CEBIT 2004 — HANNOVER, GERMANY — MARCH 18, 2004 — NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA), the worldwide leader in visual processing solutions, today announced that it will be teaming up with Academy Award®-winning Jim Henson’s Creature Shopä at this year’s CeBIT exhibition in Hannover, Germany, to show its famous technology demonstration “Dawn”, in an fully live and interactive environment. The Creature Shop is one of the pre-eminent character-building visual effects facilities serving the international film, television and advertising industries and has most recently been using NVIDIA Quadro® graphics technology to assist in the creation of digital versions of its characters, which are some of the most complex 3D characters in the film and television industry today.

NVIDIA and The Creature Shop will be demonstrating “Dawn”, the world’s most detailed real-time 3D human character, which was originally developed to showcase what is possible with cinematic computing. First shown at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year, and now for the first time in Europe, the Henson Digital Performance Studioä will be controlling a fully interactive “Dawn” using puppetry to interact with show attendees.

“For more than 20 years, The Creature Shop has produced amazing characters for film, TV and advertising,” said Dan Vivoli, executive vice president of marketing at NVIDIA. “By using the unique skills of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop™ we were able to add a new dimension to our demos, allowing us the ability to ‘perform’ expressions of computer generated characters in real-time. By having the ability to control characters down to eyelid blinks and facial animations, we’re able to bring a whole new meaning to ‘cinematic computing’.”

The Henson Digital Performance Studio™ (HDPS) is the patented performance animation technology based on Henson’s award-winning control systems. Through this technology, a digital character can converse live and give dynamic interactive performances that can be used for both entertainment and educational purposes. Character performances can be broadcast live or recorded, generating a very high yield of animation per minute — while using digital ‘puppets’ to communicate.


“NVIDIA’s vision is much like ours, to deliver something fantastic, something that makes people smile,” stated Jeff Forbes, Computer/Electronics Supervisor, Jim Henson’s Creature Shop™. “With the power of NVIDIA graphics technology, we now have access to state-of-the-art computer graphics to combine with our animatronics and puppeteering technology to deliver stunning real-time computer generated characters for everything from live events and promotions, television, online and game development.”

About Jim Henson’s Creature Shop
Academy Award-winning Jim Henson's Creature Shop is home to a menagerie of creations from the fantastical and mythical to the ultra-realistic. Located in London and Los Angeles, The Creature Shop is one of the pre-eminent character-building visual effects facilities servicing the international film, television and advertising industries. A leader in digital as well as physical visual effects, The Creature Shop is unique in its ability to provide a total service from concept design through film production to post production. The Creature Shop’s commitment to research and development ensures its distinct position at the forefront of technology.

About NVIDIA

NVIDIA Corporation is a market leader in visual computing technology dedicated to creating products that enhance the interactive experience on consumer and professional computing platforms. Its graphics and communications processors have broad market reach and are incorporated into a wide variety of computing platforms, including consumer digital-media PCs, enterprise PCs, professional workstations, digital content creation systems, notebook PCs, military navigation systems and video game consoles. NVIDIA is headquartered in Santa Clara, California and employs more than 1,800 people worldwide. For more information, visit the Company’s Web site at http://www.nvidia.co.uk.