FACING THE FUTURE: LIVE ANIMATION TALENTS CONNECT
3D character animation pioneer Gary Jesch of CHOPS Live Animation is joining forces with Mimic Productions of Germany, so they can deliver live performances featuring highly realistic, computer-generated virtual humans and vivid holographic virtual beings, also known as “interactive avatars.” By doing so, Jesch is bridging the talent gap between the USA and Europe.
Agency producers and creative directors will directly benefit from the combination of these two talents: Jesch’s expertise at producing performances using avatars and Mimic’s extraordinary methods of creating and animating them for highly demanding projects like films, TV commercials and special events.
Fellow pioneer in the 3D character animation business and co-founder of Mimic is David Bennett, well-known for his work with major animation studios on feature films, including “Avatar,” “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” and “Polar Express.” He served as Lead Facial Animation Director for Sony Pictures Imageworks and WETA Digital. Mimic Productions’ “Digital Doubles” surprise audiences with the level of accuracy of the lighting, skin color and texture and life-like facial expressions of its photo-realistic avatars.
Jesch and Bennett are working together to bring exceptionally high-quality “Digital Doubles” and other types of avatars to the corporate events world. The avatars can appear on screens, holographic displays and massive projection systems for brand activations produced by some of the biggest marketing agencies in the world. Jesch sees it as an opportunity to improve his technical offerings, while Bennett sees it as an effective way to expand operations into the US, leveraging Jesch’s 30 years of experience as a live animation expert and performer.
Both companies will continue their core services, with Jesch offering his signature style of interactive cartoon avatars and his new “Virtual Celebrity,” Yogi Berra, the famous philosopher and baseball legend. According to Bennett, the Mimic studio will continue working on projects to develop artificial intelligence programming and 3D worlds for Metaverse applications.
“It’s really a new type of capability that we are offering together,” Jesch noted. “That is, my many years as a performer and producer working at corporate meetings and trade shows, combined with David Bennett’s mastery of character creation and facial animation. I’m excited to break this new ground in show business, sharing first-time experiences between audiences and realistic avatars who can converse with them, using computer-graphics technology found in films and the video games industry.”
Jesch’s portfolio is showcased at https://chops.com, which includes more than 25 original characters and the CHOPS live animation software, 3D Digital Puppeteer ™ for real-time presentations featuring avatars. He’s been a performance animation and video artist for major companies such as AstraZeneca, Ford Motorcraft, Citibank, Pennzoil, Volt, HP, Dell, ExxonMobile and others, and has traveled the US, South America and Asia since 1993.
Mimic Productions’ website is https://www.mimicproductions.com . Based in Berlin, Germany, the studio works in many industries, including advertising, video games, fashion, artificial intelligence, robotics, beauty and cosmetics, and visual artistry found in music videos. Mimic has accomplished digital productions for clients such as Warner Brothers, 2K and Nike, and talent such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Roger Federer, Jeff Koons and Kanye West.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION: Gary Jesch, CHOPS Live Animation – 775-771-4330 or gary@chops.com. Images and live demos are available upon request.
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