Come see us at Gamecom – Europe’s biggest trade fair for interactive games and entertainment at Koelnermesse in Cologne Aug 22-26. Drop us a mail if you want to meet in our Goodbye Kansas booth and learn more about some of our latest and greatest projects. Representatives from all Goodbye Kansas companies will attend, and the Goodbye Kansas Game Invest studio Experiment 101 will reveal their new game – with a launch trailer produced by Goodbye Kansas Studios.

Contact us a info@goodbyekansas.com if you want to meet us!

Our sister studio Experiment 101 unveiled their first project “Biomutant” at Gamescom, the world’s largest video game trade fair, last week. The announcement was met by very positive reactions from visitors and industry alike, and has been mentioned as one of the most important pieces of news from this year’s show.

Upcoming Swedish game “Biomutant” is an action-driven, open-world RPG, created by Experiment 101. It was announced at the opening of this year’s Gamescom in Cologne. The reactions have been very positive and the game has quickly gained international attention as one of the biggest news announced this year.

─ We are overwhelmed by the fantastic response to Biomutant. It’s a very special feeling to finally be able to show what we have been working on in secret. Seeing the massive international interest and getting such enormously positive reactions, that really spurs us on to keep doing our utmost as we work towards finishing the game, says Stefan Ljungqvist, Head of Studio at Experiment 101.

Experiment 101 was founded by Stefan Ljungqvist, renowned industry veteran with a background at Avalanche Studios, along with Goodbye Kansas Game Invest who owns 50 % of the studio. Since its founding in 2015, Goodbye Kansas Game Invest has invested in seven game studios. “Biomutant” is the first game announced, with more to come.

─ Biomutant is a real milestone for us, since it’s the first game we unveil since founding Experiment 101 together. Seeing hours-long queues at Gamescom is an extraordinary feeling. Goodbye Kansas Game Invest exists to help our partners create amazing game experiences, and I can’t think of better proof that we have achieved precisely that, says Peter Levin, CEO at Goodbye Kansas Game Invest.

See the trailer produced by Goodbye Kansas Studios.

Swedish VFX and Animation Company Goodbye Kansas Studios recruits two heavyweights behind the Swedish game development phenomenon, Fredrik Löving and Tobias Dahl, to strengthen its North American presence.

Goodbye Kansas Studios currently has offices in Stockholm, Uppsala, Hamburg and London. Now their sights are set on Los Angeles as they add two top names to their roster; game development veterans Fredrik Löving and Tobias Dahl as Studio Manager, VP, Executive Producer and Studio Manager, VP Production respectively. Together, they will establish the new office Goodbye Kansas LA.

Tobias joins from EA where he worked at SEED (previously Frostbite Labs) on “Digital Humans” for the company’s interactive entertainment products. Before this he was a key player at DICE in Stockholm and Los Angeles. Fredrik was general manager and part of the leadership team at DICE, where he was instrumental in the development of the Battlefield franchise, one of EA: s most successful IP: s ever. He has spent the last four years in Los Angeles establishing and building the studio DICE LA.

Peter Levin at Goodbye Kansas explains the vision behind these recruitments.

─ The Goodbye Kansas group has expanded rapidly these last two years, and the demand for our VFX and Animation services has grown especially fast within the video game industry. Welcoming Tobias and Fredrik to our family therefore feels amazing, as it will further strengthen our offering towards these clients and also provide us with a very strong platform in the US, says Peter Levin, CEO at Goodbye Kansas.

─ I love being part of building something from the ground up, and becoming part of Goodbye Kansas feels like coming home, while also giving me the opportunity to create something completely new and unique, says Fredrik Löving. Tobias adds, ─ Goodbye Kansas has quickly established itself as one of the most exciting VFX and Animation Studios globally. Being able to help build this success story feels incredibly inspiring, says Tobias Dahl.

We are happy to announce the launch of  “Yellow Brick Road” – our new podcast about visual effects and animation.
The listener gets to meet the artists behind the visual effects, the magicians behind the proverbial curtain that bring entire worlds to life where monkeys can fly and nothing is impossible.
The first season of the podcast will consist of 10 episodes, each with a unique theme and featuring special guests. Together they will cover topics ranging from character design and animation to digital zombie slashing and why some horror characters scare us more than others. The first episode can now be found on iTunes or here on our website.

