From pk-asdg@cup.portal.com Wed Nov 11 08:18:09 1992 Received: from daffodil.cs.ucdavis.edu by toadflax.cs.ucdavis.edu (4.1/UCD.CS.2.0) id AA00291; Wed, 11 Nov 92 08:18:06 PST Received: from nova.unix.portal.com by daffodil.cs.ucdavis.edu (4.1/UCD.CS.2.0) id AA05762; Wed, 11 Nov 92 07:10:54 PST Return-Path: Received: by nova.unix.portal.com (5.65b/4.1 1.171) id AA03901; Wed, 11 Nov 92 07:09:39 -0800 Received: by portal.unix.portal.com (1.368) id AA06180; Wed, 11 Nov 92 07:09:36 -0800 Received: by hobo.corp.portal.com (4.1/4.0.3 1.27) id AA25218; Wed, 11 Nov 92 07:09:36 PST To: announce@cs.ucdavis.edu From: pk-asdg@cup.portal.com Subject: ASDG Press Releases Lines: 392 Date: Wed, 11 Nov 92 07:09:35 PST Message-Id: <9211110709.1.23499@cup.portal.com> X-Origin: The Portal System (TM) Status: RO Hi Dan: Finally! Here is the last seven press releases in the requested format. I'd appreciate it if you could post them to c.s.a.announce. Although two of the press releases (Scala Distribution and MorphPlus ship date) are somewhat out of date, the rest are still okay to post as they are fairly general. Thanks for the help. I'll have a couple of new press releases in the next few weeks. Sincerely, Jeffrey R. Almasol ASDG Technical Support ---------- 8< ---------- cut here ---------- 8< ---------- ***** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ***** ASDG ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR ADPRO DEVELOPER STATUS. BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND. ASDG, makers of the number one selling Amiga image processing product, is accepting applications for ADPro developer status. Using a comprehensive and proprietary DevKit, developers can tap into a high profile clientele with opportunities to work with the market leader. Madison WI, June 17, 1992 --- ASDG Incorporated, makers of Art Department Professional (the number one selling image processing product for the Commodore Amiga), announce that they are accepting applications from those individuals and companies wishing to become ADPro developers. The company has prepared a comprehensive developer kit consisting of "Autodoc" style documentation and a library which hides much of the complexity of writing ADPro modules. Using this kit, a proficient Amiga programmer can create loader, saver, and operator modules which will operate correctly with ADPro version 2. If a prospective developer's application is approved, the license to use the ADPro DevKit will cost $200 and obligates the developer to meet certain quality benchmarks. "If a third party module causes a problem on an end-user's machine, ASDG's name is on the bottom line." said company president Perry Kivolowitz. He continued, "We require a contractual obligation to certain quality standards so that ADPro owners are assured of getting third party products of the same high standards that they expect from ASDG." The developer kit does not dictate what structure a business relationship between ASDG and its developers may assume. Some developers may choose to market their products themselves, while others may opt for a closer relationship, perhaps through a licensing of their products or an outright purchase by ASDG. Company president Kivolowitz said, "We've looked at the unsuccessful attempts other companies have made to foster a third party after-market. We feel our developer program will succeed because of the side of our installed base, the quality of our developer materials, our willingness to take a direct hand in promoting some third party products to our installed base, and our quality commitment contract." To request an ADPro developer application, or to learn more about ADPro and ASDG's other color imaging solutions, contact Gina Cerniglia at ASDG Incorporated, 925 Stewart Street, Madison, WI 53713 or call (608) 273-6585. Art Department Professional is a registered trademark of ASDG Incorporated. Amiga is a registered trademark of Commodore-Amiga, Inc. ---------- 8< ---------- cut here ---------- 8< ---------- ***** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ***** ASDG SELECTS SCALA COMPUTER TELEVISION BV AS EXCLUSIVE DISTRIBUTOR IN THE BENELUX ASDG, makers of Art Department Professional, announce that they have selected SCALA Computer Television BV as their exclusive distributor in the Benelux (Luxembourg, Belgium, and The Netherlands). Madison WI, July 30, 1992 --- ASDG Incorporated, the leading supplier of image processing products for the Commodore Amiga, announce that they have selected SCALA Computer Television BV as their exclusive distributor in the Benelux (Belgium, Luxembourg, and The Netherlands). Both companies view this relationship as a tremendous benefit to their clients, among of whom