NaturalMotion Ltd. announced that its award-winning endorphin software was used by Giant Killer Robots to create several character animation sequences for POSEIDON. endorphins ability to quickly and easily generate realistic animation allowed the teams to create very demanding and destructive shots that would have been near impossible to achieve using traditional tools.
In several of the film's sequences endorphin characters served as digital stunt doubles interacting with numerous characters and objects in chaotic circumstances that would have been challenging and dangerous to produce using key frame or motion capture technology. Giant Killer Robots also used endorphin on one of the nightclub sequences to simulate hundreds of pieces of furniture, props and people interacting dynamically while the ship capsizes.
"For POSEIDON, endorphin did exactly what I wanted and needed it to do; it simulated highly complex character animations, dozens of people falling, crashing, struggling, recovering, etc., with multiple characters in very complex and dynamic environments," said visual effects supervisor Boyd Shermis. "We had hundreds of people and objects flying all over the place. endorphin not only handled these complex simulations, but did them quickly, easily and seamlessly."
Used by the industrys leading production and game companies, endorphin offers an entirely new approach to 3D animation, and is the only character animation software to utilize DMS, a technology based on artificial intelligence controllers that imitate the human nervous system. Unlike conventional animation techniques such as keyframing or motion capture, endorphins DMS technology uses the CPU to simulate the brain and body of 3D characters, which allows animators to synthesize human movements in realtime. This approach produces directed and fully-interactive 3D characters that essentially animate themselves with real-life movements that are unique every time; thus dramatically reducing animation asset production time.
NaturalMotion Ltd. (www.naturalmotion.com) is the first company to create 3D character animation software (endorphin) based on Dynamic Motion Synthesis (DMS), a technology that utilizes Adaptive Behaviors and artificial intelligence to simulate the human-nervous system. Based on Oxford University research on the control of body movements, NaturalMotions first product endorphin synthesizes off-line 3D character animation in realtime.
Giant Killer Robots (www.giantkillerrobots.com) specializes in high-end, high resolution CGI animation. Giant Killer Robots provides complete animation services from preliminary creative and technical guidance to final compositing.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
