Alias (Toronto) + Wavefront (Montreal) = Alias/WaveFront, an SGI division which makes the mind-blowing Maya animation system, available for a variety of computer flavors, such as Windows, SGI and even Macs running MacOS X (soon).

This product took many years to develop, and their patience and determination shows. The physics system is incredibly powerful, and surprisingly easy to use considering how much it does. While Pixar still rules the CGI camp, you can use Maya without having to work Steve Jobs. Not that that would be a bad thing, though, depending on your outlook.

This product builds on the older Alias PowerAnimator, used in Terminator 2 to render that fluid metal robot, uh, thing, which at the time was priced at a cool $40KUS. The software, that is, not the T2000.
Toronto-based software development company. ``An sgi company.'' Formed of the merger of Alias Research, Inc (Toronto) and Wavefront (Santa Barbara, Paris). Makes probably the best 3-D animation/modelling/design software on the planet. (Disclaimer: i used to work for them.)

Maya (the illusion of reality, a reference to a concept from Eastern philosophy) replaced PowerAnimator as an industry standard for animation for film, video and games.

A really cool company in many respects. At one point, PowerAnimator featured a Make Game button.

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