NewTek announces LightWave 11

Kulsoom Middleton | News | Products | 11/11/2011 12:17pm

NewTek has unveiled LightWave 11, a powerful new version of its professional 3D modelling, animation and rendering software

LightWave 11 adds a new Flock controller which enables you to create realistic natural motions with ease

Expanding on the production-proven workflow, LightWave 11 will offer several new modelling, animation, interchange and rendering tools that will enhance production pipelines.

LightWave 11’s top new features include:
Instancing
Instancing lets you create mass duplication of objects in a scene, with very little overhead. Previously, you would simply run out of memory. Now, with the ability to have huge ‘virtual’ polygon counts, artists can populate their scenes with incredible detail, and yet retain reasonable render times.

Flocking and fracturing tools
Use the Flock controller to create realistic natural motions with ease. And the new Modeler tool has been designed specifically to compliment Bullet dynamics in LightWave Layout.

Bullet dynamics
LightWave 11 features the Bullet dynamics engine directly in Layout so that it can be used with the new Fracture tool in Modeler to create compelling physics-based animation.

Interchange Tools
GoZ is an interchange technology from Pixologic, that allows applications to send model and texture data to and from ZBrush for sculpting detail on a base mesh. GoZ allows LightWave to be even more integrated within studio pipelines, making it a great addition to the LightWave 11 toolset.

Additional LightWave 11 features include powerful new render buffer capabilities, robust Python scripting functionality, FiberFX enhancements, user interface improvements, and more.

Read the full new features list

LightWave 11 is expected to ship Q4 2011 for a suggested retail price of US$1,495. Upgrade pricing from earlier versions of LightWave will be US$695. Educational pricing is also available.

For more information, visit www.newtek.com

Posted on Friday, November 11th, 2011 at 12:17 pm under News, Products. You can subscribe to comments. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.