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Electric Rain Offers Mac OS X Version of Swift 3D Xpress

Electric Rain Inc. announced the upcoming release of Swift 3D Xpress for Mac OS X. Swift 3D Xpress is a 3D extension accessible directly from within the Macromedia Flash MX 2004 interface. Swift 3D Xpress allows Flash MX 2004 users to select any vector object on the stage in Flash, open it into the Xpress editing interface, customize their 3D scene by extruding, rotating, lighting and animating the vector object, and then render it out to a self-contained Movie Clip in either vector or raster form.

"The Swift 3D Xpress extension offers powerful 3D design capabilities to the Flash user with a minimal investment of time, effort and money," said Mike Soucie, president of Electric Rain. "Macromedia customers using Mac OS X will now have access to the leading 3D technology without needing to leave the comfort of the Flash MX 2004 interface. By incorporating easy-to-use 3D design tools and two powerful rendering engines right into the Flash MX authoring environment, the Xpress extension is sure to open up new doors for anyone interested in utilizing 3D in their projects."

Swift 3D Xpress includes the following features:* One-step conversion of 2D artwork to extruded 3D objects* Extensive material gallery with ability to customize* Flexible beveling of any extruded object* Pre-built lighting schemes* Drag-and-drop animations* Vector rendering using the RAViX III rendering engine* Ray traced raster rendering for photorealistic imagery* Automatic creation of Flash movie clips* Round tripping ability for further editing of 3D movie clips

"By capitalizing on the extensibility layer of the Flash MX 2004 product line, Swift 3D Xpress offers exciting new capabilities for creating rich content and applications," added Mike Downey, Flash technical product manager, Macromedia. "It's a real benefit to be able to provide our Macintosh user base with easier access to the 3D design process."

Swift 3D Xpress is currently available for Windows 2000/ME/XP. Availability for Mac OS X will coincide with the release of Swift 3D 4.0 standalone for Mac OS X, scheduled for mid-October. Swift 3D Xpress will be priced at $129, or only $39 if purchased with Swift 3D 4.0 standalone from the Electric Rain Website at www.erain.com.

Boulder, Colorado-based Electric Rain Inc. has quickly become an industry-leading developer of 3D-to-vector solutions.

Bill Desowitz's picture

Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.