DigitalFish co-founders Dan Herman and Mark Oftedal independently left their positions at Pixar in the winter of 1999/2000. DigitalFish was born in March 2000, when Dan and Mark met to discuss their common dream of developing a wholly new method for computer animation, based on the techniques of traditional (hand-drawn) animation. The two developed the concept and defined requirements, and Dan soon was building software tools implementing these ideas. We have steadily evolved these ideas and tools while working on a consulting basis with animators and studios in the U.S. and Asia.
Our work with the international studio community began in late 2000, with Mark providing consulting services to multinational Asian animation studios wanting to compete for Computer Graphics (CG) contract work from the United States but lacking in-house technology and expertise. Today, we work with studios in Asia, India and New Zealand, gaining a better understanding of how their challenges differ from those of studios in the U.S. and helping them address those challenges.
Our first sale was made in September 2005 to California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), a top U.S. animation school. After an onsite evaluation, they decided to replace Alias' Maya with Reflex across their Freshman animation program, and they now plan to roll Reflex out to all four years of the program following this Freshman class.
Today the enterprise edition of Reflex is in beta-testing at studios and by independent animators worldwide.
with Reflex across their Freshman animation program, and they now plan to roll Reflex out to all four years of the program following this Freshman class.