NEW PHOTOCASTER™ 3.0 FOR MacOS X FROM
MEDIA LAB BRINGS A BETTER, FASTER WAY TO BUILD ONLINE 'MOVIES' &
MULTIMEDIA CDs TO MACINTOSH DIRECTOR MX USERS
Enhanced
Import Software Turns Photoshop Designs
into Director Movies in Seconds
Longmont, Colorado - March 18, 2003 - PhotoCaster 3, the acclaimed Xtra for
Macromedia Director, is finally available to users of the MacOS X platform.
Today, Media Lab announced the release
of version 3.0 of its PhotoCaster software, an essential tool for Macromedia
Director users at graphic design firms and corporate multimedia departments,
for use with the MacOS X version of Director MX.
"After five months of development,
including adding thousands of lines of new code and modernizing much of the
existing code, PhotoCaster 3 for OS X is the best PhotoCaster ever,"
said Tom Summerall, President of Media Lab. "Our users have been
clamoring for OS X versions of all of our products, and over the next few
weeks we will be unveiling them starting with today's release of
PhotoCaster," he added.
"PhotoCaster gives OS X developers
the easiest way to eliminate the exacting and tedious aspects of adapting
Photoshop graphics for lively animations, online games and compelling
business presentations with Director," said Summerall.
The OS X version of PhotoCaster 3 now
supports Photoshop layer sets and improves layer fx and text support, all
with a redesigned more elegant interface based on MacOS X's "Aqua"
user interface paradigm.
PhotoCaster 3 for OS X has all the
features users on other platforms have come to rely on.
1) Layer effects (Photoshop 5) and layer
styles (Photoshop 6) are supported. PhotoCaster 3 handles the newest
Photoshop effects like drop shadows, and the support for these effects has
been improved for PhotoCaster OS X.
"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 of 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 MacOS Classic: 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 MacOS X: Any version of MacOS X,
Director MX, Photoshop version 3 or higher, 128 megabytes RAM.
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 for OS X is now
available for download or on CD. Price is $US 199.
Crossgrade pricing is as follows.
PhotoCaster 2 Mac Classic users can purchase PhotoCaster for OS X for $US 129.
PhotoCaster 3 MacOS Classic users purchasing before December 1, 2002 can
purchase PhotoCaster for $US 49. Customers who purchased PhotoCaster for
MacOS Classic between December 1, 2002 and March 17, 2003 can upgrade for
free.
Cross-platform PhotoCaster includes both
Mac and Windows versions and costs $US 329.
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. Two online catalogs offer PhotoWebber at both standard and student
pricing for single-copy purchases: 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 of Adobe Systems Incorporated.
Dreamweaver, Flash and Shockwave are trademarks of Macromedia. All other
trade names are trademarks of their respective owners.
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Press Contact
Donna Druchunas or Tom Summerall - press@medialab.com
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