,” “Van Helsing” ? and the list goes on.
“I figured I’d come back and things would be different” in the post business here, he said. “But I didn’t get the reception I had anticipated.”
The famous, busy L.A. visual arts studios that he’d worked for were more than happy to welcome him back as a freelancer. While productive and rewarding, Ryan spent six-to-nine months out of the year flying back and forth to Hollywood for the past six years.
Burned out by travel and the desire to be a full-time husband and father to his two young sons, Ryan decided to launch a virtual studio for commercials, features and new media.
His home studio is outfitted with all Mac-based gear and a full arsenal of applications: Shake, Nuke, AfterEffects, Bouju, PFTracks, Maya, 3D Studio man and Final Cut Pro.
Chaos’ current assignment comes from Industrial Light & Magic: a package of 3D match moving for “Pirates of the Caribbean.”
The job came through his Detroit-based partner Michael Orlando, “the 3D part of the business,” who spent six years working for ILM in San Francisco.
Composer Rich Hofherr, the third arm of the studio to provide original scores, has a fully iso-floated studio in the basement of his Bartlett home.
“We’re linked together with high speed connections and secure servers to guarantee the integrity and delivery of the job,” said Ryan. “Our only objective is to create stunning imagery and sound.”
Ryan graduated NIU in 1990 with a BS in Communications Studies. He worked at three big production houses and at now-defunct Editel where he learned the Flame for three years before departing for L.A. in 1996. He calls Carpentersville home.
Chris Ryan’s phone is 847/477-0797; Email, cryan@chaos-studios.net. See www.chaos-studios.net.
