SIG: In Brief: KeyShot and ZBrush get closer and Lightwave turns 11.6

In-Brief: Lightwave Group makes major announcements at SIGGRAPH

The LightWave 3D Group, a division of NewTek, Inc., this week announced new features in LightWave 11.6, the most recent version of its award-winning 3D modeling, animation and rendering software for artists and designers. The Mac OS X and Windows compatible software has a host of new features which we’ll touch on more fully in a later report.

Briefly, LightWave 11.6 includes new ways to animate with a new Spline control tool, plus a new Raycasting technology to make an object aware of its surroundings in an animation. Version 11.6 adds support for FiberFX from the soft-body Bullet Dynamics system.

There are also new tools for streamlining game development, for better pre-visualization and streaming real-time content. Users can now place Normal Maps on 3D objects to make lower-polygon objects or characters display in higher resolution objects. There is also support for Nvidia’s CgFX shader technology. LightWave 11.6 also now supports output to 3D printers and can both export and import files in the popular STL and PLY file formats.

01 – LightWave 11.6 was introduced at SIGGRAPH this week and offers users numerous new features.

There is also new review in full stereographic 3D capabilities utilizing Nvidia’s 3D Vision technology and a whole lot more in this area. Architosh will report more on the new LightWave 11.6 as well as other announcements by the group–and there are several–in a full report dedicated to the company’s showing at SIGGRAPH. Stay tuned.

KeyShot and ZBrush Get Closer

In somewhat surprising news Luxion and Pixologic have announced that the latter’s GoZ™ plugin architecture has been utilized by Luxion to create a means for users to transfer file assets from ZBrush into KeyShot for rendering and further artist work.

02 – An image showing the same model from ZBrush in that program (left) with the same model in KeyShot (right).

Previously, artists could export out of ZBrush into KeyShot using an OBJ file. Now with the direct transfer capabilities of this new integration, users gain the ability to import the geometry into KeyShot while retaining SubTools, texturing and PolyPainting. Models may also be updated from within KeyShot through KeyShot’s LiveLinking capability.

“We’re excited to bring this level of integration with KeyShot to the ZBrush community.” Thomas Teger, Vice President of Products and Strategy at Luxion. “This is the first plugin of its kind that makes a rendering application an integral part of the artist’s process. The artist now no longer has to wait with the the rendering until the design is finished, but start visualizing concepts from its earliest stages. This integration with the ability to update the design inside KeyShot throughout the entire process will ultimately lead to better designs and better images in a shorter period of time.”

“KeyShot has proven to be one of the fastest ways of achieving realistic renders in a short amount of time.” say Dominic Qwek, 3D Artist and KeyShot user, “It’s simple workflow, clean user interface and amazing rendering capabilities allows me to focus more on the art and less on the technical side of things. With the new ZBrush plugin, KeyShot is now able to seamlessly import SubTools from ZBrush, even retaining PolyPaint data in the process.”