| ALIAS|WAVEFRONT
SHIPS MAYA COMPOSER 5.5 Powerful Compositing Software Offers Film and Video Professionals More Flexibility |
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TORONTO --July 21, 1999-- Alias|Wavefront, an SGI (NYSE:SGI) company, today announced Maya® Composer 5.5 software for Silicon Graphics® IRIX® workstations is now shipping. Maya Composer 5.5 is the newest release of Alias|Wavefront's award-winning off-line compositing system for film and video, including High Definition (HD). It offers the speed, flexibility, and advanced features users need to meet the most demanding production deadlines. Maya Composer 5.5 combines high-end film tools with powerful broadcast tools, making it an indispensable tool in the digital video production environment. New features include full two-way curve exchange of Maya® data, live playback of high-resolution images, improved tracking capabilities, and real-time waveform and vectorscope tools for broadcast video output. Other features in Maya Composer 5.5 include an interactive FlowGraph, 16-bit-per-channel color processing, support for deep raster images with Maya 3D Z-depth information, interactive playback of Travel Mattes, and much more. "At Matte World Digital every shot passes through Maya Composer 5.5, from color correction to post moves, motion matching, and rotoscoping," explains Paul Rivera, digital compositing supervisor for Matte World Digital. "The new flow chart and plug-in architecture makes Maya Composer faster and more versatile than ever before." Several new plug-ins from leading developers such as Hitachi, Puffin Designs, and Genetic Arts, extend the appeal of Maya Composer 5.5, allowing users to tailor the software to fit their individual needs. Hitachi's TiPiT (Tour Into Picture), for example, can be used to create a 3D animation from a 2D image and Puffin's Knoll Lens Flare adds realism to CG scenes with lighting and lens flare effects. Genetic Arts' Sapphire offers a wide variety of image processing effects such as warps, fog, and procedural textures. "Maya Composer 5.5 is the latest release of our award-winning software for SGI system-based compositing and effects," says Jill Jacob, Maya Composer product manager at Alias|Wavefront. "Combining proven tools for film and broadcast-quality video with innovations like Maya curve exchange, this release offers unparalleled power in compositing live action and CG elements." Pricing
and Availability Maya Composer 5.5 complements Alias|Wavefront's suite of 3D animation and video effects software, which includes Maya? Complete 2, Maya® Unlimited 2, and Maya® Fusion. Maya Complete 2, priced at $7,500 and available for Microsoft® Windows NT® or IRIX, 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. Maya Fusion, which has a SRP of $5,000, is a revolutionary new compositing and effects solution for professional digital content creators using Windows NT. Price, product configuration, and availability are subject to change without notice.
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