Eyematic and Digimation Announce Software Distribution Agreement

Eyematic announced that Eyematic FaceStation 1.5 is now availablefor purchase through Digimation. Eyematic, a provider of visualcommunication software, made the announcement in conjunction with therelease of FaceStation 1.5. Digimation is Discreet’s PreferredPlug-in Publisher and has developed and distributed graphics softwaresince 1992.

FaceStation 1.5 is the highly anticipated computer vision-based 3Dfacial animation software suite from Eyematic. FaceStation usesEyematic’s patented computer vision software engines toautomatically recognize and track facial expressions from either a livevideo camera or pre-recorded video clips. In realtime actual facialexpressions are analyzed, captured and used to animate fully shaded 3Dmodels in Discreet 3ds max. No motion capture hardware, facial markersor offline rendering processes are required. Prior to FaceStation,realistic 3D facial animation was limited to a handful of high-endprojects with the requisite large budgets.

“FaceStation is the result of over seven years of effort bysome of the best researchers and software developers in theworld,” said Jim Stewartson, chief technical officer of Eyematic.“We’re pleased to join forces with industry leaderDigimation in order to bring FaceStation to market.”

“The computer vision sensing technology in FaceStation istruly remarkable,” said David Avgikos, president of Digimation.“We believe FaceStation will bring high quality facial animationwithin the reach of many more artists than ever beforepossible.”

FaceStation also includes Eyematic Avatar Editor, allowing thecreation of ready-to-animate characters complete with morph targetssimply using front and side photographs. The FaceStation 1.5 softwaresuite for Discreet 3ds max is now available through the Digimation website www.digimation.com as wellas through authorized resellers. At the NAB 2002, Eyematic alsodemonstrated a version of FaceStation for Alias|Wavefront Maya thatwill be available this summer. See www.eyematic.com for moreinformation.