SANTA CLARA, Calif. (August 12, 1996) -- Voters' suspicions are confirmed: politicians can be more than merely "two-faced," and the proof lies in Cartoon-O-Matic^TM Election '96 from nFX Corporation (www.nfx.com). A "Living Graphics" program, Cartoon-O-Matic^TM Election '96 allows Windows 95 users to manipulate caricatures of Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Robert Dole, and Ross Perot in real time on their desktops, creating politicians with thousands of faces.

Cynical voters can make Clinton actually inhale, get him "wired," even make him look honest or see a sleepy, heroic or wimpy Dole. Add a body, background, some accessories (see Bill -- or Hillary! -- in a beard and shades) and start printing your own political propaganda. Cartoon-O-Matic Election '96 uses nFX' proprietary technology to deliver a new dimension in graphics, allowing users to make thousands of unique changes to an image and see the results in real time. And, unlike the candidate's campaign strategies, Cartoon-O-Matic Election '96 is goof-proof because no matter what the user does to them, nFX technology ensures that a candidates image always looks good. Cartoon-O-Matic Election '96 also includes a screen saver that offers a constantly changing caricature of either Clinton, Hillary, Dole or Perot. Talk about politicians being in your face.

Delegates to the 1996 Republican National Convention will have the opportunity to render their political humor (or spleen) at the Cartoon-O-Matic Election96 station in the Youth Pavilion, Embarcadero South. Each day, the convention will select the best one for publication the following day. Beginning in late August, the voting public also may exercise its Constitutional "freedom of expression" on-line by going to the Election 96 section of nFX Web site (www.nfx.com). Here they will have a chance to create caricatures of the candidates, add a funny caption and practice their political propaganda skills.

"Cartoon-o-Matic Election '96 is a small sample of a next generation of more compelling, personalized, interactive graphics for multimedia and the Internet, an area which is currently limited to static images or linear, pre-scripted animation," said Joel Voelz, President and CEO, nFX Corporation. "nFX is paving the way for innovations in communication graphics technology."

How It Works

With Cartoon-O-Matic^TM Election '96, users pick "normal" caricatures of the candidates and can then manipulate their expressions by clicking and dragging the control levers. After choosing the face of their favorite (or least favorite) politician, users can then change the face to make it "happy or sad," "honest or shifty," shrink it, rotate it, attach a body, add accessories, a background, and so on. As users adjust one feature, they see the impact of the change in real time. They can mix expressions to see a "Shifty/Wired" Clinton, a "Wimpy/Sleepy" Dole, a "Poor/Paranoid" Perot or a "Laughing/I Cant Recall" Hillary.

"To make these original, creative, professional quality images, all you need is imagination, and a mouse," explained Voelz. "Based on the users input, the nFX technology creates new, original art and doesn't just bring up a set number of pre-drawn or pre-programmed images."

Cartoon-O-Matic^TM Election '96's underlying nFX technology is based on neural-net technology and vector graphics. It goes far beyond standard morphing capabilities. First, while typical morphing is two-dimensional -- allowing changes from image A to image B -- nFX technology is n-dimensional. Because of this, nFX allows users to create new images with variations along any dimension or feature the author or artist wishes the user to control. This and vector graphics lets users create totally new images in real-time. Second, nFX technology actually learns to draw new images from examples. nFX models are developed from a small set of examples created by professional artists. User-created images are new and unique, but maintain the same overall style and level of quality as the original examples. Finally, nFX technology takes into account the effects that individual changes have upon the complete picture. For example, in Cartoon-O-Matic Election '96, as you change Bill from "shifty" to "honest," his eyes, brow, mouth and other facial features automatically take on a new, natural (or unnatural) form.

Politicians can be "bought" with Cartoon-O-Matic^TM Election '96 for Windows 95 for only $14.95 plus S&H. To order, call 1-408-748-9467. Uncle Sam wants YOU! to order this software.

nFX Corporation is a venture-backed, Santa Clara-based firm bringing real-time, interactive, "Living Graphics" to multimedia programs and the World Wide Web. Founded in 1993, nFX is a spin-off of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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