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NewTek
Introduces LightWave [6] Most Significant Upgrade in 10 Years
Breakthrough
Rendering Technology, Advanced Character Animation and New Modeling
Paradigm Makes LightWave [6] the Established Leader
LOS
ANGELES, SIGGRAPH 99 -- NewTek (booth 535) announced a new release
of LightWave 3D the best-selling animation software. The new
version, LightWave [6], is the culmination of over ten years
of development and represents the most significant upgrade to
LightWave in the history of the product. LightWave [6] advances
the state-of-the-art in professional 3D animation by adding
a comprehensive set of groundbreaking character animation tools,
advanced rendering capabilities, a new and improved architecture
and a refined work environment.
"The market leader in the film and broadcast space, LightWave
[6] is geared to address the industry's growing need for process-critical
solutions. Their new technologies including IntelligEntities
and Skelegons will speed-up and simplify the animation process,"
said Wanda Meloni, senior analyst at Jon Peddie Associates
(JPA) of Tiburon, California, a leading independent research
firm specializing in tracking digital media. "NewTek once
again expands LightWave's core functionality by including new
features such as a floating point image format, UV mapping,
and radiosity."
LightWave, the recognized leader in the film and television
industry, provides the most complete feature set of any 3D animation
tool available. LightWave [6] offers breakthrough rendering
technologies, advanced animation tools, and a new modeling paradigm
as well as improved workflow, better control over texturing,
customizable user interface and extensive improvements to real-time
views. LightWave [6] is the only 3D software system to run on
Macintosh, Windows NT, Alpha and Silicon Graphics systems.
Version 6.0 Takes LightWave 3D's Proven Success To Even Greater
Heights
The
three traditional areas of 3D, modeling, animating and rendering,
have received massive enhancements in the new software. Among
the thousands of changes in this completely redesigned system,
LightWave [6] boasts real-time subdivision surfaces as a modeling
and animation tool, radiosity, caustics, 96-bit floating-point
rendering, a hybrid Inverse/Forward Kinematics engine and new
character-animation technologies: IntelligEntities, Skelegons,
Endomorphs and Multi-meshes.
"LightWave [6] is a true powerhouse when it comes to 3D software.
With this new version, NewTek has set a new standard that the
competition will find very hard to match. LightWave's modeling
is much more robust than the competition and now everything
is interactive and I can easily edit from my perspective window,"
said Paul Davies, 3D artist, LucasArts. LucasArts Entertainment
Company LLC is leading international developer and publisher
of interactive entertainment software. "Not only have the
character animation tools been beefed up, the new IK really
gives me the flexibility for tracking tough character setup
issues. But I think the best thing is LightWave's new Graph
Editor. It lets me see and edit every channel and envelope in
a scene and I can easily link surface attributes to an object
motion," Davies continued.
Groundbreaking Rendering Technologies
LightWave [6] introduces a number of new rendering technologies,
including the following:
*
radiosity and caustics rendering for the calculation of indirect
light as it bounces from diffuse, reflective and refractive
surfaces, which allows LightWave [6] to deliver the nuances
of lighting better than any other 3D package on the market;
*
a 160-bit IEEE floating-point rendering pipeline assures ultimate
color depth and accuracy adding exceptional richness and realism
to the imagery; The engine dynamically scales from 160 bits
to 320 bits depending on the requirements of the scene;
* sub-pixel displacement rendering for the creation of realistic
volumetric surfaces such as water, clouds and gels with incredible
precision and speed;
* advanced HyperVoxels for direct ray tracing of volumetric
surfaces, optimizations that make HyperVoxel rendering 400%
faster and;
*
a volumetric lighting model optimized for a more than 300% boost
in speed with full texture support for innovative new volumetric
lighting effects.
"LightWave is simply one of the best 3D animation products
on the market, and 99% of the projects we do at Digital Muse
are done using LightWave," comments John Gross, founder
and co-owner of Digital Muse, one of Hollywood's leading visual
effects facilities. "LightWave's ease of use and the ability
for new artist to learn it quickly is very important in a production
environment like ours. The quality of output from LightWave's
renderer is remarkable and very important as we work on a number
of high-profile movie trailers, television episodes, commercials
and feature films."
Unique
to LightWave [6] is a new breed of character animation tools
called IntelligEntities. IntelligEntities consist of Skelegons,
Endomorphs and Multi-meshes, which allow objects to carry data
well beyond simple geometry.
- * Skelegons
are a new type of polygons that appear like traditional 3D
bones. These Skelegons are saved as part of the object so
that a character always has an intact skeleton. With Skelegons,
as modifications are made to a character the bone structure
is automatically updated. Skelegons provide an enormous arsenal
of tools for creating bone structures as well as fantastic
control and maintenance of characters.
- * Endomorphs
allow the change of expression, mood, or action by training
a single model. The use of Endomorphs provides for the simple
creation of lip sync and complex morphing scenarios.
- * Multi-meshes
embed multiple layers of geometry into a single object. With
Multi-meshes, hierarchical objects are saved as a single,
complete model with all of the defined relationship and pivot
data included. LightWave [6] introduces a hybrid Inverse/Forward
Kinematics engine that improves on what is already the industry's
most flexible Inverse Kinematics (IK) engine. This hybrid
system combines the strengths of Inverse Kinematics for making
sweeping changes to a number of joints with the precision
and direct control of Forward Kinematics. Free-form and locked
IK goals allow users to have goal items that are locked to
the length of the chain or that use a rubberband-style goal
that can float in space away from the chain itself. In addition
to introducing Endomorphs, Skelegons and Multi-meshes, LightWave
[6] enables vertex grouping for bone assignments, resulting
in greater control of anatomically precise characters.
