Las Vegas: Canadian FX and animation software providers took varying approaches at this year’s NAB.

Autodesk talked up its recent rebranding of Montreal-based Discreet, while cross-town rival Softimage focused on promoting its recent client work.

Alias, out of Toronto, surprised many by not setting up on the NAB2005 show floor, opting instead to see clients and press in a suite in the new Renaissance Las Vegas Hotel next to the convention center.

‘We did a cost-versus-impact evaluation,’ explains Alias’ Elisabeth Laett. She says that setting up on the floor would have cost $250,000.

This year, Alias celebrates its first birthday free from parent Silicon Graphics, after it was acquired by Accel-KKR and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. Alias itself recently purchased 3D animation and motion-editing solutions manufacturer Kaydara.

Alias is looking to expand in the broadcast market and was demonstrating the OnLine system it picked up from Kaydara. OnLine allows for live lip-synching and is used by CBC for the 2D character Dot on its kids block.

Alias also announced that Sony Pictures Imageworks, which used Maya for character animation on Spider-Man 2, has added 150 new Maya workstations to its development pipeline.