SCIENCE

BERKELEY, CA -- Exluna, a new start-up dedicated to developing powerful but affordable tools to improve the way artists, designers, and game developers create 3D images, is releasing Entropy, which the company refers to as "the world's most advanced 3D rendering product." Entropy is the first offering of Exluna's "Look Development" tools and technologies, which allow a digital artist to manipulate the appearance of 3D objects, using shading, lighting, painting, and rendering techniques. Exluna's mission is to combine the latest in 3D Look Development research with strong product development and support to ensure customers are kept on the leading edge of 3D technology. The company was founded in July 2000 by some of the leading graphics innovators in the industry. Dr. Larry Gritz, Craig Kolb and Matt Pharr are well known for their work in 3D tool development. Larry Gritz developed Blue Moon Rendering Tools (BMRT) in 1989 and it has been widely distributed as shareware since 1994. BMRT has been popular with major studios and 3D developers, has been used on feature films, and formed the basis for Entropy. Entropy will be unveiled at SIGGRAPH 2001 in Los Angeles (Discreet booth No. 1247) on August 14-16, along with a first look at Exluna's bridge product for Discreet's 3ds max and 3D Studio VIZ scheduled for release this fall. With this bridge product, Entropy brings the most powerful 3D rendering capabilities to artists and designers using Discreet's market-leading tools. Entropy is a high-quality renderer that advances state-of-the-art 3D graphics by placing affordable professional Look Development tools in the hands of digital artists, giving them the ability to create stunning images for animation, games and 3D design. Entropy, which offers an enhanced set of features, can function as either the primary rendering system or as a complement to an already existing 3D development pipeline. Entropy is priced at $1500 per CPU or dual-processor workstation and includes such features as selective raytracing, scanline rendering, multithreading, and robust management of highly complex scenes. A cross-platform solution, Entropy will ship with support for Linux on Intel, SGI Irix, and Windows NT/2000, with other platforms to follow. To facilitate easy integration, translators for additional modeling, animation, and design packages will be announced shortly. "We're dedicated to making 3D Look Development a less esoteric process -- artists don't need to have engineering or programming skills to be able to develop compelling 3D images," said Beth Loughney, chief executive officer at Exluna. "Entropy's affordability and availability on multiple platforms should help make the latest 3D Look Development tools available to a wider market." "Discreet is dedicated to pioneering new tools for digital artists," said Frank DeLise, 3ds max product manager. "And so we welcome Exluna's own pioneering work in developing such a powerful rendering tool as Entropy and their commitment to continue to enhance and extend this exciting technology. The result should be the burgeoning of new creativity throughout the industry." Exluna is an active member of the Discreet "Sparks" developer program and working closely with Discreet to ensure Entropy and future Exluna products are optimized for integration with Discreet's market-leading products. The company is also a member of NVIDIA's "Registered Developer" program, SGI's "Venture" program, and Alias/Wavefront's "Conductors" program. Founded last year in Berkeley, Exluna's goal is to bring new Look Development solutions to market with software, techniques, and technologies for revolutionizing the way images are generated and who is able to generate them. By providing the market with the highest-quality Look Development applications integrated with standard content-creation and design tools, Exluna products will give digital artists the ability to create stunning 3D imagery without the infrastructure overhead of new tools, hardware, or personnel. Exluna's freeware product, Blue Moon Rendering Tools (BMRT), has been used by major film studios and 3D developers for more than seven years and credits include Hollow Man, A Bugs Life, The Cell, Gone in 60 Seconds, and Stuart Little. For further information visit www.exluna.com