In 1981, Chuck Csuri approached an investor (Robert Kanuth of The Cranston Companies) to transfer the computer animation technology created in the CGRG lab to the commercial world, and Cranston/Csuri Productions, Inc. (CCP) was formed. It moved, along with CGRG to a Columbus facility, the former Academy for Contemporary Problems building, at 1501 Neil Avenue in Columbus. This co-location of the two organizations was important to the continuing development of each.

CCP staff rewrote the software that was in the research lab so that it was a little more user-friendly and less research oriented, and added specialized utilities for character animation, procedural effects, rendering, geometric modeling and post production. This suite of software was used to provide animation for television and advertising until CCP went out of business in late 1987.

Special purpose hardware included the Marc IV custom frame buffers, which were designed and built by CCP employee Marc Howard. These frame buffers provided the ability to do extended low resolution motion tests that were stored in frame buffer memory and played back in real time. CCP used Vax 11/750s, 11/780s, Pyramid computers, Sun workstations, and a modified Ampex Electronic Still Store (ESS), which was designed for slow motion replay by the television network sports industry. Images were calculated and stored on one of several magnetic disks; the machine was programmable to facilitate the 30fps playback with a direct NTSC video output. CCP also had a Celco 2000 film recorder, which could be used for 16mm and 35mm motion picture film, or 35mm slide or 4x5 transparency still output.

During the 7 year period that they were in business, CCP produced almost 800 animation projects for over 400 clients world-wide. The software was also licensed in 1985 to Japan Computer Graphics Laboratory (JCGL) for use in the Japanese market. Key projects included: opening graphics for 3 Super Bowls; the on-air sports promotions for ABC, CBS, NBC, and ESPN
networks; news opens and promos for all of ABC's news shows, as well as news opens for CBS, CBN, Fox and PBS; international network promos for ARD (Germany) CBC (Canada) ABC (Australia), Globo (Brazil) and Scottish Television; entertainment graphics for ABC, NBC, CBS, Turner, Showtime, HBO, Fox, and over 100 local affiliates; award winning ads for TRW, Sony,
Proctor and Gamble, AEP, G.E., and Dow; music videos for Krokus, Twisted Sister and Chaka Khan; special projects for Goldcrest Films (The Body Machine), CoMap and the Annenberg Foundation (VISUmap animations for "For All Practical Purposes" mathematics telecourse.)

During this period, CCP staff continued to extend the research boundaries and publish new and innovative results. Former staff members included Shaun Ho (SGI), Michael Collery (PDI), Scott Dyer (Nelvana), Jeff Light and John Berton (ILM), Susan Van Baerle, Maria Palazzi (ACCAD), Doug Kingsbury, John Donkin, Peter Carswell (ACCAD), Paul Sidlo (RezN8), Jim Kristoff and Dobbie Schiff (Metrolight), Rick McKee (SGI), Jean Cunningham (PDI), John Townley and Steve Martino (click3west), Tom Longtin and many others.

The software was purchased by Lamb and Company in Minneapolis, and some of the management of CCP moved to Los Angeles to form Metrolight Productions (President Jim Kristoff) and RezN8 Productions (Creative Director Paul Sidlo). Chuck Csuri left CCP in 1985 to return to his OSU duties at CGRG, and Vice President Wayne Carlson took over the Presidency of CCP in 1987 in order to see it through Chapter 11 liquidation, and returned as an Assistant Professor to the Ohio State Computer Science Department when the company closed. He later became Director of ACCAD and Professor in the Department of Design.