Hellikon animation and design studio, specializing in content for high-resolution venues, was launched in September 2000. The studio is dedicated to the development and enhancement of CGI and live-action integration for all formats with an emphasis on 70mm.

Making up the CORE TEAM at Hellikon, which was named after the mythological home of the Greek muses, are Executive Producer Christina Schmidlin ; and Creative Directors Chitra Shriram and Lisa Slates . This award-winning design, animation and production team was previously the creative, executive management core of San Francisco-based visual effects company Xaos. The new company is based in Sonoma, California, with a Design Studio located in San Francisco. 

The Hellikon team won a number of prestigious large format and computer graphic awards in 2000 for their work on “Wege zur Qualitaet,” a 70mm ride film for Volkswagen's new Autostadttheme park in Germany, and completed seventeen 70mm feature projects in the last three years for the large format market, as well as a string of broadcast and commercial campaigns
 
 

Christina Schmidlin
Executive Producer Schmidlin combines a varied background stretching from world finance and investment banking to film finance and production with Swiss Television, Heritage Entertainment and Twentieth Century Fox. At One World Productions, she joined forces as a partner and co-produced the feature film "Loon" (starring Robin Wright and Jason Patrick) and negotiated the U.S. distribution deal for Cannes Grand Prix Winner "Yeelen." She also served as the creative and production consultant on the Oscar-nominated short "Cadillac Dreams" before joining Full Circle Films in 1991 to oversee all commercial and feature production. She then joined Xaos as Director of Business Development in 1994. As Executive Producer, Schmidlin spearheaded the company's involvement in the 70mm market and has produced over a dozen large format projects as well as the company's broadcast, commercial and feature film projects.
 

Lisa Slates
Creative Director Lisa Slates was a painter and graphic designer before entering the world of computer animation at the University of Cincinnati (MFA.) She came into her own in this medium with independent projects "Cycles" and "Harvest," which have been exhibited at various festivals. After assisting James Duesing on his highly acclaimed "Law of Averages," a Sundance Film Festival favorite, Slates joined Xaos in 1995 and won an Emmy for her broadcast design contribution to the 1996 MSNBC launch. Most recently, Slates designed the effects sequences for the San Jose Tech Museum's  "Spirit of the Valley," and the Volkswagen Ride film "Wege zur Qualitaet" (highlighted in this year's Prix Ars Electronica) as well as collaborated with Little Beast on a teaser for Entertainment Art's game "Alice." Lisa worked with ABC to design their 2000 election graphics package. Other project credits have included film animation/design work for "Small Soldiers," "Loch Lomond," "Rheged: Lost Kingdom," "Dolphins," , broadcast design/animation projects include "Discovery Channel," Intel, "Sci-Fi Blips" and numerous "ZDTV Ids." 

Chitra Shriram
Creative Director Chitra Shriram was a painter and traditional animation filmmaker in India before coming to the United States to study computer animation at Charles Csuri's premier computer graphics program at the Ohio State University. Her M.A thesis film, "Leela" was showcased in film festivals and other venues all over the world. After joining Xaos in 1993 she brought her multiple talents to bear upon conceptual design work for the Emmy Award winning MSNBC identity campaign and story pitches for Johnny Quest Series to Hanna Barbera Studios. She has designed and directed projects in multiple formats/markets including the 70mm "Dolphins", "Island of the Sharks" and the award winning "Wege Zur Qualitaet" which she co-directed with Lisa Slates. As an animator in the digital medium, she made her debut in Warner Brothers' “The Pagemaster” and went on to work on a host of other commercial / broadcast projects for clients including Sci-Fi channel, McCann Erickson, Virgin Interactive, Mattel, Deloitte & Touche, to mention a few.