Nitrogen Studios

Cinesite Vancouver (formerly known as Nitrogen Studios Canada, Inc., commonly referred to as Nitrogen Studios) is a Canadian animation company founded by husband and wife duo Greg Tiernan and Nicole Stinn. The company was founded in October 2003, in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Cinesite Vancouver
FormerlyNitrogen Studios (2003-2017)
IndustryComputer animation
FoundedOctober 2003 (2003-10)
FoundersGreg Tiernan
Nicole Stinn
Headquarters,
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Nicole Stinn (President and CEO)
Greg Tiernan (CCO)
OwnerGreg Tiernan
Nicole Stinn
Number of employees
51 - 200
ParentCinesite

Cinesite Vancouver was best known for animating the long-running British television series Thomas & Friends, which first began in the 12th season in 2008. While still using models provided by Shepperton Studios until 2009, Nitrogen began animating the twelfth series by implementing CGI animation onto the models. The models had their faces removed for the tracking sensors. The humans, animals and other specific scenery were tracked and animated by Nitrogen. However, scenes without the CGI are present as the tracking wasn't able to be done in certain angles.

In 2009, the full switch to computer-animation was made by HIT Entertainment, with Greg Tiernan directing the thirteenth season, as well as the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth seasons until Arc Productions (now Jam Filled Toronto) took over. Through seasons 13 and 16 came four direct-to-video films: Hero of the Rails in 2009, Misty Island Rescue in 2010, Day of the Diesels in 2011, and Blue Mountain Mystery in 2012.

Nitrogen had also provided CGI animation and concept art for a planned second theatrical Thomas & Friends film with the title The Adventures of Thomas, before it was cancelled by Mattel in 2012 after their acquisition of HIT Entertainment.[1]

Before animating Thomas & Friends, they animated the 2006 CGI family comedy film Happily N'Ever After, distributed by Lionsgate, and co-produced with Odyssey Entertainment and Vanguard Animation, only for it to perform as a box office flop, earning $37 million on a $47 million budget. In 2016, Greg Tiernan, along with Conrad Vernon, directed Sausage Party, a 2016 computer-animated adult comedy film released by Sony Pictures Releasing under the Columbia Pictures label. Grossing $141.3 million on a $19 million budget,

Greg and Conrad then produced and directed The Addams Family (2019) and The Addams Family 2 (2021). The Addams Family earned $203 million on a $24 million budget, and The Addams Family 2 earned $110 million on a $47 million budget.

For television, they also produced Dan Vs.. They provided lip-sync for 27 episodes, spanning from February 26, 2011, to June 23, 2012. They animated two episodes of the Netflix series Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia, with the first airing on December 23, 2016, and the 2nd airing on May 25, 2018.

The company's other projects are God of War, a 2005 action-adventure game developed by Santa Monica Studio, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment, Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, a 2008 role-playing game developed by BioWare, published by Sega for the Nintendo DS, and Kodee's Canoe, a 2010 interactive app series.

On March 7, 2017, it was acquired by British visual effects and feature animation studio company Cinesite, becoming their Vancouver operations.[2]

Filmography

Theatrical

Year Title Co-production Notes
2006 Happily N'Ever After Vanguard Animation
Berlin Animation Film
Berliner Film Companie
Odyssey Entertainment
Lionsgate
Additional animation with
The LaB Sydney
Mr. X
Bardel Entertainment
Elliot Animation
Quadriga FX
2016 Sausage Party Point Grey Pictures
Annapurna Pictures
Columbia Pictures
[3]
2019 The Addams Family Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Cinesite Studios
The Jackal Group
United Artists Releasing
Bron Creative
United Artists Releasing
2021 Extinct Netflix
China Lion
HB Wink Animation
Huayi Brothers
Huayi Tencent Entertainment
Tolerable Entertainment
Cinesite
Timeless Films
Additional animation
2021 The Addams Family 2 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
BermanBraun
Glickmania
Bron Creative
Cinesite
United Artists Releasing
2022 Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank Paramount Pictures
Nickelodeon Movies
Aniventure
Align
Brooksfilms
Flying Tigers Entertainment
GFM Animation
Cinesite
HB Wink Animation
Additional pre-production
2023 Hitpig Aniventure
Cinesite
Additional animation
TBA Animal Farm

Aniventure
The Imaginarium
Cinesite

Additional pre-production

Direct-to-Video

Year Title Co-production
2009 Hero of the Rails HIT Entertainment
2010 Misty Island Rescue
2011 Day of the Diesels
2012 Blue Mountain Mystery

Television

Premiere Date End Date Title Channel Note
January 25, 2010 December 25, 2012 Thomas & Friends PBS Kids
Channel 5
Treehouse TV
80 episodes: CGI series; co-produced with HIT Entertainment
February 26, 2011 June 23, 2012 Dan Vs. Hub Network 27 episodes: lip sync; co-produced with Film Roman, The Hatchery, and Starz Media
December 23, 2016 May 25, 2018 Trollhunters Netflix 2 episodes: co-produced with DreamWorks Animation and Double Dare You
2023 Iwájú Disney+ animation service work: co-produced with Walt Disney Animation Studios, Kugali and Cinesite

Other projects

Year Title Medium
2005 God of War (uncredited) Video game with Santa Monica Studio, Sony Computer Entertainment, and JP: Capcom
2008 Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood Video game with Bioware and Sega
2010 Kodee’s Canoe Interactive app series
2021 Mila Short with Peppermax films, Pixel Cartoon, IbiscusMedia, Cinesite, and Aniventure

Controversy

Several days after the release of Sausage Party, allegations of poor treatment of Nitrogen Studios employees surfaced in the comments section of an interview with Tiernan and co-director Conrad Vernon, featured on the website Cartoon Brew.[4] Various anonymous posters, purporting to be animators who worked on the film in question, made claims including that Nitrogen forced them to work overtime for free and that some employees were threatened with termination. Some animators who complained or left due to stress went uncredited in the film. One poster stated that Tiernan had developed a reputation for "disturbing behaviour and abusive management style".[5] Publications such as the Washington Post[6] the Los Angeles Times[7] and /Film[8] have picked up the story.

References

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