Graduates respond to Call of Duty

Graduates in 3D Animation have put their mark on a famous, best-selling AAA video game recently released worldwide.

The Glasgow Caledonian University graduates, now part of local company DI4D, used their skills to help produce lifelike facial animation for the characters in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II.

DI4D is a world-leading “4D Facial Performance Capture Service” that specialises in animation for digital doubles, with applications in AAA Games and Film/TV 3D Animation. The company has become a Glasgow success story, where demand has allowed it to expand rapidly with an additional base now in Los Angeles.

For a number of years, GCU has been providing graduates to DI4D’s specialist Motion Editor Team, to the point that now, most of the team is made up of GCU graduates.

3D Animation and Visualisation Senior Lecturer Simon Haslett said: “The fact the majority of DI4D’s specialist Motion Editor Team are staffed by GCU graduates tells you that our programme is successful in producing very capable junior professional CG Artists, ready to be employed in modern industry.

“And, overall feedback received suggests that GCU graduates are more in tune than grads from elsewhere when it comes to making the transition to the professional work environment and adapting to an in-house technical pipeline. This is a direct result of our programme structure, as we place strong emphasis on logical organised production planning and the technical workflow, typical of modern industry.”