LAIKA Uses EIZO Full Color Management Solution for Peace of Mind

Best known for its incredible stop-motion animation, LAIKA has produced some of the most unique and memorable films of our time. Jason Buehrer, Stage Technician at LAIKA, explains how EIZO’s ColorEdge monitors combined with its own calibration software solutions greatly improved their monitor quality control so they could focus on what really matters – the creative process.
 

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“These free tools have already saved us hundreds of hours of labor while also giving us peace of mind on the accuracy of our color space over the course of our future films.”

Jason Behrer, Stage Technician at LAIKA

 

What was the challenge and how does the EIZO solution solve it?

We have over a hundred stages and test units in our 260 thousand square foot facility, so keeping all of our EIZO monitors calibrated was challenging. The addition of the EIZO’s ColorNavigator suite of management tools has made it simple to identify an EIZO that needs to be checked and make any changes or adjustments from a centralized location. Combined with the built-in colorimeter, this has saved us a lot of time and energy managing our color space on and off stage.

We started using ColorNavigator and ColorNavigator Network in the summer of 2019 to help manage the growing number of EIZO monitors on and off stage. Up until then, we had been managing these monitors manually. This meant every time we deployed a monitor it had to be checked that it had the correct configuration, it had been calibrated, and that it had not gone beyond recommended screen usage. That monitor would stay in its unit until it was no longer needed or until the unit was torn down, in some cases for months. With over a hundred active and test units in our 260 thousand square foot facility, it was a lot of legwork to make sure the monitors were maintaining their color accuracy over the course of a production.

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Jason Behrer, Stage Technician at LAIKA

The introduction of the ColorNavigator suite of tools centralized that management and made it simple and fast to know when a monitor was last calibrated, what configuration it was using, what its usage was at that moment and if it should be retired or not. It has also made it much simpler to make changes to self-calibration schedules, access management, power management, or to the color space itself since these changes could be uploaded centrally.

These free tools have already saved us hundreds of hours of labor while also giving us peace of mind on the accuracy of our color space over the course of our future films.
 

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About LAIKA

Fueled by the vision of its President & CEO Travis Knight, feature film animation studio LAIKA was founded in 2005. Located just outside Portland, Oregon, LAIKA was awarded a Scientific and Technology Oscar® for its innovation in 3D printing in 2016. Its five films - Missing Link (2019); Kubo and the Two Strings (2016); The Boxtrolls (2014); ParaNorman (2012), and Coraline (2009) - were all nominated for Oscars® and PGA Awards as Outstanding Animated Film. Missing Link was the first LAIKA film to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature and two VES Awards, for Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature and Outstanding Animated Character, and received 8 Annie Award nominations. Kubo received an Oscar® nomination for Outstanding Visual Effects and the BAFTA Award, as well as winning three Annie Awards, the National Board of Review's Best Animated Feature citation, and 19 regional and critics’ group awards. The Boxtrolls earned Critics’ Choice and Golden Globe Award nominations and 13 Annie Award nominations, more than any other film that year. ParaNorman garnered BAFTA, Critics’ Choice, and GLAAD Media Award nominations, won two Annie Awards, and was cited as the year’s best animated film by 14 critics’ groups. Coraline earned Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Critics’ Choice nominations and was named one of the year’s 10 Best Films by the American Film Institute (AFI). For more information, visit https://www.LAIKA.com.


 

Deployed Product

ColorEdge CG247X
ColorNavigator Network