NewTek Releases New Competitive Upgrade Offer

3D Artists Get Opportunity to Try Award-Winning LightWave 3D with Special $495 Pricing on Full Commercial Licenses

San Antonio, Texas – March 1, 2005 -- NewTek, Inc., manufacturer of industry-leading 3D animation and video products, today announced a limited time, best-ever competitive upgrade offer for LightWave 3D. Users of a select set of 3D graphics and design applications will be able to purchase a competitive upgrade to LightWave 3D for $495US. Current users of LightWave 3D will be able to add an additional seat at this price as well, allowing them to affordably run the software on multiple computers. The promotions are available today through NewTek authorized resellers, or directly from NewTek through April 30, 2005.

Owners of competing products now have an excellent opportunity to complement their current toolset with NewTek's powerful products. Unlike recent competitive upgrade offerings from other manufacturers, purchasers will not have to retire their current application or tool to take advantage of these offers. Proven for years in television, film, and games, LightWave 3D® is also being used to create graphics for print, web, industrial design, architecture, medical imaging, and many other applications.

A full, robust program, LightWave 3D includes many of the tools that others sell separately, such as hard- and soft-body dynamics, Cloth dynamics, particles, hair and fur, plus unlimited render nodes, to name a few. LightWave is also nearing release in a 64-bit version, and registered owners of the current version of LightWave will be invited to participate in an upcoming qualified beta program, and will also be eligible to download the shipping version of LightWave 64 at no additional charge.

"I didn't really get 'into' LightWave until I came on to Andromeda. I was reluctant at first, because I wasn't familiar with what LightWave was capable of," said Bruce Turner, VFX Supervisor for Andromeda Productions, producers of Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, which garnered LEO and Gemini award nominations for Special Visual Effects in 2004 for two episodes of the series. "Once things got going, I realized pretty quickly that LightWave was, in fact, the perfect tool for our show. I'd say our favorite part of LightWave's superhero abilities has been its low-maintenance personality. We can spend the time on the shots instead of on the software. And around here, time is always at a premium."

Pricing and Availability
LightWave 3D® Electronic Full Competitive Upgrade is available for $495US, for registered owners of Maya(TM), Softimage(TM) XSI, 3ds max®, Electric Image(TM), Strata Studio Pro, Cinema 4D(TM), Truespace(TM), Hash Animation Master(TM), Autocad®, Pro/Engineer® and SolidWorks®. Proof of ownership required to qualify. Registered LightWave® owners will also be able to purchase an additional seat of LightWave® at the $495 price. This special offer is available through April 30, 2005, from any Authorized NewTek Reseller, from NewTek's web site at http://www.newtek.com/buynow or by calling 1-800-843-8934, overseas callers dial +1-210-370-8000. Find a local NewTek Authorized Reseller at www.newtek.com/dealers.

About NewTek
With headquarters in San Antonio, Texas, NewTek is a leading provider of full-featured video editing, animation and special effects tools including VT[4] TM, TriCaster™ and LightWave 3D®, winner of the 2003 Primetime Emmy® Engineering Award. NewTek launched the desktop video revolution in 1990 with the release of the legendary Video Toaster®. The company's products are used worldwide on projects ranging from home video to feature film. Recent television and film projects using NewTek software include The Aviator, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Aliens of the Deep, "I, Robot", Spiderman 2, The Manchurian Candidate, Exorcist: The Beginning, Garfield, Hellboy, Van Helsing, Triplets of Belleville, The Last Samurai, Torque, Children of Dune, Battlestar: Galactica, Firefly, Taken, Smallville, Star Trek: Enterprise, Access Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight,Matrix Reloaded, Collateral Damage, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Agent Cody Banks, Daredevil, Spy Kids II, Oscar®-nominated Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Final Fantasy, Blackhawk Down and Star Trek: The Motion Picture - Director’s Edition DVD. Recent game titles include Doom III, Unreal Tournament, Serious Sam for XBox, Age of Mythology, Civilization III, Dead to Rights, Baldur's Gate II, EverQuest and Escape From Monkey Island. Website: http://www.newtek.com .

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• LightWave and LightWave 3D are registered t rademarks of NewTek..
• TriCaster, VT[4], VT[4] Live, VT[4] Post, VT[3], VT[3] Live, VT[3] Post, VT[2], VT-Edit, Aura Video Paint, LightWave Express, VT-CG, VT-Vision VT-Scope, VT-DDR, Tool Shed, Tool Chest, SX-84, SX-8, RS-8, LScript, Digital Confusion, HyperVoxels, Endomorphs, Intelligentities, Motion Mixer, Morph Mixer, HardFX, SoftFX, ClothFX, MultiMeshes, Particle FX, P.A.V.L.O.V., Skelegons, SkyTracer, and Vmaps are trademarks of NewTek, Inc.
• All other products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.