- Alias Systems Corporation
Alias Systems Corporation (formerly Alias|Wavefront), headquartered in
Toronto ,Ontario ,Canada , was asoftware company that produced high-end 3D graphics software. The company was formed in 1995 whenSilicon Graphics bought Alias Research, which was founded in 1983, andWavefront Technologies , founded in 1984, then merged the two companies. It is now owned byAutodesk , the producers ofAutoCAD and3ds Max .History
Alias' most well known product, the 3D modeling and animation package Maya, was delivered in 1998 and has released a major upgrade every 9-12 months. The last release made by Alias was Maya 7.0. Since the purchase by Autodesk all versions after 8.5 use a year-based naming convention, e.g. Maya2008. Other significant products include; the industrial design package
StudioTools (formerly known as Studio, or just "Alias"), which is used extensively in the automotive, aerospace and industrial design industries, a 2D drawing and sketching application called SketchBook Pro, and back in 1992, an early Macintosh based 3D modelling and rendering package called Sketch!, etc.On March 1, 2003, the company was honored by the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with an Oscar for scientific and technical achievement for their development of Maya software.Wavefront Technologies foundersBill Kovacs and Roy A. Hall received a 1997Academy Award for the creative leadership (Kovacs) and the principal engineering (Hall) efforts that led to the Wavefront Advanced Visualizer computer graphics systemLater in 2003, the company's name was changed from "Alias|Wavefront" to "Alias". In June 2004, Silicon Graphics sold Alias to the
Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and Accel-KKR, a technology-focused private equity investment firm, for US$57.1 million. In September 2004, Alias acquired Kaydara, adding the company's character animation and motion editing products to Alias' line of software.Acquisition by Autodesk
On October 4, 2005,
Autodesk , makers of3ds Max andAutoCAD drafting software, announced plans to acquire Alias in a cash acquisition valued at US$182 million. On January 10, 2006, Autodesk completed the acquisition of Alias for US$197 million in cash.Fact|date=August 2008External links
* [http://www.autodesk.com/ Official Autodesk website]
* [http://www.autodesk.com/aliasstudio Autodesk AliasStudio product page]
* [http://www.autodesk.com/maya Autodesk Maya product page]
* [http://www.autodesk.com/alias Autodesk Alias support page]
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