TIGA, the trade association representing the UK games industry, today announced IKinema as its newest member.
IKinema is an animation technology company based in Surrey. The company, founded in 2010, has developed technology that animates the whole body of any creature in real time, automatically taking into account gravity and balance. IKinema originates from research on spacecraft control and was later developed into animation software by the University of Surrey.
The company offers two products to market: IKinema middleware engine for PC, consoles and iPhone; and an IKinema plug-in for Autodesk Maya, designed for use in games, film, animation and TV. The company has already secured a number of high profile clients including 20th Century Fox, VICON, Framestore and Escape Studios.
Martyn Buxton-Hoare, Director, IKinema, explains the benefits of the technology: “By using IKinema, games developers can produce realistic, lifelike, fluid movement in games with minimal effort. IKinema can be plugged seamlessly into the animation pipeline to greatly increase the believability of characters and make them fully interactive with the scene.””
“IKinema joined TIGA to take advantage of the services and benefits offered by the organisation. The team at TIGA has already helped us secure funding to exhibit at GDC earlier this year, and has provided networking opportunities and advice that is invaluable to a start-up such as ours. We look forward to meeting more TIGA members and would like to hear from any companies interested in trialing our products. TIGA members will also receive a special 15% discount when purchasing the IKinema plug in .””
Dr. Richard Wilson, TIGA CEO stated: “IKinema is testament to the fantastic talent for innovation and excellence that we have in the UK. This technology was honed and developed by academics at the University of Surrey and shows the importance of supporting research and development projects within our universities.””
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Notes to editors:
About TIGA:
TIGA is the trade association representing the UK’s games industry. The majority of our members are either independent games developers or in-house publisher owned developers. We also have games publishers, outsourcing companies, technology businesses and universities amongst our membership. TIGA was awarded ‘Trade Association of the Year’ and the ‘Member Recruitment Award’ at the Trade Association Forum Best Practice Awards 2010. TIGA has also been named as a finalist in the 2010 Chartered Management Institute (CMI) National Management and Leadership Awards in the category of ‘The Outstanding Organisation of the Year Award (SME)’. TIGA is an Investors in People organisation.
TIGA’s vision is to make the UK the best place in the world to do games business. We focus on three sets of activities: political representation, generating media coverage and developing services that enhance the competitiveness of our members. This means that TIGA members are effectively represented in the corridors of power, their voice is heard in the media and they receive benefits that make a material difference to their businesses, including a reduction in costs and improved commercial opportunities.
For further information, please contact Dr Richard Wilson, TIGA CEO on 07875939643: or email richard.wilson@tiga.org; or contact David Hodges on 02070911653