Digital Dimension selects SOFTIMAGE|XSI for CGI Pipeline

Leading animation studio chooses XSI software for upcoming full-length animated CG feature “The Legend of Secret Pass”

Tewksbury, Mass. – February 1, 2006 – Softimage Co., a subsidiary of Avid Technology, Inc., today announced that Digital Dimension Canada, a division of Los Angeles-based Digital Dimension, has selected SOFTIMAGE®|XSI® software as the main 3D production for “The Legend of Secret Pass.” An upcoming full length animated feature produced by JC2 Entertainment, “The Legend of Secret Pass” is set in the American southwest and features a large cast of computer-generated animals and humans. Digital Dimension selected SOFTIMAGE|XSI as the main 3D production tool due to the advanced non-linear character workflow, customizable rendering tools and the extended memory capabilities of 64-bit SOFTIMAGE|XSI version 5.0 for faster rendering times.

“Softimage is the newest and most flexible 3D architecture available today, and the non-destructive character environment enabled our programmers and artists to start work as soon as we began building our CGI animation pipeline, allowing us make changes and updates to the character models anytime we need to,” said Luc St-Onge, 3D Supervisor at Digital Dimension Canada. “The powerful character rigging and animation tools, the integration of SyFlex cloth and mental ray® rendering technology, plus the customizable render passes, made it an easy decision to choose SOFTIMAGE|XSI.”

Gareth Morgan, senior product manager at Softimage added, “Digital Dimension’s production pipeline is a remarkable environment that, by taking advantage of the extreme flexibility of XSI, allows programmers and artists to collaborate and deliver cutting-edge character animation. Being able to use a variety of standard scripting languages lets the team take full advantage of the software development kit (SDK) to customize shaders and tools, and the new integrated tools development environment in version 5.0 gives TDs precise control over deployment and workgroups - all in one place.”

Scheduled for release in late 2007, “The Legend of Secret Pass” is an international production with teams collaborating in several countries with Digital Dimension’s studios in Montreal, the director and design/storyboarding team in Sydney, Australia and post-production operations in Los Angeles, California. For more information on the project, please visit www.legendofsecretpass.com.
About Softimage Co.

Softimage Co., a subsidiary of Avid Technology, Inc, delivers innovative, artist-friendly character creation and effects tools to animators and digital artists in the film, broadcast, post-production and games industries. Its flagship product, SOFTIMAGE|XSI - the industry’s only non-destructive digital character production software - frees character animators and digital artists to create compelling animated 3D content and effects - from major motion pictures to CG features and commercials, to video games. For more information about Softimage, please visit www.softimage.com.
About Avid Technology, Inc.

Avid Technology, Inc. is the world leader in digital nonlinear media creation, management, and distribution solutions, enabling film, video, audio, animation, games, and broadcast professionals to work more efficiently, productively, and creatively. For more information about the company’s Oscar®, Grammy®, and Emmy® award-winning products and services, please visit: www.avid.com.

© 2006 Avid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Product features, specifications, system requirements, and availability are subject to change without notice. Avid, Digidesign, Film Composer, ProTools, SOFTIMAGE and XSI are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. and its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries. Avid received an Oscar statuette representing the 1998 Scientific and Technical Award for the concept, design, and engineering of the Avid® Film Composer® system for motion picture editing. Digidesign, Avid’s audio division, received an Oscar statuette representing the 2003 Scientific and Technical Award for the design, development, and implementation of its Pro Tools® digital audio workstation. Oscar is a trademark and service mark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Emmy is a registered trademark of ATAS/NATAS. Grammy is a trademark of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, Inc. mental images and mental ray are registered trademarks of mental images GmbH in the USA and other countries. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

Contact Information

Jennifer Goldfinch

Softimage

Avid Technology, Inc.

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