DreamWorks in Deal With Mental Images

Expanding its ability to create virtual characters, DreamWorks SKG signed a multiyear licensing agreement with Mental Images, a German software company.

Both firms, which are privately held, declined to discuss financial details of the deal.

Mental Images, which won a technical achievement award this year from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, has cut several similar licensing deals with effects houses in the last year. The industry is increasingly turning to the small Berlin firm’s software to build believable cyber-actors and create photo-realistic light effects -- a market once dominated by Pixar, the Emeryville, Calif.-based animation studio headed by Steve Jobs. Mental Images’ software has been used in more than 120 films.