WORK on a new football computer game has put a Banbury computer animation company into a league of its own.

Audio Motion, of Beaumont Road, Banbury, helped develop the lifelike movements in the game World League Soccer '98, developed by the firm's sister company Silicon Dreams, which is based at Adderbury.

Richard Hince, head of motion capture and his team, worked with information from Tottenham Hotspur striker Les Ferdinand to obtain smooth and fluid movements.

To track the movements of the body, tiny markers were placed at key sites, then caught with motion-capture cameras which plot the information using computers.

Mr Hince said: "Time was spent working with Les to capture his movements to produce a library of animation.

"This worked particularly well for two reasons - the quality of motion capture and the ability of the art team at Silicon Dreams to use this data properly and produce stunning results."

In WLS '98, the players' heads and bodies turn to follow the play. Players can take charge of teams from all over the world and create a European super-league.

Their work has led to games magazines giving the game rave reviews. The commentary built into the game, with voices from Channel 4 soccer commentators Ray Wilkins and Peter Brackley, has more than 17,000 phrases recorded.

The company, which has the largest motion-capture studio in Europe, also worked on the latest video of Icelandic pop star Bjork, 'morphing' her into a computer-generated polar bear.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.