Nils Lagergren at Goodbye Kansas Studios hosts the podcast.
─ We couldn’t be happier to finally be able to unveil our pet project Yellow Brick Road, the
first Swedish VFX podcast. Both I and my colleagues are deeply passionate about the
subjects we will be talking about, so it’s truly a pleasure to host this show. Right now, we
have tons of ideas for future episodes, so I’m eagerly waiting to hear what our first listeners
think, says Nils Lagergren, Marketing Director at Goodbye Kansas.

Just in time for Halloween – on October 28th –  the brand new opera “Dracula” will have world premiere at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm. Based on the classic Bram Stoker novel, it’s a story filled with drama, passion – and blood.

The opera is composed by Victoria Borisova-Ollas, with lyrics by Claes Peter Hellwig and Kristian Benkö. Director Linus Fellbom and set & costume designer Dan Potra, together with the composer, have created breathtaking sets with everything you could wish for on an opera stage – horror, romance, Victorian fashion and grand choruses. Goodbye Kansas Studios have designed and created numerous projections for the production, effectively blurring the line between classic scenography and digital illusions.

If you’re in Stockholm between October 24th and 28th, you also have a chance of seeing the grand projections we have designed for the iconic Opera House, projections that will make the classic building come alive in the dark and misty autumn nights.

It’s been a good week for Goodbye Kansas Studios. On Saturday October 7th, our Senior Character Designer Daniel Bystedt won the ZBrush Award “Film Art of the year” in LA for his character work on the Unity demo “Adam“.
Three days later – on  October 10th – Goodbye Kansas won the “Best Animation” award at Roygalan in Stockholm, for the “Raid: World War II” cinematic trailer.

Daniel Bystedt at ZBrush Awards

Director Fredrik Löfberg, Producer Thomas Oger and Executive Producer Jörgen Lilja accepting the Best Animation Award at Roygalan.

This week, Swedish Photographer/Artist Jacob Felländer inaugurated his latest art exhibition “How To Unlock A Portal” at the Museum Of Contemporary Art in Miami. One significant part of the exhibition is a VR experience where visitors can travel inside one of his pictures, – an experience created by Goodbye Kansas, in close collaboration with Felländer.

Last year we worked together on the first edition of “How To Unlock A Portal”, at Fotografiska (The Swedish Museum of Photography) in Stockholm, but we’ve evolved the VR experience even further in preparation for this exhibition in Miami.

“How To Unlock A Portal” is part of Art Basel Miami, one of the most prestigious art fairs in the world. If you pass Miami the next coming three months; don’t miss it!

Interview with Jacob Felländer (in Swedish)

“How To Unlock A Portal” at MOCA

Joachim Trier’s thriller “Thelma” has been called a ”Scandinavian Carrie” and an “arthouse Firestarter”. And just like in Stephen King’s classic novel and Brian De Palmas equally classic film adaption, Trier’s story focuses on a young girl with strange telekinetic powers. Only this girl is a Norwegian college student, and the story plays out against an Oslo backdrop, filled with dark shadows and stylized settings.

The Guardian called the film “scary, sexy and cool”, Los Angeles Times thought it was “tense, thoughtful and beautifully composed“, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune called it “a weirdly enthralling supernatural thriller“.

Goodbye Kansas Studios delivered VFX for some of the shots where Thelma’s powers come alive.

Here’s the US trailer

Welcome to the construction site of our new headquarters. It might still not look like much but in the summer of 2019 you will find a brand new house here, filled with digital wonders and creative energy: The Goodbye Kansas Building in Hammarby Sjöstad, Stockholm.

Five floors filled with creativity and technical excellence, including a state of the art 3D scanning facility and the most modern motion capture studio in Europe.

