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After conquering the world of real-time virtual production and game-engine augmented reality for sports and entertainment – and winning multiple Emmy Awards along the way – is now focusing on the advertising market. The company has launched a Virtual Production hub near Manhattan and hired a top-tier creative professional with extensive experience on Madison Avenue.

Dan Pack, Silver Spoon’s managing director, has announced the appointment of Ryan Duggan as executive creative director. Ryan brings an extensive background working with some of the best design and production studios in the industry, and boasts a portfolio of animation and character work for some of the biggest global brands and ad agencies. 

In addition to announcing Ryan’s hire, Dan has also formally announced the opening of Silver Spoon’s new Virtual Production hub, located just minutes from New York in Secaucus, New Jersey. This 12K-square foot, multi-level space features a 50-foot LED stage, a 30-foot green screen stage and full motion capture capability. It will serve as Silver Spoon’s R&D centre for virtual production and creative experiences.

Silver Spoon is making these strategic moves after a season of acclaimed work that captured the attention of audiences nationwide. The studio produced the award-winning mixed reality broadcast of Super Bowl LVIII for Nickelodeon featuring SpongeBob SquarePants, which utilised cutting-edge AR, XR, and real-time motion capture, earning numerous accolades, including Emmys. More recently, they enhanced ESPN’s ESPY Awards broadcast with innovative graphics while also delivering impressive visuals for commercial campaigns for such brands as Verizon, Cheetos, and Frontier.

Ryan joins Silver Spoon from Ntropic, the acclaimed motion graphic and visual effects studio, where he was creative director. A graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design, he’s spent his entire career working in various forms of motion graphics, character design and animation, mostly on brand content and ad campaigns. 

He cited his prior experience with Silver Spoon as one of the reasons he joined the company – in addition to having worked with Dan when both were at the iconic effects and animation studio Click 3X, their paths crossed frequently over the years. More recently, Ryan collaborated with Silver Spoon on an independent rebranding and marketing assignment that gave him a deeper look behind the curtain to see how the studio was achieving its breakthrough results, an experience he found intriguing.

“I’ve had the opportunity to work on a number of brand-driven experiential projects,” Ryan said. “It’s just a different world than the traditional thirty-second TV spot, and there’s something really addictive about creating experiences for people. And that’s where Silver Spoon is at the forefront. In our industry, the future is coming at us fast, and all of the advertising creatives I’ve been working with are wondering what’s coming next. Many believe that experiential is where things are leading, so joining Silver Spoon lets me play a role in this foundational shift.

“I've been watching them from their earliest evolution from a small motion capture studio that’s transformed itself today into this real-time, Unreal Engine powerhouse,” Ryan continued. “I’ve always been a big fan, as are a lot of my peers. So for me, this is a great opportunity.”

“What struck me the most about Ryan,” said Dan, “is that he was always interested in what’s new and what’s next. He’s always been pushing visuals in a way you don't normally think about, regardless of the medium, discipline or delivery format, and he’s had his hands into so many different kinds of projects, from work for Sphere in Las Vegas to 3-D billboards and everything in between. He’s a perfect fit for us as at Silver Spoon, since there’s such a wide range of projects we take on.”

Pack says the Silver Spoon Virtual Production hub in Secaucus is going to provide a tantalising option for creatives and producers looking to see just what they can do with this highly versatile technology. “We’re going to be taking that tech, combining it with our knowledge base and experience, and applying it to all the other tools in our arsenal, from live action to motion capture to CG and projection, to create new ways of storytelling,” he comments. “This space allows us to test unconventional theories about production and discover what works best, leading to truly unique looks and techniques.”

Ryan adds that part of his new role as ECD is to smooth the way for agency and brand clients to explore the potential of merging Virtual Production with live action, motion capture, Unreal Engine, AR and other approaches, and doing so in a way that provides them with both comfort and security. “Our goal is to really bring these creatives into the fold and make them our true creative collaborators,” he remarked. 

“Silver Spoon has this reputation of just incredible technical achievement, of accomplishing things that have never been done before,” Ryan noted. “I’m coming in to build a really strong creative team that supports that technical acumen, and to give them a creative voice. And to be honest, what we’re building is going to be the blueprint for the studio of the future.”

“Ryan’s going to be guiding those creative teams at agencies and their brand counterparts into what, for many of them, will be a new way of thinking about how to produce content,” observed Dan. “And given his vast experience working with them, he knows how to do it in a way that doesn’t completely upend their established workflows and practices.

“For us, our secret sauce is not really the technology; rather, it's been combining people with different backgrounds and skill sets and letting them work together,” Dan sums up. “Initially there can be this chasm, but often it’s like two atoms colliding. It creates this sudden energy and flowing of ideas, with people challenging each other. And in our experience, that’s how you create unbelievable new things.”