LightWave 3D

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LightWave 3D
Lightwave Icon.png
Developer(s) NewTek, Inc.
Stable release 11.5 / January 31, 2013 (2013-01-31)
Operating system Amiga, IRIX, Mac OS X, Windows
Type 3D computer graphics
License Proprietary
Website http://www.lightwave3d.com

LightWave 3D is a 3D computer graphics software program developed by NewTek. The latest release of LightWave runs on Windows and Mac OS X.

Contents

Overview [edit]

LightWave is a software package used for rendering 3D images, both animated and static. It includes a rendering engine that supports such advanced features as realistic reflection and refraction, radiosity, and caustics. The 3D modeling component supports both polygon modeling and subdivision surfaces. The animation component has features such as reverse and forward kinematics for character animation, particle systems and dynamics. Programmers can expand LightWave's capabilities using an included SDK which offers LScript scripting (a proprietary scripting language) and common C language interfaces.

History [edit]

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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. Starting with the release of version 9.3, the Mac OS X version has been updated to be a Universal Binary.

The last known standalone revision for the Amiga was Lightwave 5.0, released in 1995. Shortly after the release of the first PC version, NewTek discontinued the Amiga version, citing the platform's uncertain future.

LightWave was used to create special effects for the Babylon 5, Star Trek: Voyager, Space: Above and Beyond 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, 300 and Star Wars movies. The short film 405 was produced by two artists from their homes using Lightwave. In the Finnish Star Trek parody Star Wreck - In the Pirkinning, most of the visual effects were done in LightWave by Finnish filmmaker Samuli Torssonen, who produced the VFX work for the feature film Iron Sky. The film Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius was made entirely in Lightwave 6 and messiah:Studio.

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.

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

On Feb 4 2009, NewTek announced "LightWave CORE" its next-generation 3D application via a streamed live presentation to 3D artists around the world. It features a highly customizable and modernized user interface, Python scripting integration that offers realtime code and view previews, an updated file format based on the industry standard Collada format, substantial revisions to its modeling technologies and a realtime iterative viewport renderer. It will also be the first Lightwave product to be available on the Linux operating system. CORE was eventually cancelled as a standalone product and NewTek announced that the CORE advancements would become part of the ongoing LightWave platform, starting with LightWave 10.

On February 20, 2012 NewTek began shipping LightWave 11 Software, the latest version of its professional 3D modeling, animation, and rendering software.[1] LightWave 11 incorporates many new features, such as instancing, flocking and fracturing tools, flexible Bullet Dynamics, Pixologic Zbrush support, and more. LightWave 11 is used for all genres of 3D content creation-from film and broadcast visual effects production, to architectural visualization, and game design. [2][3]

[4]==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 animation system and the renderer which provides the user with several options including ray tracing options, multithreading, global illumination, and output parameters. Modeler, as the name implies, includes all of the modeling features used to create the 3d models that are used in the animation and rendering component. 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.

There is also a command line-based network rendering engine named Screamernet which can be used to distribute rendering tasks across a large number of networked computers. This is used to reduce the overall time that it takes to render a single project by having the computers each rendering a part of the whole project in parallel. Screamernet includes all the features of the rendering engine that is integrated in Layout but without an interactive user interface.

Features [edit]

Dynamics [edit]

Lightwave is equipped with all the required dynamics such as hard body, soft body and cloth. Hard body dynamics equips the user to simulate effects like rockslides, building demolitions and sand effects, using realistic forces like gravity and collisions. Soft body equips the user with a tool that can simulate jelly or jiggling fat on overweight characters. This can also be applied to characters for a dynamic hair effect. Cloth can be applied to clothing for characters. This can also be used for hair to simulate more realistic hair movement. The CORE subsystem of Lightwave 11 includes a new rigid-body dynamics engine called Bullet.

Hypervoxels [edit]

Hypervoxels are a means to render different particle animation effects. Different modes of operation have the ability to generate appearances that mimic:

  • Blobby metaballs for things like water or mercury, including reflection or refraction surface settings
  • Sprites which are able to reproduce effects like fire or flocking birds
  • Volume shading for simulating clouds or fog type effects

Material shaders [edit]

Lightwave comes with a nodal texture editor that comes with a collection of special-purpose material shaders. Some of the types of surface for which these shaders have been optimized include:

  • general-purpose subsurface scattering materials for materials like wax or plastics
  • realistic skin, including subsurface scattering and multiple skin layers
  • metallic, reflective, materials using energy conservation algorithms
  • transparent, refractive materials including accurate total internal reflection algorithms

Nodes [edit]

With LW 9, Newtek added Node editors to the Surface Editor and Mesh Displacement parts of LightWave. They also however release the Node SDK with the software, so any developer can add their own Node Editors via plug-ins, and a few have done so, notably Denis Pontonnier, who created free to download node editors and many other utility nodes for all of the sdk classes in LightWave. This now means users can utilise nodes for modifying images and renders, procedural textures, modifying the shape of hypervoxels, controlling motions of objects, driving animation channels, and use things like particles and other meshes to drive these functions. This has greatly enhanced the abilities of standalone LightWave. The node areas of LightWave continue to expand, with volumetric lights now controllable with nodes.

LScript [edit]

LScript is one of LightWave's scripting languages. It provides a comprehensive set of prebuilt functions you can use when scripting how LightWave behaves.

Python [edit]

With LW 11, Newtek added Python support as an option for custom scripting.

Bullet Physics [edit]

From LW 11, Newtek have added Bullet (software) support.

Lightwave SDK [edit]

The SDK (Software Development Kit) provides a set of C classes for writing native plugins for Lightwave.

Film and television programmes using Lightwave [edit]

A more comprehensive list can be found at the Lightwave website.[5] Some notable highlights are:

Licensing [edit]

Prior to being made available as a stand-alone product in 1994, LightWave required the presence of a Video Toaster in an Amiga to run. Until version 11.0.3[1][2], LightWave licenses were bound to a hardware dongle (e.g. Safenet USB or legacy parallel port models). Without a dongle LightWave would operate in "Discovery Mode" which severely restricts functionality. One copy of LightWave supports distributed rendering on up to 999 nodes.

See also [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ NewTek Ships LightWave™ 11 Software
  2. ^ LightWave 11 - Features List
  3. ^ LightWave official gallery
  4. ^
    File:3danimation.html
    caption is not allowed
  5. ^ "Lightwave projects list", Newtek.com. Retrieved on 2008-07-18.
  6. ^ http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/database/cgi.htm
  7. ^ http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/database/cgi.htm
  8. ^ http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/database/cgi.htm
  9. ^ http://www.fxguide.com/article395.html
  10. ^ http://www.twin-pixels.com/software-used-making-of-avatar/
  11. ^ http://www.cgtantra.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=394&Itemid=35
  12. ^ http://www.newtek.com/lightwave/featured_300.php
  13. ^ http://news.creativecow.net/story/860343
  14. ^ http://www.newtek.com/lightwave/newsletter.php?pageNum_monthlynews=1&totalRows_monthlynews=16#nick
  15. ^ http://www.fxguide.com/article583.html
  16. ^ Iron Sky Signal E21 - Creating the Visual Effects. Energiaproductions YouTube channel. At 3:45.

External links [edit]
Open source
Proprietary
Defunct
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