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Company Press Release
MetaCreations' New Tool for Next-Generation Web Advertising Now Available via the Internet
Headline Studio -- Ready for Immediate Purchase and Download from the Company's Web Site -- Brings Powerful Broadcast-Quality Animation to Web Banners
CARPINTERIA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 25, 1999-- MetaCreations Corporation (Nasdaq:MCRE - news) announced today the immediate availability of dynamic new software for Web design professionals seeking to create animated, broadcast-quality Web advertising banners.
The first MetaCreations product to be offered online for users to buy and download, Headline Studio(tm), is available now via the Internet for both Windows and Macintosh platforms. To purchase, simply visit MetaCreations' new electronic software purchase and delivery area on the company Web site at metacreations.com. MetaCreations Headline Studio contains all the necessary tools in an easily accessible format to quickly create high-impact, animated GIF banner ads for the Web that can be viewed on any browser at multiple bandwidths.
Using MetaCreations Headline Studio, the company will launch a new campaign entitled ''Can Your Banner Do This?'' through the creation of a number of eye-catching banner ads. Headline Studio represents the next component of the company's 'Creative Web' strategy to provide new visualization technology for a variety of highly creative applications for the Web. Headline Studio is one of the first of a series of innovative MetaCreations products for Web developers, e-commerce site designers and hosting sites.
''Headline Studio is a must-have Web-design tool, as it provides designers with TV-like effects and animation to help differentiate their ads while capturing customer attention,'' said John Dearborn, senior vice president of marketing at MetaCreations. ''Like all of our Creative Web products, Headline Studio is really about meeting designers' needs, so we're selling and distributing it online to provide it to these customers in the manner in which they expect products to be marketed and sold.''
''Web authors now have unlimited freedom in banner creation, because Headline Studio completely reinvents the workflow for banner animation design,'' said Chris Miller, vice president and director of marketing at Capps Digital Studio/Leo Burnett Company. ''Headline Studio represents the numerous products needed to piece together a compelling Web banner condensed into a single, simple application.''
Designed Specifically to Create Web Banners
Before MetaCreations Headline Studio, designing banners was much like designing a slide show. Now, designing banners is like producing a television commercial for the Web. Because it is an integrated solution, designers using MetaCreations Headline Studio can author animated GIF banner ads quickly within one application rather than the hours and multiple programs previously necessary. MetaCreations Headline Studio also changes the way that banner ad designers work by: -- allowing them to create animations first and setting frame rates
later
-- enabling the easy application of video effects such as walk-ins, dissolves and fades to images and text
-- including instant animation previews, GIF file size and bandwidth previews, customizable Web-safe color palettes and unlimited undo
-- providing newfound design freedom while decreasing the time it takes to produce an ad
''Before Headline Studio, designers were forced to use two or three different programs to properly author GIF animation files, and the animation had to be designed in a cumbersome frame-by-frame process,'' said Mark Zimmer, chief designer of Headline Studio and co-developer of MetaCreations Painter. ''By determining frame rates after designing an animation, Headline Studio enables designers to develop multiple banner ads at different bandwidths from one master, all within one application.''
Pricing and Availability
MetaCreations Headline Studio is available now, via electronic distribution for US$169 (not including manual and CD-ROM) and represents the first of MetaCreations' product line to be distributed via e-commerce, featuring the ability to electronically purchase and download the application simply and easily. Customers may purchase and download Headline Studio on the Web at metacreations.com. A packaged version of MetaCreations Headline Studio for retail distribution will be available in approximately two weeks for an expected average selling price of US$199.
Minimum System Requirements
Windows: Pentium Processor, Windows 95/98/NT4 with Service Pack 3 or later, 32MB free RAM, 5 MB free HD space for installation.
Power Macintosh: Mac OS 8.0, 32 MB free RAM, 5 MB free HD space for installation.
About MetaCreations
MetaCreations Corporation, the Creative Web company, is focused on developing and marketing 2D and 3D visualization software for graphic artists, and the World Wide Web. MetaCreations' Creative Web strategy is centered on the company's new MetaStream(tm) and MetaFlash(tm) technologies, and employs an array of MetaCreations' software development tools to accelerate the creation of 2D and 3D graphics for online applications, and to make fast, interactive use of photorealistic 3D on the Web practical and pervasive. MetaCreations offers a complete product line of award-winning graphics desktop software for both professional users and consumers, and its products are available in more than 70 countries. The company is headquartered in Santa Barbara County, California, and has development centers in Scotts Valley, Calif., and Princeton, N.J., as well as an International Operations Center in Dublin, Ireland. MetaCreations can be reached on the World Wide Web at metacreations.com.
This release contains forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially as a result of a number of risks and uncertainties affecting the company's business. Such risks include, but are not limited to, the following: that MetaCreations will not produce and distribute a packaged version of Headline Studio, including documentation and electronic media, for retail distribution in approximately two weeks for an expected average selling price of US$199. For a more detailed discussion of factors that affect MetaCreations' operating results, interested parties should review MetaCreations' SEC reports, including MetaCreations' Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 1997, and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.
MetaCreations, Headline Studio, MetaFlash and MetaStream are either registered trademarks or trademarks of MetaCreations Corporation. Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
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