NEW PHOTOCASTER™ 3.0 FROM MEDIA LAB
GIVES DIRECTORÒ USERS A BETTER, FASTER WAY
TO BUILD ONLINE 'MOVIES' & MULTIMEDIA CDs

Enhanced Import Software Turns PhotoshopÒ Designs
into Director Movies in Seconds

Longmont, Colorado - June 13, 2001 - Some multimedia developers insist on doing things the hard way. For everyone else there's PhotoCaster, the quick and easy way to create multimedia CDs, games, and Shockwave movies that run on a Web page.

Today, Media Lab announced version 3.0 of its PhotoCaster software, an essential tool for Macromedia Director users at graphic design firms and corporate multimedia departments.

"The new PhotoCaster gives interactive developers an even better way to eliminate the difficult and tedious aspects of creating lively animations, online games and compelling business presentations with Director," said Media Lab's President Tom Summerall.

Version 3 supports the new layer styles in Photoshop 6, as well as expanded options for 'live' text, color depth, and custom color palettes.

What's New in PhotoCaster 3?

1) Layer effects (Photoshop 5) and layer styles (Photoshop 6) now carry over seamlessly. PhotoCaster 3 handles the newest Photoshop effects like drop shadows without a hitch.

"Although implementing this feature was a significant development challenge, we added it because users asked for it more frequently than any other product improvement," explained Summerall.

2) Improved text handling. Earlier versions of PhotoCaster import all text as a graphic, which makes edits impossible after it has been imported to Director. PhotoCaster 3 gives the user a choice between importing "live" text with limited text styling (fonts, font size, bold, italic, underlining) or importing text as a graphic which preserves all Photoshop styling. Many developers prefer live or editable text for Internet applications because it takes up less memory and downloads faster.

3) All color options now selectable regardless of monitor color depth. PhotoCaster 3 can import graphics in 8-, 16- or 24-bit mode with any custom palette regardless of the display settings on the developer's monitor.

4) Additional improvements to color depth conversion system. Changes include improved 16-bit import quality and dithering options for 8-and 16-bit import.

What is PhotoCaster?

Macromedia's Director has become a standard tool that multimedia developers use to add interactive visual elements to websites and CDs.

Director's strength lies in its ability to make graphics interactive, but it has limited capabilities to create those graphics. Most multimedia developers choose Adobe Photoshop to create images, sounds, shapes, characters and backgrounds, then import them into Director. Each layer of the Photoshop file becomes a separate Director cast member, which is then set in motion relative to the other cast members according to a script or score. Today's browsers can play a Director movie with Shockwave extensions, making Director a popular choice for developing online animation.

Once the developer hits "save" on his Photoshop file, the creative work is done, but getting the overall design to look the same in Director can be difficult. Graphics may appear in the wrong position, in the wrong color, or loose their transparency. Edges might look jagged when they were smooth in Photoshop. Drop shadows might be the wrong color; holes can appear in the background. Solving such problems one-by-one becomes a tedious and sometimes difficult process.

PhotoCaster solves all these problems by automating the import process. PhotoCaster "intuits" the desired outcome and transfers all the graphics layer-by-layer into a Director cast with one mouse click. Optionally, linked layers can be imported as a single cast member. All the relative positions of the Photoshop graphics are preserved, as well as the registration, transparency, and anti-aliasing of the original design. PhotoCaster can save any Director developer hours of wasted development time, improve the quality of her multimedia output, and deliver rock-solid performance at every turn.

Photocaster supports alpha channels, a feature in Director 7 and 8 that allows cast members to appear transparent. Additionally, it automatically generates a custom palette based on the layers in the Photoshop file, improves color reduction and dithering, supports dithering to a specified number of colors, and can ignore hidden layers.

System Requirements

For Macintosh: Power PC, OS 7.61 or higher, Director 5 or higher, Photoshop version 3 or higher, 32 megabytes RAM, and 30 megabytes free hard-drive space.

For Windows: Pentium or higher; Windows 95, 98, NT, or 2000; Director 5 or higher; Photoshop version 3 or higher; 64 megabytes RAM; and 30 megabytes free hard-drive space.

PhotoCaster works with files from Adobe Photoshop 3-6 and LE or any application that can save in layered Photoshop .PSD format.

Pricing and Availability

PhotoCaster 3.0 is now available. Price for the download version is $US 199; the CD package costs $US 249.

Cross-platform PhotoCaster includes both Mac and Windows versions and costs $US 329 when downloaded or $US 379 for the CD package.

Discounts for volume purchasers and site license pricing are available. For more details, or to download a trial version of the software, visit the Media Lab website at www.medialab.com.

PhotoCaster 3.0 can be ordered from Media Lab's online store at www.medialab.com/store or by phone at 800-282-5361. Visa, MasterCard and American Express are accepted. Three online catalogs offer PhotoWebber at both standard and student pricing for single-copy purchases - Publisher's Toolbox (www.pubtool.com), The PowerXChange (www.thepowerxchange.com), and Publishing Perfection (www.publishingperfection.com).

About Media Lab

Based in Longmont, Colorado, Media Lab publishes software used by graphic designers and web designers to create animated presentations and graphical web pages. Media Lab's award-winning web-page design tool PhotoWebber has received numerous favorable reviews since it was introduced in April, 2000. The company's multimedia design tools - PhotoCaster, AlphaMania, and Effects -- have been used to create pioneering special effects seen at the EPCOT Center at Disney World in Florida, in numerous music videos and in motion pictures such as Batman and Robin, Air Force One, and Armageddon. Media Lab can be reached via the web site at www.medialab.com, by email at sales@medialab.com, by phone at 800-282-5361 or 303-546-7929.

Trademarks

PhotoWebber is a trademark of Media Lab. Photoshop is a registered trademark and GoLive and ImageReady are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. Java and Javascript are trademarks of Sun Microsystems. Dreamweaver, Flash and Shockwave are trademarks of Macromedia. QuickTime is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. All other trade names are trademarks of their respective owners.

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Press Contact

Donna Druchunas or Tom Summerall - press@medialab.com