LightWave 3D

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

Overview

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

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.

LightWave was used to create special effects for the Babylon 5, Star Trek Voyager 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 VI - XI, 300 and Star Wars movies. The acclaimed short film, 405 was also produced by two artists from their homes using Lightwave. In the famous Finnish Star Trek parody Star Wreck - In the Pirkinning, most of the visual effects were done in LightWave. In Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, the entire film was made in Lightwave 6 and messiah:Studio.

NewTek and LightWave have been awarded Emmy Awards since 1993 and won their 10th and 11th awards in 2004. In 2003 NewTek was awarded an Emmy for technology.

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.

Now in its ninth version, its market ranges from hobbyists to high-end deployment in video games, television and cinema. The company recently shipped its 64-bit version of LightWave 3D (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. Its featured a highly customizable and modernized user interface, Python scripting integration offering realtime code and view previews, an updated file format based on the industry standard Collada format, and innovative revisions to contemporary modeling technologies. It will also be the first Lightwave product to be available on the Linux operating system. A private beta release is currently ongoing.

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.

Dynamics

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.

Hypervoxels

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

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

LScript

LScript is Lightwave's scripting language. It also provides a comprehensive set of prebuilt functions you can use when scripting how Lightwave behaves.

Lightwave SDK

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

Film and Television programmes using Lightwave

A more comprehensive list can be found at the Lightwave website.^[1] Some notable highlights are:

• Animal Armageddon (TV Series)
• Babylon 5 (1993 Visual FX Emmy Award)
• Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series) (2007, 2008 Visual FX Emmy Winner)
• Children of Dune (2003 Visual FX Emmy Winner)
• Dune (2001 Visual FX Emmy Winner)
• Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2002 Oscar Nominee)
• The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (spinoff TV Series of the movie Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius)
• Lost (2005 VFX Emmy Award)
• Stargate SG-1 (Emmy Nominee)
• Star Trek: Enterprise (Emmy Nominee)
• Star Trek: Voyager (1999, 2001 Visual FX Emmy Winner)
• Titanic (1997 Visual Effects Oscar Winner)
• The X-Files (2000 Visual FX Emmy Winner)
• Invader Zim

• 24
• 300
• Iron Man
• The Outer Limits (TV series)

Licensing

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. Currently, LightWave licenses are bound to a hardware dongle (e.g. Safenet USB or legacy parallel port models). Without a dongle LightWave will operate in "Discovery Mode" which severely restricts functionality. One copy of LightWave supports distributed rendering on up to 999 nodes.

See also

• Computer generated imagery
• Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
• Trigonometry

References

External links

• NewTek's official site
• LightWiki Lightwave's own Wiki site.
• Flay – The main database of LightWave 3D plugins.
• LightWave 3D Community – Active User Community.
• Splashlight Creative – Well-known LightWave studio.

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