The Woodlands, Texas - January 8, 2000 - The epic software group, inc. a Woodlands based multimedia production company, has completed construction on its new headquarters and a state of the art production studio in South Montgomery County said Vic Cherubini, President of the company. "The explosive growth of 3D animation in feature films, commercials and video games has fueled this demand, and the studio will help us meet it." said Cherubini.
For the past ten years, epic has been delivering multimedia catalogs and brochures on CD-ROM mainly to oil and gas related industries in the Houston market. For example, if a company had a technical product to sell - like a valve - it would be much easier to explain how it works with animated 3D graphics. Over the years, clients such as Shell, Pennzoil, Baker Hughes, and Enron kept the company busy with the conversion of their printed catalogs into multimedia catalogs delivered on CD-ROM. With the boom of the Internet, many of these same clients returned to epic for help on building or creating animated graphics for their web sites.
In 1998, epic won the Gold Addy Award for the best multimedia CD created in Houston. The CD-ROM was packed with video, 3D animation, music, games that showcased the clients' services while demonstrating epic's creative talents. "The honor of winning the Addy Award attracted the attention of a number of companies outside the oil patch," said William Vaughan, the Creative Director for epic.
One of those companies was Jamsa Press, a division of Gulf Publishing Company. "I have been wanting to do children's books for a long time, but I was never able to find anyone who could create the exact kind of illustrations I had envisioned" said author Kris Jamsa, who is best known for the 80 plus computer books he has written over the years. "When I saw epic's work, I knew I found it," continued Jamsa. In 1998, Jamsa published the first four books in the "Happy and Max" series of children's books about the adventures of a young boy and his Dalmatian puppy. Each book contains dozens of 3D graphics along with a CD-ROM so it can be used as an audio book, or interactively on the computer. In 1998 epic began to develop the reputation for producing Hollywood style 3D graphics and animation. Their work attracted the attention of companies in the entertainment and video production industries.
Epic quickly became a magnet for talented 3D artists, animators and programmers. "Our people are happy right here in Texas and don't care to move to Los Angeles or New York to work" said Cherubini. Epic also grows its own talent by employing a number of budding multimedia student interns from the Academy of Science and Technology, The Woodlands High School, North Harris College and the Art Houston of Institute.
Epic has recently completed an animated leprechaun for Parkway Chevrolet's television spots, an out of this world 3D "fly-by" for Lockheed, and a series of 2D animations for Compaq's web site. "Although our roots are in the oil and gas industry, our new facility will allow us to take on television and feature film work for the entertainment industry" said Cherubini. Samples of their 3D graphics and multimedia work can be seen at www.epicsoftware.com.
