- by Lesley Klassen
The global pandemic shone a light on the fragility of life. When looking back at our accomplishments this year we're grateful that we have successes to share. We know many are struggling to keep their spirits up during the holiday season. We will get through this.
When the pandemic hit our province we immediately moved to remote work. This is one of our biggest successes in 2020. We learned we can grow a company, keep on task, and create new processes all from home. This has expanded our capacity to bring in new talent from all over the world.
Although our move to remote work has been pretty smooth, we are missing the traditions of our old office. The photo below is the pole where we would document our post morning meeting chants.
We finished a prototype of an XR viewership app that we are currently developing with our partners at the Canadian Media Fund. In 2021, we will bring it to market. As part of this project we are releasing three pieces of content including a branching narrative called The Outlaw. We will share more in the new year.
We wrapped up a project with the Women's Entrepreneurship Fund that supported porting Flipside Studio to the Quest. This year will expand our efforts and we plan on releasing it in 2021.
We engaged with Seven Oaks School Division and New Media Manitoba to teach virtual production and animation to high school students in Manitoba. During this course, the students worked on a project which was then passed off to a Red River College intern to complete. The COVID Characters is a short documentary created by high school students and made in Flipside Studio.
We also had the joy of working with Bento Box Entertainment, the makers of Bob's Burgers. Although we can't share what we did together we can share that working with their team was a highlight for many us at Flipside XR.
In June we left early access. Venture Beat wrote a great article highlighting our accomplishments. This has been two years in the making and we are excited for the future of Flipside Studio. Along with this, we launch a new website and updated our branding. Our customers work in animation, visual effects, and the interactive industry. Now our brand reflects the professional market we are focused on.
As a Canadian company that has innovation at our core, we were eligible for a number of COVID relief programs. We are grateful that our provincial and federal governments see the value of supporting its workforce. Thank you to NRC-IRAP, the Canadian Media Fund, and the Province of Manitoba.
In spite of everything that's happening in the world, we are hiring in 2021. We know that the world needs tools to create content safely and we will continue to build the tools that Flipside creators need and build out the future of animation.
Thank you to all of our champions, supporters, creators, family and friends who have kept us going since we started this company in 2014. Let's keep pushing through this challenging time and emerge from this pandemic better and more prepared for the future to come.
Join the Community
Join the Community
Quest
Rift