"Jungle Beat" Now in 3D
Popular children's animation series to be converted to new format.
San Diego, CA (PRWEB) October 31, 2007 -- "Jungle Beat" is the latest in a series of popular children's animations that will be converted to 3D for viewing in theaters, and eventually on 3D TV, worldwide. Following in the footsteps of firms like Disney, who've released 3D versions of "Chicken Little" and "Meet The Robinsons" to great fanfare, Cape Town's Sunrise Productions has hired San Diego 3D technology firm, PassmoreLab, to convert 13 episodes of its award-winning "Jungle Beat" series to 3D.
Written and directed by Brent Dawes and produced by Phil and Jacqui Cunningham, "Jungle Beat" follows a variety of cute animal characters as they embark on journeys in which they encounter bizarre things. Based on tales that the indigenous people of Africa have been telling their children for centuries, "Jungle Beat" provides a permanent way to document these precious fables that have been passed down with care from generation to generation. By converting them to 3D it also allows the stories to reach a much wider audience.
"The 'Jungle Beat' series is really cute." said Greg Passmore, owner of PassmoreLab. "Everyone I have shown them to loves them because they are stories we can all relate to. Adding 3D will help story emphasis and increase appeal even more."
In an interesting twist, the decision to convert "Jungle Beat" to 3D not only ensures the preservation and proliferation of these time-honored tales but it will also create jobs and give back to the local economy of the indigenous African people. PassmoreLab recently opened facilities in Cape Town where its hiring local people in the townships to perform the 2D to 3D conversion of the series.
According to Passmore, "This project not only serves to help owners of films, but we have made a major effort to train and employ the artists in the impoverished communities of South Africa. These communities are filled with talented, creative and enthusiastic artists who want to learn and succeed. This project pays them to learn through our schooling system and progress to doing meaningful film production. Our goal is to make a self-sustaining economic model that helps all participants."
Conversion of the series is already under way. Passmore said they "look forward to having it available on the 3D TVs by Samsung and Mitsubishi using the TI 3D DLP chip."
Sunrise Producer, Phil Cunningham, believes the partnership with PassmoreLab will help them to stay on the forefront of the latest technological advances. "PassmoreLab is an amazing partner to team up with." said Cunningham. "They will help us push boundaries on the technology front. The work they do is cutting-edge, amazing."
About PassmoreLab
PassmoreLab started in San Diego in 2003. The company's staff is comprised of programmers and scientific engineers. The company also employs several graphic artists, videographers, a musical composer and even a biologist. PassmoreLab facilities include a full studio, post production facilities, an optical development lab and a software development environment. PassmoreLab is a firm with staff around the world in San Diego, South Africa and Russia.
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