Credo Interactive ships Cinema 4DXL™ BioVision™ plugin With Life Forms® Studio 3.0

Life Forms Studio 3.0 now exports motion capture data to Cinema 4DXL, providing an intuitive and powerful character movement solution

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Ken Bryson, Marketing Coordinator kenb@credo-interactive.com (604) 291-6717 Hollie Wendt, Public Relations hollie@earthlink.net (408) 688-1193

ORLANDO, FL, July 21, 1998, Siggraph 1998 - Credo Interactive Inc., leaders in providing innovative tools for 3D character movement, today announced that Maxon(r) Computer's BioVision(tm) motion capture plugin for Cinema 4DXL(tm) will be bundled with Life Forms(r) Studio 3.0. With the BioVision(tm) plugin, Cinema 4DXL(tm) users can now import movement data from Life Forms(r) Studio 3.0, providing an intuitive and powerful character movement and animation solution for one of today's top 3D animation packages.

As the first tool dedicated specifically to movement, Life Forms is the only software that makes movement a simple, intuitive process. With an incredibly straight-forward and unique figure editor, plus an instant walk generator, Life Forms users can create movement quicker, easier, and more intuitively than previously possible.

With support for BioVision BVH motion capture files, Life Forms Studio 3.0 users can now export movement data directly from Life Forms Studio 3.0 to Cinema 4DXL.

"We're very excited to offer our intuitive and powerful character movement solution to 3D animators using Cinema 4DXL," said Sang Mah, Credo Interactive's Chief Operating Officer, from Siggraph '98 in Orlando, Florida. "As an easy to use, yet ultimately very powerful, character movement tool, Life Forms Studio 3.0 will definitely enhance Cinema 4DXL's professional-level 3D animation capabilities."

Cinema 4DXL is a completely object-oriented, 32-bit optimized 3D Modeling, Animation and Raytracing package. It is a fully multi-tasking and multi-threaded application with highly effective multi-processing support (370% speed increase on a four processor-machine). One of the most exciting features of Cinema 4D XL is its incredible speed both in the work environment and when rendering. And, it is extremely powerful - handling extensive scenes with millions of faces with ease even on an average Power Macintosh or PC.

Using Life Forms Studio 3.0 to create movement for 3D character's, Cinema 4DXL users will not only benefit from Life Forms Studio 3.0's intuitive, graphical interface, but also save production time with many of Life Forms Studio 3.0's productivity enhancing features, such as:

* Range editing: increases productivity by allowing movement sequences to be edited over a series of keyframes with one single action - including real time walk generation.

* Support for Motion Capture Data provides a quick, easy, and powerful method for editing mocap sequences, applying mocap data to different models, or converting between mocap file formats.

* Blend Editing: allows user to copy/paste individual body part movements between different models.

* Built-in rendering: provides excellent environment to preview animations or export for use on the world wide web.

* The walk generator: creates instant, natural, and fully customized walk sequences with intuitive parameters such as velocity, distance, and step count.

* Inverse and Forward Kinematics: provides two powerful options for posing characters. Combining the intuitiveness of inverse kinematics and the precision control of forward kinematics, users will make the most of any animation situation.

* The file browser: saves time by allowing users to preview animation and extract movement without opening extra files.

Pricing and Availability

All versions of Life Forms Studio 3.0 include the BioVision plugin for Cinema 4DXL at no extra cost.

Life Forms Studio 3.0

Pricing: SRP - $495 US (special introductory offer! List price - $695 US)***
Available: Now
Platform: Mac + Win 95/98/NT
Compatibility: Motion Capture Data (Acclaim and BioVision), Alias/Wavefront,
ElectricImage, Cinema 4DXL, VRML 97, Infini-D, Extreme 3D,
3D Studio Release 4, Pixel Putty, VRML 1.0, and online 3D worlds.

Future Import/Export Plugins for Life Forms Studio 3.0 will include support for
LightWave 3D and Strata StudioPro (3rd Quarter 1998); 3D Studio Max (4th Quarter).

*** Life Forms Studio 3.0 will be offered for a special new release price of $495 US for 90 days after shipping commences. The regular suggested price is $695 US.

About Cinema 4DXL™

Cinema 4D XL is available exclusively through Maxon's North American distributor, 3D Gear(tm) and its reseller network. 3D Gear LLC is located in Southern California specializing in the development and distribution of products for 3D Animation Production. (888) 283-5634 - www.3d-gear.com

About Credo Interactive Inc.

Based in Vancouver, BC, Canada, Credo Interactive Inc. is a leader in providing innovative tools and solutions for 3D character movement. Recently identified as one of Canada's top-25 up-and-coming software companies by the Financial Post, Credo Interactive continues to create new and exciting character animation solutions, including the PowerMoves, the ultimate 3D animation library, and Life Forms, an innovative character movement tool for 3D animation, dance choreography, avatar creation, movement planning, game development, multimedia content creation and education.

Life Forms was the first movement tool for 3D character animation and has been used for pre-visualization in such Hollywood features as Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, Batman and Robin, and Barb Wire.

Life Forms is a registered trademark of Credo Interactive Inc. Cinema 4DXL is a trademark of Maxon Computer Inc. BioVision is a trademark of BioVision Inc.