NewTek, manufacturer of industry-leading 3D animation and video products, today announced the release of LightWave v9.5 for Windows, a major update to its award-winning 3D application, LightWave 3D. LightWave v9.5’s new capabilities include FiberFX, a complete hair and fur solution, a new lighting system and many improvements to animation, rendering and workflow. The update is available to registered owners of LightWave v9 series at no charge. SIGGRAPH attendees can see LightWave v9.5 demonstrations at NewTek booth #159.

“With so many features and enhancements in LightWave v9.5, users suggested that we could release it as v10. Customer feedback has been positive,” said Jay Roth, president of 3D division, NewTek. “LightWave is the application choice of Emmy ® winners, and is seeing increasing use in feature film projects. With this new version, the LightWave community is experiencing a renaissance.”

A highlight of LightWave v9.5 is FiberFX, a proprietary polygonal fiber modeler for creating realistic hair, fur and feathers. It provides artists with a full suite of tools to model and style each fiber, create volumetric shadows, render-in reflection and refraction and more.

LightWave v9.5 also offers improved rendering quality and speed, with major upgrades to the radiosity sampling system and interpolated modes. Also, there are new disk-based caches for radiosity: the Static Cache, for animations where only the camera moves; and the Animated Cache, where any element of the scene can move. Both types allow the user to pre-render the cache and apply the solution when doing the full scene render ‘ either locally or across a render farm. LightWave radiosity can now be rendered at reduced resolution and applied to the full size final render, providing a higher quality output with even faster render times, a huge benefit for today’s time-pressured production environment.

LightWave v9.5’s IK and animation system includes numerous improved character animation controls. Adding to LightWave’s z-axis bones, artists now have joint-type bones, which is more familiar for users of other programs with joint-based metaphors. It also adds a “stretchy bones” capability to LightWave.

The lighting system is now a plug-in API, allowing third parties to create custom lights and lighting plug-ins. IES lights have been added with a thumbnail preview of the luminaire with other information and controls. Also available are new size-selectable spherical lights and dome lights.

LightWave v9.5 allows the import and export of FBX and Collada scenes and objects. This greatly improves compatibility with other 3D applications, as you can now seamlessly transfer meshes, rigs, materials and animation information. The LightWave OBJ I/O plug-in now provides extended import capability for this file type.

Character Animation Enhancements

• Hair and Fur System
• Collada, FBX and OBJ I/O support
• Enhanced IK and Animation Systems

Lighting, Rendering and Surfacing Enhancements

• Lighting System is now an API
• IES, Spherical and Dome Light types
• Enhanced Area and Linear Lights
• Faster and higher quality GI Rendering
• Disk-Based GI Caching
  • Static Cache (only the Camera moves)
  • Animated Cache (anything moves)
• Interpolated Soft Reflections/Refractions for Node-base surfacing
• Oren-Nayar Shading Option for Many Materials
• Optimized Materials and Shaders

SDK and LScript Improvements

• Light Plug-in Class for Third Party Lights and Light Plug-ins
• SDK Support for New GI Functions and Disk Cache
• SDK Support for New IK and Animation Capabilities

UI and Workflow Enhancements

• Composition Tool Overlays in Camera View
• OpenGL GLSL Enhanced View for New Lighting System
• Audio Waveform in the Graph Editor

NewTek will be providing a free trial edition of LightWave v9.5 on disc and by download. Artists should note that there are now more than 24 hours of free LightWave training at www.lightwave3d.com, in addition to an extensive library of printable tutorials.

Numerous visual effects projects benefited from LightWave’s world-class capabilities such as Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Hancock, Jumper, The Ruins, 300, The Guardian, and Visual Effects Emmy-winning Battlestar Galactica. LightWave has been used in other hit shows, including The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Jericho, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI Miami, and Dogfights.

Pricing and Availability
LightWave v9.5 for Windows is available now as a free update to registered LightWave v9 owners. The LightWave v9.5 Mac open beta program is currently available until upcoming final release. LightWave v9 owners can participate by registering at register.newtek.com. LightWave v9 is available now at the suggested retail price of US$895. Registered owners of LightWave v8 or earlier can upgrade to LightWave v9 for US$395. For more information or to purchase, please visit newtek.com or call NewTek Sales at 800-368-5441, for international inquiries dial +1-210-370-8000.