Di-O-Matic, Inc., a leading developer of 3D character animation software and plug-in tools today announced Maskarad, a new ground-breaking automatic markerless facial performance motion capture software. The Maskarad v1 software is expected to begin shipping in fall 2010 for US 1499$.

With Maskarad, 3D artists only need a simple video file featuring an actor performance to create lifelike facial animations. Maskarad automatically locate and track facial expressions and mouth movements. Before Maskarad, realistic 3D facial animation was limited to only a few high-end projects. This was due to the expensive motion capture hardware and laborious post-processing involved either directly or through outsourcing.

“I’ve tested and used a lot of 3rd party software in my years of production on some of the best games of all-time like Bungie’s Halo3, Ubisoft’s Spinter Cell and Prince of Persia to name a few” revealed Jonathan Abenhaim, senior freelance character animator. He continues: “My hat goes off to the team over at Di-O-Matic for nailing it with Maskarad!…..It’s insanely simple, it output results in a fraction of the time it used to take me to produce facial animations.”

No messy or cumbersome face markers setup, no time-consuming post-processing and no expensive dedicated hardware is required. Maskarad quickly output facial animation data ready to be used in your favorite 3d applications including 3ds max, Maya, Softimage and MotionBuilder.

Maskarad is a markerless motion capture technology that literally puts motion capture on the animator’s desktop. You can shoot a video right at your workplace using a webcam or inexpensive digital camera and have it converted to 3D facial animation data in minutes.

For a full list of all the features planned for Maskarad and video-demo of Maskarad, please visit the product information page at: http://www.di-o-matic.com/products/Software/Maskarad/

Pricing and Availability

Maskarad is currently in development and is expected to begin shipping in fall 2010. Pricing is US 1499$ for a full commercial version (protected with ALPServer, Di-O-Matic licensing system with floating license options), and comes with one year support. For all pricing and support services visit: http://www.di-o-matic.com/products/

About Di-O-Matic, Inc.

Established in Montr©al in 2000, Di-O-Matic, Inc. develops high-end character animation software and plug-in applications for professional 3D animation artists and production studios all over the world. With globally renowned customers including: Activision, Boeing, Blur Studios, Capcom, Disney, RockStar Games, SEGA and Ubisoft, Di-O-Matic software has been used to enhance and animate CG characters like: Batman, Garfield Spider-Man, SpongeBob SquarePants, Mickey Mouse and many more. www.di-o-matic.com