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Light & Magic Chooses Alias/Wavefront´s Maya 3D To Create Visual Effects
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(October 5) Alias|Wavefront, a subsidiary of Silicon Graphics, Inc. (NYSE:SGI), announced last April that it has completed a licensing agreement with Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) for the use of MayaTM software. As part of the agreement, ILM has made a significant strategic investment in purchasing enough seats of Maya to give technical directors and artists throughout its digital production departments extensive use of Alias|Wavefront's most advanced 3D software. Maya is a dramatically new approach to character animation that also strengthens Alias|Wavefront's leadership position in visual effects technology. The advanced architecture of Maya delivers unmatched system speed and a streamlined workflow, resulting in significantly increased productivity. Additionally, Maya provides an unprecedented level of openness, allowing customers to easily extend the system to meet their specific production requirements. "Maya is going to make some fundamental changes in the way we work at ILM," explained H. B. Siegel, chief technology officer for Lucas Digital Ltd. LLC (parent company of ILM). "With Maya, Alias|Wavefront has produced a system that allows us to take advantage of our proprietary techniques and still be able to drive and work inside a Maya environment. That's going to be incredibly powerful for us." Alias|Wavefront software has been used by ILM's artists to model the ghoulish stars in Men In Black, the hilarious contortions in The Mask, the dinosaurs in The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and to create the stunning effects in Spawn and Twister. Many of the industry's most classic FX films have featured effects created by ILM artists using Alias|Wavefront software, including Jumanji, Jurassic Park, Death Becomes Her, Terminator 2: Judgement Day and The Abyss. Currently, ILM is working on effects for Deep Impact, Saving Private Ryan, Small Soldiers and Snake Eyes which are all scheduled to release this summer. "We're thrilled to have ILM join the growing list of customers from around the world who have discovered the competitive advantage that Maya can provide them," explained Penny Wilson, president of Alias|Wavefront. "It is extremely satisfying to everyone at Alias|Wavefront to see our hard work on Maya receiving such positive responses from our customers." Siegel added: "It was a very ambitious proposal to engineer a completely new architecture to build a fresh environment for doing modeling, animation, and rendering. And it's clear that with Maya, Alias|Wavefront has succeeded." Industrial Light & Magic for the past two decades has set the standard for visual effects by creating some of the most stunning images in the history of film. Now at the forefront of the digital revolution, ILM continues to break new ground in visual effects. Founded in 1975 by George Lucas, ILM is the leading effects facility in the world, serving the motion picture, commercial production, and attraction industries. ILM has played a key role in 6 of the top 10 box office hits of all time, winning 14 Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects and 12 Technical Achievement Awards. Alias|Wavefront provides artists with advanced computer graphics software that helps unleash the power of their creativity. 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 Bluesky/VIFX, Cinesite, CNN, Digital Domain, Dream Pictures Studio, Dream Quest Images, Industrial Light + Magic, NBC, Pixar, Sony Pictures Imageworks, The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros. Games and interactive media developers include Acclaim, CAPCOM, Electronic Arts, Iguana Entertainment, Interplay, Kronos Digital Entertainment, NAMCO, Nintendo, SEGA, Sony Interactive, Square, Virtual Worlds Entertainment and Williams/Bally Midway. With headquarters in Toronto, Alias|Wavefront is a wholly owned, independent software subsidiary of Silicon Graphics, Inc. Alias|Wavefront has worldwide distribution via a network of Channel Partners and sales offices located in North America, Europe and Asia. For more information on products, readers can access Alias|Wavefront's website at www.aw.sgi.com. Readers in North America can also call 800-447-2542 for the location of the nearest sales office or Channel Partner in their area.
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