A new home for the Goodbye Kansas family!

http://www.webbkameror.se/byggkameror/fabege/fabege_5_1280.php

Be a god and experience a virtual mirror at GDC

This week it’s time for GDC – Game Developer’s Conference – in San Francisco. Both Goodbye Kansas Game Invest and Goodbye Kansas Studios will of course be present. And if you’re going to GDC, be sure to visit Tobii’s booth where you can try their amazing eye tracking technology in VR – and experience two demos produced by Goodbye Kansas VR.

You can step into the role of Thor in “ThunderGod”, an arcade style VR game demo where you get to wield the Mjölnir hammer and defend the human village from the giants attacking it. Fight the waves of enemies and try to keep as high a multiplier as possible to get the highest score. With Tobii eye tracking you will be able to take on more enemies than otherwise possible in the heat of the battle.

Or why not try to be someone else, in our uncanny “Virtual Mirror” VR experience. Put on your VR goggles and look into the virtual mirror. The virtual face that stares back at you will mirror your head and eye movements thanks to Tobii’s eye tracking technology. You can also play around with the “smart mirror” features where you control the interface with your own eyes.

So what are you waiting for? Come to GDC and try to be someone else, thanks to Goodbye Kansas and Tobii Eyetracking.

FMX in Stuttgart is Europe’s most influential conference dedicated to Digital Visual Arts, Technologies, and Business and Goodbye Kansas is of course attending.

On Wednesday April 25th you can learn everything about how we created the VES Award nominated effects for season 3 of the drama series ”Outlander” in our talk ”Outlander: Eye of the Storm”, with our VFX Supervisors Filip Orrby and Daniel Norlund and Production Director Pontus Garmvild sharing experiences from the production, with a special focus on the storm sequence in episode 313.

On Thursday and Friday (26-27th) you’re welcomed to drop by our recruitment booth, where you can learn more about the unique Goodbye Kansas Universe for Artists and apply for work at any of our studios around the globe. You can also try our VR Game demo ”Thundergod”- developed by Goodbye Kansas VR – and meet some of our artists.

Looking forward to seeing you at FMX!

Through the years, the story of Robin Hood has been told in lots of films and many TV-series, but so far without any Visual Effects provided by Goodbye Kansas. But now we’re happy to announce that soon there will be a Robin Hood film with Goodbye Kansas VFX!

The new film ”Robin Hood” stars Taron Egerton (of “Kingsman” fame) as the legendary hooded archer Robin of Locksley – a.k.a. Robin Hood, with Jamie Foxx as his trusted wingman Little John and Ben Mendelsohn as their arch enemy the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Goodbye Kansas Studios in London and Stockholm delivered plenty of VFX shots for the film and some some of them can be seen in the first teaser trailer. The film is set to hit theaters November 21^st.

The Nordsken Festival of Games, Culture & Creativity in Skellefteå is one of the fastest growing Entertainment and Gaming Events in Sweden. Goodbye Kansas is proud sponsor of Nordsken 2018 and this year we welcome you to our very own “embassy” at Skellefteå Kraft Arena May 10-12th, a booth where visitors can meet some of our talented artists and learn more about VFX and digital wonders. Here are some of the things you do at the Goodbye Kansas booth:

• Try our VR game ThunderGod
  Step into the shoes of Thor and throw your mighty hammer at attacking giants in this Goodbye Kansas produced VR game demo.
• Be a MoCap Mutant
  Become the Mutant duck Dux – one of the characters in Funcom’s ”Mutant Year Zero – Road To Eden” thanks to our light user friendly version of MoCap.
• Drop In Motion Graphics
  Make your own motion graphics for your Twitch or YouTube channel, guided by our talented VFX artists.
• The Art of Andrée Wallin
  See the art of renowned Concept Artist and director Andrée Wallin, including work from “Star Wars”, “State Zero” and “Overkill’s The Walking Dead”.

Read more about Nordsken 2018 and let’s hope we’ll meet there!

Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly stars as the legendary comedy duo Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in the new biopic ”Stan And Ollie”. The story focuses on the final tour in 1953, when the ageing duo is more or less forgotten by Hollywood and decides to perform at music halls across the UK to reignite their careers.  With disappointing ticket sales and Oliver Hardy battling poor health, the tour is a struggle for the old friends. But as they criss-cross their way across UK, they reconnect with their fans and turn the tour into one last big success, a bitter-sweet swan song for a classic comedy duo.

