MetaCreations Announces Canoma

New Software Enables Web and Design Professionals to Quickly and Easily Transform 2-D Photos and Images Into Powerful 3-D Models for Web Sites, E-Commerce

MetaCreations Corp. (Nasdaq:MCRE), the Creative Web company, announced Canoma, revolutionary software that allows Web content developers and graphic artists to quickly and easily create photo-realistic 3-D models from 2-D photos or scanned images.

These models can be posted on Web sites, used in electronic catalogs, imported into traditional 3-D modeling and animation packages, or combined with MetaCreations' MetaStream 3-D streaming technology to provide a complete solution for creating 3-D models and distributing them via the Web.

Canoma is much easier to use than conventional 3-D modeling programs, and offers 2-D graphic artists and Web content creators a simple solution for editing images in perspective, or creating and manipulating photo-realistic 3-D interactive models online. In the past, creating 3-D models has been time-consuming and therefore expensive to produce at the quality level that e-commerce now demands.

Using an entirely new approach called "image-assisted modeling," Canoma enables graphics professionals who may not consider themselves 3-D specialists to create convincing models of goods for sale, real estate walkthroughs and property previews that have the quality of photographs but are fully interactive.

Canoma complements and broadens the company's Creative Web strategy to provide new visualization technology for a variety of highly creative applications for the Web. The product works seamlessly with both MetaCreations' 2-D products including Painter 5.5 Web Edition and Kai's Power Tools 5, and the company's 3-D modeling and animation packages such as Ray Dream Studio 5, Poser 3 and Bryce 4.

"Canoma is true breakthrough technology that represents the next essential step in MetaCreations' Creative Web strategy by advancing our vision of utilizing 3-D over the Internet for better e-commerce, learning and communications," said Gary Lauer, president and chief executive officer of MetaCreations.

"Taking it a step further, when you combine Canoma with MetaStream, the emerging standard for streaming 3-D over the Internet, we believe this will make significant strides in changing every user's Web experience for the better," Lauer added.


Canoma Interface image courtesy of MetaCreations

Canoma is based on technology MetaCreations acquired in December of 1998 when it purchased Canoma Inc. Canoma is a unique 3-D tool that lets users quickly convert 2-D imagery into a full 3-D model by simply using "push pins" to select individual elements of a photograph.

With Canoma users can retouch surface textures using existing image-editing tools and plug-in filter skills; generate distortion-free textures so they can work in "head-on" view; and add text and apply effects without worrying about perspective.

The product leverages the extremely compact MetaStream Internet file format and supports a variety of other industry standard formats, enabling models to be imported into 3-D modeling and animation software for use over the Internet and in other applications.

Canoma simplifies and speeds 3-D modeling with the following features:

  • Image-based modeling lets users easily convert a 2-D photograph into a 3-D model without having to learn complex 3-D software
  • Textures are created from source photographs or images to make 3-D models look realistic
  • Single or multiple images can be fused together to form 3-D models
  • -- Incremental modeling makes it possible to add geometry or detail at a later time
  • "Fast" and "fancy" texturing modes allow users to adjust resolution of output textures
  • -- Direct interface to image editing tools lets users directly open textures in MetaCreations Painter or Adobe PhotoShop, apply edits, save the file and simply switch back to Canoma, where the texture is immediately updated in a 3-D view
  • Built-in animation tools let users generate fly-through animations and output to QuickTime movie files.
  • Because it is flexible and powerful, as well as easy to learn and easy to use, Canoma could be beneficial to the following target customers:
  • Online catalogs for "hard goods" such as furniture or appliances, enabling enhanced user interaction with products through photo-realistic 3-D models and animations
  • Travel and tourism, commercial real estate Web sites for providing a 3-D preview of the property
  • Graphic design for industrial designers and graphic artists to modify packaging, designs and environments
  • Advertising for agencies to create mock-ups of billboards, ads on buses, etc. in photorealistic perspective
  • 3-D artists to create quick photo-realistic "clip objects" that can be used to enliven existing traditional 3-D models and animations
  • Architecture, urban planning, property development for producing entire city blocks or a model of the area in which a new building is planned
  • Interior design and remodeling for quickly generating "what if" scenarios, changing carpets, kitchen layouts, wall colors, tiles and furniture to easily create 3-D interiors of buildings for interactive walkthroughs
  • Game developers for very rapidly generating lots of low-polygon- count 3-D models with realistic textures, suitable for rendering in real time on today's hardware

 

About MetaStream
MetaStream was jointly developed with Intel for scaling and streaming 3-D objects via the Internet. The MetaStream viewer plug-in is available as a free download from the MetaStream Web site at http://www.metastream.com, hosted by MetaCreations. The client-side engine is available as a free browser plug-in for Internet Explorer or Netscape Communicator for Windows.

As previously announced, MetaStream will be shipped by Microsoft as a component of Windows 98 and 2000, and a Macintosh-compatible version of the plug-in is currently under development. A free MetaStream exporter for 3-D Studio MAX is also available as a free download from the MetaCreations Web site, at http://www.metacreations.com/products/max250/.

Pricing and Availability
Canoma is expected to be available later this month for Windows 95/98/NT and Power Macintosh on CD-ROM for a suggested retail price of $499. For more information or for electronic purchase and download of the software, customers may look on the Web at http://www.metacreations.com/products/canoma or call 800/846-0111.

Minimum System Requirements:
Windows: Pentium Processor, Windows 95/98/NT4, 32 MB Free RAM (48 MB recommended,) 50 MB Free HD space for installation, CD-ROM drive, 24 bit video

Power Macintosh: Mac OS 8.0 or later, 32 MB Free RAM (48 MB recommended), 50 MB Free HD space for installation, CD-ROM drive, 24 bit video

About MetaCreations
MetaCreations, the Creative Web company, is focused on developing and marketing 2-D and 3-D visualization software for graphic artists and the World Wide Web.

MetaCreations' Creative Web strategy is centered on the company's new MetaStreamTM and MetaFlashTM technologies, and employs an array of MetaCreations' software development tools to accelerate the creation of 2-D and 3-D graphics for online applications, and to make fast, interactive use of photo-realistic 3-D on the Web practical and pervasive.

MetaCreations offers a complete product line of award-winning graphics desktop software for both professional users and consumers, with products available in more than 50 countries. The company has headquarters in Santa Barbara County, Calif., and has development centers in Scotts Valley, Calif., and Princeton, N.J., as well as an international operations center in Dublin, Ireland.

Web Site: http://www.metacreations.com