San Clemente-based MaMoCa Inc., which makes software and cameras that capture 3-D motion for films, video games and TV shows, has been acquired by Santa Rosa’s Motion Analysis Corp.
Terms of the stock deal weren’t disclosed.
Gene Alexander, MaMoCa’s chief executive and sole worker, is set to join Motion Analysis as vice president and general manager. He’ll keep working from San Clemente.
MaMoCa still was in the early stages when it was bought—it didn’t have any revenue or profits.
The company, which started in 2005, raised a little more than $1 million from friends, family and a small angel round from the Tech Coast Angels, a loose group of investors in Southern California that funds startups.
MaMoCa’s technology is designed to make “motion capture,” as it’s known in the industry, a lot less cumbersome.
Motion capture is a technique of digitally recording the movements of real things—usually people.
The movements then are translated to an animated form for movies or video games. Typically, an actor has to perform with hundreds of tiny golf ball-sized sensors glued to his or her body and face. The sensors capture the motion of the actor and transmit it to a computer where it can be made into animation.
MaMoCa’s software and cameras make the process less expensive and less time-consuming by automating it.
It replaces the golf ball sensors with a projected grid. The actor moves through the grid and the system’s cameras track the points where it touches his or her body.
“We have technology that allows you to do 3-D motion capture without putting anything on the actor at all,” Alexander said. “You also get much more natural movement.”
The company has a small studio where it tests prototypes in Santa Ana’s Digital Media Center, which provides inexpensive offices for technology startups.
Motion Analysis, which started talks with MaMoCa in the spring, is set to integrate the startup’s product into its own offering.
Executive Hires
Orange-based Marshal8e6 Inc., a maker of Web filtering servers and software for small businesses and schools, is continuing its executive hiring streak.
The company recently appointed William Kilmer as chief marketing officer and Werner Thalmeier as vice president of product management.
A few months earlier it named John Vigour-oux as its chief executive after acquiring Or-em, Utah’s Avinti Inc., a small company that makes software to filter out viruses and other harmful software in e-mails.
Kilmer was Avinti’s chief executive.
Prior to joining Marshal8e6, Thalmeier headed product management at San Jose’s Finjan Software Inc.
Marshal8e6 was formed when Orange’s 8e6 Technologies Inc. and Britain’s Marshal Ltd. combined last year.
Its global headquarters stayed here and its international operations are headed from Marshal’s offices near London.
The company sees about $50 million in yearly sales.
Software Hiring
San Juan Capistrano-based OptionEase Inc., which makes software that helps companies manage stock options accounting, recently named Kevin Liebl executive vice president of operations.
Before OptionEase, Liebl headed marketing at Milpitas-based chipmaker LSI Corp.
He held a similar post at Irvine-based StoreAge Networking Technologies Ltd., which was acquired by LSI for $55 million in 2006.
In the same announcement, OptionEase said it has achieved a positive cash flow and is profitable, without disclosing specifics.
Video Marvel
This is the last few weeks to see the “H Box,” a high-tech portable movie theater that made its U.S. debut this year at the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach.
What is an H Box? Think a bigger version of the lovable robot “Wall-E” from Walt Disney Co.’s Pixar Animation Studios Inc.
The H Box is a high-tech collapsible video gallery that travels to museums around the world showcasing newly commissioned video art by emerging artists.
Video works by 10 artists loop on a giant screen inside the box. Black leather bean bag chairs and a leather-wrapped seating bar inside accomodate about 10 people at a time. First unveiled at the Pompidou Centre in Paris in 2007, H Box has traveled since to Spain, Luxembourg, the Tate Modern in London and to the Yokohama Triennale in Japan.
After its stay in Newport Beach ends Sept. 6, the H Box is set to travel to the Houston Museum of Art.
