Alias/Wavefront Launches Premiere Maya Book; The Art of Maya to Act as Valuable Learning Resource for the 3D Animation Industry.

Business & High-Tech Editors

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 16, 2000

Alias|Wavefront(TM), an SGI (NYSE:SGI) company, today announced that it has begun shipping The Art of Maya.

This first ever book offering not only gives beginner and intermediate users an in-depth look at the company's recently released Maya(R) 3 software, it also acts as a carefully laid out walkthrough of the principles of 3D animation. Produced entirely in-house, the superbly designed and illustrated, full-color, coffee-table-style book will serve as a valuable resource to educators and students, as well as to existing and aspiring Maya users.

"In creating The Art of Maya, we have capitalized on the broad product knowledge base and industry training expertise that exists amongst our world-class team of Maya developers and educators," states Tracey Hawken, Director, Global Education and Training for Alias|Wavefront. "We have taken that knowledge and packaged it in a way that artists can readily comprehend and appreciate. It's a visual book for a visual industry."

"The Art of Maya is much more than a manual for Maya," states Peter Weishar, Professor of Computer Animation, New York University Undergraduate School of Film and Television, "it is a terrific book on 3D art and animation in general. Most software books delve into the minutia of the program without explaining general concepts. The Art of Maya combines examples and explanations in such a logical and straight-forward manner that even a beginner 3D student will have no trouble understanding the core concepts. As for its usefulness to more advanced users, I've been using Alias|Wavefront software for years and I picked up more than a few helpful hints in this book. The Art of Maya is simply the best, most concise book on creating 3D computer animation and images available."

About the book

As a teaching tool, The Art of Maya is clearly and concisely written for a multi-level audience: from the artist who wishes to become acquainted with the concepts of 3D animation through to the intermediate Maya user who wants to fully exploit Maya 3. Over 2000 images and illustrations support the content which is divided into sections that correlate with the various aspects of 3D content creation. These sections are prefaced with a chapter on getting started with Maya and concluded with one on interactive 3D. Serving as the book's "grand finale" is a production notes section: an up close look at seven well-known, real-world projects including ILM(R)'s Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace(TM) and Vagrant Story(R), the Square Co., Ltd. game from which the striking cover image is taken. This section, in and of itself will prove highly useful to students and the educators who are preparing them for entry into production environments.

The supporting CD that ships with the book contains a myriad of images showcasing scenes created in Maya, ready-to-use Props and Scene Files that support concepts taught in the book, a collection of ready-to-use MEL Scripts and movie files.

"This is by far one of the best 3D animation, overview textbooks that I have ever seen," says Greg Berridge, Lead Maya Instructor at the Vancouver Film School. "Visually it is as enticing as the text is enlightening. I believe that it will become one of the cornerstone pieces of any Maya education."

Launch events

Alias|Wavefront is holding an initial launch event for educators, resellers and users at its headquarters in Toronto, Canada on November 24. The invitation only event is the first of many -- a worldwide launch is being held in conjunction with the upcoming 3December(TM) event. (see www.3december.com(TM) for more details)

Pricing and Availability

The Art of Maya may be purchased through the Alias|Wavefront online store: www.aliaswavefront.com/en/TheStore/index.shtml at a cost of 75.95 USD. Academic pricing is available along with a special bundle offering (The Art of Maya and Learning Maya 3) to educational institutions. A Japanese version of the current book will be released sometime next year.

About Alias|Wavefront

Alias|Wavefront provides artists with open workflow solutions for creative advantage. As the world's leading innovator of 2D and 3D graphics technology, Alias|Wavefront develops software for the film and video, games, interactive media, industrial design, and visualization markets.

Entertainment customers include Blue Sky, Cinesite, CNN, Digital Domain, Dream Quest Images, Electronic Arts, Industrial Light & Magic, Midway Games, Nintendo, Pacific Data Images (PDI), Pixar, Sega, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Square Co., Ltd., The Walt Disney Company, and Warner Feature Animation.

Alias|Wavefront is a wholly owned, independent software company of SGI(TM) with headquarters in Toronto and technical centers in Seattle and Santa Barbara. Please visit the Alias|Wavefront website at www.aliaswavefront.com or call 1-800-447-2542 in North America. Readers in Europe can call [phone] or 800 791 174 in Italy; [phone] in the Middle East and Africa; 81 3 3470 8285 in Asia-Pacific; 0121 764 088 in Japan only and 525 203 0030 in Latin America for the nearest sales office or authorized reseller in their area.

Alias|Wavefront, the Alias|Wavefront logo, 3December and 3december.com are trademarks of Alias|Wavefront, a division of Silicon Graphics Limited. SGI is a trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc. Maya is a registered trademark and the Maya logo and The Art of Maya are trademarks of Silicon Graphics, Inc., exclusively used by Alias|Wavefront, a division of Silicon Graphics Limited. ILM is a registered trademark and Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace is a trademark of Lucasfilm Ltd. Vagrant Story is a registered trademark of Square Co., Ltd. All other products or companies mentioned are trademarks or service marks of their respective owners. Alias|Wavefront, 210 King Street East, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5A 1J7, Tel: [phone], FAX: [phone].

For press use only, see digital images at: http://www.aliaswavefront.com/en/Community/Discover/press_room/