Ever wanted to have your mother-in-law chased by a T.rex? Your co-worker eyed by a hungry dragon? Now you can. Hitachi Data Systems Corporation (HDS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), today announced that the Tippett Creature Shop available on the Efexio Effects Marketplace, is exclusively created on Hitachi NAS Platform. Efexio is a free iOS app (Mac OS and Microsoft® Windows® available this week) that includes a special effects marketplace for animation. The Tippett Creature Shop is a store that is featured and exclusively accessible within the app and features more than 65 original animations.
 
“The unique, high performance architecture of Hitachi NAS Platform allows us to create the many images available in the Tippett Creature Shop and make them available to consumers at a moment’s notice,” said Sanjay Das, Chief Operating Officer, Tippett Studio. “We have seen the most imaginative things come from using the Efexio app and are excited by the possibility of what customers will continue to do with our creatures. The Hitachi HNAS platform enables faster renders for Tippett, due to the unique field programmable fate arrays (FPGA) technology. HNAS storage separates the metadata from the file data and accelerates media workflow completion for Tippett. Expectations are very high, so we have to push the limitations of our technology in order to continue innovating at the highest levels. Hitachi NAS Platform allows us to do that over and over again.”
 
“Efexio is the future of consumer movie editing,” said Dwight DeClouette, vice president, worldwide communications, media and entertainment, Hitachi Data Systems. “Tippett Studio took its world-renowned work and made it available to the everyday consumer at prices anyone can afford. We are thrilled to continue the collaboration with Tippett Studio and look forward to supporting them as they expand into this new marketplace.”
 
Using dinosaurs, penguins, gnomes and other available animated items, users can download the Tippett-created animations of their choice and put multiple characters in their personal videos or photos. One animation per month will be available free of charge, and the rest can be purchased for US$1.99 for standard definition and up to US$9.99 for high definition. Users retain full rights to the images they purchase.
 
About Hitachi NAS Platform
Hitachi NAS Platform is an advanced and integrated NAS solution with a unique architecture that is perfect for high-performance needs like those of Tippett Studio as well as virtualization initiatives, database deployments and massive file-server consolidation. Leveraging an optimized FPGA-accelerated architecture to speed file system operations and file deduplication, Hitachi NAS Platform is quickly becoming a preferred option for customers who want to increase performance, expand consolidation efforts, and scale virtualized server environments in their own private cloud deployments. The higher scalability, performance and availability of Hitachi NAS Platform versus competitive offerings means that HDS customers need fewer systems for any given workload and thus can realize significant cost savings.
 
About Hitachi Data Systems Communications, Media and Entertainment (CME) Solutions
Hitachi Data Systems provides products and services specifically designed for CME environments. These solutions deliver dynamic capabilities that help customers manage critical challenges in capacity, performance and reliability. The company’s CME portfolio spans fromHitachi NAS Platform to the highly scalable and reliable distributed object store, Hitachi Content Platform (HCP) and the intelligent, easy-to-manage Hitachi Unified Storage (HUS) family.

About Hitachi Data Systems
Hitachi Data Systems provides information technologies, services and solutions that help companies improve IT costs and agility, and innovate with information to make a difference in the world. Our customers gain compelling return on investment (ROI), unmatched return on assets (ROA), and demonstrable business impact. With approximately 6,100 employees worldwide, Hitachi Data Systems does business in more than 100 countries and regions. Our products, services and solutions are trusted by the world's leading enterprises, including more than 70% of the Fortune 100 and more than 80% of the Fortune Global 100. Visit us at www.HDS.com.
 
About Hitachi, Ltd.
Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 326,000 employees worldwide. The company’s consolidated revenues for fiscal 2012 (ended March 31, 2013) totaled 9,041 billion yen ($96.1 billion). Hitachi is focusing more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes infrastructure systems, information & telecommunication systems, power systems, construction machinery, high functional material & components, automotive systems and others.For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.
 
About Tippett Studio
Founded in 1984, Tippett Studio is an Academy Award®-winning VFX company specializing in a wide range of CG animation and digital effects for feature films, television and commercials. Projects include “Ted,” “The Twilight Saga,” “Cloverfield,” “Hellboy,” “Starship Troopers,” “Jurassic Park” and “After Earth.” Tippett Studio is in production on Seth MacFarlane’s “A Million Ways To Die In The West.”