LONDON — Driven by the accelerated demand for remote collaboration and cloud-based solutions for creatives and technical teams, Disguise (www.disguise.one) has acquired Mapping Matter and Previz. The acquisition follows investments from the Carlyle Group and a minority stake from Epic Games, which were announced earlier this year.
Disguise is a platform for imagining, creating and delivering live visual experiences. Mapping Matter is a cloud-based platform that allows technical designers and their teams to easily plan and simulate large-scale video projection layouts in a simple 3D environment. And Previz is a flexible, user-friendly, pre-production workflow for transforming ideas into experiences.
Both Mapping Matter and Previz share an established reputation for delivering engaging, visually-rich, interactive cloud-based solutions for designers anywhere in the world. By integrating both platforms into its solution, Disguise will enable users across all three platforms to come together, develop and manage their projects in one unified and comprehensive workflow. Users will be able to collaborate - importing, previewing and making creative decisions on the final output together - while easily sharing their work with clients and peers around the world.
In the following months, the companies will work closely together to develop a joint user journey that gives value to their respective customers. Ongoing development will provide access to comprehensive workflows with content engines such as Unreal Engine, which will collectively enable design, sequencing, calibrations and validation, with a pipeline of new functionalities set to be released.
“Over the years, I've come to know the team at Disguise not only as great innovators and leaders in the industry but as a group of great humans,” says Mapping Matter founder, Francois David. “I’m thrilled that they are excited to take the lead and expand upon the Mapping Matter workflow.”
Previz founder Niall Thompson adds: “We set out in 2016 to be the industry-leading platform for content review and approval for live visual experiences. Joining forces with such a forward-thinking, ambitious company is what takes us into this next chapter.”
Disguise software is a powerful toolkit for pitching, developing storyboards, creating camera fly-throughs, validating content, testing technical setups, and designing entire projects. Its timeline-based interface allows users to build a 3D model of their mapping interface - be it an LED volume, live stage or building facade - and map pixel-perfect real-time content onto the simulated environment.
“We are incredibly excited for this new chapter in our mission to democratize production workflows with the addition of Cloud-based collaboration to the Disguise platform,” says Disguise CEO, Fernando Kufer. “We have been working closely with the teams at Mapping Matter and Previz over the years and our shared vision for remote collaboration has enabled us to join forces to deliver a more comprehensive and streamlined solution for all our users to create their best story. We are thrilled to welcome customers of both Mapping Matter and Previz to disguise and look forward to a bright future together.”