The Briefing Room

Latest versions of Food, Deadline, Krakatoa and More Showcaed Throughout Conference

The software division of award-winning visual effects studio Frantic Films will be demonstrating an array of new software products at SIGGRAPH 2007. Along with a new version of Deadline, the company‘s popular render farm solution, Frantic Films will unveil several new developments at Booth #1720 throughout the conference, August 7-9, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, Calif.

Frantic Films will be introducing commercial versions of several highly anticipated new technologies at SIGGRAPH, and will showcase the latest developments in its current software suite. These tools provide production-proven solutions designed for visual effects and animation professionals, and include:

• Flood and Flood: Surf: Flood is a simulation software suite that creates realistic water, foam, oil, rubber and lava. Flood: Surf lets users create photo real ocean surfaces

• Krakatoa: High-volume point-based particle renderer, manipulation and management toolkit available as a plug-in for Autodesk 3ds Max

• Deadline: Render farm management system that provides a hassle-free method to both administer and expedite projects on render farms of all sizes

• Amaretto: 3ds Max interface for NVIDIA‘s Gelato renderer that gives VFX professionals complete interoperability between the two programs

Come by the Frantic Films booth at SIGGRAPH for additional product announcements at the conference.

“All of Frantic Films software tools have been developed out of necessity–to fill the need of complex production challenges we encountered on major VFX films like Superman Returns, as well as current productions for Walden Media,” said Chris Bond, president & creative director, Frantic Films. “These tools have been put to the ultimate test–required to perform and deliver under tight timelines, not only here at Frantic–but also at several prominent effects, animation and gaming facilities around the world.”

“The development team at Frantic Films is exemplary, they also provide incredibly fast and efficient support. We have been using Deadline to run a render farm of over 160 computers, and we are able to output thousands of images per month with no worries. I can rest assured that everything renders smoothly with Deadline,” said Sylvain Berger, Technical Director of Alpha Vision, a 2-year customer of Frantic Films Deadline software.

About Frantic Films Software

Frantic Films Software has developed a reputation for creating innovative custom-built R&D solutions and quality software products. From the Deadline™ Render Farm Management System, to the Amaretto 3ds Max interface for the NVIDIA Gelato renderer, to the Flood Fluid Simulation Suite, Frantic Films Software is pushing the envelope of conventional thought and applying real science to create tools and technology that truly open a whole new world of possibilities for VFX professionals. For more information, visit Frantic Films Software at http://software.franticfilms.com.

About Frantic Films

Headquartered in Winnipeg, Canada, with offices in Vancouver and Los Angeles, Calif., Frantic Films has been operating divisions that provide visual effects for film and television, live action production and VFX software development since 1997. Frantic Films‘ award-winning visual effects teams have worked on films including Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer, Grindhouse, Superman Returns, X-Men 3, Poseidon and many others. The company‘s software tools were developed to solve complex production challenges on in-house feature effects projects, and are also in use at many leading 3D animation and effects facilities worldwide. Frantic Films‘ live action division creates and produces Gemini Award-winning programs for Canadian and international television networks. For more information, visit http://www.franticfilms.com/.