Absolute Character Tools from Snoswell Design receives an Innovation 2001 Award from Computer Graphics World. ACT 1.0 will be available as a set of plugins for 3ds max and is due to ship in late November. It will be published through Digimation. The price is yet to be set but will be in the US$1,000 - $1,395 range.

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ACT receives CGW Innovation award
Press Release
Absolute Character Tools (ACT), a muscle and skin deformation system, has just been awarded an Innovation Award for 2001 by the industry’s leading publication, Computer Graphics World. ACT is amongst just 20 award recipients which include major industry players such as Viewpoint, Discreet, Alias|Wavefront, Nvidia and Jim Henson Creature Shop. “This is a staggering achievement as we only previewed ACT at SIGGRAPH 2001 for the first time and it’s not due to ship for another month yet,” said Mark Snoswell, CEO of Snoswell Design. “We have had a phenomenal response since we previewed ACT with just about every major studio in the world participating in the beta program.” ACT 1.0 is scheduled for release late November and will be published through Digimation.

About Absolute Character Tools:
ACT is an extensive suite of software that implements muscle and skin
deformation. It is the first such software to be made available commercially.
The software includes a new parametric vMuscle class of 3D objects that
are extremely fast and easy to use. There is also a skin deformation system
that works in conjunction with current skinning techniques and adds a
complete deformation pipeline for muscle, bone and skin slip deformations.
Both vMuscles and the skin deformation systems are extremely fast and have
extensible plugin architectures.

About Snoswell Design:
Snoswell Design is an Australian company pioneering new character animation
technologies and tools. They developed the 3D technology behind the Torson
Virtual Athlete and are the first company to bring muscle and skin
deformation software to the professional animation market. The founder and
head of the company, Mark Snoswell, is also a long time luminary of the
professional graphics and animation markets. He has been Contributing Editor
for Design Graphics since its inception almost 10 years ago.
Pricing and Availability:
ACT 1.0 will be available as a set of plugins for 3DS Max and is due to ship
late in November. It will be published through Digimation. The price is yet
to be set but will be in the US$1,000 - $1,395 range.  Maya and stand-alone
versions are planned for the future.

For further information visit www.cgCharacter.com or email Mark Snoswell: mark@cgCharacter.com.