Reel FX Animation Studios

Background
Reel FX is an American digital animation studio based in Dallas, Texas and Santa Monica, California. The studio develops and produces award-winning animated films, short form content and virtual reality experiences. They have also animated logos, notably Paramount Animation and the Dolby Digital "City Redux" trailer. Its first animated feature film, Free Birds, was released in 2013 and grossed over $110 million worldwide.

1st Logo (November 1, 2013-October 17, 2014, December 15, 2021)


Nicknames: "Space Reel FX", "Science Fiction"

Logo: We see a blue light with sci-fi particles in form of circles. The light passes and transitions into blue space. The light then hyper jumps to the wormhole and flies to the Moon. A UFO then strikes the light and the light flies behind three holes of moon. Some space clouds appear with Earth and the Reel FX logo appears with "ANIMATION STUDIOS" underneath. A light then strikes the logo, and the O from "ANIMATION" flies to the camera.

Variant: On Free Birds, the light has been replaced with S.T.E.V.E, an egg-shaped time machine from the movie. The logo also directly segues away from the Relativity vortex logo.

Trivia: This was written, designed, and directed by Mark Whiting, who also designed the 3rd and 5th Relativity logos and did art for animated productions like The Iron Giant and Duck Dodgers. A behind the scenes look at the logo's production can be found here.

FX/SFX: Nice CGI.

Music/Sounds: A harp tune with 7-note flute. Afterwards a majestic fanfare with sci-fi sounds plays. Whiting directed the music, while Skywalker Ranch handled the sounds.

Music/Sounds Variant: On Free Birds, a triumphant orchestral sci-fi theme, entitled "Starry Side Up", plays through this logo and the Relativity logo.

Availability: Seen on Free Birds and The Book of Life. Don't expect this to appear on any of their other films, as they have since changed their print logo in 2014 and only provided animation services for Sherlock Gnomes, UglyDolls, and Scoob!, as opposed to producing the movies. It makes a surprise appearance on Rumble.

Editor's Note: It's a beautiful logo.

2nd Logo (2014?- )


Logo: We zoom through a forest at night with green fireflies towards a boy with his back to us roasting a marshmallow on a campfire, as a massive beast with glowing yellow eyes approaches him. The beast shoves a tree out of his way, shaking his head a bit. The beast comes into full view as his eyes stop glowing. The boy offers the beast his marshmallow, which seems to catch him off guard for a moment, before he smiles. The text "REEL FX ANIMATION STUDIOS", in the same font as before but now in gold, fades over the scene. The scene fades to black, leaving only the text for a second, which then fades out while a firefly flies past.

Variant: On Reel FX's Twitter account, the logo reads "ANIMATION" instead of "ANIMATION STUDIOS" and it is still.

Trivia: Like the previous logo, this was designed by Mark Whiting.

FX/SFX: Same as the previous logo.

Music/Sounds: Ambient nighttime noises such as crickets, loons, owls, and the crackling of the campfire, as well as the beast's growls and stomping.

Availability: Unknown. It is available on Mark Whiting's Vimeo page under the bizarre name "LUMBER 1000 0010 comp v018". A screenshot of the logo is also used as the banner of Reel FX's Twitter account. It is unknown if this will appear on other films in the future.

Editor's Note: It's a very cute logo.