UKRAINE / FILE: Ukrainian programmers produce software for Hollywood

Record ID: 204640

  • Title: UKRAINE / FILE: Ukrainian programmers produce software for Hollywood
  • Date: 5th August 2010
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) ELEKS SOFTWARE CEO, ALEXEI SKRYPNYK, SAYING: "We are working with top companies that would like to launch products as their own. In fact everybody in the professional world knows who makes what, so it is not fatal for us. It is the public who might find it important to know who developed this or that project."
  • Embargoed: 20th August 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz,Science / Technology
  • Reuters ID: LVAENO91STGEDVKXWCIBJLMBGK7Q
  • Story Text: Even the most devoted Hollywood fans are unlikely to know that many of the computer stunts and special effects in their favourite blockbusters are made by a small software company in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.
    Film such as Spiderman, Quantum of Solace, Phantom of the Opera and Harry Potter are among the big hits that were made using software developed by Eleks company, which has been creating stunt and special effects software for many years.
    The Lviv programmers say that the projects they are given by the studios have changed a lot over the years as productions become increasingly ambitious.
    "For Spiderman we were given pretty simple tasks. But for the new films we get quite complicated, mathematical tasks to create three-dimensional effects. To mention one, we had to transfer the velocity of the acceleration into a geometrical square and place all this into a coordinates system of four separate motors," said Igor Bobalo, the leading engineer of the company.
    Eleks was founded in the mid-1990s and was nearly ruined by the economic crisis of 1998, which hit the former Soviet countries hard.
    The firm was forced to look for contracts abroad when the crisis hit, with their first foreign customers found via the Internet.
    But Eleks remains largely unknown because of its contracts with the Hollywood giants which state its name should not be mentioned in film credits.
    "We are working with top companies which would like to launch products as their own. In fact everybody in the professional world knows who makes what, so it is not fatal for us. It is the public who might find it important to know who developed this or that project," said Alexei Skrypnyk, Eleks Software CEO.
    Although their film industry projects are the most lucrative part of the business, the company continues to work in other fields.
    Eleks began operations many years ago writing software for medical firms, and today it continues to work for hospitals and rehabilitation centres.
    One of Eleks's first clients was Lviv International Clinic for Rehabilitation.
    The clinic still uses Eleks software, such as a three-dimension control programme to analyse treatment effectiveness which was named "Doctor Eleks."
    "Now we are able to store all the information on one server server, to which every doctor has access at any time and from any place, in order to assess a patient's condition and treatment effectiveness. This programme enables us to understand, to compare, to show the data to the parents and to observe what needs to be improved. So it enables us to evaluate the treatment process," said Doctor Volodymyr Lysovich, deputy director general of the clinic..
    Today demand for the Lviv IT company's products is growing, as is the competition. But Eleks are confident they have a strong market share.
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