SOFTIMAGE PRODUCTS INTEGRAL TO INDUSTRIAL LIGHT & MAGIC PRODUCTIONS FOR SUMMER ’99 AND BEYOND

From Ancient Egypt to Far-Away Galaxies, ILM Artists Tap Avid/Softimage Graphics and Animation Software to Create Motion Picture Effects Now and into the Next Millenium

Tewksbury, Mass. (August 10, 1999) – Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVID) today announced extensive use of its Softimage graphics and animation products by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) on recent motion picture work including “Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace,” “The Mummy” and the gigantic Tarantula in “Wild Wild West,” as well as renewal of Avid’s Softimage Co.’s strategic relationship with the Academy Award-winning visual effects facility that extends into the new millenium. ILM, a division of Lucas Digital Ltd. LLC and the world’s largest effects house, pushes the limits of digital wizardry using applications such as Softimage 3D for character animation and modeling, Softimage Matador™ for painting, and Softimage Elastic Reality? for morphing .

“Softimage software has been an important aspect for pre-visualizing and finishing the multiple thousands of effects shots we’ve had on recent jobs, including an incredible number of scenes involving computer-generated [CG] animated characters in ‘Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace’,” said Rob Coleman, Animation Director on the Star Wars prequel. “Whether we’re setting up complex animation rigs to bring the right behavior to our digital characters, keyframing their animation, or staging natural movement via motion capture, these tools empower ILM artists to raise the bar of believability with the CG imagery we create.”

CG Feats That Reach for the Stars

At ILM, Softimage 3D was the main character animation tool used for the more than 60 digitally created creatures, monsters and robots that grace the far-away galaxy in “Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace.” The movie has nearly 2000 total effects shots, 800 of which involved CG character animation—sometimes thousands of characters, spanning are almost half of the film’s screen time. Softimage 3D was used extensively on hundreds of shots to achieve this feat and to give these fantastical CG figures believable expressions and movements.

The Animation Pipeline

Within ILM’s motion capture department, Softimage 3D and Softimage Live were used to provide motion information to the animation team, and to rough out 3D animation up to the final shot. Completed directly in Softimage 3D using a motion capture system with real-time capability, the files could be delivered the same day in Softimage 3D format. According to motion capture supervisor Seth Rosenthal, “Our pipeline was developed to take animation or motion capture data and bring it into Softimage 3D, where it could be modified on the same familiar models, with the same animation controls that had been used for hand animation.”

Part Human or Mostly Machine: Imhotep, 50’000 Droids and a Steam-Powered Spider

While the performance aspect of animation is crucial, getting the physics right is equally important because CG creations typically need to act and interact seamlessly within a live-action environment. “Once we’ve defined a character and its idiosyncrasies, the first step is creating the physical performance and acting. That’s all done in Softimage 3D.” says Hal Hickel, a lead animator who worked on Boss Nass and the destroyer droids in “Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace.” “The closer you get to producing something relatively human, the more difficult it is to achieve a realism that’s acceptable.

” Much of ILM’s work in CG has been geared towards finding easier ways to create fleshy, organic characters and simulate movement logical to human and semi-human figures. For the creepy skeleton-and-spilling guts form of Imhotep in “The Mummy,” Dennis Turner and an animation team actually built a skeleton and muscle system—to be animated either through traditional keyframe animation, or motion capture, complete with 300 digital muscles done in Softimage 3D that pull, tug, ripple and flex in all the appropriate places.

“Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace” introduced a different challenge: hard-surface robots with jointed parts. As Hickel recalls, ILM’s technical animators used Softimage 3D to build skeletons, determining how the mechanical parts would work. “The destroyer droids were complex because they had to fold up, unfold and attack. And it’s not a cheat—all the mechanical parts move and work together. So, the controls for this—creating the basic animation model that can be animated—was a huge task.

” Another enormous accomplishment is the 80-foot tall, steam-powered arachnid weapon arsenal (Tarantula) operated by Dr. Loveless from an open cockpit in “Wild Wild West.” One of ILM’s most complicated hard-surface models built to date, the Tarantula, animated in Softimage 3D, moves across the landscape with a heavy, machine-like gait on eight CG spider legs, each of which contains 150 moving parts.