there is a large overlapping segment. Benelux based users of SCALA, the premier authoring and presentation system for the Amiga, can now get ASDG products (to make their presentation graphics look their best) from the same source. To learn more about ADPro and ASDG's other color imaging solutions (including several exciting new products about to be released), contact Gina Cerniglia at ASDG Incorporated, 925 Stewart Street, Madison, WI 53713 or call (608) 273-6585. In the Benelux, contact Leon Klinkers at SCALA Computer Television BV, Maarssenbroeksedijk 39 NL-3606 AG Maarssen Nederland or call (030) 413995. ---------- 8< ---------- cut here ---------- 8< ---------- ***** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ***** ASDG PUTS HIGH QUALITY COLOR AND GRAY SCALE PRINTING IN REACH OF ALL AMIGA OWNERS ASDG announces the availability of TruePrint/24, a new stand-alone utility which outputs 24 bit-plane color or 8 bit-plane gray scale images on Preferences supported printers. TruePrint/24 can output prints of any size from single pages to outdoor signs. You can even print graphics on non-graphics printers (such as daisy wheels). Madison WI, August 6, 1992 --- ASDG Incorporated, makers of the award winning Art Department Professional, announce the availability of TruePrint/24 (TP/24), a stand-alone printing utility which puts high quality 8 and 24 bit-plane printing within reach of all Amiga owners. TP/24, listing at $89, can produce stunning prints with 16 million colors (24 bit-planes) on most Preferences supported color printers without the need for custom drivers. TP/24 can also print 256 shades (8 bit-planes) of gray on black and white devices such as laser printers. Prior to TP/24's release, the Amiga's operating system was limited to printing 4096 colors or 16 shades of gray. Especially exciting is TP/24's ability to output prints of any size, even as large as outdoor signs. And, TP/24 can print directly from disk rather than requiring the image fit entirely in memory. TP/24 provides 11 dithering and halftoning techniques, including traditional as well as artistic methods. One method even allows the printing of images with 32 shades of gray on character only devices such as daisy wheel printers. TP/24 is fully compatible with Kickstart versions 1.3 and 2.X. Art Department Professional is not required to use TP/24. To learn more about TruePrint/24, ADPro or ASDG's other color imaging solutions, contact Gina Cerniglia at ASDG Incorporated, 925 Stewart Street, Madison, WI 53713 or call (608) 273-6585. Art Department is a registered trademark and TruePrint/24 is a trademark of ASDG Incorporated. Amiga is a registered trademark of Commodore-Amiga, Inc. ---------- 8< ---------- cut here ---------- 8< ---------- ***** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ***** ASDG LINKS ADPRO TO ABEKAS DIGITAL DISK RECORDERS FOR IMAGE TRANSFER OR SINGLE FRAME RECORDING Art Department Professional owners can now read and write video streams using the same file format and hardware medium used on the Abekas A60, A65 and A66 Digital Disk Recorders. This capability dramatically increases the appeal and usefulness of the Commodore Amiga to video professionals. Madison WI, August 20, 1992 --- ASDG Incorporated, the leading supplier of innovative color imaging solutions for the Commodore Amiga, announce the development of Art Department Professional support for the industry standard digital video scheme used by Abekas Digital Disk Recorders. Using this support, digital video images stored on 8mm cartridge tapes can be directly exchanged between the Amiga and Abekas A60, A65 and A66 systems. As a result, it is now more likely that professional videographers will use Amigas for high-end video work. Additionally, videographers who do not own an Abekas system but do own an Amiga, can create digital video streams (essentially treating the 8mm tape drive as a single frame recorder) which can be used by an Abekas equipped post-production facility. Previous to ASDG's development, transferring video streams to and from high-end digital video systems was extremely time consuming, if not impossible, due to the sheer bulk of the data. These limitations are eliminated by ASDG's ADPro loader and saver for the Abekas format since these modules can directly control the same type of tape drive (from Exabyte) and interpret the same file format used to store the Abekas images in the first place. Full overscan broadcast frames can be read or written in as little as 11 seconds on a stock A3000. By using ADPro's extensive format conversion and batch processing capabilities, multi-minute video streams can be transferred between any format and an Abekas tape automatically. ADPro