The film is directed by Jon S. Baird from a screenplay by Jeff Pope, who also worked together with Coogan on “Philomena”. Goodbye Kansas is happy to be part of the VFX team working on the production. Shooting started in spring 2017 and the film will hit screens in January 2019.

Tom Clancy’s CIA analyst Jack Ryan is wellknown from many of the legendary author’s books, and onscreen he’s been portrayed by Harrison Ford, Alex Baldwin, Ben Affleck and Chris Pine. Now he gets his very own TV series, with John Krasinski in the title role. The series follows the titular CIA analyst as he is wrenched from the security of his desk job into the field after discovering a string of dubious bank transfers. His search for answers leads him across Europe and the Middle East as he uncovers a growing terrorist threat bent on carrying out an attack on the United States.

We at Goodbye Kansas were happy to deliver some action packed VFX for the first season of the series. “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan” premieres on Amazon August 31st 2018 and has already been renewed for a second season.

Here’s a trailer for season one.

In 2006 director/screenwriter Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck won an Oscar for his chilling DDR drama “The Lives of Others”. Now he returns to the troubled past of Germany with “Never Look Away” (“Werk Ohne Autor”), starring Tom Schilling as an artist and refugee from East Germany, tormented by memories from both Nazi Germany and DDR. When he meets the student Ellie, he is convinced that he has met the love of his life, and begins to create paintings that mirror not only his own fate, but also the traumas of an entire generation.

Goodbye Kansas teams in Stockholm and London delivered plenty of visual effects for the film, including CG bombers and chaff for the scenes of the devastating Dresden bombings during WW2, set extensions and environments showing the aftermath of those bombings, a bus/bridge destruction, a CG umbilical cord for a birth scene and many BS/GS window composites.

The film is in competition at the 2018 Venice Film Festival and has been selected as Germany’s entry for best foreign language film at the 91st Academy Awards.
It will premiere in Germany in October.

Here’s the German trailer for the film, including some of the VFX shots that Goodbye Kansas produced.

A Discovery of Witches is a drama series based on the successful novel by Deborah Harkness, the first in her “All Souls Trilogy”. Teresa Palmer stars as Diana Bishop, a young historian – and reluctant witch – who accidently discovers a bewitched manuscript in Oxford’s Bodleian Library and quickly is swept into the world of magic and dark secrets. She forms an alliance with a mysterious geneticist and vampire, Matthew Clairmont (played by Matthew Goode) set out to protect the book and solve the mysteries hidden within, while battling threats from the shadowy creature world.

Goodbye Kansas teams in London and Stockholm delivered 560 VFX shots for the series, using every tool in the tool box to create a variety of effects including a CG stag, a digi double, CG props, set extensions, CG environments and plenty of “sorcery and magic” FX effects including particles, force fields and fire.

The series is produced by Bad Wolf and Sky productions and will premiere on Sky September 14th.
Here’s the trailer!

In 2019 the big red antihero Hellboy will return to screens worldwide. Based on the classic graphic novels by Mike Mignola and aptly named “Hellboy”, the film is a reboot of the franchise and this time David Harbour stars as the cigar smoking crimson bad ass Hellboy, born as an immensely powerful demon and now working for the government organization Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. 

The film is directed by Neil Marshall and also stars Ian McShane as Hellboy’s adoptive father Trevor Bruttenholm and Milla Jovovich as Nimue (a.k.a. the Blood Queen) a medieval sorceress who seeks to destroy humankind.

We at Goodbye Kansas are happy to be part of the VFX production and even though we naturally can’t say anything about the sequence we work on, we can say we’re having a blast creating the VFX!
The film will hit screens across the world in January 2019.

Next week “Venom” will be unleashed on cinema screens around the world. Goodbye Kansas Studios Senior Character Artist Chris Brändström created Concept Art for the pre-production of the film, in close collaboration with production designer Oliver School and his team at Sony.
The film stars Oliver Hardy as Eddy Brock, an investigating journalist whose body is merged with the alien Venom – leaving him with superhuman strength and power.
Here’s the trailer!