Award-winning technology allows artists to create and animate complex painterly effects quickly and cost effectively

TORONTO, ON - April 5, 2000 - Alias|Wavefront*, an SGI (NYSE:SGI) company, announced a new plug-in for Adobe® After Effects® 4.1 and Maya Fusion* 2, that for the first time, allows motion graphic artists to take advantage of the power and flexibility of Maya Paint Effects* technology within desktop compositing applications. The plug-in will be shown beginning on April 10th at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) tradeshow in Las Vegas, NV.

The Maya Paint Effects plug-in gives desktop artists access to groundbreaking technology from Alias|Wavefront's award-winning Maya* 3D animation software. With the Maya Paint Effects plug-in, After Effects and Maya Fusion software artists can now quickly create and animate unique organic and painterly detail including animated paint strokes of plants, fibers, glows, water, metal, and other natural media along a mask, bezier path or motion path. Based on Alias|Wavefront's innovative Paint Effects technology, the plug-in can share all of the hundreds of brush presets created for any Paint Effects product, including Maya itself.

"We're excited to see a unique plug-in for After Effects 4.1 that offers 2D and 3D particle paint technology," said Steve Kilisky, Senior Product Manager, Adobe After Effects. "With the Maya Paint Effects plug-in, motion graphic artists can create a wide variety of natural media design elements within the After Effects application."

"We are extremely pleased to bring Alias|Wavefront's high-end Maya Paint Effects technology to the wider community of motion graphic artists," said Richard Kerris, Entertainment Marketing Manager for Alias|Wavefront. "Now artists designing content for broadcast, multimedia, Web or game delivery can take advantage of the Maya Paint Effects plug-in to create dynamic imagery that was previously only available to Maya 3D animators."

At NAB, Alias|Wavefront will also release a free Windows* screen saver based on the Maya Paint Effects technology. The Maya Paint Effects Screen Saver will fill a computer screen's idle moments with a large variety of natural effects including flowers, pretzels, vines, galaxies, feathers, and copper pipes. The free screen saver and additional Paint Effects presets are available for download immediately from the Alias|Wavefront Web site at www.aliaswavefront.com/screensaver.