support for the Abekas carries a list price of $200 and requires a Commodore SCSI disk controller and an Exabyte tape drive to function. For information as to how to acquire ADPro's Abekas support or where to purchase Exabyte tape drives, contact Gina Cerniglia at ASDG Incorporated, 925 Stewart Street, Madison, WI 53713 or call (608) 273-6585. Art Department is a registered trademark of ASDG Incorporated. Amiga is a registered trademark of Commodore-Amiga, Inc. ---------- 8< ---------- cut here ---------- 8< ---------- ***** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ***** ASDG SETS SHIP DATE FOR STATE-OF-THE-ART AMIGA(R) VISUAL EFFECTS PACKAGE. WINDOWS(R) VERSION ANNOUNCED. ASDG has set an October 1st ship date for MorphPlus(tm), a state-of-the-art visual effects package for the Commodore Amiga. MorphPlus, already in use in Hollywood for such features as Babylon 5, provides cinematic quality full motion morphing and other visual effects. ASDG also announced a forthcoming Microsoft Windows version, called CineMorph(tm). Madison WI, August 26, 1992 ----- ASDG Incorporated, the leading supplier of innovative color imaging solutions for cinema and video, announce an October 1st ship date for its state-of-the-art visual effects package, MorphPlus and has announced plans for CineMorph, a morphing-only system for Microsoft Windows. MorphPlus produces cinematic and broadcast quality full motion morphs in record time using a proprietary image warping technology and a user interface which has been called ``strikingly different'' and ``unique and very impressive.'' MorphPlus has already earned a place in major Hollywood productions. Mark Swain, animator for Foundation Imaging, the creators of the special effects for Babylon 5 said, ``It's scarily realistic. MorphPlus produces the most realistic shapeshifting special effects I have ever seen on a desktop.'' MorphPlus allows for establishing relationships between source and destination images with unheard-of precision. Animators are free to add as many relationships as they wish without incurring a significant performance penalty as the number of relationships grows large (something common to all other morphing systems). Other state-of-the-art features abound in MorphPlus, such as the ability to subdivide an image into logical parts (called groups), assign separate acceleration and deceleration curves per group, depth arrange groups, and even the ability to set a transparency curve on a group by group basis. MorphPlus's morphing system is so precise and flexible, that it can be used to edit fine details of an image, or to create mattes and cut-outs. As for performance, on a non-accelerated A3000, MorphPlus can produce a complex full broadcast sized morph in the same time as Pacific Data Images's morphing system (the one used for the Michael Jackson ``Black or White'' video) running on an ultra-high performance Silicon Graphics workstation.* Incredibly, morphing is but one of the special effects provided by MorphPlus. Other capabilities allow high quality DVE tumbles and fly-bys, mapping images onto rotating spheres, mapping an image onto the surface of a pond into which any number of pebbles can be thrown, and others. All of these operations are presented in easy-to-use WYSIWYG user interfaces. MorphPlus is compatible with ASDG's award winning image processing program, Art Department Professional, although ADPro is not required. MorphPlus can also be used with ASDG's recently announced support for the Abekas A60, A65, and A66 Digital Disk Recorders to move broadcast quality video between platforms. MorphPlus carries a list price of $295 and requires Kickstart 2.0 or later. On a related note, ASDG has announced the development of a morphing-only version of MorphPlus, called CineMorph, for the Microsoft Windows environment. CineMorph requires Windows 3.1 or later and an Intel 386 processor or better. For information about MorphPlus, CineMorph, or ASDG's other color imaging solutions, contact Gina Cerniglia at ASDG Incorporated, 925 Stewart Street, Madison, WI 53713 or call (608) 273 - 6585. Art Department Professional is a registered trademark, MorphPlus and CineMorph are trademarks of ASDG Incorporated. Amiga is a registered trademark of Commodore-Amiga, Inc. Microsoft and Microsoft Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. ---------- * 1992 SIGGRAPH Proceedings, ``Feature Based Image Metamorphosis,'' page 38. Two minutes per frame on an SGI 4D25 with 100 correspondance pairs. ---------- 8< ---------- cut here ---------- 8< ---------- ***** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ***** ASDG ANNOUNCES ``RETROACTIVE UPGRADE'' OF ALL ADPRO FAMILY PRODUCTS IN SUPPORT OF THE AMIGA. 