SplutterFish Announces Immediate Availability of Brazil Rendering System Version 1.2

Press Release

SplutterFish Announces Immediate Availability of Brazil Rendering System Version 1.2

 

Latest Version of SplutterFish's Flagship Software Features Productivity Enhancements to Optimize Rendering Performance

SAN DIEGO, CA (July 29, 2003) - At the Siggraph 2003 convention, SplutterFish LLC, a high-end 3D rendering software solutions provider, today announced immediate availability of Brazil Rendering System™ Version 1.2, a major point release in the company's award-winning rendering software line. With significant new advancements including distributed rendering, advanced shadow plug-ins, an advanced skin shader, improvements to the Brazil Toon shader and support for IES photometric file formats, Brazil r/s v. 1.2 provides a more stable and robust rendering toolset. Professionals in the film, broadcast design, architectural and other cross visualization markets can rely on Brazil to deliver exceptional renders with the highest quality, while providing the utmost speed and efficiency. Brazil r/s v. 1.2 is an advanced, fully-integrated rendering suite for Discreet's top-selling animation software 3ds max and Autodesk VIZ, Autodesk's visualization solution.

Visitors to Siggraph, July 28 - 31, at the San Diego Convention Center, will be offered demonstrations of Brazil r/s Version 1.2 at various booths around the convention floor including Discreet, BOXX Technologies, ATI Technologies and Trinity Animation.

"Being able to render complex effects quickly and efficiently is the goal in today's sophisticated production environments. Brazil v.1.2 is a significant advancement, providing a truly superior rendering tool that is clearly establishing itself as the next-generation renderer for high-end production. Brazil r/s 1.2 demonstrates the next logical progression in the software by delivering productivity enhancements in several critical areas, including renderfarm management, advanced character shading capabilities, and more sophisticated lighting enhancements that both our core film and architectural customers will be eager to add to their toolset." said Scott Kirvan, SplutterFish's CEO.

"With these advancements, along with the numerous other improvements in Brazil r/s version 1.2, our customers can leverage its familiar interface to create content with exceptionally high quality, and continue to redefine the way film and video production is done," he added.

"As a long-time Discreet 3ds max partner, SplutterFish has an exceptional reputation for developing rendering tools used by today's leading film and video effects artists," said Chris Ford, product line manager, animation products, Discreet. "We're confident that the new features in Brazil 1.2, combined with existing capabilities in
3ds max, will provide our customers with an incredibly flexible and creative toolset."

Brazil Rendering System Version 1.2 Highlights
Brazil r/s is designed by and for production professionals as a powerful, flexible and affordable high-end commercial solution for film, broadcast, architecture and other cross-visualization applications. It offers uncompromising image quality while addressing the need for the natural, streamlined workflow that CG artists demand.

The Brazil r/s toolkit features a familiar, easy-to-use interface that integrates seamlessly into existing production environments to provide artists a natural workflow, unprecedented control and flexibility, and minimal learning curve. Built upon a modern and extensible rendering architecture, Brazil r/s is designed for use in heavy production environments to produce the highest levels of photo-realism, stylized animation, and cartoon style NPR renderings.

Feature Highlights of Brazil 1.2 Include:
Brazil v. 1.2 features numerous stability and performance improvements:

Banshee Distributed Rendering Manager - offers customers an interactive graphical user interface for managing render nodes for tile-based distribution of rendering a single frame across multiple nodes.

Brazil Toon Shader - improvements provide new, finer control of inking parameters, giving a greater level of flexibility and control to the look of cartoon style ink lines. The new Toon shader was developed by solving real world problems during production; Spongebob Squarepants 3D, a Paramount Parks CG ride film where the Nickelodeon character, originally drawn using traditional 2D animation techniques, had to be recreated using CG.

New Skin Shader - incorporates multi-layered sub-surface scattering specifically designed for the complex look of skinned characters. Dermal, subdermal and deep scattering layers create an unprecedented level of depth and photo-realism, including fine details such as oily surface characteristics.

New Brazil Optimized Plug-in Shadow Types - for use with standard max or B-Lights: Soft directional shadows, area shadows, and spherical shadows.

Brazil r/s support for photometric IES files - fully-integrated IES format support allows Brazil r/s photon mapping for fast and accurate lighting simulations. IES files are used by architectural customers, and increasingly by film clients, looking to recreate the lighting of a live action scene in 3D by using a recognized format that translates real world lights into their visualization package.

Pricing and availability
Brazil r/s Version 1.2 fully integrates with Discreet's 3ds max 3, 3ds max 4, 3ds max 5 animation software, and Autodesk's visualization software, VIZ. Brazil r/s v1.2 is available immediately to both individual artists and production facilities at the following prices:

The "Artist Bundle" includes licenses for three computers (one Brazil r/s workstation-node license and two render-node licenses), at a cost of $1200 (USD).

The "Renderfarm Bundle" includes licenses for four computers (four render-node licenses), at a cost of $750 (USD).

About SplutterFish
SplutterFish LLC, established in 2001, is a Venice, California-based software provider of high-end, affordable and efficient 3D rendering tools. The company develops solutions focused towards the needs of production professionals working in the film, broadcast, architectural and product visualization, design engineering, 3D cartoon-style animation, and CG research industries. SplutterFish software products are currently available from the company and its international reseller representatives.

Brazil Rendering System is a trademark of SplutterFish, LLC. 3ds max is a trademark of Autodesk, Inc. Autodesk is a registered trademark of Autodesk, Inc. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

Additional information on SplutterFish is available on the Internet at www.splutterfish.com.