Creative's LAVA! 2.0 for interactive 3D music video features

16 December 1999

Lava.com, the Internet venture funded by Creative Labs as part of its Creative.com initiative, has introduced version 2.0 of the LAVA! MusicVideo player. This allows users to create interactive music videos for MP3 music and is the first software solution to offer interactive 3D MusicVideo entertainment on the Internet to the mass market.

The LAVA! Player 2.0 (LAVA stands for live audio visual animation) enhances the existing quick and simple MusicVideo creation process with advanced features, hitherto not seen in traditional music videos like those seen on MTV and VH1. Its next-generation functionality, which includes musician/song title screens with hyper-links, scene importing and multi-scene sequencing enables music enthusiasts and musicians to create unique and stunning interactive 3D MusicVideos to accompany their MP3 music.

"Our primary design goal for LAVA! is to empower anyone to create a unique and compelling MusicVideo in less time than it takes to listen to the track," said Barry Raskin, director of LAVA! at Creative. "We've taken a radically different approach to music videos by pioneering intelligent audio control of 3D graphics to automate the generation of sophisticated visual scenes. And being amazingly compact, LAVA! MusicVideos are ideal for Web distribution."

LAVA! allows mainstream users to experience their MP3s accompanied by a LAVA! MusicVideo – a sophisticated environment of 3D objects, textures, images and messages that dynamically evolve in sync with the music. Using a combination of sophisticated audio analysis and 3D graphics acceleration, LAVA! delivers a hypnotic 3D audio-visual experience to Internet music enthusiasts and provides a cost-effective vehicle for musicians to promote and distribute their music over the Internet.

LAVA! 2.0 has other features including:

• Scene storyboards – users can select and mix multiple visual environments that automatically sequence while the song is playing, offering infinite flexibility for creating audio-visual masterpieces.
• Intro credits screen – a hyperlinkable introduction screen that enables artists to brand their MusicVideos with cover art, artist name, song title and contact info (URL/e-mail).
• Open scene architecture – users can import new thematic scene templates direct from the web, designed by LAVA! developers from a continuously updated library
• Slick user interface – With a revamped, post-modern look and feel, LAVA! Player 2.0 is even more intuitive than its predecessor, offering a greater level of control and making it effortless for even novice users to create cutting-edge interactive 3D MusicVideos.

LAVA! has partnered with many of the Internet's top music providers to offer support for LAVA! MusicVideos. To coincide with the launch of LAVA! 2.0, Cductive.com, the leading MP3 distributor of independent-label music on the Internet, has provided a LAVA! MusicVideo and MP3 of Friction from premier hip-hop turntablist and producer DJ Vadim.