The Ambassadors Open Its Doors With Autodesk

Netherlands’ newest post house, The Ambassadors, which will officially open its doors in December has been kitted out with an Autodesk Flame visual effects system, an Autodesk Lustre HD digital grading system and Autodesk Maya 3D modelling and animation software.
The systems, which form the heart of the facility’s editing and visual effects set up, were sold through Autodesk’s systems reseller, Socrates.
Based in Amsterdam and focused primarily on the commercials market, The Ambassadors was founded by two of the country’s most respected Flame/Inferno artists Halbo van der Klaauw and Ton Habraken.
“One of the reasons that our venture is possible at all is the fact that the initial investments needed to start a full service visual effects company are significantly lower than they were 10 years ago,” said The Ambassadors co-founder Ton Habraken. “Also we felt the need for a small, more creative driven visual effects studio. The timing is right. It's now possible for artists like us to own high-end gear. I think there's a new generation ready to step up to challenges like this.”
Van der Klaauw commented: “The decision to go for Lustre surfaced after comparing a couple of high-end grading tools and talking to some colourists.
"Our main reasons for choosing Lustre HD over other tools are its speed and workflow integration with Flame, as well as the availability of freelancers able to work with the system. What makes the combination of Flame and Lustre so strong are the complete toolset and the way the tools have been integrated into the products.”
Habraken added: “Flame was an easy choice as we’re both veteran Flame/Inferno artists and we’ve been working with these tools for a long time now. Over the years it has become our creative ‘workhorse’ on which we always get things done when they need to be done. When I’m working on Flame, I always feel very comfortable and confident because I know I can pull off anything they throw at me or anything my brain cooks for me.”
Before founding The Ambassadors, van der Klaauw was visual effects supervisor at Valkieser Capital Images in Amsterdam, while Habraken was senior compositor/VFX supervisor at HecticElectric.
They are joined by editors Marc Bechtold and Annelien van Wijnbergen, who have been running successful offline editing studio Aan de Costa, and top sound editors Ed Meijaard, Rens Pluijm, Michiel Mullink and Sebastiaan Roestenburg.
(DS)