Icarus Studios News

SANTA ROSA, CA - Motion Analysis Corporation, the world's leader in realtime optical motion capture technology, and Icarus Studios, a comprehensive resource center for builders of 3D virtual worlds, MMOGs, and simulation projects, will demo at Siggraph 2007 their new real-time streaming motion capture viewer, the Talon Viewer(TM).

The Talon Viewer will allow motion capture studios, game developers, virtual world developers, and movie and television production companies to see - in real-time - multiple actors, cameras, and virtual props collectively in one tool. The Talon Viewer greatly reduces the time and costs associated with post production.

"The beauty of this tool is that you could have one actor doing facial mocap, one actor doing hand motion with the Talon Glove, and another actor doing full body motion, all controlling different parts of one virtual character at the same time the director is manipulating a virtual camera with a game controller," says Judah Graham, Icarus Studios Lead Animator.

Talon Viewer was built using the Icarus Engine, a robust and full featured next-gen 3D engine that supports normal mapping and dynamic lighting for production quality visual graphics. It can stream HTR and TRC data from Motion Analysis' EVaRT(TM) tracking software either directly from the host computer or from a hierarchical solving SONIC XML Server(TM) directly onto a camera, a single character, multiple characters, or even specific parts of a character like hands, arms, legs, and face. Other input devices such as a game or midi controller can also be used with the Talon Viewer.

"The Talon Viewer combines the strengths and advantages of the Motion Analysis Realtime capabilities with the power of the Icarus Engine to provide on-set pre-vis of production independent of your animation package," says Tom Whitaker, CEO and President of Motion Analysis. "The ability to view live characters, environments, and camera positions will save time and money by ensuring the capture that the director wants. By using the Talon Viewer you will see the actual captured data and not the data as interpreted through third party software."

"Icarus Studios has created the only suite of tools designed from scratch specifically as an integrated third party environment for 3D online world creation," says Jim Hettinger, CEO of Icarus Studios. "The Talon Viewer provides a powerful tool to replace post production with real time motion capture."

The Talon Viewer will debut in the Motion Analysis' booth #527 at Siggraph 2007 at the San Diego Convention Center, August 7th through 9th.

The Talon Viewer is scheduled for commercial release in 4Q07. It will be sold exclusively through Motion Analysis Corporation. For more information visit http://www.motionanalysis.com.

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ABOUT ICARUS STUDIOS

Icarus Studios is a technology company dedicated to helping clients build virtual worlds, MMOGs, simulators, and 3D educational products. Our unique, next generation technology makes Icarus a comprehensive resource center for anyone tasked with quickly creating virtual space. From complete project development to platform and tools licensing, Icarus works with each client's time and budget to accomplish objectives in a fraction of historical development times. With an average of over fifteen years of experience building online worlds, Icarus technical and design leadership delivers consistent quality. Icarus today employs over 65 professionals who are passionate about their industry and the quality of their work. www.icarusstudios.com.

ABOUT MOTION ANALYSIS CORPORATION

Motion Analysis Corporation (MAC) is the undisputed worldwide leader and provider of optical motion-capture systems in entertainment, video games, film, broadcasting, virtual reality, medicine, sports and research. The company was formed in 1982 and has its headquarters in Santa Rosa, California. Motion Analysis. Recent film projects using a Motion Analysis system include Peter Jackson's "King Kong", "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King", "I, Robot", "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" and the "Matrix" trilogy. The Motion Analysis website is located at: www.motionanalysis.com.

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Talon Viewer and EVaRT are trademarks of Motion Analysis Corporation. Progress is a registered trademark and SONIC XML Server is a trademark of Progress Software.

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