Strata was founded April 1988 by brothers Gary and Ken Bringhurst. As students at Brigham Young University, the Bringhursts frequently discussed a concept they had for a three-dimensional illustration software package. They envisioned desk top computer software that could produce professional quality images, which at the time was only available only for expensive graphics workstations.

They agreed their software must offer the most sophisticated visual effects, and yet be easy to use so that non-technical people could perform three-dimensional modeling, scene layout, animation and realistic rendering.

After graduation the brothers were employed in different parts of the country, Gary in Santa Rosa, Calif., and Ken in Salt Lake City. But they continued to develop their concept via long distance telephone. In April 1988 both resigned their positions, relocated to Utah's Dixie, and founded Strata. The Bringhursts were familiar with St. George because of family ties to the area. They felt the natural scenic beauty, relaxed lifestyle and recreational opportunities of the red rock desert Southwest made it the perfect location for them to pursue their vision.

The result of their philosophy was Strata's first product, StrataVision 3d, a powerful and intuitive 3D visualization and illustration software package.

Strata's product line continued to grow and has won numerous industry awards for excellence throughout the USA, Canada, Europe and Japan. Typical buyers included designers, illustrators, and artists working in major corporations, advertising agencies, animation studios, architectural and engineering firms, government agencies and universities.

Today Strata consists of a core group of in-house employees and a worldwide virtual community of 50+ partners, developers and distributors. Under their new model, known as the "Open Creative Environment," Strata employees, partners, associates and members thrive as they share their ideas and creative projects. For more information on Strata's business model please click here.

Strata's continuing vision is to outfit design professionals with products that are easy to use. These products will continue to provide sophisticated results - sitting between basic design tools (such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator), and complex final output applications (such as Macromedia Flash MX, Director, Dreamweaver, or Freehand).

Under the new business model, Strata released a new software lineup:

Strata 3D CX Strata 3D CX is a 3D modeling, rendering and animation application that's tightly focused on ease of use, especially for new 3D users, and designers that typically work with the Adobe suite of applications. With the introduction of Strata 3D CX, the power and flexibility of Strata 3D has grown immensely.

Strata 3D Vector Strata 3D Vector is a plug-in for Strata 3D CX that exports your images and animations as vector graphics. Vector graphics are used in applications like Adobe Illustrator (AI, EPS) and Macromedia Flash (SWF). If you design for the web, or commonly pull your renderings into Adobe Illustrator to create line art versions, Strata 3D Vector might be just the thing you're looking for!

Strata RenderPro Strata RenderPro is a stand-alone application that will render Strata 3D files on any computer, regardless of whether you have Strata 3D installed on that computer. If you have more than one computer (Mac or Windows) in your studio, you can use RenderPro to split up the process of rendering a large image or animation over several computers.