Filmakademie Chooses endorphin
PRESS RELEASE
Oxford, UK, 6th January 2005 -- NaturalMotion Ltd., an innovative British developer of dynamic motion synthesis technology, announced today that Filmakademie, the leading German animation school will use multiple licenses of endorphin across its animation and visual effects courses. endorphin was chosen for its unique dynamic motions that can be precisely influenced by the user, plus its character interaction capabilities that result in realistic and convincing animation.
The students at Filmakademie will use endorphin on Character Animation courses, Visual Effects, Content Creation (which includes game design, and intro-sequences for games) as well as students, who take the Technical Director Courses. The Filmakademie is situated in Ludwigsburg, Baden-Wuerttemberg, in the South of Germany and has students from Germany, France, Poland and China.
Prof. Thomas Haegele, Head of the Institute of Animation, Visual Effects and Digital Postproduction at Filmakademie comments on the benefits of students being taught endorphin:
"In contrast to Motion Capture and classical key framing techniques, endorphin is a new, exciting, easy to learn and fast way to bring characters to life. For example, in scenes where characters have to interact with each other and/or objects, the use of endorphin will help the animator to achieve otherwise very difficult and time consuming realistic and convincing movement in animation. For the production of animated films this means sparing time as well as money."
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About Filmakademie
Students within the Institute of Animation, Visual Effects and Digital Postproduction students can focus on character animation and visual effects as well as on content creation and research & development. The Institute also provides digital postproduction facilities to all Filmakademie students. Numerous animated films from Filmakademie students have received prizes at national and international festivals. Last year the nomination of "Das Rad/Rocks" for the Academy Award's best animated short was noticed worldwide and at Imagina 2004, "Annie & Boo" by Johannes Weil received the Grand Prix Imagina as well as the prize for Schools and Universities and for Art Direction.
About endorphin
endorphin is the industry's first Dynamic Motion Synthesis software. Based on AI and dynamics research, endorphin synthesises 3D character animation in real-time, thus dramatically cutting asset production time and costs. Used in projects such as Troy (Warner Bros.) and with announced customers including Sony Europe, Sony America, Moving Picture Company, Uncharted Territory, Namco, Rainbow Studios and others, endorphin is rapidly becoming the tool of choice for high-end animation in visual effects, games and animation studios.
About NaturalMotion Ltd.
NaturalMotion Ltd. is the creator of Active Character Technology (A.C.T.), a break-through in 3D character animation based on Oxford University research on the control of body movements. Founded in 2002, the company's management team includes Nick Alexander (Chairman), former CEO of Sega Europe, Torsten Reil (CEO and co-founder), a graduate in Complex Systems from Oxford University who was recently named as one of the world's top 100 innovators by MIT's Technology Review, and Colm Massey (CTO and co-founder), a trained mathematician (Trinity College Dublin) and previously head of the award winning Virtual Human Project at MathEngine Plc.
The privately-owned company has received funding from the games, film and finance sectors. Its development team of software engineers, biologists, physicists and animators is located in Oxford, UK. For further information please visit NaturalMotion's website www.naturalmotion.com
For further information, please contact:
Sadie Paris, Bubble & Squeak UK T: 020 7659 2254 E: sadie@bubblesqueak.co.uk
Véronique Froment, Bubble & Squeak US T: 603 537 9248 E: veronique@bubblesqueak.com