With the full integration of Maya for the development of "Cy Girls", Konami JPN has built a development pipeline that allows production of high quality titles while decreasing work time and improving productivity. For "Cy Girls", Maya will be used for modeling and texture mapping for characters, modeling, texture mapping and movie creation for backgrounds, blind data and collision detection for terrain and attack sensing and movie production using motion capture technology. Maya was chosen as the sole development tool by Konami JPN because of the Maya software's easy-to-understand GUI and exceptional operability, the flexible response of the API and Maya Embedded Language™ (MEL) to the developer's environment and its contribution to a significant improvement in work efficiency. Maya was also selected due to the number of large Japanese domestic and international game development companies using the software, along with the attractive pricing of both Maya Complete™ and Maya Unlimited™ software.

Mr. Shinji Morimitsu, general manager of Konami JPN's program unit said, "Compared with the products of other 3D software companies, Maya rated well for its stability, exceptional operability and the ease with which it manages data for programmers. In deciding on Maya for this project, we also took into consideration that other high quality game titles were developed with Maya."

Konami JPN Uses Maya Exclusively for "Cy Girls"

Konami JPN has previously used Maya software for parts of its production processes but for the development of "Cy Girls", Maya has been implemented across the entire project. Adopting Maya frees artists from repetitive, non-productive tasks so they can focus on developing creative aspects of the project.

Mr. Yuji Ogaito, programming lead on the "Cy Girls" project, commented, "The challenge with 3D game production is that we must handle an incredibly large amount of data. It is important to have a system that efficiently handles this data and can also divert it to other scenes. With the implementation of Maya, it is possible to do the input, confirmation and editing work and improve overall work efficiency."

To attract game players to the "Cy Girls" world, which has both futuristic and samurai-style elements, this imaginary world must be made to appear realistic. Improving work efficiency so that the artists can devote themselves to the actual creative work is an important issue. "Maya's rich API and MEL functionality, ease of use, instruction manual and rich sample source code are essential to work efficiency," said Ogaito. Designer Takashi Nakamura commented, "With MEL, tool production has become much easier. By choosing the MEL that is necessary for our production, I was able to do large-scale revisions without the duplication of work."

About Alias|Wavefront

As the world's leading innovator of 3D graphics technology, Alias|Wavefront develops software for the games, film and video, web, interactive media, industrial design, and visualization markets. On March 1 2003, the company was awarded an Oscar® for Technical Achievement by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the company's development of Maya software, its professional 3D animation and effects package.

Games customers include Acclaim Entertainment, Inc., Core Design Limited, Electronic Arts Inc., Factor 5 LLC, Kodiak Interactive Software Studios Inc., Konami JPN, LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC, Midway Home Entertainment Inc., Naughty Dog, Inc., Nihilistic Software, Inc., Nintendo, Rare Ltd., Retro Studios Inc., Sega Corporation, Single Trac, Sony Computer Entertainment, Square Co., Ltd., Timeline Studios, Relic Entertainment and Westwood Studios.

Alias|Wavefront is a wholly owned, independent software company of SGI® with headquarters in Toronto and custom development center in Santa Barbara. Please visit the Alias|Wavefront website at www.aliaswavefront.com.

The Alias|Wavefront logo and Alias|Wavefront are registered trademarks and Alias|Wavefront is a trademark of Alias|Wavefront, a division of Silicon Graphics Limited in the United States and/or other countries worldwide. Maya is a registered trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc., exclusively used by Alias|Wavefront, a division of Silicon Graphics Limited, and the Maya logo, Maya Complete, Maya Unlimited and Maya Embedded Language are trademarks of Alias|Wavefront, a division of Silicon Graphics Limited. SGI is a registered trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries worldwide. Oscar is a trademark and service mark of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. PlayStation is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc.