'Incredible' Softimage 3D animator used in Star Wars saga

Softimage Co, a subsidiary of Avid Technology Inc, have announced that SOFTIMAGE|3D, the company's 3D character animation and effects software, was used for the blockbuster 'Star Wars: Episode II – The Attack Of The Clones'.
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) – a division of Lucas Digital Ltd – used the software to create many of the film's stunning visual effects and characters, including Yoda, the Kaminoans and Dexter Jettster.
With professional tools for modelling, character animation and rendering, the SOFTIMAGE|3D product was used by ILM to animate over 80 digital creatures, monsters, clones and robots featured in the film. The production-proven technology in the SOFTIMAGE|3D software was used extensively on these shots to give the CG figures believable expressions and movements.
"We used SOFTIMAGE|3D to pre-visualise and finish an incredible number of scenes involving computer-generated animated characters," said James Tooley, Technical Animation Supervisor at ILM.
"Whether it was to bring the right behaviour to our digital characters, key-framing of their animation, or staging natural movement via motion capture, SOFTIMAGE|3D empowered us to raise the bar of believability with the CG imagery we create."
ILM upgraded to an early version of what was to become SOFTIMAGE|3D v.4.0 mid-production in order to take advantage of the new version's features and convert from IRIX-based systems to more powerful and cost-effective Linux workstations.
ILM Lead Animator, Chris Mitchell, said: "SOFTIMAGE|3D on Linux is a top 3-D animation system and the transition was absolutely seamless. Not only were we able to keep all our familiar tools unchanged and efficiently import our existing files, shots and models, but we were able to immediately take advantage of the increase in processing power that the new hardware and software afforded us. The difference in speed was just amazing."
Michael Stojda, Managing Director at Softimage, said: "SOFTIMAGE|3D, which has been used by thousands of customers worldwide for over 10 years, offers users a well-tuned and production-proven professional 3-D modeling, character animation and rendering environment. ILM's seamless upgrade and use in Episode II is testament to the new version's capabilities, performance and stability."
Softimage, www.softimage.com
(GMcG)