A SCOTTISH animation firm is hopeful of a boost in business after working on the latest music video by Kanye West.
Speech Graphics, based in Edinburgh, was given the task of animating the face of the hip hop superstar and making sure his facial expressions tied in with the words being sung.
The video for the song Black Skinhead, co-written with French dance act Daft Punk, features a digitally rendered version of Mr West dancing and singing for more than three minutes.
It was directed by fashion photographer Nick Knight who has previously made videos for Bjork and Lady Gaga.
The role Speech Graphics played in the project started with a phone call five weeks ago asking if the company was able to deliver a finished product in just a few days.
Gregor Hofer, chief executive and co-founder of Speech Graphics, said: "It came about through a guy I have known for ages who did the facial recognition on [the film] Avatar.
"We got the call late on a Friday night with a brief to deliver by the Tuesday.
"We didn't get the assets until Sunday as there were delays and we all had to sign [non-disclosure agreements] to make sure nothing leaked but we got it done."
The company uses its software to animate elements such as ears, lips, jaws, cheeks, tongue and skin to ensure a realistic depiction of facial movement while speaking or singing.
Staff were presented with a 3D facial model of Mr West and a voice track and then had to replicate the muscle movements used to make the sound on the digital face.
Michael Berger, co-founder and chief technology officer of Speech Graphics, said the biggest challenge was making sure the singer's face moved naturally over the gold and diamonds on his teeth.
He said: "When we took the call from Hollywood they set us exceptionally tight deadlines.
"But we just could not say no to this amazing job."
Mr Hofer said this is the first big project the business has worked on which it has been able to talk about.
However, he indicated there are other high profile jobs in the pipeline including several in the computer gaming sector.
He is hopeful the publicity surrounding the Kanye West contract will attract more potential customers in the coming months.
Mr Hofer said: "We just want to make sure that people know we can deliver on time.
"This project has given us the chance to really show what our technology can do. We do high quality stuff but we can also hit deadlines."
Speech Graphics has five full-time staff but can employ up to 40 contractors during busy periods.
The company was formed in 2010 as a spin-out from Edinburgh University.
Both Mr Berger and Mr Hofer were PhD students at the university's School of Informatics and the Centre for Speech Technology Research.
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