AUDIOMOTION BRINGS CITROEN'S ICE-SKATING C4 TO LIFE WITH VICON MX40 CAMERAS

12 June 2006: Multi-award winning motion capture studio, Audiomotion, has revealed the crucial role it played in the creation of Citroen’s breath-taking ice-skating C4 car TV commercial.

The TV commercial shows the Citroen C4 transform and skate around a frozen lake, and is a follow up to the Citroen TV commercial in which the car transforms and dances in a car park, showing the C4 to be alive with technology.

Audiomotion’s motion capture expertise was called upon by post-production company The Mill, to highlight the dynamics and the agility of the real car by using a speed skating “carbot” on a frozen lake. The live action was filmed on a frozen lake in Canada.

The effect of seeing the car behave like a real ice-skater was achieved by filming Nicky Gooch, speed skating coach for the Great Britain team and an Olympic medal winner. The motion capture filming was done in Sheffield, on an Olympic-sized skating pad – necessary to enable Nicky to reach the high speeds needed for full effect.

Audiomotion used 30 Vicon MX40 cameras to capture every last detail of the skating motion performed by Nicky Gooch, giving the finished commercial an element of reality that would otherwise have been impossible.

Due to very tight deadlines and the shortage of suitable venues, the motion capture filming had to be done overnight, with the Audiomotion crew setting up at 9pm, shooting started at 2:30am and was wrapped up by 6:30am.

Mick Morris, managing director of Audiomotion, explained how the Vicon cameras were a vital part of making all this possible: “Quite simply, the Vicon MX40 is an extremely portable and easy-to-use camera, and this made all the difference. We had such a tight timeframe to do the motion capture, and get it right, that the Vicon cameras had to be 100% reliable – and they were. Nicky Gooch’s commitment to making this work was also hugely important; even when the rest of us thought we’d got great footage he was determined to keep going to achieve the perfect shot.”

Morris continued: “It was a great project to work on – the end result looks fantastic.

The Vicon MX40 camera has been used in the production of many blockbusting movies and video games, as well as in the engineering and life sciences sectors. Vicon is part of OMG plc. OMG Chief Executive, Nick Bolton, said: “The Citroen carbot ads are simply incredible and have set new standards for the use of motion capture in advertising. Only our MX40 cameras could have helped Audiomotion get such an excellent job done in such a short amount of time.”

About Audiomotion
Audiomotion Studios is the multi-award winning, UK motion capture studio specializing in the provision of motion capture services to the game development, film and television industries. Their 6,000 sq. ft. facility is equipped with the very latest Vicon MX40 System, enabling the largest in-house capture area in the country.  For more information visit www.audiomotion.com or call

+44 (0) 870 1600 504 or email info@audiomotion.com.

About VICON
VICON Motion Systems is a subsidiary of OMG plc (LSE: OMG) with global headquarters in Oxford, UK, and US headquarters in Lake Forest, CA. OMG subsidiary 2d3 Ltd. produces innovative visual geometry software deriving 3D data from moving images. Since 1984, VICON has been providing professionals with the latest tools to accurately capture the subtleties of three-dimensional human motion for research, medicine, sport, engineering, game development, broadcast and film. For more information about VICON, or to view a comprehensive list of worldwide distributors, visit www.vicon.com or contact +44 (0) 1865-261800 in the UK or (949) 472-9140 in the US.

About VICON MX
VICON MX40 cameras are the top of the line in professional motion capture hardware today. With VICON MX40 systems, studios can capture larger-sized volumes and a wider scope of action while gathering unprecedented facial, hand and full-body detail. VICON iQ software streamlines the setup, calibration and general wrangling of motion capture data, making it so easy and fool-proof that a single animator can control the process from beginning to end.

About OMG
OMG plc (LSE: OMG) is a group of technology companies which make ‘image understanding’ solutions for the entertainment, defence, life science and engineering industries. Be it for capturing actors (for the movie industry), sportsmen (for video games or improving team performance), children with Cerebral Palsy, rehab patients and animals (for medical, life science and research industries) or virtual reality displays (for engineering and development), the group has a dominant market share and reputation for precision instruments.

The group’s global headquarters are based in Oxford UK, where it was founded back in 1984 as Oxford Metrics, and has offices in California and Colorado USA. It has customers in over 35 countries and is listed on AIM, a market operated by the London Stock Exchange. The group trades under two core operating subsidiaries – Vicon, the world’s biggest motion capture and movement analysis company and 2d3, a manufacturer of specialised visual effects software.

OMG today serves global markets in science, medicine, sport, engineering, gaming, film and broadcast. Clients include major hospitals and research facilities such as Guy's Hospital, Nuffield Orthopedic and Loughborough University, engineering industry leaders including Ford Motor Company, BMW, Airbus, Caterpillar, and Toyota, and in the entertainment sector, Sony, Industrial Light and Magic, The Moving Picture Company (MPC), Sega, Nintendo, UbiSoft, EA, Square Enix and many others.

For more information about OMG, or its subsidiaries, visit www.omg3d.com, www.vicon.com, or www.2d3.com.