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What’s Missing?
No review would be complete without finding a few faults, or missing tidbits, and LightWave is no exception. [an error occurred while processing this directive] The big thing starting to emerge from many rendering applications is the ability to do subsurface scattering. Subsurface scattering is the way light bounces around inside an object giving it that realistic translucent look. The real world physics behind this principle is what makes waxy candles glow, our ears to appear red when a hard backlight is present, and gives milk that, well, milky appearance. Using a variety of cheats (translucency, gradients, and shaders) can approximate this effect, but this usually takes some time to set up and the results may be less than stellar. When radiosity and caustics were asked for, NewTek delivered, and I would imagine that we will see this feature added in the future.
NewTek has done a good job of adding in particles, HyperVoxels, and soft body dynamics (in the form of Motion Designer) into the software over the years. The next addition should be hard body dynamics. This would easily allow for walls to blow apart, boulders to fall and crash into each other correctly, and chains, rope, and other dangling items to respond correctly in the 3D environment. There are many third party plug-ins on the market that will do this (Impact, Polk, etc), and while these programs are able to accomplish the task, having a simple hard body collision system native to the program will surely be an aid to animators.
Bottom Line
With every new incarnation NewTek turns out, LightWave continues to improve the tools users need to create award-winning work. For the money LightWave 7.0 is excellent for anyone looking for an animation package for their production facility. The learning curve may take a while for some, but once the workflow is understood, content creation is a snap. For all the improvements LightWave 7.0 gets a DMN Strong Buy Recommendation.
LightWave 7.0b is available now for $2495. Upgrade price for users of LightWave 6.x is $495. If you are upgrading from 4.x or 5.x you’ll pay $100 more ($595). For more information, visit www.newtek.com
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