Exotic Matter is a software company developing state-of-the-art dynamics software for visual effects and 3D animation.  Founded in 2008 by industry veterans Marcus Nordenstam and Robert Bridson, the company develops and sells the Naiad software product: a 3D fluid solver and dynamics framework.

Naiad is being used by a growing list of prestigious 3D animation and VFX studios worldwide, including Weta Digital, Framestore, Digital Domain, Rhythm & Hues, Dr. D Studios, Pixomondo, BaseFX, Prime Focus, and others.

Despite being a relatively new product, Naiad has already been used to produce the fluid animations in an impressive list of major motion-pictures including Avatar, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Pirates of the Carribbean 4, Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Gulliver's Travels, X-Men: First Class, Final Destination 5, and others.

The Exotic Team

Marcus Nordenstam

Founder | CEO | Naiad Architect

Marcus has more than fifteen years of experience in R+D and software development, with a focus on 3D graphics and numerical simulation. He co-invented curl-noise, pioneered the use of the FLIP method for fire simulation, and co-authored the “Squirt” fluid simulator at Double Negative Visual Effects in London. Prior to founding Exotic Matter, Marcus held senior engineering positions at Industrial Light + Magic (where he was one of the original Zeno programmers), Sony Imageworks, Activision, and Double Negative. His software has been used on many feature films, and he has received screen credits for his work on Star Wars Episode II, Spider-Man 2, Hellboy II, Inkheart, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and Avatar.

Robert Bridson

Founder | Chief Scientist

Robert is an internationally-known researcher in computer graphics and numerical simulation methods. He has made major contributions to the computer graphics field, including methods for fluid simulation, cloth animation, robust collision and contact, curl-noise, and surface tracking with meshes. Following his Ph.D. from Stanford, where he worked on the original PhysBAM code, he is now a tenured, full-time professor of Scientific Computing/Computer Graphics at the University of British Columbia. He co-authored the "Squirt" fluid simulator, and has developed dynamics software for the simulation of cloth, rigid-bodies, and fluids used on many of the biggest films of the past decade. Robert has received screen credits for his work on Inkheart, The Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and The Adventures of Tin-Tin.

Tommy Hinks

Visualization Guru | Naiad Studio Developer

Tommy started his computer graphics career at Linköping University, Sweden where he had the good fortune to work with some of the foremost researchers in the field while completing his Master's thesis. Thereafter, he went on to pursue a PhD in Dublin, focusing on the processing of enormous points sets acquired with aerial laser scanning. For this work was awarded the gold medal at the Young European Arena of Research (YEAR) in 2008 held in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Tommy's interests extend from high-level architectural software design to low-level GPU programming.