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McDermont Field House in Lindsay, CA opens for summer with "Squeeze" at the front door, greeting customers and welcoming them to the huge new facility south of Fresno. Next stop for CHOPS is New York City, where FlickerLab gets on board for more live animation with CHOPS & Assoc.
(New York City, NY - August 15, 2008) Your next visit to a theme park or family entertainment center could include a conversation with one of your favorite cartoon characters, brought to life on a video screen, with a new live animation technology.
CHOPS & Assoc. Live Animation, headed by Gary Jesch, a 15-year pioneer in 3D live animation, is collaborating with award-winning animators at FlickerLab in New York City, to help create interactive cartoon characters that can talk, see and hear their audiences in real time. Jesch's company has added the FlickerLab product, Go Real-Time, to its offering of complete live animation systems. He is the inventor of the Digital Puppeteer 3D system, which is operated by a performer/animator from a laptop computer, backstage, like the Wizard of Oz.
"People are seeing live animation as represented by Disney's "Turtle Talk with Crush" and "Monsters Inc. Laugh Factory," and really enjoying it. They've proved that live interaction is a real draw for children and adults alike, because everyone loves cartoon characters and animation. What is great is that other theme parks and family entertainment centers can now get their hands on the same technology," Jesch explains.
"You don't have to hire Pixar to do live animation, as if that's possible. Having two pretty different software packages allows us to better serve our clients' creative visions and budgets," Jesch observes.
 Go Real-Time software handles traditional 2D animations with familiar hand-drawn characters efficiently and artistically, allowing actors to make their mouths and lips synchronize with the cartoon characters by simply speaking, while they select scenes and camera angles from a touch-screen interface. It was developed and first used in Europe to make cartoons and game shows for children, on TV shows which are broadcast live.
FlickerLab, whose client list includes many of the companies who entertain children on Saturday morning TV, will focus on bringing back some of the familiar characters of our childhood to younger audiences, and powering the animation with computer-generated output that saves time and allows actors the flexibility to change their performances on the fly, improv-style.
CHOPS & Assoc. will also offer the Go Real-Time technology to customers in the corporate meeting and tradeshow venues, where it is currently offering ToonMX, the software running its Digital Puppeteer systems for 3D characters. CHOPS, the "Cyber Human on a Performance System," got started in 1995 when Jesch dreamed of creating virtual reality experiences where people could interact with computer-generated personas, also known as "avatars," or "virtual characters."
 At tradeshows, the virtual characters attract attention to companies' tradeshow booths and make a friendly first impression on prospective customers. At corporate meetings, the characters offer comic relief, ask the "hard questions" during the presentations, or serve as hosts and MCs, bringing a novel and unusual element that invokes delight and curiosity.
CHOPS has installed two Digital Puppeteer systems to date, one at the SM Science Discovery Center in Manila, Philippines, and the other at the McDermont Field House, a family recreation center in Lindsay, CA. These are the first installations of live animation technology outside of the Disney properties in Orlando and LA, where "Crush" has been meeting audiences since 2005.
Jesch will do the overall system design, character artwork supervision and animation system installations for customers, with his Digital Puppeteer or Go Real-Time technology, at theme parks, TV stations, schools, family entertainment centers, pro sports centers, casinos, museums, zoos and aquariums around the world. His specialty is integrating all the disciplines involved in live animation, including creating stories, designing characters, performing, designing hardware and software, staging and managing audio-visual display technology.
About FlickerLab:
Founded in 1999 as a design and animation studio, today FlickerLab's principals, long-term collaborators and strategic partners employ their skills, technology and industry experience on a variety of projects be they concept-to-screen development and production, design and execution of commercials or broadcast promotions. In addition to high quality creative digital content development, FlickerLab works with clients to extend their project reach through advertising, Internet impact, online marketing, and merchandising.
The company's portfolio includes high profile work for media and entertainment companies including A&E Networks, Bravo, Comedy Central, Discovery Home, Disney Channel, Lifetime, Lions Gate Productions, Michael Moore Productions, MTV, Nickelodeon, Planned Parenthood, The Cartoon Network and The WB, and product/service companies including Bassat Ogilvy, Continental Airlines, Grey Worldwide, Johnson & Johnson, McCann Erickson, Microsoft, Party City and Procter & Gamble, among many others.
FlickerLab is headquartered at 7 West 18th Street, 4th floor, New York, NY 10011. For additional information, or to see a reel, contact Managing Partner/Executive Producer Tammy Walters at Tammy@flickerlab.com or by phone at 212 560-9228. Visit the FlickerLab website at www.flickerlab.com
About CHOPS & Assoc. Live Animation:
Gary Jesch created CHOPS and the company in 1995, in order to bring live, interactive, animated 3D characters to the tradeshow and corporate meeting industries, helping marketing directors improve their lead gathering by attracting attention to corporate marketing messages. He pioneered the use of optical motion capture for facial expressions and lip sync with his first Digital Puppeteer system, and in 2006, introduced the first live animation system in the US to run on laptops, with software that uses the sound of his voice to drive the movement of the character's mouth. He has created a wide assortment of "stock" characters, in addition to custom ones his clients own, and has his own children's show in development, called "My Fish People."
He recently began building and installing complete systems, with characters, in the theme park and FEC industry, and has worked worldwide, doing shows and projects in China, South America, the Philippines, Mexico and Canada. Some of his clients include ExxonMobile, Florida Power & Light, Ford Motorcraft, BASF, Price Waterhouse, Chase Manhattan, Frito Lay, Hewlett Packard, Pennzoil, SAP, Jack Morton Worldwide, PGI and Pinerock Productions.
CHOPS & Assoc. is headquartered at 2359 Fieldcrest Dr., Carson City, NV 89701. For additional information, contact Executive Producer Gary Jesch at gary@chops.com or by phone at 775-831-7451. Visit the CHOPS website at www.chops.com.
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