Ulead Sets New Standard for GIF Animation Software; Ulead GIF Animator 5 Streamlines Animation Creation and Optimization Processes

Business Wire, April 2, 2001

Business/Entertainment Editors

TORRANCE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 2, 2001

Ulead Systems Inc., a leading developer of image editing, video editing and Web graphics software, today announced the release of Ulead GIF Animator 5, a major upgrade to the world's leading stand-alone GIF animation tool.

GIF Animator 5 delivers a wide array of feature enhancements that make animation creation and optimization more streamlined than ever before. A new True Color object model allows users to manipulate and create multiple object animations quickly and easily, and support for roundtrip auto-updating from external image editors sets a new standard for integration.

"Using Ulead GIF Animator 5 I've been able to cut my production time in half," stated Jason Dunn, a long-time Ulead user and author of PhotoImpact Solutions.

"While the new object-based model is a breeze to use, the killer feature is the roundtrip auto-updating. Now when I edit or change any frame in an external image editor like PhotoImpact, GIF Animator automatically updates that frame in my animation. This is an amazing timesaver and works equally well with other image editors like Adobe Photoshop or Jasc Paint Shop Pro."

Long History of GIF Animation

Four years ago, Ulead GIF Animator was the first animation tool developed specifically for GIF animation creation. Today it remains the most popular GIF animation tool with close to 1 million downloads, at CNET's popular Download.com, alone -- more downloads than any competing GIF animation tool.

"Ulead GIF Animator has long been a fan favorite among novice and seasoned Web designers alike," stated Colwin Chan, product manager at Ulead Systems.

"This latest version secures its position as the leading stand-alone GIF Animation tool with advanced features like tweening, character-level text control, roundtrip updating, Flash output and enhanced compression. No other stand-alone GIF animation tool delivers the same balance of ease and power at such an affordable price."

True Color Object-Based Model

Despite the constant introduction of new technologies, GIF animation still dominates animation on the Web because of its universal compatibility and simple production. Ulead GIF Animator 5 streamlines the creation process, making it easier and faster to create animations with small file sizes.

Among the new features of GIF Animator is the new True Color object-based model for quickly creating multiple object animations. The animation wizard makes it simple to add images, video or animation to the workspace as well as open PhotoImpact, Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro layers as separate objects within GIF Animator.

The new object manager allows the user to keep track of all objects in the animation, while tweening features help automate the animation process by automatically generating intermediate positions for selected objects.

Tight Integration and Roundtrip Editing

One of the key benefits of using Ulead GIF Animator 5 is its ability to integrate with a number of different image editors. Although GIF Animator comes with built-in editing tools such as selections, paintbrushes, transform tools and erasers, a lot of heavy frame editing is done in outside image editors like Ulead's own PhotoImpact 6.

GIF Animator 5 saves users time because it can detect changes made in an outside editor like PhotoImpact or Photoshop and automatically update that frame of the animation. In addition, animation layers can be exported as PhotoImpact (UFO) or Photoshop (PSD) files and reopened at a later time with all layers intact.

Furthermore, GIF Animator now allows the creation of "always-editable" text with character-level control and effects like shadow, neon and 13 different move-in and move-out effects.

Enhanced Optimization and Output

Because of still limited bandwidth on the Web, compressing animation file sizes remains one of the most important steps when exporting a GIF animation. Ulead GIF Animator 5 incorporates updated compression techniques to further shrink animation files down to size.

A new before-and-after window lets users preview their animation quality while optimizing it. Lossy GIF support allows additional compression of GIF files, while palette weighting distributes colors more efficiently. Color palette management enables locking, sorting and snapping of colors to the Web palette for additional color accuracy and reduction control.

Output options have also been expanded to include raster-based Flash (SWF) files, True Color AVI, MPEG and QuickTime movies. GIF Animator is also the only animation program that outputs self-playing EXE (executable) animated greetings using personalized messages and music -- perfect for e-mail sharing.

Pricing and Availability

Ulead GIF Animator 5 will be available in retail and online stores in April for Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0, Windows ME and Windows 2000. The estimated street price for GIF Animator 5 is $49.95. Owners of earlier GIF Animator versions may upgrade to Version 5 for $29.95.