MICROSOFT DELIVERS HIGH-END 3-D ANIMATION SOFTWARE FOR MICROSOFT WINDOWS
NT

Softimage 3D for Windows NT Provides Workstation-Class Capabilities And
Performance at Approximately Half the System Cost

REDMOND, WASH. - JAN. 16, 1996 - Microsoft Corp. today began shipping a new
version of its award-winning 3-D modeling and animation software,
Microsoft Softimage 3D, for the Windows NT operating system. Softimage 3D
3.0 for Windows NT offers the same production-proven 3-D animation
environment as Softimage 3D for Silicon Graphics systems, while delivering
workstation-class performance at approximately 50 percent of the overall
system cost. With this breakthrough in price/performance, more animators
now can take advantage of high- end 3-D animation software.

For more than nine years, Softimage has provided digital-media artists with
an intuitive, creative, production-proven 3-D modeling and animation
environment for creating characters and scenes for films, commercials,
games, interactive multimedia titles and other productions. Softimage
products have helped create many of the world's most innovative, visual
effects-rich productions, including films such as "Jurassic Park," The
"Mask," "Jumanji" and "Casper"; commercials such as the Shell Dancing Gas
Pumps; and interactive games such as Virtua Fighter and Daytona. Softimage
has pioneered many of the advanced animation techniques that are used
throughout the industry, including inverse kinematics, spline-based
modeling and animation, and motion-capture technology. In 1994, the
company merged with Microsoft to help bring these 3-D animation
capabilities to a broader audience.

"Today marks an important milestone in making high-end 3-D animation
capabilities widely available," said Daniel Langlois, senior director at
Microsoft and founder of Softimage. "Because Windows NT offers the same
high-performance graphics capabilities as UNIX-based workstations and all
of the benefits of a highly competitive 'PC economy,' many more content
creators will be able to take advantage of high-end 3-D animation
software. And these compelling price/performance figures will get even
better over time."

SIMILAR PERFORMANCE AT ABOUT 50 PERCENT OVERALL SYSTEM COST

Softimage 3D for Windows NT is targeted to professionals with the most
demanding visual-effects requirements in the games, interactive titles,
film, broadcast and video industries. Customers will experience similar or
better performance than with Silicon Graphics' Indigo2 Extreme (i.e.,
real-time object manipulation, fast rendering) and all of the
sophisticated 3-D modeling, animation, and rendering features of Softimage
3D running on Silicon Graphics systems. This high performance, combined
with complete file compatibility and the same graphical user interface on
both platforms, means that customers can begin using Softimage 3D for
Windows NT immediately in their most demanding productions.

Softimage has worked closely with several hardware and graphics card
manufacturers to optimize performance of Softimage 3D for Windows NT.
Internal benchmark testing shows that Softimage 3D running on properly
equipped Windows NT systems produces similar or better performance than
traditional UNIX-based workstations that cost approximately twice as
much.

CONTINUED SUPPORT FOR SILICON GRAPHICS SYSTEMS

Softimage plans to continue developing high-end animation tools for both
the Windows NT and Silicon Graphics platforms.

"Silicon Graphics remains a very strategic platform for our products and
for many of our cutting-edge projects," said Shirish Nadkarni, director of
marketing for Softimage at Microsoft. "Continued support for SGI is
especially important for those Softimage customers who require the fastest
hardware at any cost."

MICROSOFT'S ADVANCED-AUTHORING TOOLS STRATEGY

Softimage is part of Microsoft's advanced-authoring tools (AAT) group. AAT
is developing a new generation of integrated media-creation and authoring
products that help fulfill the increasing demand for high- quality digital
content used in games, interactive titles and on the Internet, as well as
in film, broadcast and video.

"We envision an ever-increasing demand for high-quality multimedia content
that can be delivered not only through the traditional film, video and
broadcast platforms, but also through the emerging CD-ROM, digital video
disk and Internet-based interactive platforms," said Craig Mundie, senior
vice president at Microsoft. "The experience and skill set of Microsoft
and Softimage provides the ideal combination to deliver both an open
platform for media-creation tools and a set of tightly integrated tools
that meet the requirements of a broad set of digital-media artists."

AVAILABILITY, PRICING, SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Softimage 3D for Windows NT is available today for approximately $7,995
through the Softimage network of value-added resellers (VARs). Special
pricing, which starts at $14,995 for hardware, monitor and Softimage 3D
for Windows NT, is available until February 29, 1996, from a select group
of certified hardware manufacturers. Owners of Softimage 3D version 2.66
or earlier can upgrade to Softimage 3D for Windows NT for approximately
$1,995 (hardware not included). Softimage 3D Extreme, which includes
features such as mental ray/distributed rendering, meta-clay organic
modeling tools and particles, is expected to be available on the Windows
NT platform in the first half of 1996.

Softimage 3D requires Windows NT 3.51 (with Service Pack 2 installed), a
minimum of 64 MB of RAM, 1 GB of hard-disk space and a supported OpenGL
graphics-accelerator card. Softimage has optimized for performance and
certified several "turnkey" hardware configurations. Additional hardware
configurations will be certified in the next few months.

COMPANY INFORMATION

Founded in 1982, Softimage develops media-rich software for applications
including film, video, interactive TV, games and education. Products
include Softimage 3D, Softimage Eddie (compositing), and Softimage Toonz
(2-D cel animation). The company was acquired in 1994 by Microsoft Corp.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in
software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of
products and services for business and personal use, each designed with
the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take
advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.
 
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