Media release 18 December 2007
AIE leads Endorphin training for Australian games industry
Australian game developers and students attending the Academy of Interactive Entertainment’s (AIE) professional development workshops and courses in Melbourne and Canberra next year will be the first to get training in Endorphin, the latest in 3D character animation software.
This breakthrough technology, used in upcoming AAA titles that include Grand Theft Auto IV, produces directed and fully-interactive 3D characters that essentially animate themselves with real-life movements that are unique every time - dramatically reducing animation asset production time.
AIE, which last month received the prestigious 2007 Australian Small Training Provider of the Year Award, is the first training organisation in Australia to receive a site-wide Endorphin licence and the first to include Endorphin in its courses.
"Endorphin is one of the most exciting tools in 3D production today, and the Academy of Interactive Entertainment is genuinely thrilled to be working with NaturalMotion Ltd, to give our students and the local game development industry the opportunity to work with it to strengthen industry skills and maintain a globally competitive edge,” says Matt Curtis, Head of School, AIE Melbourne.
“The AIE leads Australian training for the game industry by teaching current state-of-the-art technologies that the industry uses, so Endorphin is a natural fit into our professional games development course."
NaturalMotion, based in Oxford UK, also provides technical and supervisory support for AIE’s industry-focussed academic projects.
This latest academic-industry partnership with NaturalMotion further positions AIE as Australia’s Centre of Excellence in industry-based training in game development.
More about Endorphin …
Based on Oxford University research on the control of body movements, NaturalMotion's first product, Endorphin, synthesizes off-line 3D character animation in real time.
Used by the industry's leading production and game companies, Endorphin offers an entirely new approach to 3D animation, and is the only character animation software to utilize Dynamic Motion Synthesis (DMS), a technology based on artificial intelligence controllers that imitate the human nervous system.
Unlike conventional animation techniques such as key-framing or motion capture, Endorphin's DMS technology uses the CPU to simulate the brain and body of 3D characters, which allows animators to synthesize human movements in real time.
For further details please contact Matt Curtis, Head of School AIE Melbourne on (03) 9820 8201 or mattc@aie.vic.edu.au