Research Triangle Park, NC - Game Developers Conference, San Francisco, Calif. — February 15, 2008 - OC3 Entertainment and Softimage Co., a subsidiary of Avid Technology, Inc., today announced a new FaceFX audio lip-syncing plug-in technology for Softimage product offerings. The FaceFX plug-in software will establish a bidirectional pipeline with SOFTIMAGE|XSI software—enabling next generation game developers and 3D animation artists to create realistic talking characters with more precise facial expressions and lip-synchronization.
Using only a sound file and an optional text file, FaceFX generates highly realistic facial animation data for use in video games and 3D animations. Because FaceFX powers the facial animation in Unreal Tournament 3 and Gears of War, mod developers using these platforms will be able to bring their Softimage assets to life in machinima movies and other game modifications using the new plug-in.
"Improving the pipeline between SOFTIMAGE|XSI and FaceFX will help our customers and users tremendously," says Doug Perkowski, CEO of OC3 Entertainment. "It’s all about creating convincing dialogue sequences. Using Softimage 3D software to create the characters and FaceFX to create the facial animations is a very powerful combination."
"Like SOFTIMAGE|XSI 3D software, FaceFX is being used in the development of many games—from small start ups, all the way to triple-A game studios," said Martin Barrette, engineering escalation team lead at Softimage. "Softimage is committed to working with industry-leading applications like FaceFX and Unreal Engine 3 to help game developers create realistic and engaging 3D characters and games."
OC3 Entertainment will be demonstrating the SOFTIMAGE|XSI plug-in at the Game Developers Conference in booth number 6729 (Moscone Center-North Hall). The plug-in will also be made available for download to the Unreal Tournament 3 and Gears of War mod development communities.
For More Information Contact:
Doug Perkowski, OC3 Entertainment, Inc.
(919) 767-0626
Martin Barrette, Softimage, Co.
(514) 845-1636
Kevin G. Clark, Softimage PR Manager
(514) 840-0343
About Softimage Co.
Softimage Co., a subsidiary of Avid Technology, Inc. provides intuitive, production proven tools that free 3D artists to create the world’s most compelling characters in the film, broadcast, post-production and games industries. Its flagship product, SOFTIMAGE|XSI is the most complete and intuitive character animation solution available. Easily integrated into any CG production pipeline, XSI software enables 3D artists to create the most lifelike character performances. SOFTIMAGE|FACE ROBOT is the first commercial toolset that accelerates facial animation that empowers 3D artists to create, refine and repurpose high-quality, lifelike facial animation in less time than traditional solutions. For more information about Softimage, please visit www.softimage.com.
About Avid Technology, Inc
Avid is a worldwide leader in tools for film, video, audio, 3D animation, gaming and broadcast professionals – as well as for home audio and video enthusiasts. Avid professional and consumer brands include Avid, Digidesign, M-Audio, Pinnacle Systems, Sibelius, Softimage and Sundance Digital. The vast majority of primetime television shows, feature films, commercials and chart-topping music hits are made using one or more Avid products. Whether used by seasoned professionals or beginning students, Avid’s products and services enable customers to work more efficiently, productively and creatively. Avid received an Oscar® statuette representing the 1998 Scientific and Technical Award for the concept, design, and engineering of the Avid® Film Composer® system for motion picture editing. For more information about the company’s Oscar, Grammy® and Emmy® award-winning products and services, visit www.avid.com.
About FaceFX
FaceFX is an advanced facial animation solution unique in its ability to liberate artists from the complexities of creating realistic dialogue and emotive characters. The nuances of facial movement can be stored as interactions between morph targets, bone poses, and material properties using the ground-breaking Face Graph™ technology. FaceFX can be used to animate characters by hand or generate lip-synchronization and speech gesture data automatically from pre-recorded audio. FaceFX is included with Unreal Engine 3 and available as a standalone product which can be integrated with any facial animation pipeline.
About OC3 Entertainment
OC3 Entertainment (www.oc3ent.com) is a private company dedicated to powering the gaming industry with realistic talking characters. The company develops two middleware solutions for game developers: FaceFX and FaceFX Live.