VFX House Supplies Nearly 600 Shots for Hit Movie

San Antonio, Texas — April 13, 2005 -- NewTek, Inc., manufacturer of industry-leading 3D animation and video products, today announced that CafeFX used LightWave 3D® for the 3D elements in nearly 600 shots produced for the blockbuster film Sin City, a stylistic groundbreaker directed by Robert Rodriguez that is now filling theaters coast to coast. Based on Frank Miller's acclaimed graphic novels, the film visually recreates the noir graphic style Miller used in his stories, requiring virtually every shot to include effects work. Jeff Goldman and Everett Burrell supervised two of CafeFX's teams for the work on Sin City; Goldman commented that of the nearly 600 shots, "Virtually all used LightWave®, but probably a good 550 were primarily LightWave due to the amount of 3D CG required for the shot."

"LightWave has a strong and growing presence in feature film visual effects," said Jay Roth, Vice President of 3D Product Management for NewTek. "And the talented artists at CafeFX are among the leaders using LightWave for groundbreaking photoreal effects. We're committed to making sure that LightWave keeps such artists at the leading edge for visual effects work with a tool that is powerful, flexible, fast, and lets the artist concentrate on being creative, rather than figuring out the technology."

Sin City tells three of the stories from Miller's graphic novels; CafeFX produced the visual effects for "The Big Fat Kill" segment of the film. The majority of the segment was shot with the actors on green screen sets, and CafeFX melded the live action plates with complete CG environments, everything from room interiors to brooding cityscapes, including the weather, since the story takes place in nearly constant rain. Some exterior shots are entirely LightWave, such as driving sequences where no live action plate was shot. A key requirement was to create a motion picture that was visually a match for the stark black-and-white style, with only splashes of color on key items that Miller had used for the comic; the digital artists at CafeFX took a very creative approach in recreating the style and feel, meeting Rodriguez's goal of remaining faithful to Miller's vision.

"LightWave has been our primary 3D tool for years at CafeFX, and we use LightWave for pretty much all types of work," said Goldman. "For Sin City it proved very quick at creating the type of layouts and environments that the virtual sets required. A small team of talented artists with good generalist skills can complete a lot of work using LightWave; for modeling, texturing, layout, lighting and rendering, it's a powerful and straightforward tool. We like to say that LightWave can do 90% of what you need to do very well, and for that we push it hard. Other tools may be better at the remaining 10%, but we keep coming back to LightWave for the majority of our layout work."

Pricing and Availability

LightWave [8] full package including an English printed documentation is available for a suggested retail price of 1295 €+VAT (UK RRP: £899 +VAT). Registered owners of LightWave 3D [7.5] or earlier are eligible to purchase a LightWave [8] Electronic Upgrade Pack for 295 €+VAT(UK RRP:£199+VAT). The English printed documentation is available as an option for 70 €+VAT (UK RRP: £44). For a limited time, a LightWave 3D® Electronic Full Competitive Upgrade is available for 495 €+VAT (UK RRP: £339), for registered owners of Maya™, Softimage™ XSI, 3ds max®, Electric Image™, Strata Studio Pro™, Cinema 4D™, Truespace™, Hash Animation Master™, Autocad®, Pro/Engineer® and SolidWorks®. Proof of ownership required to qualify. Registered LightWave® owners will also be able to purchase an additional seat of LightWave® at the 495 €+VAT (UK RRP: £339) price. This special offer is available through April 30, 2005, from any NewTek Europe Authorized Reseller or directly from NewTek Europe. For more information or to purchase, visit: http://www.newtek-europe.com or call NewTek Europe Sales at + 33(0)5 57 262 262. Authorized Reseller link to http://www.newtek-europe.com/uk/purchase/resellers.html

About NewTek and NewTek Europe.

Sited near Bordeaux in the southwest of France, NewTek Europe has been the European branch of NewTek, Inc. since 1999 for distribution, communication, and the technical support of NewTek products throughout Europe, Russia, Africa and the Middle East.

NewTek, Inc., based in San Antonio, Texas, is one of the main players in the animation and special effects markets with LightWave 3D®, winner of the "2003 Primetime Emmy® Engineering Award" as well as the producers of video editing solution Video Toaster™.

NewTek was the instigator of the desktop video revolution with the launch of the legendary Video Toaster™ in 1990. This product has been in continuous use since then for video aficionados as well as for professional applications in the world of film.

Among the latest productions NewTek tools have helped with, you'll find: "I, Robot", Spiderman 2, The Manchurian Candidate, The Exorcist: The Beginning, Garfield, Hellboy, Van Helsing, les Triplettes de Belleville, The Last Samurai, Torque, The Children of Dune, Battlestar: Galactica, Firefly, Taken, Smallville, Star Trek : Enterprise, Matrix Reloaded, Collateral Damage, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Secret Agent: Cody Banks, Daredevil, Spy Kids II, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (nominated for an Oscar®), Final Fantasy, Blackhawk Down.

Latest game work includes: Doom III, Burnout 3, Killzone, The Moment of Silence, Unreal Tournament, Serious Sam, Age of Mythology, Civilization III, Dead to Rights, Baldur's Gate II and EverQuest.

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.
- TriCaster, iVGA, 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

FOR GENERAL INFORMATION
Call +33 (0)5 57 262 262
Or email info@newtek-europe.com