Apple Computer licenses ThinkFish rendering technology for real-time non-photorealistic playback; Apple QuickDraw 3D and LiveStyles bring artistic and cartoon-style 3D rendering to Macintosh, PC and the Web

Business Wire, March 18, 1997

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 18, 1997--ThinkFish Productions, Inc. today announced that it has licensed its new art rendering technology, LiveStyles, to Apple Computer, Inc. as a plug-in to QuickDraw 3D (QD3D).

LiveStyles is an intelligent rendering technology based on concepts originally developed at the MIT Media Lab by ThinkFish founders and staff. LiveStyles views a 3D object and draws the key lines and strokes in user-selectable fine art motifs -- it is the first real-time NPR (non-photorealistic rendering) 3D technology.

The Apple licensing agreement enables universal playback of real-time artistic and cartoon-style rendering in any QuickDraw 3D application on both PCs and Macintosh through a freely distributed plug-in called the ThinkFish LiveStyles Player.

Users will be able to download the plug-in Player by the end of the second quarter of '97 from both the ThinkFish (http://www.thinkfish.com) and QuickDraw 3D (http://quickdraw3d.apple.com)Web sites. It will also ship as a standard part of QuickDraw 3D install in future versions of the Mac OS.

Graphics software leader Fractal Design Corporation (Aptos, CA) also recently announced a license of LiveStyles -- ThinkFish anticipates a wide range of LiveStyles-enabled applications in desktop publishing, Web-based 3D and 2D/3D art programs through both these relationships.

The plug-in Player will allow users to view artistic content created with LiveStyles in any program that supports QuickDraw 3D, such as applications from autodessys, Electric Cafe, MicroSpot, Plastic Thought, Specular, Strata, and Vertigo. Users will be able to create LiveStyles content themselves through third-party applications which license ThinkFish Authoring engine.

"ThinkFish has the most innovative 3D rendering technology to arrive in a long time," said Sean Safreed, Product Manager for QuickDraw 3D at Apple Computer. "Their flexible styles will let professionals in architecture, 3D modeling, animation and multimedia production provide images of unmatched impact. In a world where everyone is trying to achieve photorealism, QuickDraw 3D's flexible plug-in architecture will let artists express themselves in 3D with traditional artistic styles."

"QuickDraw 3D is extensible and cross-platform which allows us to deliver LiveStyles to virtually any PowerPC and Pentium-based computers," said Ben Wen, President of Thinkfish. "This arrangement with Apple opens the door for us to quickly license the LiveStyles creation player to any 3D authoring or VRML program that uses QD3D."

LiveStyles Overview:

LiveStyles gives users access to a library of artistic or cartoon motifs, "looks" that are dramatically different from the traditional, photo-realistic style of rendering. These "looks" can be applied as easily as choosing a font. ThinkFish will release an expanding collection of LiveStyles that will be available either in families or individually, much in the way fonts are available for desktop publishing. Styles will range from Picasso to mango, from Klee to cartoon.

To create LiveStyles content, an application must license the LiveStyles Authoring engine. Tool companies license this technology directly from ThinkFish for a fee. Once that content is created, its LiveStyles attributes are saved directly into a 3DMF file so users can view it in any QuickDraw 3D-enabled application, even without the LiveStyles used to create it.

Uses of LiveStyles:

-- Give a 2D artistic look to 3D models in a variety of applications

-- Create living art/living cartoons

-- Create real-time models for distribution either directly or via the web

-- Create real-time animation for either direct playback or via the web

Company Information

ThinkFish Productions, Inc. was founded in 1994 by a group of computer scientists from MIT and CalTech and artists from RISD (Rhode Island School of Design). It is a new company devoted to merging the principles of art and 3D graphics into consumer-friendly tools and products. The company is focused on creating graphics software which allows users to apply graphic styles to any 3D model or animation in real-time. ThinkFish products fully support both Mac OS and Microsoft Windows.

ThinkFish is headquartered at 2800 Twentieth Street, No. 203, San Francisco, CA 94110-2826.

For more information on ThinkFish Productions or its technology, please visit our Web site at www.thinkfish.com. For more information about QuickDraw 3D, see the QuickDraw 3D Web site at www.quickdraw3d.apple.com . -0-

Note to Editors: ThinkFish Productions, Aegea, Cartoon Reality and LiveStyles are trademarks of ThinkFish Productions, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are properties of their respective holders. All other copyrights and trademarks are properties of their respective owners. -0-

Products photography or screenshots are avaible from Horizon Communications.

CONTACT: ThinkFish Productions, Inc.

Ben Calica, 415/252-1525

Email: calica@thinkfish.com

http://www.thinkfish.com

or

Horizon Communications