Scene & Heard Public Relations

Rick Balabuck appointed to Sales Director post for Virtual Studio developer Lightcraft Technology

Technology sales and business development veteran will steer growth of on-set VFX pipeline systems developer Lightcraft

Pasadena, CA-28th July, 2009--Lightcraft Technology has announced the appointment of Rick Balabuck, a film and broadcast industry sales and business development veteran, as Sales Director to oversee growth of the company's time and money-saving on-set VFX compositing and camera tracking systems.

"Rick has a dynmaic vision for merging our products with the needs of producers and directors of VFX content; his understanding of computer graphics technology and reputation for listening and responding to customer needs make him an ideal choice to oversee the introduction of our products into the market," says Lightcraft Founder and CEO Eliot Mack.  "We're delighted to welcome him to the team."

Lightcraft's Previzion Portable and Airtrack systems, introduced at NAB this past April, allow users to preview and manipulate complex VFX green screen shots in real time while recording accurate tracking data for post production.

"The Lightcraft Previzion system enables producers, directors and DOP's to see complicated green screen composites with 2D and 3D graphics in real time which I believe will ultimately impact VFX production practices industry-wide," Balabuck states.  "The efficiencies of real time compositing can provide much greater creative control and could dramatically minimize post assembly costs; I'm thrilled to be working with Lightcraft to introduce these important tools to the VFX community."

Rick Balabuck has held sales and development positions at a number of industry-leading companies including Softimage, Discreet Logic, Pixel Pwer and Maximum Throughput.  He most recently served as director of sales at Broadcast monitoring systems company Volican, Inc.

About Lightcraft Technology

Lightcraft was founded in 2004 by mechanical engineer and University of Michigan/MIT degree holder Eliot Mack.  Mack worked at Walt Disney Imagineering and led the mechanical engineering effort on the iRobot Roomba before applying his craft to the Previzion virtual studio system.  Mack was later joined by fellow iRobot engineer Phil Mass, who was the lead software engineer on the Roomba, the world's first successful home robot.  The team at Lightcraft blends their unique technical skills and love of film to provide optimized tools for the entertainment industry: www.lightcrafttech.com