LightWave 11.6 & NevronMotion Plugin Hit the Market

NewTek’s LightWave 3D Group has announced the global release of LightWave 11.6 software for 3D modeling, animation, and rendering. Also announced today is the final release of the NevronMotion plug-in for LightWave 11.6, which uses the Microsoft Kinect camera to capture motion in real time for retargeting to 3D or live-performance characters. NevronMotion also simplifies retargeting data from standard motion capture files directly into the LightWave interface.

Created by artists for artists, LightWave 11.6 introduces many new ways for 3D artists and designers to model, animate, capture, retarget, and input and output to 3D. New features allow users to:

• Animate in New Ways: With the Spline Control tool, nulls or other objects act as nodes in a spline to control or deform objects such as tentacles, tails, whips or even elevators; Raycast Motion utilizes raycasting technology to make an animated object aware of its surroundings;, and the Compound Node feature can simplify complex networks down to a single node.
• Streamline Real-Time Virtual Production, Pre-Viz, and Game Development: Use NVIDIA CgFX shader technology to create 3D assets for virtual production, pre-visualization, or game development and view assets within LightWave OpenGL exactly as they will appear in the final real-time display engine. Users can also place Normal Maps on 3D objects to make lower-polygon objects or characters display as higher-resolution objects, and create custom CgFX shaders or use existing CgFX shaders.
• Output to 3D Printers: LightWave Modeler now includes new import and export options to support the popular STL and PLY file formats. VRML is also supported and offers surface color data for 3D color printing of objects with texture maps. Also included is full control of the export format used, whether in ASCII or binary, the up direction, and units for export. New geometry clean up tools specifically for 3D printing output are also included.
• Review in Full Stereoscopic 3D: With support for NVIDIA 3D Vision, 3D Vision Pro, and HDMI stereo devices, artists and designers can visualize high-quality advanced stereoscopic 3D environments across multiple devices, including enabled desktop monitors and multi-projector wall displays.

The NevronMotion plug-in for LightWave 11.6 extends the software’s Virtual Studio Tools to:

• Capture live-rig motion with the Microsoft Kinect camera
• Retarget motion capture directly in LightWave Layout
• Save and adjust captured motion data from the Kinect camera
• Easily adjust arm and leg mocap positions and layer hand-keyed animation on top of motion capture files
• Save and load retargeting presets for FBX, BVH, or custom setups
• Preset rigs for Kinect and motion capture formats
• Quickly bake out motion to character rigs

LightWave 11.6 is priced at $1495 and the NevronMotion plug-in is priced at $299. Registered LightWave 11 customers can upgrade to LightWave 11.6 free of charge; upgrade pricing from LightWave 10 or earlier versions is $695 (USD). Educational pricing is also available.

To purchase or locate an authorized LightWave reseller go to www.lightwave3d.com/buy.