Lima, Peru - December 3rd, 2008 - Qilqax International has successfully completed first production stage of "Magus ex Machina", the first 3D animated movie developed using a videogame GPU rendering technique, based on Unigine technologies.
"Magus ex Machina" is a fantasy adventure full-length movie, which is to be released in 2010. This story, set in an agonizing world, tells the adventures of a young prince forced to accept the uncertainty of change to save his people. First trailer for the movie is available on the official website: www.magusexmachina.com.
One of the most interesting features of "Magus ex Machina" is usage of GPU rendering, which reduces production time and requires smaller hardware investments. All 3D scenes of the movie were rendered with Unigine, captured and composed with post effects (a little movie showing the technical process can be downloaded here).
"After thorough evaluation of the many options available, we chose Unigine. Today, more than twelve months later, we are happy with that choice. Unigine has been more than ideal for our project, thanks to its features and streamlined system; improved with each release. The documentation's extent and completeness, has minimized our need for direct assistance from Unigine while support when needed has been quick to respond and very useful. We have no doubts Unigine will soon be one of the best regarded 3D engines in the market", commented Diego Lopez-Mobilia, Project Manager of Qilqax International.
At the moment there are a Unigine-based GPU rendering application, 40+ professional animators in the project, a completed script (Spanish + English), concept art and animation. Qilqax International also has an international letter of intent for distribution from a major network. Right now authors of "Magus ex Machina" are looking for an investor to fund next stages of the production (see project presentation for details). Overall planned budget of the project is about $3 millions.
"Unigine has helped us to make a huge leap for the development of our project. Lighting, animation porting and simulation are a breeze. Our work is experimental, and contains complex scenes yet Unigine keeps stable. The improvement of this software is constant. We eagerly expect the next version, as each one brings features that not only make our job easier but enrich it in ever unexpected ways. The Unigine team has been very helpful in our process. Not only they have created useful documentation for their software, they are very available for e-mail consult", added Edgardo Munoz-Najar, Development Manager of Qilqax International and CEO of eXfera SAC, company involved in the 3D development of the project.
"Magus ex Machina" is an amazing transition from machinima technology to traditional high-quiality movies. It fills the gap between these two worlds, putting all the benefits together. We are looking forward to see this wonderful movie completed", said Denis Shergin, CEO of Unigine Corp.
"It is a pleasure to work with the production team of Qilqax International, they managed to achieve brilliant results with very little guidance from our side. We coudn't even imagine such application of Unigine technologies before", added Alexander Zaprjagaev, CTO of Unigine Corp.
Qilqax is a laboratory for creative media, art and innovation, and the first animation studio dedicated to the development of 3d animated movies using proprietary technology derived from the videogame industry. This technique allows to produce animation on smaller budgets achieving cinematographic quality.
While developing "Magus ex Machina" as main project, the company is also developing a Comic to be released as webisodes and a children's tv series for a mexican producer.
Unigine Corp. is an international company grown from an open source project, which was initiated in 2002. The company was established in the beginning of 2005 and since that time is focused on top-notch real-time 3D solutions.
Main activity of Unigine Corp. is development of Unigine, a cross-platform engine for virtual 3D worlds. From the very beginning of Unigine development it attracts attention of different companies and groups of independent developers because Unigine is always on the bleeding edge of real-time 3D visualization and physics simulation technologies. This feature-rich middleware is used in the development of several modern games and VR projects.