Digital Dimension, the Emmy Award-winning production house based in Hollywood, California, recently used the RenderDrive advanced 3D rendering system from ART (Advanced Rendering Technology) to render computer animated television spots for FOX network's first televised broadcast of the NASCAR 2001 season.

The 2001 NASCAR spots were created using RenderDrive, 3d studio max, and ART's RenderPipe plug-in, which provides a seamless interface between 3d studio max and RenderDrive's photorealistic ray-tracing platform. Digital Dimension has used RenderDrive for previous FOX television work including a teaser ad for the television drama Boston Public that incorporated RenderDrive's photorealistic rendering and lighting effects. Digital Dimension also received two Emmy Awards for its RenderDrive-rendered introduction to Super Bowl XXXIII on FOX Sports.

"Capturing speed - the essence of NASCAR racing - in our 3D animations was an obvious call for RenderDrive's motion blur," said Ben Girard, president of Digital Dimension. "RenderDrive delivers a physically accurate motion blur that brings our animations a step closer to reality. As a result, our animations became more convincing and rendered faster, making our production even more efficient."

ART's sophisticated rendering products allow users to create highly accurate images from 3D data. The quality of the images is so convincing that customers often use them instead of photographs, in cases where it would be too costly or impossible to create photos by conventional methods.

"RenderDrive offers the right combination of software and hardware," said Girard. "We use many of ART's preset materials and, capitalizing on ray tracing's photorealistic properties, we used physically accurate Fresnel reflections, making the paint of the car very convincing. ART's technology allowed us to deliver impressive visuals, raising the bar for photorealistic television graphics."

ART's RenderDrive has been used for projects as diverse as the design and marketing of the new Jaguar X400 and Ford Thunderbird, and for animations in the best-selling computer game, Colin McRae Rally 2.0. Founded in March 1995, ART develops specialized 3D products for applications in the film, broadcast, interactive entertainment and design industries. ART developed the world's first ray tracing graphics chip, which uses a more physically based method of generating images than conventional graphics processors, and is used in all models of the company's RenderDrive. ART's customers include film and TV special effects houses, architectural practices, computer games developers, industrial design companies, virtual photographers, and property developers.

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