files/pictures/picture-35.jpgStation X Studios’ Project: Messiah 3D animation development team, composed of Station X president and co-founder Fori Owurowa, Station X co-founder Dan Milling and software developer Lyle Milton, have spawned a new Santa Monica-based visual effects production facility. The yet-to-be-named new company’s business plan is to enhance and expand the character animation tools introduced with Project: Messiah at SIGGRAPH 99. The new production house will keep close ties to Station X and the three principals will remain shareholders. With a base price of US$695 per station, Project: Messiah boasts faster bones, faster expressions, easy character setup, real-time interactivity, a pre-managed interface, local/world coordinates on the fly, forward/inverse kinematics, procedural/key frame animation blending, motion-capture importing and truly interactive soft-body dynamics. With 14 years of CGI experience, Owurowa has helped design such programs as MetaNURBS®, Puppet Master, Metamation, Morph Gizmo, FreeForm 3D and several versions of LightWave 3D. During his 10 years at AT&T Bell Laboratories and AT&T Advanced Communication Laboratories, Lyle Milton served as an award-winning artist, project manager, technology visualizer and marketer. As co-founder of One and Only Media, he created LightWave plug-ins such as MacroForm and FXtremePRO, and co-wrote a book, 3D MODELING THE NATURAL WAY. Dan Milling, a former LightWave 3D programmer, was the developer of Translator 3D and co-developed Morph Gizmo with Owurowa. "In this market, anyone can be different, but our business strategy is to be better," Owurowa said. "Better services, better tools, better support, ultimately, a better product." Recently, the fledgling company launched the newest version of Project: Messiah. Version 1.5.4 has two more animation preview modes in addition to its standard 24-bit open GL: 1-bit black-and-white and 8-bit gray scale. Lyle Milton said, "These new modes will save on system memory and will improve performance on lower end graphics cards. That’s a big help to animators and game designers who may not be working with the latest systems." For more information visit
www.projectmessiah.com .
