NewTek announce new LightWave 3D at SIGGRAPH

Story by Rys - Wednesday 08th August 2007, 01:01:00 PM

NewTek Releases New Update to LightWave 3D®

LightWave® v9.3 delivers further enhancements to new camera tools, node editor and global illumination

San Diego, CA – SIGGRAPH – August 7, 2007 -- NewTek, Inc., manufacturer of industry-leading 3D animation and video products, today announced the availability of LightWave® v9.3, during SIGGRAPH 2007, August 7th – 11th. This is the second in a series of free updates to the Emmy®-award winning 3D application. LightWave v9.3 provides improvements in rendering technology, including: the ability to render lines with photorealistic motion blur; two new sub-surface scattering shaders that are significantly faster than earlier shaders, and higher quality as well; various performance enhancements throughout the product; as well as numerous maintenance improvements. Other improvements in LightWave v9.3 include advancements in the LightWave software developer’s kit and scripting language to provide greater access to third parties and artists for creation of custom plug-ins and effects. LightWave v9.3 is available free to all registered owners of LightWave v9.

“LightWave v9.3 represents the continuation of the course we established with the initial release of LightWave v9,” said Jay Roth, President, NewTek 3D Division. “We envisioned a course for the development of LightWave v9, providing continual updates, improvements and enhancements to 3D artists throughout the process. We’re delivering free updates frequently and openly so that LightWave artists do not have to wait for the next major product release to enjoy the benefits of our development efforts.”

NewTek's 3D Division delivered LightWave v9.3 closely after the release of LightWave v9.2, which offered enhanced performance in a number of areas including improved global illumination with higher quality and faster rendering, expanded OpenGL capabilities with new depth of field preview, advancements in the new camera tools and the node and materials editing system. Visual effects artists made use of LightWave's world-class rendering system and other capabilities in recent major film projects such as 300, The Guardian, The Da Vinci Code and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Among television productions VFX Emmy-nominated Battlestar Galactica and other hit series’ such as CSI, CSI Miami, The 4400 and more depend on LightWave to produce state of the art visual effects on time and on budget.

Pricing and Availability

LightWave® v9 with SpeedEDIT is available starting today worldwide through October 31, 2007 at suggested retail price of $895US, a savings of $495US. Registered owners of LightWave 3D® [8] or earlier are eligible to purchase an upgrade to LightWave v9 for $395US including SpeedEDIT, a savings of $495US. For more information or to purchase, please visit www.newtek.com/lw-se or call NewTek Sales at 1-800-368-5441, for international inquiries dial +1-210-370-8000.

About NewTek

With headquarters in San Antonio, Texas, NewTek is a leading provider of full-featured animation, special effects, video editing, live production and presentation systems including LightWave 3D®, winner of the 2003 Primetime Emmy® Engineering Award, 3D Arsenal™, SpeedEDIT, TriCaster™, TriCaster Pro, TriCaster STUDIO and VT[4]™. The company's products are used worldwide on projects ranging from home video to feature film. Recent television and film projects using NewTek production tools include 300, The Guardian, Ant Bully, The DaVinci Code, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Serenity, Sin City, Fantastic Four, Drive, The 4400, Stargate: SG1, Stargate: Atlantis, Battlestar: Galactica, Prison Break, LOST, CSI, Access Hollywood and Entertainment Tonight, Recent game titles include Shadow of the Colossus, Black, Ridge Racer 6, Burnout Revenge, Driver: Parallel Lines, Quake IV and Heroes of Might and Magic 6.

Website: www.NewTek.com

graphics ± lightwave3d, newtek, v9.3, siggraph