Image Metrics Opens U.S. Office, Adds Gabriel To Board

Manchester, England headquartered digital image mapping firm Image Metrics, which has worked extensively in video games, announced that it has opened a new office in Santa Monica, California, its first such office in North America. In addition, the company has added Grammy Award-winning recording artist Peter Gabriel to the organization's advisory board. Image Metrics' technology has been used in such games as Grand Theft Auto, as well as CG films such as Polar Express. The company also worked on all 11 characters in the new Table Tennis game from Rockstar. Founded in Manchester, England, Image Metrics has developed what it describes as "the only specialized proprietary technology that digitally maps the human performance to an animated character." The company's real-life to digital performance capture techniques operate without the use of traditional motion-capture techniques, such as markers. "Over the past 7 years, Image Metrics has quickly evolved from a company providing image analysis solutions for the medical industry into a specialist in entertainment facial animation technology. The opening of our offices in Santa Monica signifies our commitment and desire to be a part of the future of digital animation and to share our technology and knowledge with those who also seek to push the boundaries of this ever-evolving space," said Image Metrics CEO Andy Wood. "We provide the actor and director the missing tools they need in the animation process to communicate with a strictly non-creative entity such as a computer."