LOS ANGELES - More than a dozen New Zealand-based technology developers and visual effects studios will be at this year's SIGGRAPH, under the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) banner. The NZTE (www.nzte.govt.nz/siggraph2005) is the country's economic development agency and is highlighting New Zealand's concentration of digital media talent and technology development.
The country's SIGGRAPH presence includes research institutes working in 3D animation, virtual crowds, graphics management, augmented reality (AR), architectural visualization and education.
Aranz is a developer of the Polhemus FastScan 3D scanning technology. Box Rocket specializes in short films for wireless handsets and feature animation. Click Suite is an interactive simulations, gaming and media company.
Digital Post is a studio with credits that include "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe" and "Perfect Creature." Flux Animation Studios created 2D and 3D animation for music videos, television series, games and major commercial brands. La Luna is a production company focused on 3D animated features. One Glass Eye is an animation and special effects producer. Terabyte Interactive is an interactive media pioneer in the education, sports and museum markets.
Truescape Visual Reality is the creator of survey-accurate photo and video simulations, while Unlimited Realities is a customized solutions provider in e-commerce, e-content and e-management. The company is also the developer of Blaze, a platform for bringing documents to life with rich graphics, sound, video, 3D and animation.
At SIGGRAPH, Massive Software will show new developments of its Academy Award-winning autonomous agent 3D animation system for crowd-related visual effects, and will roll out pre-built, pre-motion captured ready-to-run agents for locomotion, ambient motion, stadium action and medieval sword combat.
Character Animation Technologies will be at the show with a new version of its plug-in for 3DS Max. CAT 2 adds extra bones, a new inverse kinematics system and animateable stretch and squash to CAT's advanced character toolset.
Hit Lab NZ is taking Augmented Reality (AR) out of the lab and past the limitations of head-mounted and hand-held hardware with exhibits featuring next-gen AR platforms, including mobile phones.
Media Design School will be on hand to promote its rich real-world undergraduate and graduate qualifications in 3D animation, 3D visualization, visual effects and game development.
And Right Hemisphere, the provider of product graphics management software, will have a number of announcements at the show, including a new version of its Deep Server software, which incorporates advancements in the search and management of graphical data for large-scale companies.