Alias|Wavefront Ships Maya 2

TORONTO -- Alias|Wavefront, an SGI (NYSE: SGI) company, announced Maya 2 is shipping concurrently for Microsoft Windows NT and Silicon Graphics IRIX workstations. This is the newest major release of its award winning 3D animation and visual effects software for film, visual effects, broadcast and game development.

Maya 2 includes a wealth of feature enhancements, timesaving workflow improvements and across-the-board performance optimizations for 3D animation and visual effects. New features include Alias|Wavefront's award winning Wavefront IPR (Interactive Photorealistic Renderer), an innovative rendering technology that allows users to interactively edit lights, shaders, textures and visual effects in a final rendered image. New workflow improvements include support for polygons in Maya Artisan, Maya software's unique brush sculpting tool, and the addition of a new shader creation environment called Maya HyperShade. Other new features include a "pose-based" character interface and new skinning techniques to streamline production workflow in a way that is familiar to traditional animators.

Maya software's new Advanced Modeling features include the integration of NURBs tools and subdivision surface technology, a modeling refinement tool for the creation and editing of seamless organic shapes. Notable performance enhancements include significant memory and speed improvements in Maya software's renderer, plus the introduction of multi-processor support by the Maya batch renderer.

Maya 2 offers a suite of targeted tools for game and interactive developers, including an enhanced API, and major advances in Maya software's polygon, texturing and game specific export tools. Now Maya is as well positioned for games and interactive title development as it is for film and video production.

"The complexity and quality of real-time 3D modeling for games has increased exponentially in the past few years, and it requires excellent tools to keep pace," says Rob Huebner, Lead Programmer for Nihilistic Software. "The Maya API allows us to easily export data previously used only for photorealistic rendering to create lifelike interactive models and animations that rival those traditionally found in film and television for our next title, Vampire: The Masquerade."

"No aspect of Maya software's functionality has remained untouched by our developers. We made every effort to incorporate the suggestions and feedback we received from our customers and the industry into Maya 2, making it an extremely feature rich release," explains Jack Moran, Director of Development at Alias|Wavefront. "By delivering Maya 2 to our customers on schedule and simultaneously on Windows NT and IRIX, we maintain our commitment to the industry and our position as a leader in 3D animation and visual effects technology."

Maya 2 Simplifies Workflow

Alias|Wavefront's Maya 2 software is designed to address the needs of the broader professional market and high-end production studios, offering features and workflow solutions that remain unrivaled in the industry.

"Maya 2 is simply a fantastic update to an amazing product," says Josh Reiss, senior technical director for Sony Pictures Imageworks. "While evaluating Maya 2, we found that the new workflow increased efficiency and productivity, saving us weeks of work. Alias|Wavefront has developed new ways of editing data that are so intuitive, it frees us to create artistically instead of editing mathematically," explains Reiss. "I'm excited about using Maya 2, and with it I believe we can bring images and characters to the screen that no one has seen before."

While Maya 2 is ideal for high-end production work, its enhanced features appeal to a growing number of smaller production houses. "Maya 2 is an invaluable tool for our production team," says Loren Olson, technical director at Rhonda Graphics. "IPR is dramatically faster and more responsive, resulting in a tremendous productivity boost for our overall workflow. In addition, enhancements to the dynamic particle system in Maya 2 makes it easier to accomplish subtle timing changes with certain special effects -- a practical improvement that saves a lot of time in the animation process."

Pricing and Availability

Maya Complete 2, available for Windows NT or IRIX, has a SRP of $7,500(US) and includes modeling, rendering, animation, dynamics, Artisan, MEL (an embedded scripting language) and a well-documented API that provides an open interface for programming in Maya.

Maya Unlimited 2, available on Windows NT or IRIX, has a SRP of $16,000(US) and includes Maya Complete 2, Maya Live, Maya Fur, Maya Cloth, additional batch rendering capability and the new integrated Advanced Modeling functionality. Price, product configuration and availability are subject to change without notice.

Alias|Wavefront is offering free upgrades to Maya 2 customers who purchased Maya Complete or Maya Unlimited between April 19, 1999 and June 21, 1999. Favorable upgrade pricing from current versions of Maya is also available.

About Alias|Wavefront

Alias|Wavefront provides artists with open workflow solutions for creative advantage. As the world's leading innovator of 2D and 3D graphics technology, Alias|Wavefront develops software for the film and video, games, interactive media, industrial design and visualization markets. Alias|Wavefront's film and video customers include Blue Sky, Cinesite, CNN, Digital Anvil, Digital Domain, Dream Quest Images, Industrial Light & Magic, Pacific Data Images(PDI), Pixar, Santa Barbara Studios, Sony Pictures Imageworks, The Walt Disney Company and Warner Feature Animation. Games/Interactive customers include CAPCOM, Electronic Arts, Iguana Entertainment, Interplay, Kronos Digital Entertainment, NAMCO, Naughty Dog, Nintendo, Rare, SEGA, 989 Studios, Square, Virtual Worlds Entertainment and Williams/Bally Midway.

Alias|Wavefront is a wholly owned, independent software company of SGI with headquarters in Toronto and technical centers in Seattle and Santa Barbara. Please visit the Alias|Wavefront web site at www.aliaswavefront.com or call 1-800-447-2542 or 1-978-466-7623 (outside North America) for additional product information or the location of an authorized Alias|Wavefront dealer.

Alias is a registered trademark, and Alias|Wavefront, the Alias|Wavefront logo, and Wavefront IPR are trademarks of Alias|Wavefront, a division of Silicon Graphics Limited. Silicon Graphics and IRIX are registered trademarks of Silicon Graphics, Inc. Maya and the Maya logo are trademarks of Silicon Graphics, Inc. exclusively used by Alias|Wavefront, a division of Silicon Graphics Limited. Microsoft and Windows NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Alias|Wavefront, 210 King Street East, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5A 1J7, Tel: 416-362-9181, Fax: 416-369-6140.

SOURCE Alias|Wavefront