Digital Dimension Turns to Discreet 3ds max Software to Create Seamless 3D Effects for The Last Samurai

San Francisco, Calif.-Discreet, a division of Autodesk, Inc.commends Digital Dimension for creating complex realistic 3D effectsfor "The Last Samurai" with 3ds max, Discreet's award-winning 3Dmodeling, animation, and rendering solution. "The Last Samurai" is offto a great start, debuting at #1 its opening weekend and dwarfing allcompetition in ticket sales. Like Blur and Frantic Films, DigitalDimension is one of many visual effects studios worldwide relying on3ds max for their major film effects and animation projects.

One of the holiday's most anticipated films, "The Last Samurai", isan epic story of how a Civil War veteran (played by Tom Cruise) visitsJapan to train their military in the way of the gun as they prepare todefeat the country's last samurais. Because of the time period, themain challenge faced by Digital Dimension was creating photo-realisticCG weapons that left no trace of artificiality.

"The filmmakers didn't want any of the work we did to benoticeable," says Ben Girard, founder and president of the Burbank,California-based visual effects studio. "This is not an effects film,so everything we did had to blend perfectly with the live-actionfootage. 3ds max met those objectives perfectly."

Some of the key sequences that Digital Dimension relied on 3ds maxwere multiple shots involving the integration of a photorealistic 3Dsword and lance into live-action footage. 3ds max was used to designand texture the weapons, and then blend the CG weapons with the users'hands while matching the CG lighting with the live-action lighting.

In addition to "The Last Samurai", Digital Dimension has been using3ds max for all of their major projects, including "Elf", "A CinderellaStory", and "Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed".

About 3ds max

Used by the world's largest community of professional 3D artists ingames, film, and design visualization, 3ds max 6 modeling, animationand rendering software is available for $3,495US in a range oflanguages through local and international Discreet AuthorizedResellers. For more information, visit www.discreet.com/3dsmax.Discover why 3D artists and designers choose 3ds max to createtop-selling games ("Tom Clancy: Splinter Cell", "Grand Theft Auto: ViceCity"), amazing effects and animation ("Elf", "The Last Samurai"), andinspiring building and product designs (Hong Kong Airport, BurtonSnowboards) around the world.

About Discreet

Discreet empowers media professionals to realize the visualexperience and transform their vision into reality. Discreet'saward-winning solutions are designed for digital media creation,management and delivery-across all disciplines from film and televisionvisual effects, color grading and editing to animation, gamedevelopment, and design visualization. Discreet is based in Montreal,Quebec and is a division of Autodesk, Inc, the world's leading designand digital media creation, management, and distribution company. www.discreet.com