Site icon MacTech.com

[NPL] MetaCreations Carrara: NextGen 3D Software for Print/Video/Web

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

METACREATIONS ANNOUNCES CARRARA,
NEXT-GENERATION 3D SOFTWARE FOR
PRINT, VIDEO AND THE WEB

Complete 3D Modeling and Animation Solution From the Creators of Ray Dream
Studio and Infini-D

San Francisco, Calif., (SEYBOLD) August 31, 1999 -MetaCreations Corporation
(Nasdaq: MCRE), the Creative Web company, today announced Carrara 1.0, a
complete 3D modeling and animation solution for print, video and the Web.
Expected for release later this fall, Carrara evolves from nearly a decade
of MetaCreations’ 3D development experience with products such as Ray Dream
and Infini-D. Carrara will provide a comprehensive, high-end feature set
coupled with a blazingly fast rendering engine and revolutionary work-flow
approach, SmartFlow. Carrara will enable the ultimate creative freedom for
3D artists and designers, as well as 2D creative professionals moving into
the world of 3D.

Carrara will become a significant component in MetaCreations’ family of 3D
products that includes Bryce 4, Poser 4 and Canoma. The MetaCreations’
product family contains all the tools necessary to create rich,
professional quality 3D objects, environments, human figures and
animations. Carrara will contain the most important features found in many
high-end 3D packages, such as a hybrid Ray Tracer, advanced shader editors,
multiple modelers, real time Metaballs, particle systems, 3D light sources,
lens flares, motion blur, key framing, physical effects, deformers and much
more.

Carrara will introduce a revolutionary workflow called SmartFlow that will
significantly shorten the learning curve for new 3D developers while
providing maximum productivity to the power user. SmartFlow provides an
intuitive, progressive interface environment that will allow users to
“walk” projects through a series of production steps, with each
compartmentalized area featuring the tools required to complete any task
necessary. Storyboarding capability within Carrara will enable the fast and
effective pre-visualization of animations. Physical effects will allow
users to apply characteristics such as weight and bounce to modeled objects
for incredibly real animation effects. Carrara will also support the
industry standard MetaStream file format to allow the creation of high
quality, compact 3D objects for streaming over the Web.

“Carrara 1.0 is designed to be a complete 3D solution,” said John Leddy,
Senior Vice President of Product Development for MetaCreations. “Carrara
will provide everything a 3D designer needs to create and animate in 3D and
our SmartFlow environment will ensure that everyone, from the least
experienced to the most advanced user, attains maximum productivity.”

Carrara simplifies and speeds 3D modeling with the following features:

– Next-Generation User Interface via SmartFlow: Carrara introduces a new
way to interact with 3D. Based on a “room” concept, each room features the
interface items needed to complete a task such as modeling, texturing,
rendering and more. Beginners will benefit from the simple user interface
which enables a smooth learning curve, while advanced users will be more
productive thanks to the workflow-based environment.

– High Speed Hybrid Renderers: Carrara includes several renderers from a
Draft Z-Buffer to a state-of-the-art high speed Hybrid Renderer. The Hybrid
Renderer is based on the latest advances in rendering technologies: First
Hit Acceleration, Selective Ray Tracing, Shaders and Soft Shadows Down
Sampling, High Quality Adaptive Antialiasing and Symmetric Multiprocessing
support.

– MetaStream Support: Users can create fully textured objects and export
them as MetaStream objects. Thanks to its unique streaming and compression
technology, MetaStream can display interactive and real time complex 3D
contents in any web page.

– Direct 3D and Open GL Support: allows direct manipulation, texturing and
modeling of 3D objects in real time using hardware acceleration. Users can
benefit from 3D hardware acceleration to edit objects, lights, and
materials with a continuous real-time feed back. Those without 3D hardware
acceleration will also be able to display highly complex scenes in real
time using a software acceleration based on MetaCreations’ unique SreeD
rendering technology.

– Importers and Exporters: 2D File Support: GIF, JPEG, TIFF, PICT (Mac),
PCX (Win), BMP (Win), Adobe Photoshop, Corel PhotoPaint (Win), Targa TGA
(Win), Adobe Illustrator, TrueType Fonts, QuickTime, AVI, Sequenced Image
Output (for all 2D file types). 3D File Import and Export: DXF, OBJ, 3DS
(win), RDS (import only), MetaStream (export only), VRML 2 (export only).

– Hundreds of 3D Clipart Objects: With the hundreds of high-quality 3D
clipart objects included in Carrara, even the most inexperienced user can
be creative immediately. Advanced users will save hours by customizing
clipart objects to meet their needs. All of the clipart objects can be
fully modified using Carrara modelers and shaders.

– Hundreds of Shaders and Presets: For a quick and easy 3D scene creation,
Carrara comes with hundreds of shaders, camera presets, light source
presets, and special FX presets. Being creative can be as simple as
dragging and dropping the right preset in the right place!

– Open Architecture: Carrara will have one of the most advanced APIs ever
created for any 3D software. The API is based on a fully object oriented
and mature source code. The SDK (to be available on the MetaCreations Web
site) will contain all the documentation, headers, examples and tools to
build any kind of Carrara plug-in within Mac OS and Windows environments.

Availability
Carrara is expected to be available in the fall of 1999 for Windows
95/98/2000/NT and Power Macintosh on CD-ROM. For more information,
customers may look on the Web at
http://www.metacreations.com/products/carrara or call 800-846-0111.

Minimum System Requirements:

Windows: Pentium II 300Mhz or better, Windows 95/98/2000/NT 4.0 with
service pack 3 or later, 64 MB System RAM, 16-bit Color Display (24-bit
recommended), 3D graphics accelerator card recommended, CD-ROM Drive, 65MB
free hard drive space Power Macintosh: All Power Macintosh G3 266Mhz or
better, System 8.1 or later, 64 MB of Application RAM,16-bit Color Display
(24-bit recommended), 3D graphics accelerator card recommended, CD-ROM
Drive, 65MB free hard drive space

About MetaCreations
MetaCreations Corporation, the Creative Web company, is focused on
developing and marketing 2D and 3D visualization software for graphic
artists and the World Wide Web. MetaCreations’ Creative Web strategy is
centered on the company’s new MetaStream and MetaFlash technologies, and
employs an array of MetaCreations’ software development tools to accelerate
the creation of 2D and 3D graphics for online applications, and to make
fast, interactive use of photorealistic 3D on the Web practical and
pervasive. MetaCreations offers a complete product line of award-winning
graphics desktop software for professional users with products available in
more than 50 countries. The company is headquartered in Santa Barbara
County, California, and has development centers in Scotts Valley, Calif.,
and Princeton, N.J., as well as an International Operations Center in
Dublin, Ireland. MetaCreations can be reached on the World Wide Web at
http://www.metacreations.com

This release contains forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe
harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Actual results may differ materially as a result of a number of risks and
uncertainties affecting the Company’s business, including the timely
release of Carrara. For a more detailed discussion of factors that affect
MetaCreations’ operating results, interested parties should review
MetaCreations’ SEC reports, including MetaCreations’ Annual Report on Form
10-K for the year ended December 31, 1998, and Quarterly Reports on Form
10-Q.

Exit mobile version