Award-winning VFX Company Proved Software's Value on "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse"

Los Angeles, CA (October 20, 2010) -- Tweak Software, makers of RV, the next generation image and sequence viewer for VFX and animation artists, announced today that top Vancouver visual effects company Image Engine has adopted RV as its playback and review system of choice.

RV’s professional, high-performance toolset is built on an open, extensible architecture allowing users to adapt the software to their own pipelines and styles of working.

Shawn Walsh, Visual Effects Executive Producer and Partner at Image Engine, said, “RV is a significant help to our artists. It helps them manage the film color pipeline and provides a great tool to review their work — comparing to references, running versions side by side, alternating color spaces, adjusting frame rates — all of these things impact production positively. The sooner an artist can make a meaningful step toward understanding the creative challenges they have on their plate, the sooner the studio benefits. Integrating a strong review tool such as RV is crucial to that process.”

Image Engine used RV extensively on their work for “ The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” earlier this year —nearly 400 VFX shots including werewolf animation, digital doubles, vampire deaths, digital environments, matte painting and a heavy load of compositing. Image Engine integrated RV into the NUKE compositor and Shotgun production management system to provide simple, sensible playback and review for a team of 60 artists, all accessing RV centrally.

On the show, compositors used RV to match retimes of scanned plates to rough Avid retimes received from production. Artists could easily create EDLs in Shotgun and view work in RV, comparing multiple versions with stacks and wipes, and checking the integrity of composites in multiple color spaces using quick hot keys. Through NUKE integration they were also able to write out QuickTime movies for clients and production.

“Artists and managers alike have quickly moved to RV as our primary playback software,” said Walsh. “Ease of use, sensible keystroke design and a thoroughly thought-out interface all contribute to its successful adoption within Image Engine.”

Seth Rosenthal, President of Tweak Software, said, “We built RV as a tool we wanted to use for our own work. It has a simple, lean UI combined with a powerful and customizable core. We are glad Image Engine chose RV. They are doing great VFX work and we’re looking forward to collaborating with them on their future projects.”

About Image Engine
Image Engine provides world-class visual effects for feature films. With over 15 years in the industry, several award wins and a notable list of feature film credits including the recent The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, District 9, 2012, Watchmen, Law Abiding Citizen, Orphan & currently The Thing and Immortals, Image Engine is leading the growing visual effects i ndustry in Vancouver. Their recent high-profile work as the lead studio on District 9, which was nominated for an Academy Award®, has positioned Image Engine as a trusted studio of choice, specializing in high-end creature and character work.

About Tweak Software
Tweak Software was founded in 2007 to develop tools that address real-world production needs of VFX and animation professionals. The Tweak partners Jim Hourihan, Seth Rosenthal and Alan Trombla spent many years at Industrial Light and Magic where they developed tools and techniques still in use at that facility today. Jim Hourihan is the recipient of two Sci-Tech Academy Awards and is best known for developing Dynamation, the first commercial particle system that was subsequently incorporated into Autodesk’s Maya software. For more information, visit http://www.tweaksoftware.com