MetaCreations Announces New Version of Kai's Power Tools; World-Famous Plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop

Business Wire, Nov 6, 1998

CARPINTERIA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 6, 1998-- MetaCreations Corp. (Nasdaq:MCRE) announced today a new version of Kai's Power Tools(R) (KPT(R)), a set of plug-in applications for use within Adobe(R) Photoshop(R).

The new version, to be called KPT 5, will provide professional designers and illustrators, Web authors, photographers, and digital artists with brand-new powerful effects to enhance their digital creative content.

"The definition of KPT has always been 'tools to create something totally new' and I am very happy that this iteration will be even more unique than many expect," said Kai Krause, chief design officer of MetaCreations. "We hope that designers all over the world will quickly embrace these as must-have tools in the pursuit of visual beauty."

Introduced in 1992, Kai's award-winning Power Tools offer artists and designers unique tools that allow them to differentiate their digital images. KPT-generated effects are used to enhance artwork used in print, multimedia projects, Web sites and broadcast television projects.

In addition to working with Adobe Photoshop, KPT 5 will work with any image editing applications that support the Adobe Photoshop plug-in architecture, including MetaCreations' Painter(TM) 5.5, the world's leading natural media paint program for creating digital print and Web images.

"Our goal has always been to give digital designers the ultimate set of special effects for use with Adobe Photoshop and MetaCreations Painter," said John Leddy, vice president of professional products at MetaCreations. "KPT 5 not only adds an amazing array of effects, it also includes time-saving technology that lets designers quickly enhance or create unique images."

KPT 5 New Plug-In Applications

KPT 5 includes a host of real-time 3D tools, particle growth effects and professional blurs. To give digital artists more control over these effects, the KPT 5 interface has been refined to offer precise access to numerical values, real-time interactive previews of all operations and user-customizable options.

Among the new plug-in applications featured in KPT 5:

-- KPT(R) ShapeShifter creates shapes and objects with refracting

glass edges, 3D light sources on beveled metallic surfaces, soft,

curved and lit Web buttons, and text. Resulting elements carry

their masks with them, which makes compositing a snap.

-- KPT(R) Orb-It explodes a source image into thousands of spheres

with variations in size, density, and realistic 3D lighting.

Produce fields of bubbles, raindrops, and giant lenses,

incredible text effects, and mind-boggling distortions.

-- KPT(R) FiberOptix creates anything from furry text, to green shag

carpet, pink plastic silly string, and lush creeping vines. Every

strand and fiber is a true 3D object. Masks are generated from

the 3D data, enabling easy compositing.

-- KPT(R) Blurrrr is a professional suite of filters including the

classic zoom, spin, and other indispensable blurs updated with

real-time previews, pro-precision 64-bit color, and 128-bit math

with new algorithms and variations.

-- KPT(R) FraxPlorer is the new, definitive Fractal Explorer

featuring real-time fly-throughs, 1000% larger previews, and

never-before-seen fractal styles.

System Requirements:

Windows: Pentium 166 MHz (or compatible) or faster, Windows 95/98/NT4, Photoshop 3/4/5 or 100% compatible host, 32MB RAM, 50MB free hard disk space, 24-bit color video, color monitor, CD-ROM drive. Recommended: Pentium 266 MHz or faster, 64MB RAM or greater.

Macintosh: PowerPC based Macintosh, MacOS 7.6.1 or later, Photoshop 3/4/5 or 100% compatible host, 32MB RAM, 50MB hard disk space, 24-bit color video, color monitor, CD-ROM drive. Recommended: 64MB host application RAM or greater.

Pricing and Availability: KPT5 will be available through national retail outlets, in catalogs, and direct from MetaCreations this fall at an SRP of US $199. Upgrades to registered users of KPT will be available for US $99.

About MetaCreations

MetaCreations Corp., founded in 1987, designs and develops award-winning desktop software tools and enabling technologies for creating and manipulating 2D and 3D digital images and Web content. MetaCreations offers a complete product line of graphics software for both professional users and consumers, and its products are available in more than 70 countries. The company is headquartered in Santa Barbara County, California, and has development centers in Scotts Valley, Calif., and Princeton, N.J., as well as an International Operations Center in Dublin, Ireland. MetaCreations can be reached on the World Wide Web at www.metacreations.com.

The release contains forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially as a result of a number of risks and uncertainties affecting the company's business. Such risks include, but are not limited to, the following: domestic and international overall business conditions, and the company's release of a new version of Kai's Power Tools (KPT 5) in fall 1998. For a more detailed discussion of factors that affect MetaCreations' operating results, interested parties should review MetaCreations' SEC reports, including MetaCreations' Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 1997, and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.