Carbon acquires Filmworkers and Vitamin

Phil Linturn, Danny DelPurgatorio, Liam Chapple, Rob Churchill

Phil Linturn, Danny DelPurgatorio, Liam Chapple, Rob Churchill

Chicago visual effects and design studio Carbon has acquired Filmworkers and Vitamin, becoming the second largest purveyor of enhanced film and video imagery in the city.

Along for the ride are former Filmworkers Creative Director Rob Churchill and Vitamin Creative Director Danny DelPurgatorio, who are now part of the team at Carbon, which is a division of Whitehouse Post.

Columbia College grad Churchill had spent nearly eight years as a freelance VFX artist before joining Filmworkers as Visual Effects Director in 1997. He launched the company’s VFX division, Churchill Studios, in 2014. Working out of both LA and Chicago, he is also a highly trained 3D character animator.

So you want to be a clown, Rob Churchill
 

 
 

Danny DelPurgatorio trained at Sarasota’s Ringling College of Art and Design before becoming Creative Director at Dallas-based ReelFX in 2003. Nearly seven years later, in 2009, he came to Chicago as Creative Director at Vitamin Pictures. Besides visual effects, he is recognized for directing and writing a number of shorts.

Third Wheel, directed by Danny DelPurgatorio
 

 
 

Since arriving in Chicago in 2016, Carbon has assembled a “larger group of creative minds (that) broadens our bandwidth,” according to Managing Director Phil Linturn.

“We’ll have increased Nuke capabilities as well as several illustrators, animators, and designers, capable of everything from stop-motion to shooting and directing,” he continues. “Coupled with our close connection to the editorial talent at Whitehouse Post, this really sets us apart from the rest of the market.”

Chicago is the third market to be graced by Carbon, which also has offices in New York and Santa Monica.

Whitehouse Post Managing Partner David Brixton is equally jazzed about the expansion.

““This is an exciting time for Carbon,” he says. “They are gaining some world-class talent to boost an already very strong roster.”