4000 Timed to coincide with Commodore's announcement of the Amiga 4000, ASDG announces that all of its ADPro family of image processing products already support the new Advanced Graphics Architecture (AGA) including the new video modes and color resolution. These capabilities, which have been present in the shipping versions for almost a year, automatically appear when running on AGA equipped machines. Madison WI, September 17, 1992 ----- ASDG Incorporated, the leading supplier of innovative color imaging solutions for cinema and video, announce an unusual upgrade for its Art Department Professional (ADPro) family of products. What makes this upgrade unusual is that all owners of ADPro Version 2 already have it. In support of the development of the Advanced Graphics Architecture (AGA), incorporated in the new Amiga 4000, ASDG added AGA support to ADPro and FRED almost one year ago. This support has been in the shipping version of ADPro since that time but this fact could not be revealed until Commodore's public release of the A4000 specifications. Those who attended the recent World of Commodore-Amiga show in Pasadena, got a chance to use ADPro on real Amiga 4000s. Commodore included ADPro in its demonstration suite to show off the dramatic enhancements in the new Amiga's graphical power. ADPro fully supports the new display and color resolutions including Super Hi-Res and eight bit HAM. ASDG's animation and batch processor FRED, is also AGA compatible. On AGA equipped machines it will show its preview images in 256 colors instead of 16. This provides for full motion video preview with excellent color fidelity. ASDG is certain that it speaks for all ADPro owners when it expresses its best wishes to Commodore Business Machines on the introduction of the A4000. The excellence of the technical support which Amiga developers have received in anticipation of the AGA is entirely responsible for ASDG's ability to provide this ``retroactive upgrade.'' For more information about ASDG's color imaging solutions, contact Gina Cerniglia at ASDG Incorporated, 925 Stewart Street, Madison, WI 53713 or call (608) 273 - 6585. Art Department Professional is a registered trademark of ASDG Incorporated. Amiga is a registered trademark and Advanced Graphics Architecture is a trademark of Commodore-Amiga, Inc. ---------- 8< ---------- cut here ---------- 8< ---------- ***** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ***** ASDG MAKES AMIGA USER GROUPS AN OFFER THEY SHOULDN'T REFUSE As part of ASDG's continuing commitment to the Amiga community, Amiga user groups can receive free promotional materials directly from the company. To receive the materials (which includes video tapes, literature, buttons and other items pertaining to ASDG's award winning Art Department Professional and its new MorphPlus video effects package), officers of registered Amiga user groups simply have to request them from ASDG. Madison WI, October 29, 1992 ----- ASDG Incorporated, the leading supplier of innovative color imaging solutions for cinema and video, announce that they will provide promotional kits free of charge to registered Amiga user groups. The kits include literature, video tapes, buttons and other materials pertaining to ASDG's award winning Art Department Professional as well as the new breakthrough product, MorphPlus. To receive the promotional kit, officers of registered (with their country's Commodore sales company) Amiga user groups need only contact ASDG's sales manager, Ms. Gina Cerniglia. Once a user group has established a relationship with ASDG, it will continue to receive new literature, videos and other materials as they become available from the company. ASDG's intent is to help user groups share in the leading edge excitement which ASDG's products, especially MorphPlus, are generating. The company's commitment to supporting Amiga user groups actually predates the company. Company president, Mr. Perry Kivolowitz, co-founded the second Amiga user group in the United States. Said Mr. Kivolowitz, "Having been a user group president, I know how passionately user group members want to be on the leading edge of Amiga developments. I also know how hard it is to get good quality materials for user group consumption." For more information about ASDG's color imaging solutions or to request a user group kit, contact Gina Cerniglia at ASDG Incorporated, 925 Stewart Street, Madison, WI 53713 or call (608) 273-6585. Art Department Professional is a registered trademark and MorphPlus is a trademark of ASDG Incorporated. Amiga is a registered trademark and Advanced Graphics Architecture is a trademark of Commodore-Amiga, Inc. ---------- 8< ---------- cut here ---------- 8< ----------