Cambridge Animation Systems Ships Animo 4.0 for Mac OS X

Cambridge Animation Systems announces the release of Animo 4.0software for the Mac OS X, Apple's next-generation operating system.The Animo cartoon animation system has an installed base of more than3,000 seats in over 50 countries worldwide.

"Now Mac OS X users can enjoy the same Animo functionality as usersrunning on Windows operating system," says Simon Ruffles, Cambridge'smarketing manager. "Users will be able to seamlessly exchange filesamong Animo systems running on the major computing platforms."

"Mac OS X's UNIX-based foundation, advanced Internet features, andstunning graphics capabilities make it an ideal platform for digitalanimation production," says Ron Okamoto, Apple's vice president ofWorldwide Developer Relations. "Animo is a great 2D cartoon softwarepackage and we are delighted that Cambridge is joining the growing listof developers bringing popular applications to the Mac OS X."

Macromedia Flash output in Animo 4.0 allows users to take advantageof the full power of Animo's scene graph, exposure sheet, drawingwindow, filters and effects to create high-quality animations. Specialcontrols such as disabling filter nodes and disabling animation of anybitmap image are also available to reduce the sizes of Flash files forthe low bandwidth of the Internet.

Features in Animo 4.0 for Mac OS X include:

-Accurate scanning and image processing to digitize and vectorizehand-drawn line artwork.

-Tools to scan painted backgrounds and overlays.

-Flexible color modeling, with advanced color correction tools.

-Fast ink and paint application.

-Powerful graph-based compositor with numerous special effects.

-High-resolution output for TV, HDTV or film.

-Output to files, movies, digital disk recorders or Macromedia Flash(.swf) output.

Cambridge Animation Systems (www.cambridgeanimation.com) is theexclusive developer of Animo software, as well as Inkworks &Swiffworks 3D animation plug-ins. Animo is the first software packageto seamlessly integrate 2D and 3D animation. It is used for featurefilms, animated television series, commercials, games and multimediadevelopment by studios worldwide, including Warner Brothers, DreamWorksSKG, Nelvana Limited, Pentafour Software, Tape House, Praxinos, andColorland.