In 2005 Weta Digital completed over 2200 visual effects shots for King Kong. The Weta Digital camera department chose 3D Equalizer as its matchmoving software having tested its reliability and accuracy on The Lord of The Rings trilogy.
Using 3D Equalizer, the Weta Digital camera department was able to complete extremely difficult CG scene set ups and matchmoves as well as provide information for motion control shoots and terrain modeling data.
Science.D.Visions' continuing development on 3D Equalizer has allowed the Weta Digital camera department to broaden its range of operations and increase the speed of general matchmoving to the extent that it has become pipeline dependent tool to build around. We will continue to use 3D-Equalizer on future projects with the knowledge that no job is too large!
Lee Bramwell, Weta Digital camera department supervisor
Weta Digital Ltd


"Here at Jim Henson's Creature Shop, we have put 3DE through challenges it simply was not designed for. This includes talking animals, modeling and compositing tasks and feeding data through our own systems. I have used all match-moving software solutions available, but I find that 3DE is consistently robust and never fails to perform the task with complete accuracy.
3DE provides us with that flexibilty because unlike other match-move solutions, it has completely open TCL scripting. This meant I could really get under the hood, and weave 3DE into our pipeline, more or less providing a bridge between all our 3D, 2D and tracking software, to produce a 100% effective workflow.
We have been working very closely with Sci-D-Visions and Techimage, who have supported us fully and promptly with all our tracking needs. As a result, our toolset is second to none, and has gradually become a fairly easy system to teach, especially with the help of the online flash tutorials on 3DE website. When you have a large team of match-movers, it is important they are all up-to-speed and can work with little supervision or help. The workflow in 3DE really teaches an understanding of what exactly is going on. It is this understanding together with a very thorough match-move solution that enables 3DE users to consistently prove that nothing is impossible."
Simon Payne, Technical Director
Jim Henson's Creature Shop, London


At Cinesite, 3D Equalizer is our secret weapon to getting match moves done. In 2002, Equalizer received a Scientific/Technical award from the Motion Picture Academy, which acknowledges the fact that 3DE revolutionized matchmaking with Surveyless tracking. But 3DE didn't rest on their laurels. They have since completely rewritten their 2D tracker to be the best available from anyone, and have blown away previous 3DE version in the process.
Any prospective 3DE user should know that Science.D.Visions provides fantastic, hands on customer support, which is mandatory for a high end professional product like 3DE.
Michael Karp, Senior Matchmover, Cinesite LA




"The Camera Department at Weta Digital relied heavily on 3D-Equalizer for complex camera solutions and object tracking for over 500 shots on "The Two Towers". 3D-Equalizer's speed, flexibility, survey import, and it's new auto-tracking features made difficult shots manageable. 3D-E addressed all of our needs while in production and enabled us to complete work which would not have been possible with other software."
Matt Mueller, Senior Camera TD, Weta Digital




Weta Digital matchmovers depend on 3D-Equalizer. More than 200 shots have already been completed for The Fellowship of the Ring, and we continue to rely on the speed, versatility, and accuracy of 3DE as we begin our work on The Two Towers.
Lee Bramwell, Senior Set-up TD, ' Lord of the Rings', Weta Digital


"3d Equalizer is the corner stone of our Motion & Tracking department at Cinesite Hollywood. We have managed to combine a number of our in-house tools with 3d Equalizer to give our clients incredibly fast and reliable camera moves in any number of packages. I am especially happy with 3de's scripting ability as it has allowed us to import/export 2d and 3d tracks between a large number of packages across many departments. It reduces duplicate work and makes the pipeline extremely versatile. The survey-less tracking features of 3de allow us to reconstruct camera moves for shots that had not been planned for 3d, or for shows that didn't have the time or budget to do heavy surveying of the sets and locations. Surveying can cost money and set time, and systems that rely on survey can find themselves in a bind if their data is not accurate. Some shots (helicopter flybys) aren't always possible with survey based systems. We've put through 300+ 3d shots in the last year using 3de "with no information other than lens size". That's a high level of quality and work from the package and I am very impressed with it. I'd like to thank the makers of 3de for making my work on the following shows
possible and pleasant:
X-men, Deep Blue Sea, Red Planet , Mission Impossible II, 13 Days, U-571, The 6th Day, Wonder Boys."
Jeff Baksinski, Motion & Tracking Supervisor, Cinesite LA


