With their recent 10-day far-East excursion to Japan, Tina and Darren Lutz of Balance Studios have reinforced a strong business and collaborative alliance with GrapeCity, Inc. — a leading international software engineering company headquartered in Japan and employing more than 700 individuals throughout six countries worldwide.

Evolving from a mutual, professional acquaintanceship with Dan Nichols — a close business consultant of Balance who is also employed by GrapeCity — this two-way, sister-company partnership is of tremendous benefit to both companies. Playing the role of virtual “matchmaker” in this case, Dan recognized the contributions that each company had to offer to the other and he initiated a process of introduction that eventually developed into the current relationship enjoyed by all. GrapeCity looks to Balance for creative, contemporary design, progressive ideas, and development expertise in web-based core technologies and application development, while Balance looks to GrapeCity for expansive resources in manpower/brainpower to bolster their workload capabilities and offerings in the high-tech marketplace.

For several days, GrapeCity accommodated the Lutz’s in Sendai and over the course of their stay, the genesis of a cooperative business alliance was forged.

As the first projects under the alliance, GrapeCity has approached Balance to engineer and develop a multinational, three-language Web site for their corporate operations, and Balance’s software development subsidiary company, epicsoft, has benefited from programming assistance on one of their highly acclaimed commercial software applications, MULE 2.0.

“The trip to Japan was invaluable.” says Tina Lutz, Vice President and Executive Producer for Balance. “GrapeCity is an organization that exudes excellence in every facet. This partnership is a tremendous opportunity to offer expanded capabilities to our clients and also to provide services that allow GrapeCity to expand their client offerings as well. Our companies are an excellent match!”

Following their extremely successful relationship-building stay with the folks at GrapeCity in Japan, Darren, Tina, and Dan traveled onward to foster an exciting business relationship for Balance that expands their animation and broadcast capabilities.

Wine Studios is a tremendous production facility situated in a quiet niche of Japan and equipped for all levels of media production. With a sincere interest in infusing western design trends and creative into their work as well as character animation, Wine Studios views Balance Studios as a perfect collaborator. Conversely, Wine Studios is equipped with fabulous state-of-the-art facilities for high-end operations such as Film, HD, Motion Graphics, and Motion Capture (an advanced production technique used for complex animation and visual-effects projects) — and access to these facilities adds a higher level of capability for Balance to offer to clients in their work.

“This is a wonderful arrangement that opens up many doorways and opportunities creatively and philosophically for Balance Studios, as well as for our clients,” says Darren Lutz, President of Balance Studios. “We’re excited to see what the future holds!”

Balance Studios is proud to have developed and launched ‘KIhealthcare.com‘, an internal suite of tools engineered for KI, empowering them to easily post and host a wealth of dynamic product information targeted for healthcare architects and designers.

Raw content is populated into a database by KI staff via a convenient backend interface implemented by Balance. Directly from this database, a public Web resource is generated that A&D professionals can browse to find product information, industry resources and specification tools for KI healthcare furniture.

The site features KI’s entire portfolio of healthcare furniture, interactive design tools, news articles, links to industry associations and other knowledge resources. KI’s healthcare furniture and textiles are organized by category and application, making it easy to navigate and locate specification details.

KIhealthcare.com also gives users access to design tools that help them specify projects. The “See It… Spec It” swatching tool lets users select fabric and finish options on select pieces from the KI healthcare line in real time. By giving designers the ability to zoom in on a photo, the swatching tool provides a high level of product details such as texture, weaves and seams.

“KIhealthcare.com goes above and beyond my expectations as a site for healthcare designers,” said Carol Demlow, American Academy of Healthcare Interior Designers (AAHID), Demlow Interior Design. “I find the resource links especially helpful. The swatching tool really helps to get an idea of how the furniture will look in different colors and fabrics. Overall, KIhealthcare.com is one of the best sources of information for healthcare designers on the web.” — (published in ‘MMQB’, a trade magazine for the furniture industry.)

Balance proudly welcomes Bill Ehrendreich to the staff as a Web & Application Developer and all-around Evil Genius. Having earned his Masters in Math & Physics from MIT, Bill has worked for Laureate Information Systems, the National Security Agency, and The Sentinal Group prior to joining Balance. Currently he’s putting his mastery of math and physics to great use toward the development of epicsoft’s highly-anticipated version 2.0 release of MULE.

When he’s not embroiled in complex calculations such as determining the proper vectors to guide his crumpled scrap of paper ‘x’ into waste receptacle ‘y’ from the distance of ‘z’ meters, Bill’s a huge fan of music, film, literature, and Buddhism.

Bill’s contributions will surely make a profound difference for both Balance and epicsoft. Welcome Bill!

Jerrod “The Boomerang” Sullivan is back at Balance yet again after two successful summer internships in previous years. But this time… it’s for good!

Freshly graduated from Edinboro University in Pennsylvania with a degree in Applied Media Arts in Animation and a minor in German, Jerrod brings to Balance all that he’s learned from his top-notch instructors — who have backgrounds ranging from Disney Studios to Industrial Light & Magic. (And to top it off, Jerrod can teach all of us how to tell naughty jokes in German.) Indeed, he’s a super-swell addition to the Balance line-up and we’re glad to have him here.

Jerrod has a passion for CG animation and also for painting and drawing. Already he’s given life to a hot Rock Dawg and to a Celtic kid for two separate Balance projects. This could be the beginning of one-million-and-seventy-three beautiful 3D friendships.

Welcome back, Jerrod!

Balance extends a heartfelt ‘Welcome!’ and ‘Thank You!’ to Dr. Thomas Tang, who’s ventured all the way from his home in Shanghai, China to provide assistance with the engineering of a viewing component for epicsoft’s MULE 2.0 Lightwave Network Rendering solution on behalf of his employer, GrapeCity, Inc.

Thomas holds a Doctorate degree in computer engineering from Shaanxi Micro-electronic Research Institute in Xian China, along with a Microsoft Certified System Engineer certification (MCSE) from Microsoft. His 10 years of work experience include system design and analysis, web application development, and research and development for ActiveX controls.

Thomas has spent the entire month of July here in sunny Green Bay, providing his invaluable services toward the development of a sophisticated image viewer that grabs and assembles newly-rendered, full-resolution frames of CG video and plays them back in real-time, while enabling additional visual manipulation and functionality.
…um… Wow!

In Shanghai, Thomas enjoys spending time with his wife and four-year-old son, and playing soccer, badminton, and table tennis.

Thanks for all of your help, Thomas!