For Further Information, Contact:                                        FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sharon Adcock (310) 545-9731

CINEMA GRAPHICS ANNOUNCES SHADETREE
SOFTWARE FOR MENTAL RAY

August 5, 1996, New Orleans, LA...Cinema Graphics Inc. today announced ShadeTree software designed for use with Microsoft/Softimage's Mental Ray rendering software. ShadeTree is an interactive shader language authoring tool that allows non-programmers to quickly create and edit shaders for Mental Ray.

Shaders are the backbone of any professional rendering software. Shaders set the mood of a scene, with a unique and colorful portrayal of surfaces, lights, and atmospheres. Unfortunately, shaders are typically written in a difficult and frustrating programming language. Because of ShadeTree's powerful visual programming environment, users will not have to struggle with a text editor to program shaders.

Users begin working with materials, colors, textures, and images, and then mix them with pre-built macro "boxes" to form a shader. They have the full power and flexibility to create any shader they need simply by connecting the macro boxes in a treelike graph.

To get demanding shaders written in less time, there are more than 100 pre-built example shaders to get the user up and running quickly. And there are more than 50 regular and random pattern generators to help add fine details to surfaces without having to build complex models.

ShadeTree has an open architecture allowing users to add their own custom macro boxes at anytime. Their custom macro boxes can be made from shader language source code or from existing ShadeTree files.

Softimage is a registered trademark of Softimage Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corp..

Cinema Graphics Inc. is a technology company specializing in lighting and rendering software development for use in visual effects production of feature films, television shows, and games.

For further information, contact:

Cinema Graphics Inc., 22516 Lassen Street, Chatsworth, CA, 91311
(818) 718-6320 Phone/Fax, [email protected], http://www.cinegrfx.com