The software division of award-winning visual effects studio Frantic Films will be demonstrating an array of new software products at SIGGRAPH 2007. Along with a new version of Deadline, the company's popular render farm solution, Frantic Films will unveil several new developments at Booth #1720 throughout the conference, Aug. 7-9, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California.
These new solutions designed for visual effects and animationProfessionals include:
* Flood and Flood: Surf: Flood is a simulation software suite that creates realistic water, foam, oil, rubber and lava. Flood: Surf lets users create photoreal ocean surfaces
* Krakatoa: High-volume point-based particle renderer, manipulation and management toolkit available as a plug-in for Autodesk 3ds Max
* Deadline: Render farm management system that provides a hassle-free method to both administer and expedite projects on render farms of all sizes
* Amaretto: 3ds Max interface for NVIDIA's Gelato renderer that gives VFX professionals complete interoperability between the two programs
"All of Frantic Films software tools have been developed out of necessity -- to fill the need of complex production challenges we encountered on major VFX films like SUPERMAN RETURNS, as well as current productions for Walden Media," said Chris Bond, president & creative director, FranticFilms. "These tools have been put to the ultimate test-required to perform and deliver under tight timelines, not only here at Frantic, but also at several prominent effects, animation and gaming facilities around the world."
"The development team at Frantic Films is exemplary, they also provide incredibly fast and efficient support. We have been using Deadline to run a render farm of over 160 computers, and we are able to output thousands of images per month with no worries. I can rest assured that everything renders smoothly with Deadline," said Sylvain Berger, technical director of Alpha Vision, a two-year customer of Frantic Films Deadline software.
Headquartered in Winnipeg, Canada, with offices in Vancouver and LosAngeles, Frantic Films (www.franticfilms.com) has been operating divisions that provide visual effects for film and television, live-action production and vfx software development since 1997. Frantic Films' award-winning visual effects teams have worked on films, including FANTASTIC FOUR: THE RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER, GRINDHOUSE, SUPERMAN RETURNS, X-MEN 3, POSEIDON and many others. The company's software tools were developed to solve complex production challenges on in-house feature effects projects, and are also in use at many leading 3D animation and effects facilities worldwide. Frantic Films' live-action division creates and produces Gemini Award-winning programs for Canadian and international television networks.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
