MetaTools Inc., yesterday, shipped Kai's Power GOO, providing consumers with first real-time capabilities for manipulating images and making movies on standard home computers.

This new award-winning creative entertainment tool allows users to create liquid images and manipulate them in real time by smearing, smudging, stretching, and fusing images. In addition to liquid imaging, progressive transformations of the images can then be saved to a keyframe palette and animated in real time.

"Unlike so much of the `multi-mediocrity' out there that forces users to wait for their changes to take effect, this product is Funware -- a new kind of creative entertainment software," said company founder and Chief Executive Officer, John Wilczak. "Kai's Power GOO provides immediate real-time interaction as users experiment with their personal photos, artwork or images from almost any source."

GOOed changes blend seamlessly into the overall picture, without the complex processes typically associated with conventional image editing software.

Users may also enter the Kai's Power GOO Fusion Room to superimpose and blend parts of one image with another, creating a third image or offspring. These fused images can then be placed into the Keyframe Palette and output as a GOOvie, QuickTime or AVI movie.

Contained in Kai's Power GOO are the following features:

-- GOO Brush Palette -- selectively applies distortion/undistortion effects such as Grow/Shrink, Move, Smear, Smudge, Nudge, Mirror Toggle, Smooth and UnGoo.

-- Global Effects Palette -- distorts with effects such as Bulge Twirl, Stretch, Static, Spike, Rotate, Squeeze, and Unwind, which can be globally applied.

-- Tweening/Effects Control -- multipurpose control slider dependent upon the GOO mode. In the GOO Brush Palette, the slider moves between the current GOOed composite and the original image; in the Global Effects Palette, it controls the degree of the selected effect.

-- Fusion Room -- superimposes and blends parts of one image into another.

-- Keyframe Palette -- manages and edits up to 64 keyframes.

-- Text Engine -- generates and places text on a GOOed image.

-- IN/OUT Rooms -- IN Room allows for loading images from digital-input devices and hard disk, or accessing the Image Libraries and GOOvies; OUT Room allows for printing or saving images, and saving GOOvies and animations.

-- Preferences -- customizes workflow and optimizes performance, such as anti-aliased animation or low memory brushing.

-- Playback Control -- moves slider up or down to set animation speed.

"What we've done here is bring a whole range of special effects, previously available only on high-end imaging systems, and created a program that fosters creativity and fun," said Kai Krause, senior science and design officer at MetaTools. "More serious-minded users will also find professional uses for the program's sophisticated image manipulation capabilities."

"In all our preliminary sample tests from home users and computer hobbyists to graphics professionals," Wilczak said, "the universal response within minutes of using Kai's Power GOO is a huge grin -- the `giggle factor' in this product is enormous, as it empowers anyone and everyone to experience immediate creativity."

The product's street price is $49.95 for either Windows 95/NT or Mac/Power Mac.