LightWave 11.6 and NevronMotion Final Releases Now Available

The LightWave 3D Group, a division of NewTek announced the final release of LightWave 11.6 software for 3D modeling, animation, and rendering is now available worldwide. The company also announced 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.

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. The Compound Node feature can simplify complex networks down to a single node.

NVIDIA CgFX shader technology can be used 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, the company says. 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.

LightWave Modeler now includes new import and export options to support the 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.

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; and save and load retargeting presets for FBX, BVH, or custom setups.

For more information, visit the LightWave 3D Group.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company's website.