Phil Elliott
08:10 (BST)
24/10/2008
Autodesk to acquire Softimage
Autodesk has announced that it has reached a deal with Avid to acquire substantially all of the assets of the Softimage business unit for USD 35 million.
Montreal-based Softimage is best known for its XSI range 3D animation tools, used by Ubisoft and Capcom among others, and Autodesk has confirmed that it will continue development on a number of titles, while also integrating some technology into its own products in the future.
Autodesk Media and Entertainment senior VP Marc Petit said of the deal: "Softimage has been developing state-of-the-art 3D technology for more than 20 years, and its products are recognized as best-of-breed in the entertainment industry. Upon the completion of this acquisition we will be adding Softimage technology and products to our portfolio, and welcoming one of the most talented teams in the industry to Autodesk Media and Entertainment.
"Both will help us accelerate the work of our Games Technology Group, as we build the next-generation of real-time, interactive 3D authoring tools for games, film and television."
Gary Greenfield, CEO and chairman of Avid Technology, added that he felt Autodesk would make "a great home" for the Softimage business.
More details on product development and integration:
- Softimage XSI: Including XSI Essentials, XSI Advanced, XSI Academic, XSI Mod Tool and the XSI software development kit. XSI is production-proven 3D animation software for games, film and television. It offers a complete 3D modelling, animation, rendering and development environment for visual effects and custom tools.
- Softimage Face Robot: A complete software solution for easily rigging and animating 3D faces. Face Robot enables studios to create life-like facial animation at incredible speeds.
- Softimage Cat: This advanced character animation system is a plug-in for Autodesk 3ds Max software. It is intended to be integrated into the 3ds Max product line.
- Softimage Crosswalk: This interoperability solution is intended to be integrated with Autodesk’s own interoperability technology.
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