"Manex needed a renderer capable of handling an enormous volume of self-shadowing, motion-blurred particles for a sequence in "Queen of the Damned." We investigated several options and ultimately found that using Jig made the most sense. Benchmarked against the performance and quality of existing renderers and the time and effort it would take to write our own renderer, Jig was absolutely the right choice.

Additionally, Steamboat Software was extremely pleasant throughout this process. They worked with us to integrate Jig into our production methodology."

Bryan Hirota
Visual Effects Supervisor
MVFX
 

"Digital Domain first worked with Steamboat Software on Dr. Seuss', "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". Steamboat's renderer, Jig, was in pre-release at the time, but we still wanted to test it for fur and hair rendering. A pre-production test proved to us that we had a greater chance of achieving the flexibility and control necessary for the Grinch with Jig than with any other renderer on the market. For the Grinch, our challenge was matching a live action Grinch and his dog Max in several all CG shots. Jig allowed flexible artistic control to groom and manipulate the fur. The shots were a success!

The people at Steamboat became an extension of our production team for the Grinch, working with us on render efficiency and adding features. It was the kind of relationship you really need with a vendor of a specialized product like Jig. On the Grinch, we developed so much confidence in Jig and Steamboat that since the release of v1.0, Jig has become the tool of choice at Digital Domain, for fur and hair rendering. We also used Jig with great success on a commercial for Motorola featuring a synthetic woman. With Jig, we can bid with confidence on any project that requires CG fur and hair."

Jeff Stringer
Director of Digital Production
Digital Domain
 

"When we were approached about creating a CG version of the Grinch and his dog, Max, for "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas", the first thought was "fur". Having developed the fur pipeline that had been used at Digital Domain since 1998, I knew right away that we were looking for something with more flexibility and potential. Working with a rough description of the furry CG characters, we knew we would need a renderer with the flexibility to look great at any resolution.

Because of this, we called upon Steamboat Software's Jig. One of the things that is typically lacking in fur systems is an effective way to produce quality hair shadowing, not just standard shadow maps, and Jig had generated some of the most impressive images on the open market. We knew that Jig was pre-release software but since we believed in their product, we were willing to take the risk. This helped breed a relationship between our companies that exceeded what you'd typically call "customer support". Since the staff at Steamboat has past production experience, they knew what was involved and went the extra mile to help us make sure our shots were delivered at the high level of quality that we desired."

Darin Grant
Manager of the Technical Director Department
Digital Domain