Lightwave

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LightWave 3D
Developed by NewTek, Inc.
Latest release 9.5 / 12 August 2008; 130 days ago
OS Amiga, Mac OS X, Windows
Type 3D computer graphics
License Proprietary
Website http://www.newtek.com/lightwave/

LightWave 3D is a high end computer graphics program developed by NewTek. The latest release of LightWave runs on Windows and Mac OS X, and has been optimized for usage on Intel Macs. LightWave's network rendering system, ScreamerNet, has also been ported to Linux platforms.

Contents

Overview

LightWave was one of the first 3D packages to feature a built-in radiosity render engine, with a complex light calculation model for support of caustics. Most functions within LightWave are multi-threaded, which means that those components can simultaneously use multiple processors in the same machine when performing complex calculations. Programmers can expand LightWave's capabilities using an included SDK as well as a special scripting language called LScript, which is based on the C language. The subdivision modeling is also very similar to the 3D package Modo, thus the 2 packages have been bundled together in some purchase options.

History

In 1988, Allen Hastings created a rendering and animation program called Videoscape, and his friend Stuart Ferguson created a complementary 3D modeling program called Modeler, both sold by Aegis Software. NewTek planned to incorporate Videoscape and Modeler into its video editing suite, Video Toaster. Originally intended to be called "NewTek 3D Animation System for the Amiga", Hastings later came up with the name "LightWave 3D", inspired by two contemporary high-end 3D packages: Intelligent Light and Wavefront. In 1990, the Video Toaster suite was released, incorporating LightWave 3D, and running on the Commodore Amiga computer.

LightWave 3D has been available as a standalone application since 1994, and version 9.3 runs on both Mac OS X and Windows platforms.

LightWave was used to create special effects for the Babylon 5, Star Trek Voyager and seaQuest DSV science fiction television series; the program was also utilized in the production of Titanic as well as the recent Battlestar Galactica TV-series, Sin City, Star Trek VI - X, 300 (film) and Star Wars movies. The acclaimed short film, 405 was also produced by two artists from their homes using Lightwave. In the famous Finnish Star Trek parody Star Wreck - In the Pirkinning, most of the visual effects were done in LightWave.

NewTek and LightWave have been awarded Emmy Awards since 1993 and won their 10th and 11th awards in 2004. In 2003 NewTek was awarded an Emmy for technology.

In 2007, the first feature film to be 3d animated completely by one person without the typical legion of animators made its debut, Flatland the Film by Ladd Ehlinger Jr. It was animated entirely in Lightwave 3D 7.5 and 8.0.

Now in its ninth version, its market ranges from hobbyists to high-end deployment in video games, television and cinema. The company recently shipped its 64-bit version of LightWave 3D (part of the fifth free update of LightWave 3D 8), and was featured in a keynote speech by Bill Gates at WinHEC 2005.

Modeler and Layout

LightWave is composed of two separate programs: Modeler and Layout. Each program is specifically designed to provide a dedicated workspace for specific tasks. When the two programs are running simultaneously, a third process called the Hub can be used to automatically synchronize data.

Layout contains the LightWave renderer which provides the user with several options including ray tracing options, multithreading, global illumination, and output parameters. This differs from most 3D computer graphics packages which normally integrate the renderer and the modeler. A long-standing debate in the LightWave user community has consisted of whether or not to integrate Modeler and Layout into a single program. In response to this, NewTek has begun an integration process by including several basic modeling tools with Layout.

Dynamics

Lightwave is equipped with all the required dynamics such as Hardbody, Softbody, Cloth and Particles. The hardbody dynamics equips the user to select objects only affected by gravity and collisions to create effects like rockslides, building demolitions, and even sand effects if applied to particles. Softbody equips the user with a tool that isolates vertices to simulate jelly or overweight characters. This can also be applied to hair splines for a dynamic hair effect. Cloth can be applied to clothing for characters. This can also be used for hair, especially hair unravelling.

Hypervoxels

Hypervoxels are a means to render 3 different effects on particle animation.

One is the "Surface" setting that allows for blobby particles found in mercury and water. This setting has reflection and refraction settings that achieves that look. This can be changed to create an effect of debris, by changing the surfaces not to intersect.

Another setting is "Sprite" that can be used for fire effects. The fire effects can be shaded with fractal or gradient textures.

The third setting is "Volume" that uses the particles for cloud-like results.

Material shaders

Lightwave comes with a nodal texture editor that comes with a collection of material shaders.

The Fast skin and Simple Skin shaders are pre-configured Subsurface scattering shaders that enables the user to set the epidermis and sub-dermis skin color and depth. UV and procedural textures as well as weightmaps can be plugged into the colours used in these sub-surface shaders to achieve more exact colour definitions.

The Conductor material enables the user to quickly create reflective metallic surfaces.

Film and Television programmes using Lightwave

A more comprehensive list can be found at the Lightwave website.[1] Some notable highlights are:

Licensing

Current versions of LightWave require that a dongle be present in order to run without limitations. These dongles often come in the form of a small USB dongle, though parallel port dongles are still supported for backward compatibility.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Lightwave projects list", Newtek.com. Retrieved on 2008-07-18.

External links

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