SOFTIMAGE Ships Face Robot 1.8—Advancing Realistic 3D Facial Animation

New features and enhancements offer the fastest, most complete facial animation toolset for emotive performance

Montréal, Québec – September 28, 2007 – Softimage Co., a subsidiary of Avid Technology, Inc., today announced the availability of its 3D character facial animation technology, SOFTIMAGE® Face Robot® 1.8.  Softimage Face Robot is a unique technology designed for professional content 3D artists that allows creation of realistic human facial character animations quickly and easily, eliminating complex technical rigging steps.  SOFTIMAGE Face Robot 1.8 introduces specific new features that especially benefit game developers with enhanced game pipeline export and custom data interop, allowing it to integrate into pipelines built on SOFTIMAGE|XSI software, or between any other professional3D animation software packages.

SOFTIMAGE Face Robot 1.8 is a complete technology that can scale to meet the needs of facilities varying in size and scope of project or game title. When purchased and deployed, SOFTIMAGE Face Robot comes with the full support and consulting services of Softimage Special Projects group and the research & development team that created Face Robot.

New in SOFTIMAGE Face Robot 1.8:

• Built on the SOFTIMAGE|XSI 6 core to take advantage of features including: Crosswalk, MOTOR (motion transfer), Delta Referencing and Animation Layers
• New shape rig export system – allowing users to export entire head blend shapes for use in SOFTIMAGE|XSI software
• Improved game export pipeline – offering auto-enveloping, which delivers more accurate and higher quality results
• Enhanced training materials with a new 23-part training video demonstrating the Face Robot tuning process
• Seven ready-to-use preset head models

Availability:
SOFTIMAGE Face Robot 1.8 is available now.  For a consultation and Face Robot 1.8 pricing information, please contact a local Softimage sales representative at: http://www.softimage.com/buy/

About Softimage Co.

Softimage Co., a subsidiary of Avid Technology, Inc. provides intuitive, production proven tools that free 3D artists to create the world’s most compelling characters in the film, broadcast, post-production and games industries. Its flagship product, SOFTIMAGE|XSI is the most complete and intuitive character animation solution available. Easily integrated into any CG production pipeline, XSI software enables 3D artists to create the most lifelike character performances.  SOFTIMAGE|FACE ROBOT is the first commercial toolset that accelerates facial animation that empowers 3D artists to create, refine and repurpose high-quality, lifelike facial animation in less time than traditional solutions. 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 Oscarâ, Grammy®, and Emmy® award-winning products and services, please visit: www.avid.com.

© 2007Avid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Product features, specifications, system requirements, and availability are subject to change without notice. Promotions and discounts are subject to availability and change without notice. All prices are USMSRP for the U.S. and Canada only and are subject to change without notice. Contact your local AVID office or reseller for prices outside the U.S. and Canada. 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. Avid, Digidesign, Film Composer, ProTools, SOFTIMAGE, FACE ROBOT and XSI are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries. mental ray and mental images are registered trademarks of mental images GmbH in the USA and other countries. 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. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.