Animal Logic has announced it has switched its animation production pipeline software to SOFTIMAGE|XSI. The Australian-based studio is converting its pipeline from the Maya software in order to meet the demanding production requirements of HAPPY FEET, a CG animated feature film directed by George Miller (BABE) and scheduled for delivery in 2005.
HAPPY FEET is a very exciting project for Animal Logic, said Animal Logic's managing director and co-founder Zareh Nalbandian, who will also serve as an exec producer on the film. Its one of our biggest and most ambitious projects to date, giving us the opportunity to establish a high-end and innovative CGI feature production pipeline and break new ground, both technically and creatively. In creating a new cutting-edge CGI feature pipeline, it was critical that we carefully evaluate, in a very even-handed manner, the capabilities of our production tools. Despite the initial costs associated with switching to another software package, we expect to quickly recoup the investment in terms of our ability to achieve greater production efficiencies, creative flexibility and better overall results in a shorter amount of time.
We decided to challenge the automatic assumption that we would use Maya, since we already owned it, and ran a very thorough comparative test process between version 5.0 of Maya and version 3.5 of SOFTIMAGE|XSI based on our requirements for HAPPY FEET, said Brett Feeney, digital supervisor at Animal Logic. SOFTIMAGE|XSI was clearly a better choice, offering superior creative and technical flexibility to the artists, and ultimately, to the director.
With the long production cycle associated with an animated feature film it was important for us to evaluate the company as well as the software, added Xavier Desdoigts, director of technical operations at Animal Logic. Softimages focus and understanding of the professional market as well as their demonstrated ability to responsively deliver the level of technical support required to deal with large productions was another important factor in making our decision.
Softimage Co., a subsidiary of Avid Technology, Inc., is an industry leader in 3D animation, 2D cel animation, compositing and special effects software. Softimage customers include R!OT, Valve, Capcom, Pandemic Studios, The Mill, Pixel Liberation Front, Blue Sky Studios, Hybride, Janimation, Quiet Man, PSYOP, Cinepix and Framestore CFC. For more information about Avid visit www.avid.com.
The Animal Logic Group is comprised of four business units: Animal Logic Commercials, Animal Logic Film, Animal Logic Play and Animal Logic Research. Established in 1991, Animal Logic's core business has traditionally been the design and production of high-end visual effects for commercials and television series. Animal Logics credits include THE MATRIX RELOADED, MOULIN ROUGE, RABBIT-PROOF FENCE and SWIMMING UPSTREAM.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
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