EMERYVILLE, CA -- Artella, the global collaboration platform that enables artists to make animated films, video games, and virtual reality content, has officially launched. Founded by animation veterans Bobby Beck (formerly Pixar), Carlos Baena (formerly Pixar and Paramount) and Shawn Kelly (Industrial Light & Magic), Artella’s end-to-end online production platform empowers artists to assemble teams from anywhere in the world to tackle projects of any size and scope -- all through a web browser.

The cloud-based Artella platform allows creative teams to establish their own virtual studios and present their projects, however large or small, to a global network of collaborators that includes writers, directors, storyboarders, voice talent, animators, composers, software engineers, and other creative professionals working at every level of the industry. The platform boasts integrated communication, file management and review tools that allow for straightforward production, while also providing template-based workflows tailored to films, video games and virtual reality content. In addition, the platform seamlessly integrates with the most widely used production software, such as Autodesk Maya, Adobe Premiere and Photoshop, and The Foundry’s NUKE, to name a few -- and enables either online or offline work so collaborators can operate however they are most comfortable.

“The world is full of talented creative people who have the tools in their home to make great content, but lack the professional network. We simply wanted to find a way to bring them together from anywhere in the world and to give way to a new form of collaborative production studio,” said Bobby Beck, co-founder of Artella. “By taking care of the technical production pipeline and communication challenges, Artella allows artists to focus on being their full creative selves so they can make incredible content.”

“Artella will unlock a multitude of untapped talent,” said Maxwell Planck, technical co-founder at Oculus Story Studio. “I’m excited for what Artella brings to the future of remote collaboration in the creative space.”

Artella was created by Beck, Baena, and Kelly, a trio of animators with decades of experience including work on the Toy Story and Star Wars franchises, Wall-E, Monsters Inc., The Incredibles, Transformers, and more. The trio founded Animation Mentor in 2005, an online school that blends animation production coursework with a mentorship program to give students the real-world skills they need to compete in an increasingly competitive animation industry. Artella was born out of the need to provide a virtual space for graduating students to collaborate with others, while also offering a destination for established professionals and studios to launch and complete projects they wouldn’t otherwise be able to manage without the larger studio infrastructure and workflow.

“Creating collaborative animated content remotely can be very challenging, and in some cases you end up using four to five different tools that aren’t quite designed for the kind of work we do. We wanted to create a platform that allowed artists and filmmakers to focus on the creative,” said Carlos Baena, a co-founder of Artella, who spent a few years along with Bobby Beck testing and refining the Artella platform. “We’re providing a place for animators, filmmakers, and producers to bring their visions to life, without requiring a huge upfront financial and technical investment.”

“Artella embodies the promise of cloud-based workflow,” said Shawn Kelly, a co-founder of Artella. “We’ve eliminated the barriers to entry by offering a comprehensive suite of tools that anyone can use to launch their own virtual studio.”

Artella will always be free for anyone to sign up and connect with other artists and projects. 90-days post launch, a nominal monthly fee will be charged to creators per member of their team: $10-30, depending on the role. Artella does not take a cut of collaborator compensation or in the equity or IP of the projects created on the platform.

Source: Artella