Altamira Software
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (June 2007) |
| This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (October 2019) |
Altamira Software was founded in Mill Valley, California by Dr. Alvy Ray Smith, Eric Lyons and Nicholas Clay in 1991.
The company's primary product was Altamira Composer. This PC based software pioneered object-based drawing and image editing. Composer was one of the first to bring important tools such as anti-aliased effects and image sprites to the desktop.[citation needed] The company was acquired by Microsoft in 1994.[1] Thea Grigsby was Vice President of Marketing. David Shantz of WildOutWest, LLC (www.wildoutwest.com) was responsible for branding, package design and the development of a series of image object libraries that were released along with the product.
Seed capital came from Autodesk and second-round financing from a team of venture capitalists (TVI) and private individuals. Altamira's Windows product, Altamira Composer, one of the first image composition applications with image sprites (i.e., non-rectangular, floating images), entered the market in November 1993 (CoSA After Effects 1.0 shipped in January of that same year).
References
[edit]- ^ "Microsoft Investor Relations - Acquisitions". Microsoft. Archived from the original on 2006-11-06. Retrieved 2007-10-12.
- Defunct software companies of the United States
- Microsoft acquisitions
- Software companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area
- Companies based in Marin County, California
- Software companies established in 1991
- Software companies disestablished in 1994
- 1991 establishments in California
- 1994 disestablishments in California
- 1994 mergers and acquisitions
- Defunct companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area