A Burgeoning Miion: Venice VFX House Doubles Space And Adds New Talent

VFX house The Mission doubles the size of its Venice-based studio and expands their talent roster with the addition of Rick Grandy as CG Supervisor and Raul Dominguez as a Creature Modeler. With over 19 years of experience in the visual effects industry, Grandy comes to The Mission from Pixomondo where he served as a Digital Character and Pipeline Supervisor on top projects including The Amazing Spiderman and Die Hard 5. Former video game artist and cartoonist Dominguez was most recently at Digital Domain, lending his talents to a score of feature films including Iron Man 3 and The Avengers.

Pictured (from left to right): Raul Dominguez and Rick Grandy

Says The Mission EP Michael Pardee, We're excited to have the extra space and firepower to be able to bring in such strong new talent and work on VFX-heavy, animated campaigns. Both Rick and Raul's talents will ideally enhance our internal team for these types of projects. Adds Grandy, I'm excited to work with a small group of highly talented individuals and collaborate on the creative aspects as well as the technical ones. At The Mission, I can get back to my generalist roots, and tackle the whole of a challenge, there are no barriers.

It's been just over two years since The Mission opened its doors, and Pardee jumped at the opportunity to expand, adding the space next door to their Venice studio. With over 6,000 square feet, the new space doubles their overall studio capacity, allowing for additional artist and client suites. A larger studio allows The Mission to be nimble and to accommodate larger projects.

Inspired by the growing impact of technology in the design space, Grandy dove headfirst into visual effects after seeing a shift in the VFX industry in Jurassic Park. After developing his graphic design acumen while working in the graphics department of an Ohio-based production company, he began his visual effects career at Industrial Light and Magic. There, he worked on the creature development of iconic characters in top Hollywood films including Frankenstein, The Mummy, Jack Frost, Men in Black and numerous others. Journeying south, he lent his talents to such top LA shops as Dreamworks, Rhythm & Hues, Sony Picture Imageworks, Digital Domain, Asylum FX and Method Studios, working on a wide range of projects including Big Fish, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, Transformers 2, Captain America, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and The Amazing Spiderman. In addition to his extensive experience as an VFX artist and supervisor with exceptional skillsets in designing multi-package CG pipelines, long-term strategic planning and on-the-box shot work and asset creation, Grandy also taught Maya courses at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects.

Southern California native Raul Dominguez began fine-tuning his design and illustration talents with an emphasis on political cartoons/editorial illustrations at San Jose State University. After spending a few years as a cartoonist and comic book artist, he became engulfed in the flourishing Silicon Valley video game industry and began modeling characters for Electronic Arts. After 8 years in the video game industry, he began perfecting his talents for cinematic work, eventually landing at Digital Domain. He worked as a Senior Modeler and Concept Artist on numerous feature films including Transformers: Revenge of the Fallon, Real Steel, The Avengers, Paradise Lost and Iron Man 3.

About The Mission

The Mission is a high-end visual effects studio specializing in commercials, film and digital content. It is located in the middle of the pop-culture hub known as Abbot Kinney in Venice, CA.

With the talents of some of the most creative and experienced artists in the industry, working with the latest tools and a top-notch production staff, The Mission is a nimble and dynamic powerhouse of a partner to deploy into your creative process.

From concepting, previs, and on-set-supervision, to 2d and 3d visual effects work & design, and on to final mastering, The Mission brings a smart, beautiful and efficient component to every visual dimension of your project.

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