Christmas chill: CafeFX closes.(Tech Tussles)(Brief article)

The California visual effects industry got a big lump of coal for Christmas with the news that the highly regarded studio CafeFX has permanently closed.

CafeFX had been on hiatus for more than six months as it attempted to find new investors and relaunch. "The industry has just really, really changed," topper Jeff Barnes told Daily Variety. "We took a hard look at it and said this doesn't make any sense anymore for how CafeFX has been, even with new investors."

Part of the problem, says Barnes, was that CafeFX "got to be exactly the wrong size." Noting that Asylum and the Orphanage …