The Blue Fairy system creates a digital shape library of exaggerated 3D facial expressions, each expressing a key emotion. These can then be mixed, using the system's shape-mixing panel, to allow the director of an animated film to speedily create a wide and subtle range of facial expressions for each of the film's digital actors.

With Menfond's Blue Fairy, facial shape animators save time and cost because there is no need to laboriously edit points using the traditional polygon mesh. Projects which would in the past take years now take just a few months. Other gains include maintaining the consistency of each digital actor's performance however many animators are employed, plus the flexibility of being able to update the entire facial expression set if the shapes stored in the library are modified.

With Blue Fairy, first used in the film Master Q 2001, Hong Kong proudly joins the ranks of only four studios in the world to have produced 3D computer generated films using digital actors who can accurately convey emotion and so reach out to millions of enthusiastic fans.

Blue Fairy operates on Windows NT and was developed using Maya Animation Software Development and Microsoft C++.

Judges' Comments

"Speeds facial animation ... ensures consistency... has enabled completion of one of the first five 3D animated films in the world and the first in Hong Kong. This 100 per cent local company, originally an SME, is now competing successfully with world-class companies ... a fine achievement for Hong Kong."