For realistic
motion of any kind, but for characters in particular, it is
important to have precise control of the motion curve. With
LightWave [6] the curve editor has been completely rewritten
providing flexibility and a robust feature set. Curves can now
be created with multiple tangent types including Bezier, Hermite,
TCB, Linear and Stepped. These tangent types can actually co-exist
on a single curve. Because each curve type has specific benefits,
it is tremendously useful for fine tuning motions. The graph
editor provides a rich set of tools for manipulating curves
of any type and allows interactive copy and paste between those
curves.
"While the new version of LightWave 3D is significantly different
from current incarnations, NewTek's usability labs have gone
to great lengths to ensure that current LightWave 3D users will
experience a smooth transition to the new software," says
Peebler. "There is nothing to lose, and much to gain, for
the current LightWave 3D user in moving to version [6]."
New Modeling Paradigm
LightWave
[6] introduces a new modeling paradigm. Now, users can take
advantage of the software's completely interactive toolset to
do real-time sub-division surface modeling with point weights;
control UV mapping with infinite layering; use orthogonal and
perspective view modeling ports for greater flexibility in the
modeling process; and achieve direct control over polygons,
vertices and patches. Users of LightWave [6] have unprecedented
control over the surfaces of animated objects. The software
offers infinite layers of projection; procedural, gradient and
UV maps, and these layers can feed into each other for texture
blending and manipulation. Animatable surface attributes include
all general surface settings and can be linked to other items
in the scene. One of the most exciting new surfacing tools is
the Gradient layers, which can be added to a texture. These
gradient ramps can be used to change a surface attribute with
inputs such as incidence angle, light incidence, distance to
another object or the height of the bump, to name a few. New
translucency and glossiness mapping capabilities expand the
options for animators of complex and realistic scenes, while
content management tools (e.g., filters and comments) simplify
the animation of large projects.
"We feel very lucky to be a part of the LightWave [6] beta
program, because NewTek is truly interested in what animators
in production environments are asking for. The list of new features
exceeded my dreams in many ways," said John Teska,
director of animation of Foundation Imaging, one of the hottest
visual effects studios in Hollywood responsible for the effects
in hits Starship Troopers: Bug Wars and Star Trek: Voyager.
"LightWave's modeler has stepped up to the next level with
a new object format that expands beyond mere geometry and surfacing.
It is easier than ever to create expressive animated characters
without saving dozens of morph objects. The fun part is making
a change to your primary head object and seeing all the variations
change, too! The new Modeler is far more interactive and lets
me be more productive."
Teska of Foundation Imaging goes on to say, "LightWave is
already known for its exceptional rendering quality, but it
just got better with the addition of radiosity and caustics!
In addition, NewTek has added many new tools to streamline the
workflow process. Other things that are really cool include
working with the new Graph Editor and Surface editor and seeing
my changes in real time. Also, the ability to animate using
a mixture of keyframing and inverse kinematics is good news
for character animators. Plus I love the sub-division surfaces
that let me animate with a low resolution poly-mesh and render
a smooth high-rez model. There are so many new goodies in LightWave
that it will be a while before I master them all."
New Workflow and Production Environment
The
production-oriented approach to the design of LightWave [6]
makes it faster to use, more straightforward to learn and easier
to integrate into professional production environments. NewTek
refined the workflow and user interface based on 11 years of
feedback and collaboration with thousands of broadcast, film
and game content creators. The new software features a user-customizable
interface, contextual pop-ups, floating-tool bars and numerous
new real-time views.
"The workflow process in LightWave is one of its greatest
assets. With it we can model, animate, choose color and lighting,
all very quickly which is very important to us at Digital Domain,"
said Eric Barba, CG supervisor at Digital Domain. "We
use a lot of LightWave at Digital Domain because it meets our
high demands for photorealistic CG work. The LightWave renderer
gives us the great results we require for NTSC and film projects."
All windows in LightWave [6] are non-modal and "floatable,"
which provides users with an enormous amount of functionality
at their fingertips. The redesign of the system provides an
enhanced software development kit (SDK) for the easy expansion
of functionality by third party developers. Developers now have
direct access to the LightWave interface and internal functions.
LightWave [6] enhances the interoperability between animation
and modeling environments, and it includes a "Hub" that acts
as a control point for all data.
Price and Availability
 LightWave
[6] will be available in Q3 1999 for a suggested retail price
of $2,495. Customers can purchase LightWave [6] through authorized
NewTek dealers. Registered users of LightWave 3D 5.6 can upgrade
to LightWave [6] for $495; upgrades are available through authorized
NewTek dealers. Customers can find retail dealers selling LightWave
by visiting the NewTek Web site (www.newtek.com) or by calling
1-800-862-7837. About NewTek
With headquarters in San Antonio, NewTek is a leading provider
of full-featured video editing, animation and special effects
tools. The company's products are used worldwide on projects
ranging from home video to feature film, including some of the
most widely anticipated recent blockbusters, such as Men in
Black, Titanic, Lost in Space, HBO's From the Earth to the Moon,
and The Jackal. Contact NewTek at 8200 IH-10 West, Suite 900,
San Antonio, TX, 78230. Phone: 210-370-8000, fax: 210-370-8001,
website: http://www.newtek.com
LightWave 3D, Hypervoxels, IIntelligEntities, Skelegons, Endomorphs
are trademarks of NewTek. All other products or brand names
mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective
holders. SOURCE NewTek CO: NewTek
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