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Article View: comp.sys.next.announce
Article #31

Announcing: FrontFace 3D Modeler for NeXTSTEP from nPOINT

#31
From: jens
Date: Sat, 01 Aug 1992 17:11
74 lines
4403 bytes
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:	Contact: nPOINT, Ltd.
			8026 North Washington St.
			Niles, IL  60714
			info@nPOINT.COM
			+1.708.825.7278


        nPOINT, LTD ANNOUNCES FrontFace MODELER FOR NeXTSTEP
        -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -
FrontFace IS A 3-D MODELER FOR NeXTSTEP AND USES
 PIXAR'S DE FACTO INDUSTRY STANDARD RENDERMAN.


Chicago, July 28, 1992 -- nPOINT, Ltd., of Niles, IL, introduced today
FrontFace, an intuitive and elegant program for generating three-dimensional
models on a NeXT workstation.  nPOINT made the announcement at the computer
graphics industry's SIGGRAPH convention, being held here.

FrontFace provides an easy way to build complex and beautiful three-
dimensional images.  It works with any software that supports the RenderMan 
Interface, Pixar's de facto industry-standard rendering specification.

"Finally, there is a superior way to directly manipulate three-dimensional
models," said Kurt Stephens, nPOINT's president.  "We've paid close attention
to the RenderMan Interface specification so that an end-user will get all the
power of using RenderMan in an intuitive, object-oriented NeXTSTEP  
application."

One of FrontFace's most powerful capabilities is full support for "clip
objects."  Similar to clip art in the PostScript world, 3-D objects can be
created, saved, and copied, providing an effortless way to reuse previous work.

"Clip objects are not a new idea," said Jens von der Heide, nPOINT's Vice-
President of Marketing, "but I think we've raised the paradigm to whole new 
plateau."  Other FrontFace tools allow 3-D text manipulation, shape extrusion, 
surface manipulation, and many more operations.

The RenderMan Interface is a software standard for 3-D scene description.  It
is a series of procedures which transfer the description of a scene to a
rendering program.  The description of the scene is output to a file format
called RIB, the RenderMan Interface Bytestream.  RIB is a platform-independent
way to transfer information regarding 3-D scenes.   The RenderMan Interface has
been adopted by many of the leading computer graphics companies and has become
a de facto industry standard.

The process of creating an image described by the RenderMan interface is 
generally completed in two steps.  The first is to create a scene in a software 
application such as FrontFace, which may include the description of the shape, 
surface textures,  or other characteristics of an object.  The second step, 
provided by rendering software,  is to translate the description into a final
image.  NeXTSTEP Release 3.0 includes Pixar's Quick RenderMan and
PhotoRealistic RenderMan, two implementations of RenderMan renderers.

"For the first time," said Mr. Stephens, "the Quick RenderMan software that 
displays the image on the screen works almost exactly the same way as the 
PhotoRealistic RenderMan software that produces your final image.  That's a 
beautiful and powerful feature of the RenderMan implementation on the NeXT 
platform.  It allows a FrontFace user to really explore the full potential of
3-D graphics."
	
FrontFace will ship early in the fourth quarter.  It will be available directly
from nPOINT and through authorized dealers.

nPOINT, Ltd is a privately held company founded in 1991 to bring new powerful 
tools for graphics and publishing to the professional workstation market.

---
For more information, contact Jens  von der Heide at nPOINT, Ltd., 8026 N. 
Washington St., Niles, IL  60714. at +1.708.825.7278 or info@nPOINT.COM.

FrontFace is a trademark of nPOINT, Ltd.  RenderMan and Pixar are registered 
trademarks of Pixar.  Quick RenderMan, PhotoRealistic RenderMan, and RIB are 
trademarks of Pixar.  PostScript is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems 
Incorporated.  NeXT and NeXTSTEP are trademarks of NeXT Computer, Inc.
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Message-ID: <1992Aug1.171109.15620@liveware.com>
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!gatech!purdue!yuma!csn!ale!todd
From: jens@npoint.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.announce
Subject: Announcing: FrontFace 3D Modeler for NeXTSTEP from nPOINT
Keywords: FrontFace 3D Modeler NeXTstep nPoint Renderman Photorealistic QuickRenderman
Message-ID: <1992Aug1.171109.15620@liveware.com>
Date: 1 Aug 92 17:11:09 GMT
Sender: todd@liveware.com
Reply-To: info@nPOINT.COM
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Organization: nPOINT, Ltd.
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