Feb 20, 2017

Motion and performance capture firm secures fresh funding from Percipient Capital Recommend Tweet Share Dimensional Imaging has completed a new investment round to the tune of £900,000, GamesIndustry.biz can reveal. The funds were awarded by VC firm Percipient Capital as well as existing shareholders and will enable to performance capture company to grow its operations. Dimensional Imaging's technology has been used in a number of AAA video games such as Mafia III and Quantum Break, as well as blockbuster movies like Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them. "Securing the backing of significant new investors gives us the confidence and means to accelerate that growth and to scale up significantly," CEO Colin Urquhart tells GamesIndustry.biz. "As well as continuing to push the fidelity of capture for pre-rendered VFX projects, the investment will also allow us to further adapt our technology and scale our services to meet the future requirements of large video-game projects. "Video game developers and publishers are constantly demanding more realistic animation - the bar is constantly being raised, with each successive title striving for more realism than the last. Facial animation is particularly difficult to do well and in recent years developers have made increasing use of facial motion capture and full performance capture." The investment will also enable Dimensional Imaging to expand its North American operations. The firm is currently represented by mo-cap veteran Tom Armbruster, but will now be hiring additional support to back him up and increase the company's capacity for projects in that region. More announcements on this are expected later in the year. "The motion capture industry is centred on the west coast of North America, and in Los Angeles in particular," says Urquhart. "The majority of projects we are involved in, even for European developers, shoot their motion capture in Los Angeles. Also a large proportion of AAA game studios, which are one of key target customer groups, are located in North America. So it really makes sense to expand our presence there." Dimensional Imaging will also be growing its operation at home in Glasgow, Scotland, with plans to hire more staff. The firm believes the new funds will help it become more appealing to applicants, and Urquhart will be exhibiting at GDC to meet potential new hires and clients. "The market for good software engineers is very competitive," says Urquhart. "But with this new investment, we are able to offer attractive packages, with the added incentive of working on some of the most exciting and highest profile projects in VFX and video games." He continues: "The investment has not really changed our long term objective, which is to become the world leader in facial performance capture. I believe that with the reputation we have been building in the industry over the past thirteen years, we were already well on the way to achieving this - but the new investment will allow us to take another big step forward towards this goal." Sign up for The Daily Update and get the best of GamesIndustry.biz in your inbox. Related stories