"Artificial life for animation" software

If you've watched "The Lord of the Rings" or many other visual effects-driven Hollywood films, you have seen Massive Software's 3-D animation software at work.

The New Zealand company's technology is the reason why the hordes of orcs and warriors who cross swords in the screen versions of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic tales do so in such a remarkably lifelike, non-uniform way.

The software allows developers and designers to give 3-D characters -- dubbed "agents" in Massive's parlance -- the ability to react to their surroundings based on factors including sight, touch and hearing. When scaled into a crowd, the agents interact with each other, creating a more realistic result.

Read full story at PC World.