wondertouch particleIllusion Swings into Action at Pendulum Studios

Award-winning Particle Effects Software Plays Critical Role in Particle Effects Creation on High Profile Commercial Spots for Namco and Kellogg's

ST. LOUIS, MO - (December 13, 2005) - wondertouch™, a leading software developer of high performance particle effects creation tools, today announced that leading San Diego animation and effects house Pendulum Studios relied extensively on wondertouch's particleIllusion™ 3.0 on two recent commercial campaigns for game developer NAMCO and cereal producer the Kellogg Company, both of which feature electrifying CGI and visual effects creation sequences. The software has been in use at the studio for the past several years where it has quickly and efficiently delivered a wide range of particle effects for television, commercial and game-cinematic projects including the hit Warner Bros. television series, Smallville.

"On both commercial projects, the team at Pendulum Studios has created extraordinary visual effects sequences that show off the breadth and versatility of particleIllusion" said Alan Lorence, president of wondertouch. "We're excited that the software continues to be used widely as their tool of choice for 2D particle effects content creation for such an impressive and diverse roster of projects."

On a :30 international spot for the highly anticipated next installment in NAMCO's celebrated fighting game series, Soul Calibur III, Pendulum turned to particleIllusion 3.0 to create critical effects that highlighted the game's unique character customization features, which allow players to build personalized fighters with which to do battle.

In a pivotal sequence, Pendulum created the idea of the 'Blacksmith', to capitalize on the player's new ability to 'forge' their own characters, who the viewer sees pulling a molten piece of steel from a blazing hearth, beginning the process of forging a magical sword. With each crash of his hammer the evolving blade emits a torrent of fiery and magical sparks which are a catalyst for the explosive genesis of a different warrior from within each preceding character.

Pendulum was responsible for 100% of CGI production. According to Rob Taylor Pendulum's president and executive producer, particleIllusion was used to create all of the sparks effects. It also used the dynamic wind tools in the software application to move particles based upon the motion of interacting 3D objects such as the swinging hammer.

"particleIllusion provides some amazingly flexible solutions and facilitates the creation of some fx styles that aren't easily created by any other means. We used particleIllusion's wind tools to make the sparks feel as if they were being pushed out of the way by the swinging arm and hammer of the forging characters. This provided a subtle but seemingly realistic effect that gave the 2D particles the look and 'feel' of 3D.

"Using particleIllusion we were able to track and integrate the sparks elements by simply importing the final 3D rendered plates into particleIllusion as a background sequence and tracking everything manually - lining up the wind elements with the actual hammer and allowing them to simply blow the particles out of the way at the appropriate time. We were also able to move the overall particleIllusion 'camera' by animating the layer offset and zoom parameters, therefore eliminating the need to animate each of the particle emitters and dynamics elements independently. This meant we could create the entire shot in one scene which was a great time saver."

Not Your Parent's Cereal Commercial

For the Kellogg's Company and international advertising agency J. Walter Thompson, Pendulum completed three :30 spots for the Choco Krispis cereal brand. The spots involve a detailed cliff-hanging plot, combining live action sequences with complex 3D CGI characters and environments, as well as traditional 2D animation. They feature an intentionally surreal crew of menacing, semi photo-realistic 3D skeleton pirates that were integrated with live-action and 2D cell animation for Kellogg's hero character.

The explosion fx elements in the Kellogg's spot were created almost entirely within particleIllusion, in conjunction with Maya ®, to include the multiple layers of smoke, dust, embers, falling ash, and most importantly, related dynamics such as exploding arcs of burning fireballs. These were then integrated into the 3D scene by matting out various blocking elements, like live-action characters, props and furniture, and composited in After Effects.

In a scene where two different skeletons collide, Taylor explained that the 'super emitters' feature in particleIllusion 3.0, which allows for the automatic creation of other emitters, helped to powerfully, and cost-effectively portray the pirates' explosive deaths and achieve heightened levels of realism.

"The first pirate actually explodes just before the shot starts so we primarily see the arc of smoky fireball trails and falling debris. However, when the second skeleton blows up in the background, not only does it look really cool... and closely integrates with the actual 3D scene (thanks to tons of matte/roto work in After Effects), but the explosive power of that effect actually blows the smoke and debris of the first explosion off screen. This was a fairly subtle detail, but helped to sell the 'credibility' of the FX.

"Under normal circumstances, being able to provide clients with this level of visual sophistication would necessitate high-end, very time-intensive 3D volumetric fx and dynamics simulations. particleIllusion's flexibility, speed, and quality of output provide us with an incredibly competitive advantage and increased efficiency… which is a fairly intense thing to be able to offer clients in this budget range."

About Pendulum Studios

Pendulum Studios is a San Diego based 3D animation and effects studio specializing in high-end character animation and great story-telling. Owned and operated by directors Michael McCormick and Robert Taylor, the studio strives to produce the highest quality animation for commercials, game cinematics, film, and their own animated shorts. For more information on the studio or any of its service-oriented projects or proprietary films, please visit www.studiopendulum.com.

About wondertouch

wondertouch, headquartered in St. Louis, Mo., is an award-winning software developer specializing in particle effects for the visual effects industry. The company's flagship product, particleIllusion, a sprite-based particle effects application is focused towards the needs of creative professionals working in film post-production and pre-visualization, standard and HD video, commercial broadcast and Web graphics industries. A spectrum of recent entertainment projects shaped by the software include feature films "North Country," "Stealth," "Wedding Crashers," "H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds," "Sin City," "The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3D," "Fantastic Four," and "Constantine;" the hit soap opera, "Passions;" syndicated entertainment news program "Access Hollywood;" interactive game title "MX vs. ATV Unleashed;" episodic television series' "JAG" and "Navy/NCIS," various sports programs including: "NBA on TNT", "NASCAR on TNT;" national commercials including Cadillac/Saab (GM); music video projects for Dave Matthews Band, and many, many more.

wondertouch software products are available directly from wondertouch. Additional information on wondertouch can be obtained on the Web at www.wondertouch.com.