Emmy®-winning 3D Application is CafeFX's VFX Workhorse for "Sky Captain", "The Dust Factory".

San Antonio, Texas — November 22, 2004 -- NewTek, Inc., manufacturer of industry-leading 3D animation and video products, today announced that CafeFX relied on LightWave 3D® for their portions of the visual effects for Paramount's Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and the MGM-distributed indie film, The Dust Factory. CafeFX artists created approximately 80 visual effects shots for Sky Captain, and about 50 shots for The Dust Factory, as well as the main title sequence.

"LightWave 3D is a dominant tool in visual effects for film," said Donetta Colboch, Vice President of 3D Marketing for NewTek. "As the most complete and efficient 3D solution, with a built-in world-class renderer, visual effects producers rely on LightWave® every day to bring their visions to life on the screen, in sometimes hundreds of shots in a given film."

CafeFX's work for Sky Captain included the exterior visuals for the scenes set in Nepal, where CafeFX's artists created the snowy mountainous landscape with a combination of CG and matte paintings, and used LightWave's Global Illumination to produce a photo-real look with the digital environments and sets. The digital base camp sequence relied on LightWave's Motion Designer™ for realistic cloth movement for the tents. LightWave's particle system and volumetrics also contributed a portion of the snow and atmospheric effects needed for these sequences.

For The Dust Factory, elements of practical sets were replaced with digital counterparts created in LightWave, as in one sequence where the floor of a practical set and a green-screen lined hole were replaced with CG flooring that cracks and breaks away to reveal a vortex. CafeFX artists made heavy use of LightWave's HyperVoxels™ for a number of effects, including elements of a tarry substance in the whirlpool vortex and a misty fog used in magical transport sequences.

"LightWave offers our artists an incredibly fast workflow, and is a very comprehensive set of tools. It is also easy to integrate with our other 2D and 3D production tools," said David Ebner, co-Founder of CafeFX and Visual Effects Supervisor. "The tools are designed for the artist from the ground up, and let you concentrate on creativity. The incredible quality of the renderer and the practically unlimited free render nodes really wrap up the package. If you have the talent and LightWave, you can create anything."

Pricing and Availability

LightWave [8] for Windows and Macintosh platforms is available through NewTek Europe and its resellers for a suggested retail price of 1 395 € plus VAT (special offer until December 15th, 2004: 1 395 € inc. VAT / UK RRP £995 inc. VAT + Realviz ImageModeler 4.0 included for FREE). Current LightWave users may upgrade to LightWave [8] for a suggested retail price of 495 € plus VAT (special offer until December 15th, 2004: 495 € plus VAT / UK RRP £345 plus VAT + Realviz ImageModeler 4.0 included for FREE). To locate the nearest authorised reseller or distributor, see our locator at http://www.newtek-europe.com/uk/purchase/resellers.html.

For more information on the items offered visit: http://www.newtek-europe.com or call NewTek Europe on +33 (0) 557 262 262.

About NewTek and NewTek Europe.

Newtek Europe is based near Bordeaux, in South West France and deals with Newtek product distribution, communication and technical maintenance for all customers around Europe, Russia, Africa and the Middle East.

With headquarters in San Antonio, Texas, NewTek Inc. is a leading provider of full-featured video editing, animation and special effects tools including Video Toaster™ and LightWave 3D^®, winner of the 2003 Primetime Emmy^® Engineering Award.

NewTek launched the desktop video revolution in 1990 with the release of the legendary Video Toaster™. The company's products are used worldwide on projects ranging from home video to feature film.

Recent television and film projects using LightWave 3D^® include "I, Robot", Spiderman 2, The Manchurian Candidate, Exorcist: The Beginning, Garfield, Hellboy, Van Helsing, Triplets of Belleville, The Last Samurai, Torque, Children of Dune, Battlestar: Galactica, Firefly, Taken, Smallville, Star Trek: Enterprise, Matrix Reloaded, Collateral Damage, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Agent Cody Banks, Daredevil, Spy Kids II, Oscar^®-nominated Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Final Fantasy, Blackhawk Down.

Recent game titles include Doom III, Burnout 3, Unreal Tournament, Serious Sam for XBox, Age of Mythology, Civilization III, Dead to Rights, Baldur's Gate II, EverQuest and Escape From Monkey Island.

Information about LightWave 3D^®:
http://www.newtek-europe.com/uk/products/lightwave/index.html

LightWave 3D^® artists interviews:
http://www.newtek-europe.com/uk/community/lightwave/index.html

LightWave 3D^® Projects List:
http://www.newtek-europe.com/uk/products/lightwave/projects.html

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- LightWave and LightWave 3D are registered trademarks of NewTek.
- VT[4], VT[4] Live, VT[4] Post, VT[3], VT[3] Live, VT[3] Post, VT[2], VT-Edit, Aura Video Paint, LightWave Express, VT-CG, VT-Vision VT-Scope, VT-DDR, Tool Shed, Tool Chest, SX-84, SX-8, RS-8, LScript, Digital Confusion, HyperVoxels, Endomorphs, Intelligentities, Motion Mixer, Morph Mixer, HardFX, SoftFX, ClothFX, MultiMeshes, Particle FX, P.A.V.L.O.V., Skelegons, SkyTracer, and Vmaps are trademarks of NewTek, Inc.
- All other products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Press contact:

Audrey-Jane Belin
Marketing & Communication Department
mail to: aj@newtek-europe.com

Newtek Europe
Europarc
17 avenue Léonard de Vinci
F-33600 PESSAC
Tel:+33 (0)5 57 262 262
Fax:+33 (0)5 57 262 261
www.newtek-europe.com