Landmark Virtual Universe to Launch Online and be Featured By National Geographic, On Television and at Real and Virtual Museums
LOS ANGELES, CA – June 9, 2009 – Big Stage Entertainment, Inc., the leading platform for consumer projection of self into digital life, has licensed its proprietary 3-D facial modeling technology to Virtual Space Entertainment for their new high definition, photo-realistic 3-D virtual universe, Blue Mars 2150. Blue Mars 2150 launches August 2009 with support to follow from innovative interactive museum exhibits, television and a million dollar race around a transformed virtual planet that is ready for colonization.
A user’s animated 3-D likeness seamlessly enters and explores Blue Mars 2150’s amazing landscapes including futuristic cities by Syd Mead and other artists and major attractions from renowned organizations such as the National Association of College Stores, the National Geographic Society and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. Visitors can socialize with friends in hip entertainment venues, explore the planet Mars as transformed into a blue paradise, and play unique social networked version of games including Tetris.
Big Stage’s breakthrough technology, which makes it simple for users to create animated 3-D likenesses of themselves, will allow millions of Blue Mars 2150 visitors to star in and share an unprecedented range of virtual experiences. A track with robotic 120-feet-tall dogs, college reunions in the garb of your alma mater and visiting the tomb of the first emperor of China are among the many Martian attractions.
“Big Stage technology allows us to realize a highly innovative and personalized experience whereby visitors can immerse themselves as their recognizable digital selves into our educational and entertainment creations,” said Virtual Space Entertainment (VSE) CEO Richard Childers. “We are excited to partner with Big Stage and are looking forward to realizing our ambitious ‘22nd Century’ goals for Blue Mars 2150.”
“The world VSE has created is absolutely stunning, unquestionably worthy of the highest content standards demanded by institutions such as The National Geographic Society, NOVA and a host of others,” said Phil Ressler, Big Stage Entertainment CEO. “We’re proud that the talented designers at VSE have augmented their base development platform with our PortableYou technology to literally project visitors into the fabulous digital experiences they’re creating and further differentiate this ambitious project.”
Big Stage Technology Advanced with Morphing and Kiosk Breakthroughs
The project incorporates Big Stage Entertainment’s proprietary technology, which instantly maps the contours of a user’s face. The resulting realistic, animated 3-D model, called an @ctor, is inserted by Big Stage’s PortableYou software into digital media or virtual worlds such as Blue Mars 2150.
One of the Blue Mars 2150 virtual exhibits will feature a Big-Stage enabled morphing game as part of a landmark exploration of man’s ancestry. Museum visitors will quickly and easily create their high-definition @ctors using Big Stage’s revolutionary new kiosk-based avatar-creation solution. Both online and in-person visitors will see their @ctors recognizable and yet transformed to resemble, move and act like the era of human ancestors they are exploring, from using the first tools to painting buffalo on cave walls. NOVA is using VSE footage from this virtual exhibit as part of a 3-hour television special on man’s origins.
About Big Stage Entertainment, Inc. Big Stage Entertainment, Inc. is a media technology company that enables the projection of self into digital life. With Big Stage Entertainment products and services, consumers can create a photorealistic, 3-D, animated @ctor to represent themselves in virtual worlds, video games, video clips and online communities. Through its PortableYou program, Big Stage Entertainment enables third parties to seamlessly integrate its 3-D facial modeling system into video games, virtual worlds, Web sites, mobile apps, kiosk-based systems and more to personalize everything from entertainment to communications. At BigStage.com, anyone can generate a free, animated 3-D @ctor from a few digital photos and save it to use in any Big Stage-enabled media. Headquartered in Sherman Oaks, CA, Big Stage Entertainment investors include Mission Ventures, Selby Ventures and Tech Coast Angels. For more information, please visit www.bigstage.com.
About Virtual Space Entertainment. Virtual Space Entertainment (VSE) is a Bay area based production studio developing the world’s first high definition (1080p), real time virtual world. VSE is lead by CEO Richard Childers, with more than 25 years of pioneering achievements in interactive computer graphics and animation, and Artistic Partner Syd Mead, best known for his work on the film Blade Runner. The team they have assembled brings unmatched and award-winning expertise in storytelling, commercial direction, special effects, animation, digital communication, 3-D model making for films, video game creation, courseware, and broad-band-based entertainment to bear in creating immersive massively multiplayer virtual worlds. VSE creations provide marketers and consumers a unique digital environment in which to sample, test, share, learn and purchase. For more information, please visit www.virtualspaceentertainment.com.
Legal Disclaimer: @ctor, BackStage, iStage and PortableYou are trademarks or registered trademarks of Big Stage Entertainment, Inc. All other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
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