NaturalMotion Announces morpheme Animation Engine and Tool Chain

Powerful, Animator-friendly System for Perfect Blends, Events, Transitions, IK and Physics

News by GamesIndustry International Contributor

Published on Aug. 8, 2006

For Immediate Release

July 31, 2006

OXFORD, UK - July 31, 2006 - NaturalMotion Ltd., developers of the highly-acclaimed euphoria and endorphin Dynamic Motion Synthesis (DMS) technologies, today announced morpheme, a powerful new animation engine for next-generation game development. Featuring a flexible and unique 3D authoring tool chain, morpheme is designed to give animators unprecedented creative control over the look of their final in-game animation by allowing them to author and preview blends, transitions, and logic in real time. morpheme will be available in October 2006 on PLAYSTATION®3, Xbox 360TM and PC.

NaturalMotion will showcase morpheme during SIGGRAPH 2006 in Boston, aboard the Lady Christine, an ocean cruiser moored at Boston Harbor.

morpheme consists of two components: morpheme:runtime and morpheme:connect. morpheme:runtime is a run-time engine optimized for PLAYSTATION®3, Xbox 360TM and PC, and ships with full source code. morpheme:connect is a powerful 3D authoring application that allows animators to graphically author blend trees and transition logic (based on Hierarchical Finite State Machines), modify and edit parameters through sliders, and view the results in real time. morpheme is designed as a flexible and open system and does not require the licensing of any other product. morpheme is also designed to seamlessly integrate with other leading 3D animation software and middleware technologies, such as physics engines.

"morpheme is about raising the quality of in-game animation by providing intuitive, graphical control and a flexible programming framework," said Torsten Reil, CEO of NaturalMotion. "With morpheme, animators and programmers can work hand-in-hand to create in-game animation that truly reflects the quality of the source data. morpheme is also designed to run fully integrated with our flagship DMS technology, euphoria, which allows players to experience unique moments every time they play a game."

Key features in morpheme:runtime and morpheme:connect are as follows:

morpheme:runtime

lightweight run-time animation engine optimized for PLAYSTATION®3, Xbox 360TM and PC fully customizable blend nodes full hierarchical state machine IK support rigid body dynamics support euphoria support full source code supplied

morpheme:connect

modern, fully scriptable application 2D and 3D viewports for authoring and visualization graphical authoring of transition graphs and blend trees real-time manipulation through sliders and other UI elements support for live game pad control script support (Lua) fully extensible through plug-ins euphoria support

Pricing and Availability

morpheme will be available in October 2006 on PLAYSTATION®3, Xbox 360TM and PC. For more information, please visit www.naturalmotion.com/morpheme.htm, or contact NaturalMotion via phone (415-867-9679) or email at contact@naturalmotion.com. For additional information on NaturalMotion, euphoria, endorphin or DMS technology, please visit www.naturalmotion.com.

About NaturalMotion

NaturalMotion Ltd. is the first company to create 3D character animation software based on Dynamic Motion Synthesis (DMS), a technology that utilizes Adaptive Behaviors and artificial intelligence to simulate the human-nervous system. Based on Oxford University research on the control of body movements, NaturalMotion's euphoria synthesizes 3D character animation in real time on PLAYSTATION®3, Xbox 360TM and PC, thus creating unique game moments and previously unachievable interactivity. NaturalMotion's other DMS product, endorphin, creates off-line animation significantly faster than traditional techniques and is widely used in the film and games industries, with customers such as The Mill, Capcom, Namco and Konami. For further information please visit NaturalMotion's website www.naturalmotion.com, or join the 25,000 endorphin LE users at community.naturalmotion.com.

® NaturalMotion 2006. euphoria, endorphin and morpheme are trademarks of NaturalMotion Ltd.

Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox Live are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

PLAYSTATION is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

All other brand names, product names, service marks or trademarks belong to their respective holders.

For more information, press only:

Liaison Inc.

Scotti McGowan, 604.929.8498, scotti@liaisonpr.com

Heidi Lowell, 503.796.9822, heidi@liaisonpr.com

Reader contact:

NaturalMotion Ltd.

Behaviour House, Hythe Bridge Street

Oxford OX1 2ET