Through the lens of Liaison

As one of the 3D industry's leading PR and marketing firms turns 25, 3D World uncovers what its clients' stories reveal about the evolution of visual effects

You may not think you know Liaison, but you certainly know the companies it works with. The agency's clients include many of the best-known names in the visual effects game, from software developers like Chaos to studios like Digital Domain. And to mark its 25th anniversary, we're going to look back at some of those clients to discover what their stories reveal about the many changes in the industry.

What will emerge is not a conventional history of visual effects that of the big Hollywood studios, the breakthrough movies, and the industry politics - but a hidden history: the story of the tools from developers whose technology made those movies possible, and their influence on a generation of artists.

It isn't a complete picture, but it does capture many of the key changes within VFX in the past quarter of a century, from the emergence of today's 3D software and file formats to the rise of real-time rendering and virtual production, and beyond, to a new era of AI tools.

THE BIRTH OF LIAISON

By 1998, Liaison founder Heidi Lowell had been working for large PR firms in the US and Europe for almost a decade, and wanted to strike out on her own. Having worked with Microsoft on the launch of Windows 95, she had come into contact with pioneering 3D software company Softimage, which Microsoft then owned.

"I immediately felt that I had found my people," she says. "There's something about the blend of intelligence and creativity that 3D artists possess that I found really attractive. I knew that their stories were the stories that I wanted to tell."