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Imagineer Systems Releases monet

Imagineer Systems announced the release of monet, its new product for broadcast, film and video post-production markets. monet is uniquely offers a start-to-finish solution for replacing elements in film and video. monet offers precision, lens distortion aware, 2D motion tracking with tools that allow accurate adjustments of the track to be made. It allows properties of the source material, such as lens distortion, shadows, highlights and grain/noise easily to be applied to the new element. This, combined with options for per pixel motion blur, focus blur and color controls, allows the artist to perform complex package replacements, language adaptations and screen inserts in a fraction of the time it would take with traditional high end compositing tools.

The technology for monet was developed in collaboration with Cinesite (Europe) Ltd. for use on HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN.

"The technology developed with Imagineer Systems is designed to anticipate and resolve issues involved in introducing an image plane into existing live footage," said Aviv Yaron, 2D technical director, and Simon Stanley-Clamp, 2D supervisor, at Cinesite. "It addresses issues such as lens distortion, motion blur and scene lighting conditions and produces consistent and accurate track data."

monet as a solution has taken this technology on and includes Imagineer's unique 2D planar track for motion estimation, as well as tools for manual augmentation of the tracking data, lens distortion analysis, extracting and re-applying shadows, highlights and noise, per-pixel motion blur, masking and compositing.

"Our aim is to develop the next generation of intelligent, productivity enhancing tools for digital media," said Allan Jaenicke, md for Imagineer Systems. "With our unique expertise in computer vision and image processing we are able to quickly deliver targeted solutions for post production facilities that solve challenging problems and reduce the time artists need to spend on boring, laborious tasks. monet was created with artists for artists and we are very excited about the benefits of the solution. Our approach of working very closely with a single customer in the early stages of development proved to be the right one, with both Cinesite and Imagineer gaining a lot from the relationship. We are now in a position to engage cost effectively with a facility when a specific solution is required by later bringing the benefits of the development to a wider market. We will be replicating this approach with other facilities."

monet will ship in two editions:

* monet extreme - turnkey solutionmonet can be purchased as a complete solution, including hardware and software accelerator card, to ensure the user maximizes the benefits from monet's advanced algorithms by ensuring optimal performance. The solution includes:* monet software* A workstation from BOXX Technologies or other recommended brand* Aspex Accelera hardware card that accelerates software processing*Optional SD/HD/2K video I/O card by DVS Centaurus.

* monet - software solutionmonet can also be sold as a software only package. This gives the user the full benefits of the product but performance will be limited by the system the software is installed on. The solution includes: monet software based on FLEXlm floating license

monet software solution will be available through authorized partners from August 2004. Prices start at GBP6,000. monet extreme will be available through authorized partners from September 2004. Prices start at GBP15,500.

Imagineer Systems Ltd (www.imagineersystems.com) focuses on research, development and marketing of productivity enhancing visual effects solutions for film, video and broadcast post production. The company was founded in 2000 and is based in Guildford, U.K.

Bill Desowitz's picture

Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.

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