The Third Floor Turns to StudioGPU MachStudio Pro

Press Release from StudioGPU

As more movies, television shows and games move toward the total Stereoscopic 3-D (S3-D) experience, S3-D is generating unprecedented excitement and interest at the 2010 International CES in Las Vegas this week. StudioGPU is proud to announce The Third Floor, a leading Hollywood previsualization studio at the forefront of S3-D development whose credits include Beowulf, A Christmas Carol, Avatar, and Alice in Wonderland, has integrated StudioGPU MachStudio Pro for real-time interactive workflow in its 3-D and S3-D film and games previsualization pipeline.

MachStudio Pro real-time 3-D workflow and rendering software allows artists, designers, engineers, directors, and technical directors (TDs) to work with 3-D lighting, camera views and multi-point perspectives in an interactive non-linear fashion for real-time high fidelity views as they will appear in the final rendered format.

“Finding MachStudio Pro was like finding the Holy Grail,” says Chris Edwards, founder and CEO of The Third Floor. “You can literally convert previs assets or final assets and port them to MachStudio Pro to create a real-time light sculpting experience. As the previsualization pipeline evolves people are trying to figure out how to compete in a global marketplace,” continues Edwards. “We see MachStudio Pro playing a key role in the future of virtual cinema.”

“We are pleased to see companies such as The Third Floor embracing MachStudio Pro to improve 3-D and S3-D previsualization content development,” says David Koenig, CEO, StudioGPU. “With MachStudio Pro, the artists at The Third Floor have the advanced real-time tools for 3-D previsualization at their fingertips, which allows them to deliver the vision to their clients long before the cameras start to roll.”

The Third Floor has delivered previs for a number of high-profile S3-D films, including James Cameron’s Avatar, Beowulf and Journey to the Center of the Earth.  With support for real-time stereoscopic 3-D lighting and rendering on the desktop, MachStudio Pro plays an important role in the previs strategy at The Third Floor.

“Shooting S3-D requires an entirely new filmmaking language that is still being developed. Filmmakers need to plan stereo shoots even more carefully than 2D shoots, to insure that their depth choices will work in continuity. We use real-time tools like MachStudio Pro to help directors, cinematographers and editors preview their S3-D decisions in advance of the shoot, explains Edwards.

“With MachStudio Pro, we can effectively deliver previs to inspired directors, cinematographers and creators. We are moving into a golden age of filmmaking,” continues Edwards. “One that will enable filmmakers to leverage visual effects to enhance their stories, not upstage them.”

The Third Floor helps filmmakers and game developers realize their creative visions with highly detailed previsualizations that show how to achieve the desired end result before filming begins. For more details about The Third Floor, please visit www.thethirdfloorinc.com [1].

MachStudio Pro Details

With MachStudio Pro users can easily manage and interact with complex lighting, caustics, cameras, shaders, materials, ambient occlusion, and color grading for real-time shot finaling and compositing. Advanced features include displacement mapping using hardware tessellation on ATI graphics workstation accelerators, cartoon shading, configurable anti-aliasing, unlimited independent render passes and render layers, support for the OpenEXR file format and 64-bit operating systems, and more.

MachStudio Pro supports Microsoft Windows 7, Windows XP Professional and Windows Vista operating systems on most professional graphic accelerator cards. MachStudio Pro software is available in North America for $3,999 (USD) or bundled with the AMD ATI FirePro V8750 3-D workstation graphics accelerator card for $4,999 (USD). For pricing in other regions, visit www.studiogpu.com/buy/locator [2]. Student, education and volume licensing is also available upon request. For more information about MachStudio Pro, visit the StudioGPU web site at www.studiogpu.com [3].

About StudioGPU

StudioGPU develops software and technology that frees digital artists from the creative shackles of time, money and resources. MachStudio Pro empowers artists and designers working in film, broadcast, game development, computer-assisted design (CAD), and pre- and postproduction to create and manipulate fully rendered film-quality 3-D design and animation in real-time.