AGREEMENT MARKS A MAJOR INDUSTRY ADVANCE FOR 3D TEXTURE PAINTING TECHNOLOGY

July 21, 2010 - The Foundry, a world-leading developer of visual effects (VFX) software whose products have been used to create ambitious VFX sequences in recent box office blockbusters such as Iron Man 2, Avatar, and Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, has entered into a unique relationship with Walt Disney Animation Studios to advance 3D texture painting techniques announced Bill Collis, CEO, The Foundry. In addition to incorporating elements of Disney’s internally developed Paint 3D technology into Mari, Walt Disney Animation Studios’ technology group will participate in a Mari steering committee, contributing to the future direction of the software.
 
Paint 3D offers some of the industry’s most advanced aspects of paint and texture creation technology. Paint 3D is also the original development ground and authoring tool for Ptex, Disney’s revolutionary open source texture mapping system that eliminates the need for UV mapping and efficiently stores hundreds of thousands of images in a single file. This represents the first time Walt Disney Animation Studios has commercially licensed its proprietary animation software to an outside company.  
 
“The technology group at Walt Disney Animation Studios is proud to have created some of the most innovative software in the industry and we’re thrilled to be contributing technology to The Foundry to make these next generation tools available to everyone,” said Dan Candela, director of technology at Walt Disney Animation Studios.  “We’re looking forward to expanding our relationship with The Foundry, using their technology to help create 3D paint and texture tools that leverage the best of our mutual technologies.”
 
 “The addition of Mari to the product portfolio earlier this year has launched us into a new market,” said Collis.  “This agreement with Walt Disney Animation Studios provides access to their Paint 3D technology with its industry-proven toolset, powerful procedural paint and definitive Ptex paint infrastructure.  It’s a natural complement to Mari and we’re very excited about producing new solutions.”
 
Paint 3D was first used on Disney’s 2005 animated feature, Chicken Little, and was widely deployed on Meet the Robinsons (2007), Bolt (2008), and all subsequent animated projects including the upcoming November release, Tangled.  Disney first used Ptex on the production of its animated short, Glago’s Guest, in late 2007, and went on to present it publicly for the first time at the Eurographics Symposium on Rendering (EGSR) in June 2008. I (I Its enthusiastic reception was followed in January 2010 by an announcement of the availability of the Ptex technology as open source.
 
Mari – technology originally developed at Weta Digital – is a 3D texture painting application.  The technology was driven by the need to handle complex, high-resolution textures on 3D models. Mari was designed as a full 3D paint tool with a responsiveness and feature set that exceeds the best dedicated 2D paint systems.  Mari is extremely scalable, coping easily with extremes level of detail – literally, thousands of textures – quickly and elegantly.
 
ABOUT THE WALT DISNEY STUDIOS

For more than 85 years, The Walt Disney Studios has been the foundation on which The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) was built. Today, the Studio brings quality movies, music and stage plays to consumers throughout the world. Feature films are released under four banners: Walt Disney Pictures, which includes Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios, Disneynature, Marvel, and Touchstone Pictures, which includes the distribution of live action films from DreamWorks Studios.

Through the Home Entertainment division, innovative distribution methods provide access to creative content across multiple platforms. Original music and motion picture soundtracks are produced under Walt Disney Records and Hollywood Records, while Disney Theatrical Group produces and licenses live events, including Broadway theatrical productions, Disney on Ice and Disney LIVE!.  

For more information, please visit www.disney.com.

ABOUT THE FOUNDRY

The Foundry is a world-leading innovator of visual effects and image processing technologies that boost productivity in motion picture and video post-production.
 
The Foundry has a well-established client base that includes leading visual effects facilities worldwide, such as Warner Bros, The Moving Picture Company, Weta Digital, Framestore, Sony Pictures Imageworks and Digital Domain. It is at the cutting edge of software development, marketing and sales for visual effects compositing.
 
In June 2009 The Foundry announced a management buyout for an undisclosed sum led by Advent Venture Partners. Advent backed The Foundry’s management team, led by CEO Dr Bill Collis and the original founders, Simon Robinson and Bruno Nicoletti. As founder and Chief Scientist at The Foundry, Simon Robinson has recently been voted number 52 in Fast Company’s second annual ranking of ‘The 100 Most Creative People in Business’.
 
The Foundry is highly profitable and has more than doubled in size in the past two years.
 
The Foundry’s products support a wide range of award-winning host platforms including After Effects, Autodesk® Media and Entertainment Systems, Avid DS, Nuke, Shake and Final Cut Pro. In 2007, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded a Sci-Tech Award® to The Foundry’s development team for the Furnace image processing suite – and the company now holds two products with AMPAS Sci-Tech Award® winning technology including high-end compositing system Nuke.   In addition, The Foundry has recently earned a Distinguished Honoree medal in The 2010 International Business Awards as the Most Innovative Company of the Year in Europe.

The Foundry is headquartered in London, and has offices in Los Angeles. For more information please visit: www.thefoundry.co.uk

© The Foundry, its logo and product names are registered trademarks in the UK, USA and/or other countries. Academy Award is a registered trademark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.


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Cordelia Meacher | IF Communications | Davidson Building | 5 Southampton Street | London | WC2E 7HA | UK

+44 7961 311080  | Twitter: @CordeliaMeacher or @IFComm | cordelia@if-communications.com