Unprecedented New Paint Technology Changes the Nature of Computer Animation

LOS ANGELES, SIGGRAPH -- Alias|Wavefront, an SGI company, announced Maya Paint Effects, an unprecedented advancement in technology that enables any user to paint and animate the most complex organic and painterly detail into three-dimensional space. This revolutionary technology, available in the fall, will be a standard feature of Maya 2.5 software in both Maya Complete and Maya Unlimited for Microsoft Windows NT and Silicon Graphics IRIX workstations.

"When I first sat in front of the monitor and witnessed the power of Paint Effects, my mouth literally dropped open," said Nick Ericson, president of Nick Ericson Studios. "It is the most impressive software technology I have seen in a really long time. And, we're ready to use it in production! The ability to paint and render an entire environment in 15 minutes is truly spectacular. It will give us the power to take on projects never previously considered -- even those with tight deadlines."

Alias|Wavefront will showcase its groundbreaking Paint Effects technology and highlight additional features of Maya 2.5 at SIGGRAPH '99, Booth 1415. Maya Paint Effects and the announcement of Maya 2.5 reinforces Alias|Wavefront's position as the industry leader in developing innovative computer graphics technology. With this announcement, Alias|Wavefront continues to accelerate the rate at which it delivers new and cutting-edge technology based on the Maya architecture.

"When I saw the prototype demonstration of Paint Effects at last year's SIGGRAPH, I was blown away," explains Josh Reiss, senior technical director for Sony Pictures Imageworks. "It's good to see Alias|Wavefront continuing its commitment to deliver products that advance the technology beyond what is currently available."

Paint Effects is a Stroke of Genius

Paint Effects is a powerful artist's tool for the instantaneous creation and animation of stunning organic and painterly effects -- redefining the way artists add beauty and complexity to 3D scenes.

"Not only is Paint Effects a terrific addition to the Maya tool set, it is a feature that is unmatched by any other software in the industry," says Loren Olson, technical director at Rhonda Graphics. "It moves beyond traditional painting, allowing you to paint and animate 3D shapes directly onto 3D geometry, all with the stroke of a brush. Paint Effects is a phenomenal advancement in technology."

"Paint Effects is a mind-blowing product," said Kevin Palmer, artist, animator and designer at Anadarko. "I'm already using it in production and continue to be amazed by its power. The fact that Paint Effects will be a feature in Maya 2.5 is truly amazing. Once again, Alias|Wavefront is revolutionizing the industry in ways we never dreamed possible!"

Completely integrated inside of Maya, Paint Effects comes with a myriad of editable pressure-sensitive preset brushes including: Effects Brushes: Offers a vast range of realistic effects including complete environments with trees, grass, and flowers, characters with realistic hair, eyebrows and beards, and special effects such as lightning, clouds, rain, fire, fireworks, starfields and sparks.

Natural Media Brushes: Includes an extensive range of traditional painterly brushes including airbrushes, oil paint, chalk, pastels, pencils, watercolors, wet brushes and markers.

All Paint Effects brushes can be used either in true 3D space, allowing you to paint on or between 3D objects in your scene or on a 2D canvas, which is useful for creating images and textures. The brushes can be blended together to make an infinite number of new presets, and users can create and save their own customized presets. The brushes can be fully animated, and many of the presets have built-in dynamics settings such as turbulence and gravity.

Paint Effects strokes are drawn fully rendered during interactive painting, providing immediate feedback to the user. Final rendering is extremely fast, resolution-independent, and can include 3D cast shadows, depth of field, fog effects and motion blur.

Maya 2.5 Addresses Industry Needs

Maya 2.5 will deliver notable feature improvements, including Paint Effects and targeted features for game developers, to both the Maya Complete and Maya Unlimited products. Maya 2.5 will also introduce a new member of the Maya product line, Maya Builder. Maya Builder, which is also being announced at SIGGRAPH '99, is a subset of Maya Complete and will be a low-cost product for creating polygon based content that addresses the needs of game level designers and programmers.

"We continue our rapid pace of innovation to build upon the state-of-the-art technology that Alias|Wavefront is known for throughout the world," says Warren Pratt, president of Alias|Wavefront. "By including unequalled improvements like Paint Effects in Maya 2.5, we're providing a higher level of functionality that's completely integrated -- delivering the kind of features and enhancements our users have come to expect."

Additional Maya 2.5 Features Include:

• * New Polygon Modeling Tools -- Includes Level of Detail (LOD) and polygon reduction tools. [IG1]
• * Multi-threaded Interactive Photorealistic Rendering (IPR) -- Allows full utilization of additional processors to enhance rendering speed and workflow for this interactive rendering evaluation tool.
• * SSE Support on Intel Pentium III Xeon Processors -- Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE) includes enhancements to the critical code paths of the Maya Renderer, resulting in rendering time improvements of up to 30 percent.
• * ClipFX Libraries -- Additional ClipFX solutions include Fireworks, Surface Flow, Lightning, Shatter and Ripple to speed the production of dynamic particle effects.
• * IK Additions -- A new lightweight two-bone IK solver gives users a fast new method of solving inverse kinematics, with corresponding source code provided for run-time deployment on game platforms.

Pricing and Availability

Maya Complete 2.5, Maya Unlimited 2.5 and Maya Builder 2.5 are scheduled to ship in the fall 1999. Maya Complete 2.5 has a SRP of $7,500 (US) and includes modeling, rendering, animation, dynamics, and Maya Artisan. Maya MEL, Maya software's Embedded Scripting Language, and the full Maya API for programmers are available in all products. Maya Unlimited 2.5 has a SRP of $16,000 (US) and, in addition to the features of Maya Complete, includes Maya Live, Maya Fur, Maya Cloth and the new Advanced Modeling features. All purchases of Maya Complete and Maya Unlimited after August 9, 1999 include a free upgrade to version 2.5 upon its release. The new Maya Builder is expected to have a SRP of $2,995 (US). (Prices are indicated in U.S. funds and will vary outside the U.S. Prices are subject to change without notice.)

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, Sony, 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 http://www.aliaswavefront.com or call 800-447-2542 or 978-466-7623 (outside North America) for additional product information or the location of an authorized Alias|Wavefront dealer.