Digitised Humans Come Alive with NVIDIA Graphics
November 25 2003 - 6:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
Digitised Humans Come Alive with NVIDIA Graphics SANTA CLARA,
California, November 25 /PRNewswire/ -- NVIDIA Technology Key to
Stunning and Biomechanically Accurate Animation in Discovery
Channel's Xtreme Martial Arts Documentary NVIDIA Corporation
(Nasdaq: NVDA), the worldwide leader in visual processing
solutions, revealed that the NVIDIA Quadro(R) FX 3000 was the key
technology used by 3D body scanning and motion capture studios to
create digitised humans with biomechanically correct skeletons and
muscle for the Discovery Channel Xtreme Martial Arts (XMA)
documentary. This fascinating look at martial arts and the human
body combines live-action fight sequences with physical and
behavioural-based animation to illustrate the science of martial
arts by highlighting moves normally impossible to analyse with the
naked eye. View XMA clips at:
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/xma/video/video.html (Logo:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020613/NVDALOGO Photo:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20031125/SFTU042) "This
combination of live-action footage, spectacular visuals, and
biomechanically-sound animation may redefine the way we look at
human motion and bring it to the screen," said Mickey Stern,
executive producer of XMA for BASE Productions. "The entertainment
value is self-evident; the value for scientific study and learning
is unlimited. Martial artists push their bodies to super-human
levels, and only with NVIDIA Quadro graphics could we have measured
and illustrated it down to the bone and tissue level." Each martial
artist in XMA stepped into Nexus Digital Studios' laser scanner for
the 3D body scan necessary to create a life-like virtual model of a
human being. With scan data comprising hundreds of thousands of
polygons, the NVIDIA Quadro FX 3000 created a 3D image of each
performer in real time. Next, biomechanically accurate, animated
skeletons were scaled to fit the body size of the performers
according to their scans. As the artists fought, Motional Analysis
Studios (MAS) used digitising cameras to capture the subtlety and
precision of their acrobatic and often deadly moves. MAS used this
behavioral data and NVIDIA Quadro FX 3000 graphics to bring the 3D
body scans to life by imposing natural movement onto the digitised
characters. "The key technology behind the groundbreaking animation
in XMA was the NVIDIA Quadro FX 3000," said Domi Piturro, studio
director at Nexus Digital Studios. "This professional graphics
board easily transformed huge datasets generated by full body and
facial scans into photo realistic 3D images with a level of
precision that ensured high-quality results. Because of great
people and the precision and performance of NVIDIA Quadro FX 3000
graphics, viewers will have a look inside martial arts and human
body in ways never seen before." To blend live action and animated
sequences in real time, the studios combined scanned human
characters with streaming motion capture data and mapped those
moving, 3D characters onto 35mm digitised film. In one portion of
the documentary, for instance, a martial artist jabs the end of a
weapon into the torso of another. The resultant jolt to bones is
shown to viewers through an animated x-ray technique mapped to the
torso of the live action martial artist. This created the illusion
that animated bones and tissue were those of the live performer.
"With its ability to draw more than a hundred million triangles a
second, only NVIDIA graphics had the horsepower necessary to
transform the body scan, motion capture, and muscle sensor data
generated while making XMA into the stunning animation that defines
it," said Scott Gagain, vice president of project development at
Motion Analysis Studios. "With the NVIDIA Quadro FX 3000, we had
more than enough 'oomph' to get the job done. That makes a big
difference in a production environment." For a new look at the
ancient tradition of martial arts, tune in to XMA on the Discovery
Channel Sunday, November 30, 2003 at 9:00 p.m. and midnight;
Thursday, December 4, 2003 at 9:00 p.m. and midnight; and Sunday,
December 7, 2003 at 5:00 p.m. All times EST and PST. XMA was
produced by BASE Productions, Inc. for the Discovery Channel, John
Brenkus, directing. About NVIDIA NVIDIA Corporation is a market
leader in visual computing technology dedicated to creating
products that enhance the interactive experience on consumer and
professional computing platforms. Its graphics and communications
processors have broad market reach and are incorporated into a wide
variety of computing platforms, including consumer digital-media
PCs, enterprise PCs, professional workstations, digital content
creation systems, notebook PCs, military navigation systems, and
video game consoles. NVIDIA is headquartered in Santa Clara,
California and employs more than 1,700 people worldwide. For more
information, visit the Company's Web site at http://www.nvidia.com
. Certain statements in this press release, including any
statements relating to the Company's performance expectations for
NVIDIA's family of products and expectations of continued revenue
growth, are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks
and uncertainties that could cause results to be materially
different than expectations. Such risks and uncertainties include,
but are not limited to, manufacturing and other delays relating to
new products, difficulties in the fabrication process and
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industry trends including cyclical trends in the PC and
semiconductor industries, the impact of competitive products and
pricing alternatives, market acceptance of the Company's new
products, and the Company's dependence on third-party developers
and publishers. Investors are advised to read the Company's Annual
Report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q filed with
the Securities and Exchange Commission, particularly those sections
entitled "Certain Business Risks," for a fuller discussion of these
and other risks and uncertainties. NOTE: All company and/or product
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without notice. SOURCE NVIDIA Corporation NOTE TO EDITORS: If you
are interested in viewing additional information on NVIDIA, please
visit the NVIDIA Press Room at
http://www.nvidia.com/page/press_room.html CONTACT: Charlie Rasch
of NVIDIA Corporation, +1-408-486-8236, or crasch@nvidia.com Photo:
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