Curious software has landed a deal with The National Geographic Channel (NGC) to supply software for generating map graphics after the channel used its World Maps package for coverage of the Iraq war, writes Sam Espensen.

Curious software has landed a deal with The National Geographic Channel (NGC) to supply software for generating map graphics after the channel used its World Maps package for coverage of the Iraq war, writes Sam Espensen.

Lucas P Aragon, senior art director at NGC, said that previously NGC had to rely on Paintbox or Photoshop, which were "laborious and time consuming. Looking at locations used to require looking it up in the glossary of an atlas and attempting to find the location on a page filled with line and type. We could also never have graphic relief or ocean contours, which are important to many of our stories."

The World Maps software runs on Mac or Windows, and Aragon will be experimenting with satellite imagery using the package.

Curious saw a huge take-up during the war, with many broadcasters, including al-Jazeera, GMTV, Sky and many regional UK broadcasters, using it to create maps for news coverage.

Curious launched its Curious gfx tool at NAB - an integrated paint, rotoscoping and compositing tool for video, HDTV and film, designed to be used as a desk-top system requiring little training.

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