ICARUS Alternatives

ICARUS

London, U.K. 12 March 2003 - The Pixel Farm, a new company focused on innovation in the field of high-end digital post-production, announces today that it has become the exclusive licensee of the Icarus suite of tools developed by the Advanced Interfaces Group (AIG) at Manchester University. The Pixel Farm has been working with AIG to optimise the system for high-end post production use and will release, PFTrack, the first of a number of products based on the Icarus technology in April 2003.

AIG developed the Icarus suite of tools to enable law enforcement agencies to analyse video footage and rebuilt scene of crime information by recreating a 3D environment from camera data. This data can be used to match camera movement and camera field of view, allowing the exact matching of computer generated models and animation. A number of other tools are also provided to further enhance footage.

PFTrack has been designed to greatly simplify the process of extracting camera data from video sources while still providing extremely accurate information. This can then be used by 3D artists to match computer generated images to the background video images. PFTrack supports export to all the major 3D applications including SOFTIMAGE|XSI, Alias Wavefront Maya, Side Effects Houdini, LightWave and Discreet Logic?s 3D Studio Max as well as Flame and Inferno.

Richard Spöhrer, Managing Director of The Pixel Farm said, ?this is a very exciting move for both The Pixel Farm and for AIG. The Pixel Farm is working closely with the developers at AIG to ensure that our solutions address real production needs. The release of PFTrack is the first of a number of products that provide users with best of breed technology at a realistic price.?
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Dr Simon Gibson, of the Advanced Interfaces Group adds, ?we are happy to be working with The Pixel Farm to fully exploit Icarus Technology. The software has for some time been available to download free from our web site and this has provided us wit