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NewTek Showcases New Technologies for LightWave 3D

Boston, MA, SIGGRAPH, Booth 1518—August 1, 2006

SIGGRAPH 2006 attendees get glimpse of future for LightWave

NewTek, Inc., manufacturer of industry-leading 3D animation and video products, today announced that SIGGRAPH presentations for LightWave 3D will feature new technologies slated for upcoming releases of their award-winning 3D animation system. Among the new technologies to be presented are: a true, 3D photo-realistic motion blur, 3D photo-realistic depth of field, improved OpenGL capability in Modeler, additional capabilities for the new Advanced Camera Tools and improved sub-surface scattering.

“Our commitment to advancing LightWave with innovative new features and capabilities of most use to the 3D community is unrelenting,” said Jay Roth, president, NewTek 3D division. “We have just released LightWave v9 and the march continues to advance LightWave beyond anything currently available in the market. The technology preview we’re showcasing at SIGGRAPH is just the tip of the iceberg. The beauty for LightWave users is that with the new Open Beta program we established with LightWave v9, they will get their hands on our new technologies as soon as we have them ready to test and not have to wait for an official ship date.”

NewTek continues to enhance LightWave's world-class renderer with state-of-the-art technologies of key importance for visual effects and motion graphic artists. The new photo-realistic motion blur and depth of field capabilities are just further examples of this commitment to improvement. The advancements in motion blur and depth of field are attributable to the core changes that were made in LightWave v9.

With the addition of Advanced Camera Tools (ACT) in LightWave v9, LightWave now sets the standard for the ability to recreate any real-world camera and provides a selection of cameras perfect for film and television use, and ideal for architecture and visualization. The new capabilities showcased at SIGGRAPH will include two sample cameras, a RealLens and a two-point perspective. The RealLens camera applies lens distortions in images based upon data files describing the characteristics of real camera lenses. The two-point perspective camera is useful for traditional architectural renderings.

As promised, NewTek is presenting improvements to the OpenGL capabilities in Modeler. LightWave Layout led the way in OpenGL performance enhancements in LightWave v9, these advancements are now being migrated to other aspects of the application.

The new Node Editing capabilities in LightWave v9 provide the most versatile selection of sub- surface scattering (SSS) and anisotropic shaders offered by any professional 3D application on the market. Now, NewTek is preparing Kappa II, the third form of SSS for use by LightWave users. Kappa II is a 2-layer SSS which has forward and backward sampling combined. Kappa II provides an excellent solution for skin shading at a 2X speed gain over the previous solution of stacking two Kappa nodes to achieve the effect.

Pricing and Availability

LightWave v9 will be shipping from mid August (2006) and is available for $1299 (AUST$) for a single user license. LightWave v9 upgrades for existing LightWave owners are $649 (AUST$). For more information or to purchase contact New Magic. To locate a New Magic/NewTek Authorized Reseller click here.

Newtek in Australia and New Zealand

NewTek products are distributed in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands by New Magic Australia.

About New Magic Australia Pty Ltd

About NewTek

With headquarters in San Antonio, Texas, NewTek is a leading provider of full-featured video editing, live production, presentation, animation and special effects tools including LightWave 3D®, winner of the 2003 Primetime Emmy® Engineering Award, TriCaster™ and VT[5]™. NewTek launched the desktop video revolution in 1990 with the release of the legendary Video Toaster®. The company's products are used worldwide on projects ranging from home video to feature film. Recent television and film projects using NewTek production tools include The DaVinci Code, Garfield 2, Fantastic Four, The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3D, Sin City, The Aviator, Aliens of the Deep, Battlestar: Galactica, Access Hollywood and Entertainment Tonight. Recent game titles include Doom III, Unreal Tournament, and Age of Mythology.