The ability to do an automatic track, and then be able to incorporate that into the existing manual tracking tools is fantastic. You're no longer stuck if the first track doesn't work. We're going to be using 3D Equaliser as our sole tracking solution for our new long form project "Ancient Egyptians". We've had great success in tracking shots that are normally difficult for automatic trackers to cope with, things like green screen shoots and the like. You no longer need several tracking solutions depending on the shots - 3DE incorporates them all.
Grahame Andrew, Managing Director / Computer Animation, Lola




I must say I am having a good time using your software. You have thought it through well. I say this because until a couple of months ago I was the head of the tracking and integration department for Digital Domain. Our tracking software was all proprietary and could do some pretty cool stuff but the fact that I was able to literally go into production with your software which I had never ran before and finish some hard tracks ahead of schedule is impressive.Thanks.
Tim Conway, Digital Integration Supervisor, CREO


"3dequalizer is a godsend. After years of fannying about trying to get data from motion control rigs to work (often not particularly successfully without a fair degree of manual intervention) it was real pleasure to use a piece of software that worked it out from the pictures. The problem with motion control rigs seemed to be that, because of the heavy machinery involved, the camera was never actually where the computer said it was. Doing it the 3Deq way you can't fail."
Alastair Hearsum, Head of 3d, Glassworks


"3D-Equalizer really is going to revolutionize the way 3D works."
Hector Macleod, Glassworks


Now that we are official 3D-Equalizer users here at A52, let me take this opportunity to tell you how impressed we were with your software during the trial period. 3DEqualizer is one the best designed, most robust pieces of software we have ever used, and it has completely exceeded our expectations. Because your manual is so concise and clearly laid out, we were able to track our first shot after completing only one tutorial ("Evahead"). So, we literally were able to track a complex shot (that would have taken 12+ hours to track by hand) in about 2 hours, after using your software only once before. On top of that, the re-constructed data was essentially perfect - far superior to what would have been possible by hand.
Our company is a graphics boutique in Los Angeles that creates high-end 3D and 2D effects for commercials and film. It's a pleasure to have 3d-Equalizer in our toolset.
Denis Gauthier, A52




"Walking with Dinosaurs" is a major CG animation series for BBC Television, as part of the UK's flagship science programme, "Horizon": six 30-minute documentaries covering the natural history of the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous eras. FrameStore's task has been to re-create the animals of that world, and to show what it must have been like to walk amongst the great reptiles. One of the primary tasks for Framestore's technical directors was to establish a reliable method for tracking hand-held and helicopter-based live-action shots, since these form an essential part of the wildlife documentary camera language. Early tests convinced us that 3D-Equalizer was the right tool for the job, and about 25 shots were tracked for the series. In addition, 3DE was used to match pan-and-tilt on numerous tripod-based shots (Fixed Camera Position Mode).
Mike Milne, Director of Animation, Framestore


"The team found that 3D-Equalizer was exceptionally easy to use, and was particularly effective on the really wild hand-held shots. We intend to increase our reliance on the software in our next project."
Dave Marsh, Technical Director, Framestore
 

"I just saw the articles on the 3DE V3R4 on your web site. We are really excited, as it looks like an absolutely fantastic improvement over the previous (already impressive) version. I can truly say that we use 3DE just about every day, and I can't imagine how we ever managed without it."
Martin Heigan, Head of 3D - Senior 3D Animator - Video Lab (South Africa), a global CineSite partner company


"During the production of the Polyphon/SAT 1 TV series "Helicops", the 3D facility CA Scanline Production in Munich generated more than 300 shots with CGI helicopters and other CGI-elements. 3D-Equalizer was applied to most of the shots, mainly for 3D tracking and occasionally for stabilizing. Without this outstanding tool and Scanline's proprietary software it would never have been possible to create up to 40 minutes of VFX in only eight months."
Thomas Zauner, CA Scanline


My team and myself have been using 3D Equalizer since version 1, and have done countless numbers of tracked shots with the software. Last year, 3DE played a large role in our company earning and Emmy nomination for Best Visual Effects in a Television Movie for 'Aftershock'.
Trevor Cawood, Rainmaker Digital Pictures