AICP MN: AICP SHOW OPENER

EFFECTS-DRIVEN: Greg Shultz Launches GASKET

Award-winning digital artist Greg Shultz has launched GASKET (Minneapolis) to serve the commercial, music video and feature markets with a creative collective offering design, visual effects and 2D/3D animation.

“Our vision is to create idea-driven animation and visual effects that both tell a story and that ARE the story,” says Shultz.  “This philosophy inspired the GASKET tagline ‘Think, Create, Propel.’  We hope creatives, directors and producers will approach GASKET for enhancing their work as well as for concepting and selling their work – to ultimately become their secret weapon.”

Shultz began his career in the fine arts field, developing his craft of design and illustration.  During college he worked for a design company where he managed projects and clients.  “This was great early training that gave me a taste for the business,” notes Shultz.  After graduation from Saint Olaf College and MCAD (Minneapolis College of Art and Design), he was chosen for a Saint Olaf Artist Apprenticeship, where he spent a year expanding his skill set in commercial design.

From there, he joined Crash & Sue’s (Minneapolis) and within a year was a lead Flame artist for the company.  During his successful seven-year tenure at Crash & Sue’s, Shultz contributed to projects with clients Best Buy, Target, Kmart, Buell, BMW, Perkins, Great Clips, Gordmans, General Mills and agencies Peterson Milla Hooks, Kerker, Campbell Mithun, Swanson & Russell, Carmichael Lynch, Martin Williams, BBDO, Krukopf Coontz, Olson and Company, and Fallon.  Following his successful tenure there, Shultz co-founded the design firm Make and this experience laid the foundation for the development of artist-operated GASKET.

GASKET is comprised of a diverse group of artisans with talents ranging from cel animation to painting to video game design.  GASKET includes next generation artists Jiang “Jacky” Ke and Justin Greiner.  Both Ke and Greiner herald from MCAD, with which Shultz has developed a unique internship and recruiting program.  Tammy Kimbler Weber is GASKET’s producer and brings a wealth of post-production and effects experience to her role at the new company.

GASKET technology includes Autodesk (formerly Discreet) flame & combustion, Apple G5 & PC workstations, with Maya, After Effects and Motion as well as a host of other design applications.  GASKET will be seamlessly integrated into sister company HI-WIRE’s digital and high-definition backbone, which includes fire, smoke, Spirit telecine with daVinci color corrector as well as complete sound and music capabilities as appropriate via BrahmstedtWhiteNoise (BWN).