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Business Wire, August 1, 2008

CHICAGO -- Technical content presented at SIGGRAPH 2008 will feature the techniques behind the animation development in Spore, the latest interactive video game due to launch worldwide in September 2008. Spore, produced by the makers of the popular Sims games, is an internet-based game that allows users to create a species of creatures, grow them from cellular to full-scale life forms, and share their evolved creatures with other players interactively worldwide.

As part of the SIGGRAPH 2008 Technical Papers program, Spore experts will present their latest research, Real-Time Motion Retargeting to Highly Varied User-Created Morphologies. This paper presents an inside look behind the animation authoring tool that makes it possible for users to create the Spore creatures and bring them to life.

"As the field of computer graphics matures, we will continue to see graphics practitioners take on novel challenges that were not even considered just a few years ago," commented Greg Turk, SIGGRAPH 2008 Technical Papers Chair from the Georgia Institute of Technology. "The modeling and animation techniques used in Spore will inspire others to think more creatively about user-created content in computer games."

The authoring system used in Spore animates characters whose shapes are unknown to the animator since the bodies are user-generated. The authoring tool allows animators to visually describe motion using familiar posing and key-framing methods. It records the data in a body-independent form, preserving both the animation's structural relationships and its stylistic information. During game play, this motion information is applied to specific characters to yield body-dependent pose constraints that are supplied to a robust and efficient inverse-kinematics solver.

For complete details about this or other Technical Papers presented at SIGGRAPH 2008 visit http://www.siggraph.org/s2008/attendees/program/?type=papers.

About SIGGRAPH

SIGGRAPH 2008 will bring an estimated 30,000 computer graphics and interactive technology professionals from six continents to Los Angeles, California, USA for the industry's most respected technical and creative programs focusing on research, science, art, animation, gaming, interactivity, education, and the web from Monday, 11 August through Friday, 15 August 2008 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Celebrating its 35th year, SIGGRAPH 2008 includes a three-day exhibition of products and services from the computer graphics and interactive marketplace from 12-14 August 2008. More than 250 international exhibiting companies are expected. Registration for the conference and exhibition is open to the public. More details are available at www.siggraph.org/s2008.> About ACM

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery www.acm.org, is the world's largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the field's challenges. ACM strengthens the computing profession's collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional growth of its members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career development, and professional networking.