| Alias/Wavefront
Announces New Interactive Renderer |
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(April 25, 1999) Alias|Wavefront, an SGI company, announced at NAB '99 that it plans to deliver a new Interactive Photorealistic Render software called Maya IPR as a standard component of Maya 2 software. Integrated seamlessly into the Maya user environment, the new IPR is designed to allow for near instantaneous editing of lighting, textures, shaders, lens and glow effects. Alias|Wavefront previewed the IPR as part of its launch of Maya 2 at NAB. The Maya IPR software is a rendering solution based on the pioneering Explore® IPR, which was invented and brought to maturity by Alias|Wavefront. It is designed to bring the speed of on-line video editing to the world of 3D rendering, giving users the ability to match colors, edit material shaders, and adjust lighting placement on final renderings in real-time, eliminating the need for multiple test renderings. The company expects that visual effects artists and animators will save countless hours and produce stunning, quality work in Maya Complete and Maya Unlimited with the new IPR rendering workflow. "The process of creatively fine-tuning a rendered image has proven to be an extremely time consuming process," said Chris Ford, Maya product manager at Alias|Wavefront. "By allowing for high-speed interactive tuning of visual effects on a final image, drag-and-drop capability, and continuous feedback, we expect that the new Maya IPR software will reduce projects that once took days to a matter of hours. The IPR is a major leap forward in rendering and we are thrilled to able to provide this advanced technology to all our Maya 2 customers." Maya 2 IPR Features
— HyperShade: Designed to provide users with interactive and graphical editing of sophisticated shader networks. Designing sophisticated networks, such as skin, is anticipated to be easier and more approachable to a non-technical audience. Previously users had to write code to build elaborate shaders. — Visor: Designed to act as a visual outliner for pictorial representation of textures and shaders in GUI. Designed to provide drag-and-drop workflow throughout for easy handling of numerous shaders and textures. Users can design shader networks and visually see the rendering progression as it is constructed. — Drag-and-Drop Workflow: Designed to give users the ability to drag and drop textures and shaders directly on scene geometry, or transfer them between any window in the GUI. Designed to eliminate the need for typing or browsing through large lists of filenames. — Wide Range of Auxiliary Effects: Designed to allow users to move light sources, adjust lens flares, scale and rotate textures, adjust bump heights, and interactively edit 2.5D motion blurs. Pricing and Availability
The company plans to offer favorable upgrade pricing from current versions of Maya, and the company plans to provide free upgrades to Maya 2 to customers who purchase Maya Complete and Maya Unlimited prior to Maya 2 shipping. Maya Complete 2 and Maya Unlimited 2 are scheduled to begin shipping by the end of June 1999.
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