Volume 1
November 9, 2001
Welcome to the monthly
newsletter for tips, tricks, people, places and things LightWave®.
In this issue:
- Where to see LightWave 3D®
- NewTek / Intel World Tour
- LightWave® [7.0b] released
- Training Tours Scheduled Across the US
- Recent News and Reviews
- 3rd Party Spotlight for LightWave 3D®
- Getting LightWave 3D®
Come see LightWave® at the following events worldwide:
November 13 - NewTek / Intel World Tour - Dallas, TX, USA
November 13 - 15 - Digital Media World London - London, UK (NewTek Europe Booth) http://www.digmedia.co.uk
November 14 - 16 - InterBEE and Wavey Awards Japan - Tokyo, JAPAN (D-Storm Booth) http://bee.jesa.or.jp/
November 19 - NewTek / Intel World Tour - North Bergen, NJ (New York area), USA
November 20 - NewTek / Intel World Tour - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia November 21 - NewTek / Intel World Tour - Singapore
November 27 - NewTek / Intel World Tour - Schaumburg (Chicago area), IL, USA
December 4 - 6 - DV Expo - Los Angeles, CA, USA (Apple Booth)
January 8 - 11 - Macworld - San Francisco, CA, USA
February 26 - 28 - Digital Media World - Sydney, Australia http://www.digitalmediaweb.com/dmw2002au/
to submit an event, please email LWEvents with event details
NewTek and Intel join forces for a World Tour to introduce LightWave® [7] and the Pentium 4
To
cap off LightWave®'s successful year, NewTek and Intel are showing off
the outrageous benefits of their collaboration. With the new powerful
Pentium 4 processor and the optimizations for it built into LightWave®
[7], 3D artists will enjoy a very powerful combination.
From Dallas to Singapore (and many places in between), the world tour will highlight LightWave® [7] and introduce all the new features during an in-depth demonstration of the software. With NewTek animators (and special guests in some locations), attendees can see the power and flexibility of LightWave® [7].
If you are interested in attending any of the NewTek / Intel World Tour dates, or for more information, click here.
LightWave® [7.0b]
On September 19, NewTek released a maintenance update for the immensely popular LightWave 3D® version [7]. LightWave® [7] has been embraced by the 3D-user community since its announcement and release at SIGGRAPH 2001, and only a month later, the LightWave® development team completed massive speed increases and optimizations for both the Intel SSE2 instruction set and the Apple AltiVec instruction set (also known as the Velocity Engine), allowing for an unprecedented performance improvement.
NewTek returned from SIGGRAPH 2001 to work closely with both beta testers and end users to find out what areas of the software could benefit from additional work or enhancements, and in a few short weeks, the update was finished and made available to all LightWave® [7] users free of charge. NewTek worked closely with partners such as Apple, Intel, Curious Labs and other third party developers to enhance the way LightWave 3D® works with their products. LightWave 3D® plug-ins are working more smoothly than ever, and the enhancements made for SSE2 from Intel for the Pentium 4, and the AltiVec from Apple for the PowerMac G4 make LightWave 3D® incredibly fast on those platforms.
Some of the new features and enhancements include:
-
SSE2 and AltiVec optimizations for Intel P4 and Apple G4 processors
-
Use of the Motorola math library for Mac OS X version boosts render performance
-
OpenGL optimizations that yield a 20% to 80% speed-up in some instances
-
Ability to double-click to add channel name to current expression in Graph Editor
-
SkyTracer 2 and Image World will now take advantage of multiple processors
-
Motion Mixer speed optimizations relating to the use of expressions
-
Mac OS X version now supports true type fonts
For more information on features and how to upgrade, visit the LightWave® [7] website.
Nation-wide Training Events Scheduled
There are two major training seminars on the road during the next few months. Attend one and turn into a LightWave® Pro!
Understanding
LightWave® Training Tour From Desktop Images
Desktop
Images presents "Understanding LightWave 3D®," an exclusive
Skill-Boosting Two Day Training Workshop taking place across the United
States.
Join LightWave 3D® development chief Brad Peebler and LightWave 3D® development team members: AristoMenis Tsirbas, Rich Hurrey & Art Howe in an intensive and informative 2 day training course created to provide LightWave® users of all levels an in-depth understanding of how LightWave 3D® ticks.
Training Dates:
Seattle, WA - November 15 - 16Chicago, IL - November 28 - 29New York, NY - December 3 - 4Miami, FL - December 6 - 7
Atlanta, GA - December 10 - 11
For more information or to register, click here
or go to http://desktopimages.com
LightWave® Training Seminars
NewTek Pro columnist Lee Stranahan columnist presents
a series of training events featuring top Hollywood animators, experts
as well as members of the NewTek Development team.
| LightWave® Character Animation Weekend | Dallas | November 10 - 11 |
| LightWave® Effects Weekend | New York | November 17 - 18 |
| LightWave® Effects Weekend | Chicago | December 01 - 02 |
| VFX Production Intensive | Los Angeles | December 10-14 |
| LightWave® Character Animation Weekend | Los Angeles | January 19-20 |
Check http://www.LearnLightWave®.com
for more details and instant signup!
3D World November Issue (# 18) Offers a Tutorial Introducing LightWave® [7] (not available online)3D World October Issue (# 17): SIGGRAPH Wrap-Up and LightWave® [7] Release (not available online)
NewTek News and Press Releases:
For more LightWave® news including recent NewTek press releases and announcements go to news.
3rd Party Spotlight
This edition's Third Party Spotlight is featured product Deep Paint 3D LightWave® Edition from Right Hemisphere:
LightWave® users can now paint and texture on 3D objects, including over UV Mapped surfaces, using a special LightWave 3D® edition of Deep Paint 3D from Right Hemisphere. This highly integrated and customized version of Deep Paint 3D allows LightWave® artists working on game development, film, television, web design and other projects to be much more productive and efficient in their work. In addition, the LightWave® edition will allow more customized support for users of LightWave 3D®.
Some highlights of Deep Paint 3D LightWave® Edition include:
-
Complete workflow integration including file and plug-in support between Deep Paint 3D and LightWave 3D®
- Support for LightWave 3D®'s Atlas automatic UV Mapping
- Powerful Projection Paint
- Bi-directional interface to Adobe Photoshop® including filters
- Special support for the Wacom® Intuos or compatible
- Allows artists to paint seamlessly across multiple surfaces and through many UV distortion problems
“Our best customers and 3D artists tell us that with the quality requirements of the Playstation 2 and X-box platforms or just the general quality bar for 3D texturing in Film and Broadcast, that up to 30% of the 3D production process is now UV mapping and texturing. The combination of Atlas mapping and Deep Paint 3D makes this part of 3D production the easiest and most fun part!” says Mark Thomas, President of Right Hemisphere Ltd.
The Deep Paint 3D LightWave® Edition is available immediately from Right Hemisphere and their authorized resellers for a price of US$595.
Visit the Right Hemisphere website for more information.
How to Get LightWave® [7]
LightWave® [7] is shipping now and available from our web site or from your local dealer. Don't know who your local dealer is? Quick! Check our dealer locator and call them right now!