NEW ORLEANS, SIGGRAPH 2000, July 26 -- NewTek, Incorporated, manufacturer of industry-leading 3D animation and video products, today announced that it is demonstrating the power and groundbreaking graphics capabilities of LightWave 6 running on a render farm featuring thirteen Apple Power Mac G4 systems at its SIGGRAPH 2000 booth (#2117).

NewTek is also showcasing LightWave running on Mac OS X, Apple's next generation operating system, and on a dual-processor Power Mac G4, unveiled by Apple at last week's Macworld Expo conference.

The network rendering capability showcases NewTek's StealthNET render controller, the first on the market to allow Internet-based rendering.

"We are very excited about the incredible technical achievements on the Mac platform. We will be showcasing LightWave on Apple's single- and dual-processor Power Mac G4s and Apple's forthcoming Mac OS X operating system," said Brad Peebler, vice president of 3D graphics of NewTek. "LightWave is optimized to take advantage of the Power Mac's PowerPC G4 processor with VelocityEngine, Apple's QuickTime technology and Apple's OpenGL implementation. We have been working very closely with Apple and the collaboration means tremendous things for NewTek's Mac users."

"Apple is committed to making the Mac the premiere platform for 2D and 3D graphics with new products like dual-processor Power Mac G4s and soon to be released Mac OS X," said Clent Richardson, Apple's vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. "We are excited to see LightWave, with their great solutions, take advantage of the incredible business opportunities on the Mac and bring innovative solutions to Mac users worldwide."

The thirteen Macintosh computers in NewTek's render farm at SIGGRAPH all will be running the Mac version of LightWave [6], which was designed to integrate closely with the Mac OS. The render farm configuration will also enable NewTek to demonstrate its new StealthNET render controller, which is based on TCP/IP and so enables Internet-based rendering.

StealthNET can link to systems around the world for cooperative rendering projects, which is increasingly important for large-scale projects such as movies, TV shows and commercials that may require multiple teams of animators working at vastly disparate locations worldwide.

NewTek Booth Will Highlight Exciting 3D Animation Advances
Visitors to NewTek's SIGGRAPH booth will be treated to ongoing demonstrations of the following:

-- Lightwave 6 running on Power Mac G4s featuring the PowerPC G4 with VelocityEngine, which processes multimedia at blazingly fast speeds.

-- LightWave [6] running on Apple's soon to be released Mac OS X.

-- NewTek's StealthNET render controller.

-- LightWave optimized for Apple's OpenGL implementation, delivering up to ten times greater performance than software-only rendering.

-- QuickTime, which is used in many areas in LightWave 6.

For example, LightWave's animation preview system uses Apple's QuickTime technology to generate real-time playback of animation. The artist can also save a QuickTime file for viewing directly in LightWave or through the QuickTime Player. LightWave 6 also leverages QuickTime in its audio implementation, allowing users to import audio for animation, timing and lip synching. In addition, animators can use QuickTime movies as background, as texture, or as volumetric light.

These capabilities can lead to dramatic digital video effects (DVEs), animated texture maps, composited background movies and other dazzling effects. The QuickTime format is saved in the final rendered animation in LightWave 6. As a result, users can take advantage of QuickTime compression to generate movie files that are ready to be streamed on the Internet.

-- QuickTime VR lets users create full panoramas of a scene file or 360 degree views of a 3D object that can be used as real-time media on the Internet.

"LightWave [6] and the Mac platform have always worked well together, but the recent technological advancements at Apple are likely to bring new waves of LightWave users flocking to Mac," said NewTek's Peebler. "The G4 chip is incredibly fast, and technologies such as QuickTime, QuickTime VR, OpenGL and the VelocityEngine integrated into LightWave [6] make the Mac platform a great solution for any LightWave user."

About LightWave [6]
LightWave, a leader in special effects production in the film and television industry, provides a complete 3D animation feature set. LightWave [6] offers breakthrough rendering technologies, advanced animation tools and a new modeling paradigm as well as improved workflow, better control over texturing, customizable user interface and extensive improvements to real-time views. LightWave [6] runs on Macintosh, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows 98, Alpha and Silicon Graphics systems.

About NewTek
With headquarters in San Antonio, NewTek is a leading provider of full-featured video editing, animation and special effects tools. The company's products are used worldwide on projects ranging from home video to feature film. Recent film and television projects include X-Men The Movie, Pitch Black, Shakespeare in Love, the latest James Bond film The World is Not Enough, Roughnecks: Starship Troopers, "Star Trek: Voyager", "The X-Files", "Ally McBeal" and "Family Law". Recent game titles include Daikatana, Deus EX, Torment, HALO, and Kiss Psycho Circus. Contact NewTek http://www.newtek.com