Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/42006
NewTek Shines with LightWave 10.1 NewTek recently rolled out LightWave 10.1, the latest version of its 3D content creation software. With advanced model- ing and animation tools built to integrate into any production pipeline, LightWave 10.1 delivers new capabilities for 3D artists, such as an off-axis stereoscopic camera rig option, an improved Viewport Preview Renderer (VPR), more powerful import and export capabilities with FBX, MDD, and integrat- ed Autodesk Geometry Cache support, a new Skin material node, and more. With the continued growth of the stereoscopic 3D film, television, and gaming markets, artists need powerful tools to help streamline stereoscopic content creation. To this end LightWave 10.1 offers access to all major stereo camera rigs—parallel, toe-in, and off-axis—allowing artists to correct for toe-in distortion in the animation pipeline dynamically. Other enhancements include interactive OpenGL off-axis adjustment of the right and left camera planes, user-friendly click-and-drag convergence point adjustment in the viewport, and the ability to disable the anaglyph representation of the stereo camera in OpenGL. Also in LightWave 10.1, the interocular and conver- gence point both can be animated dynamically over time to track stereo changes within a shot. Using the LightWave VPR, artists can directly interact and easily adjust lights, textures, volumetrics, and more within the viewport. They can also use the VPR to view updates to deliver realistic environmental walk-throughs quickly and perform virtu- al location scouts. LightWave 10.1 extends the functionality of the VPR with the support of clip maps in the VPR render, the addition of object and distance dissolve, and improved nodal shaders, like the new Skin material node that works with the VPR. The Skin material node uses a proprietary subsurface PRODUCT: DCC The Foundry Updates Nuke To keep up with its expanding customer base, The Foundry is offering Version 6.3 of its compositing system, which addresses all VFX industries, including commercial work. The new 3D particle system, planar tracking, presets, audio scratch, track, and speed improvements save time on short-form projects, while redesigned spline and grid warpers and a brand-new de-noise algorithm aid common compositing tasks. Available on Mac, Linux, and Windows, Nuke 6 is priced at $3800, while NukeX is priced at $6600. Current users can access the upgrades free of charge during their subscription term. The Foundry also updated Mari 1.3, its creative paint and texture tool, to Version 2. Now users can bridge Mari and Nuke for an intuitive workflow, giving Nuke artists dedicated 3D paint tools that make digital environment and projection work more efficient and final composited scenes more believable. Mari 1.3 is avail- 6 PRODUCT: COMPOSITING August/September 2011 able on Linux and Windows for $1980. In other news, The Foundry took the wraps off Katana, an environment for preparing 3D assets for rendering in which artists can define and control the look and lighting of their imagery, espe- cially with large datasets. Katana, now in alpha release, operates non-destruc- tively using a rules-based approach, allowing modeling, look development, animation, and lighting teams to work in parallel. shading model for a simple "connect-and-go" way to create realistic-looking skin. LightWave 10.1, with integrated Autodesk geometry cache support, gives artists the ability to include or exclude models, morphs, animations, cameras, and lights upon export. Addi- tional workflow features in LightWave 10.1 offer the ability to import joints as LightWave bones for greater compatibility with other programs; multi-threaded mesh evaluation optimiza- tion and SubD mesh-freezing acceleration; linear color-space workflow improvements, including new support for .ICC. ICM monitor profiles; and more. Additional LightWave 10.1 features include: virtual studio tools supporting InterSense's Virtual Camera Tracking System (VCAM) and 3Dconnexion's SpaceNavigator 3D mouse; FiberFX hair and fur shader VPR support; and more. LightWave 10.1 is available as a free download to current LightWave 10 users. An upgrade price from earlier versions of the software is set at $695; a full license for LightWave 10.1 costs $1495.