Alias/Wavefront Leverages Electric Rain's New RAViX III Vector Technology for Macromedia Flash and Adobe Illustrator Compatibility in Maya 5.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

NAB2003

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 7, 2003

Maya 5 Customers Can Now Create 2D Renderings and Vector Files

in Popular Graphics File Formats

Alias/Wavefront(TM), an SGI (NYSE:SGI) company, announced today that Electric Rain's new RAViX(R) III Vector rendering engine will be integrated into Maya(R) 5 to provide expanded rendering options. Maya 5, the latest version of the award-winning Maya software, was announced on April 6th, 2003. Integrating the Electric Rain(R) RAViX III technology with the new Maya Vector Renderer provides Maya 5 artists with the ability to output images to the popular Macromedia(R) Flash(R) (SWF), Adobe(R) Illustrator(R) (AI), Encapsulated PostScript(R) (EPS), and Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG(TM)) formats.

"We've been testing the output options with Maya 5 in beta and we're excited by the possibilities," said Lars Gerstenmaier, at SEQUENZ in Berlin, Germany. "We've been using Maya for all of our 3D work and now that Maya 5 will allow us to output for the web and other 2D mediums, we'll be able to provide endless options to our customers. The quality of the image outputs are beyond our expectations - we can't wait to integrate Maya 5 into our workflow."

With Maya 5, Alias(R) has committed to dramatically expanding the types of imaging options available for Maya customers. The new Vector Renderer provides Maya 5 customers with a range of new non-photo-realistic looks, such as cartoon, hidden line and Vector style renderings - making Maya suddenly more applicable to 2D artists, web developers and even technical illustrators. The combination of Electric Rain's technology and Maya's unified rendering workflow make adding specular highlights, detailed shadows, transparency effects and accurately simulated reflections to Flash and Adobe Illustrator material intuitive, while maintaining reasonable file sizes.

"The imaging potential with Maya 5's new Vector Renderer provides more than just a wider range of production possibilities for users," said Bob Bennett, General Manager, Product Development, Alias/Wavefront. "The seamless integration of the RAViX III technology into Maya's new unified rendering workflow makes a perfectly natural extension for Maya customers."

"Alias/Wavefront is pushing the technology envelope and advancing Maya's feature set to a state where their customers will be able to produce content for any medium they choose - thus opening up image possibilities that never before existed," said Mike Soucie, CEO at Electric Rain. "Artists are becoming much more sophisticated and require complete freedom in developing their content for output. Combining Electric Rain's premier 3D-to-Vector technology, RAViX III, with Maya's new integrated rendering workflow, provides no end to the imaging possibilities for creative professionals."

"The new Adobe Illustrator (AI) export format available through Electric Rain offers a significant benefit to both Maya and Adobe Illustrator customers," commented Lydia Varmazis, Senior Product Manager for Illustrator at Adobe. "This new integration will provide our customers with more flexibility while they work and allow them to take full advantage of these outstanding products."

Maya 5 offers numerous firsts, including: the first 3D software tool to bring Electric Rain's new RAViX III library to Mac(R) OS X customers; the first time Maya software is shipping with a Learning Tool(TM), to provide advanced self-paced learning opportunities and for the first time, Maya Paint Effects(TM) can now be converted to, or drawn as, polygons.

Availability

Maya 5 for Windows(R), IRIX(R), Linux(R) and Mac OS X operating systems was announced on April 6th and will be available in May 2003. Maya 5 will ship with the new Vector Renderer as part of the standard feature set on Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. For more information on Maya 5, please visit www.aliaswavefront.com.

About Alias/Wavefront

As the world's leading innovator of 3D graphics technology, Alias/Wavefront develops software for the film and video, games, web, interactive media, industrial design, and visualization markets. On March 1, 2003, the company was awarded an Oscar(R) for Technical Achievement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for its development of Maya software, its professional 3D animation and effects package. Entertainment and games customers include: Acclaim Entertainment, Inc., CNN, Core Design Limited, Digital Domain, Disney, Electronic Arts, Industrial Light & Magic, Factor 5 LLC, Midway Games, Nintendo, Pacific Data Images (PDI), Pixar, Sega, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Square Co., Ltd., Warner Feature Animation and Weta Ltd.

Alias/Wavefront is a wholly owned, independent software company of SGI(R) with headquarters in Toronto and custom development center in Santa Barbara. Please visit the Alias/Wavefront web site at http://www.aliaswavefront.com or call 1-800-447-2542 in North America. International contact numbers include: Northern Europe, Middle East and Africa, [phone]; Germany, East & Southeast Europe, 0049 89 31 70 20; France, Spain and Portugal, [phone]; Japan and other parts of Asia Pacific, 81 3 5797 3500 and Latin America, 770 393 1881.

About Electric Rain, Inc,

Electric Rain is a fast moving 3D and multimedia software company with a vision of bringing easy-to-use 3D and multimedia tools to the masses. Through the release of its standalone application, Swift 3D(R), and the licensing of the company's proprietary

RAViX 3D Vector Rendering Technology, Electric Rain has quickly become the industry-leading developer and supplier of 3D-to-vector Flash solutions. More information about Electric Rain products and technologies is available at http://www.erain.com or by calling 1-888-613-1500.

Alias and the Alias/Wavefront logo are registered trademarks and Alias/Wavefront is a trademark of Alias/Wavefront, a division of Silicon Graphics Limited in the United States and/or other countries worldwide. Maya is a registered trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc., exclusively used by Alias/Wavefront, a division of Silicon Graphics Limited, and the Maya logo and Maya Paint Effects and Learning Tools are trademark of Alias/Wavefront, a division of Silicon Graphics Limited, in the United States and/or other countries worldwide. IRIX and SGI are registered trademarks of Silicon Graphics, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries worldwide. Electric Rain, RAViX, and Swift 3D are registered trademarks of Electric Rain Inc. Adobe and Illustrator are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Inc. Macromedia and Flash are trademarks or registered trademarks of Macromedia Inc in the United States and/or other countries. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Adobe, Illustrator and PostScript are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. SVG is a registered or unregistered trademark of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Oscar is a registered trademark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Windows is either a registered trademark or trademark of Microsoft Corporation, in the United States and/or other countries. Mac is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. registered in the US and other countries. 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].

Copyright (C) 2003 Alias/Wavefront, a division of Silicon Graphics Limited. All Rights Reserved.

For screenshots and press images: http://www.aliaswavefront.com/entertainment/press

Note to Editors: There should be a pipe symbol between "Alias" and "Wavefront". The pipe symbol was changed to a forward slash ("/") for transmission purposes only.