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It's A Wrap – In 3D
From the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology
For immediate release
IT'S A WRAP – IN 3D
Some of the world’s leading
artists and animators are using 3D painting software
developed by an Auckland company with backing from
Technology New Zealand.
The program enables them to
better "wrap" colours and textures around objects in 3D,
says Right Hemisphere Ltd managing director Mark
Thomas.
Previous programs have been unable to do that
very well, which has been a problem in computer art “from
day one”. 3D art has suffered as a result, looking
simplistic or “too clean to be real”.
“It’s like trying
to wrap a football in something like Christmas present paper
– there are bunched and wrinkled loose ends that don’t look
very good. It’s the same in computer paint programs. The
‘wrap’ – around a head or sculpture – never quite looked
right because essentially it was still in 2D.”
Mr Thomas
says Deep Paint 3D gives designers artistic media such as
oils, watercolours, crayons and pastels, which can be
"brushed" directly onto 3D models. Sometimes artists just
want to paint dirt into the cracks.
The program has
received widespread praise from leading artists and
animators, most of whom do work for Hollywood
film-makers.
They say it makes goblins more ghoulish,
sea-monsters more scary, and people more life-like. One,
Bill Fleming, says he is using Deep Paint 3D in all his film
and broadcast work. Mr Fleming has trained some of the
world’s leading talent now working at companies such as
Industrial Light & Magic, Digital Domain, and Pixar.
Mr
Thomas says Technology New Zealand’s investment in the
project gave his company breathing space for research and
development. “It made a difference. We wouldn’t have been
able to do it without that.”
Technology New Zealand is
the Government agency that invests in businesses to
undertake research into new products, processes or
services.
Right Hemisphere employs 16 people. It exports
most of what it produces to the United States, “mainly for
film animations, game developers, and film and TV graphics”,
Mr Thomas says.
-ends-
Caption: Mark Thomas of Right Hemisphere with a computer creation using Deep Paint 3D, and a painting, at right, provided by a customer using the 3D software.
Contact
Mark Thomas, Right
Hemisphere Ltd, Auckland. Ph: (09) 309-3204. Fax: (09)
309-2237. Email: mark@righthemisphere.com
Ian
Gray, Technology New Zealand (Auckland Office) at the
Foundation for Research, Science and Technology. Ph: (09)
912-6730, or 021 660 409. Website:
www.technz.co.nz
Prepared on behalf of the Foundation for
Research, Science and Technology by
I.D. Communications.
Contact: Ian Carson (04) 477-2525,
ian@idcomm.co.nz
Alastair Thompson
Scoop Publisher
Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.
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