Anime Studio 9 Introduces Powerful New 2D Character Animation Tools to Speed Up Workflow for Digital Artists
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Anime Studio 9 Introduces Powerful New 2D Character Animation Tools to Speed Up Workflow for Digital Artists

Animate faster than ever with new features and enhancements including 64-bit architecture, GPU acceleration, revolutionary Smart Bones tool and more

ALISO VIEJO, CA – September 10, 2012 – Smith Micro Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: SMSI) Productivity and Graphics Group today announced the availability of Anime Studio® Pro 9 and Anime Studio Debut® 9, the all-in-one animation solutions that enable professional and first-time artists alike to create stunning 2D movies, cartoons and cutout animations for film, television, Web, video games, advertising and much more. Anime Studio 9 boasts a dramatically revamped timeline, 64-bit architecture and GPU acceleration for increased speed and memory, with new advanced features that make it easier than ever to create quality 2D animations.

“With Anime Studio 9, the days of tedious frame-by-frame animation are a thing of the past,” said Fahim Niaz, senior product manager for Smith Micro Software. “We’ve worked closely with our community of artists and animators to understand their workflow needs and the result is a powerful animation tool built to increase productivity like never before. In fact, our beta testers are unanimously saying that Anime Studio 9 is the best version yet.”

Anime Studio Pro offers a complete animation solution for professional digital artists. With an easy-to-navigate interface and advanced features such as bone rigging, integrated lip-synching, 3D modeling and motion tracking, Anime Studio Pro 9 is packed with cutting-edge tools custom-designed to simplify and expedite workflow.

“Wacom's partnership with Smith Micro continues to provide animators with the perfect marriage of tools and technology,” said Don Varga, professional products brand director for Wacom Technology. “Anime Studio 9 supports the professional pen and multi-touch control in Intuos5 pen tablets and other new Wacom multi-touch graphic tablets. The combination of these powerful tools makes it possible for a single person or small animation teams to produce work on par with a full animation house.”

Smith Micro Software and Wacom Technologies have partnered once again to provide Anime Studio users with multi-touch capabilities. Anime Studio 9 users utilizing Wacom’s new generation of touch tablets, including the Bamboo, Intuos and Cintiq, can easily edit characters, scale, rotate, pan, as well as zoom in and out of the canvas with simple figure gestures.

“Anime Studio 9 is made based on users' requests, the little and the big ones. This makes it the most polished version by far,” said Victor Paredes, renowned Anime Studio artist whose animation credits include Nestle, Becker Beer, Chevrolet, Axe, Pepsico and the Chilean government. “The inclusion of the new Smart Bones feature changes everything. This huge feature solves all the problems with joints, making the rigging process more powerful and easier than ever. Animating on AS9 is easier, faster and, above all, very fun.”

For novice or first-time users, Anime Studio offers a Debut version, an easy to use, affordable entry into the world of animation. With features such as a Beginner’s Mode, a Character Wizard and hundreds of premade items in the included content library, anyone of any age or skill can jump right in. Anime Studio Debut 9 includes everything aspiring artists and hobbyists need to create quality animations from start to finish, including the ability to share on Facebook and YouTube.

New Features in Anime Studio 9:

·       64 Bit Architecture and GPU Acceleration – Takes advantage of the latest computer's memory and speed.

·       Smart Bones – A revolutionary enhancement that reduces or entirely removes distortion around a character's joints.  The Smart Bones control levers create 3D looking motion that can be easily repeated with the click of a mouse. Smart Bones not only steps up the quality and realism of the bone actions, but makes it much easier to repeat complex movements and control rigged elements.

·       Editable Motion Graphs – In Motion Graphs, the animation channels of the current layer are displayed graphically, rather than just as points along a line. With Editable Motion

Graphs, now users can get maximum, detailed, control of their animation, instead of relying on pre-set interpolations.

For the full feature and enhancement listing please visit: Anime What’s New

Pricing and Availability:

Anime Studio Pro 9 is available for $199.99 and Anime Studio Debut 9 is $49.99. More detailed product, pricing and upgrade information is available at the Anime Studio.

About Smith Micro Software, Inc. - Productivity and Graphics Group:

Based in Santa Cruz, Calif., the Smith Micro Software Productivity and Graphics Group produces award-winning software that inspires consumer creativity and enables efficiency. The group’s creative suite of programs provides artists of all skill levels – from novice to professional – with the tools to illustrate, animate and create 2D and 3D art. Some of the Productivity and Graphics Group’s award-winning creative and utilities products include Poser, Anime Studio, Manga Studio and StuffIt. For more information, please visit: http://my.smithmicro.com/

Safe Harbor Statement:
This release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including without limitation, forward-looking statements relating to the company’s financial prospects and other projections of its performance, the existence of new market opportunities and interest in the company’s products and solutions, and the company's ability to increase its revenue and regain profitability by capitalizing on these new market opportunities and interest and introducing new products and solutions. Among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements are changes in demand for the company’s products from its customers and their end-users, new and changing technologies, customer acceptance and timing of deployment of those technologies, new and continuing adverse economic conditions, and the company's ability to compete effectively with other software companies. These and other factors discussed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its filings on Forms 10-K and 10-Q, could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are made on the basis of the views and assumptions of management regarding future events and business performance as of the date of this release, and the company does not undertake any obligation to update these statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this release. Smith Micro, the Smith Micro logo, Anime Studio, Anime Studio Debut and Anime Studio Pro are trademarks or registered trademarks of Smith Micro Software, Inc. All other trademarks and product names are the property of their respective companies.

______________ Ciera Dobecki FortyThree PR 831.524.4054 Twitter.com/cdobd