New Leadership, New Features, New Upgrades at NewTek
April 19, 2005
Las Vegas, NV - NewTek has named Jay Roth president of the company's 3D graphics division. Roth, co-founder and former CEO of Electric Image, Inc., has 25 years experience in the 3D visual effects and graphics industry. In his role as president of NewTek’s 3D graphics division, Roth will oversee the expansion of the 3D product line, the advancement of technical innovation in LightWave 3D, along with sales and marketing efforts relating to NewTek’s 3D graphics offerings.
Under Roth’s guidance as CEO of Electric Image, Inc., the company achieved numerous milestones including: development of the market-leading professional 3D application for the Macintosh; creation of the world’s fastest renderer, authored by one of Roth’s co-founders, Mark Granger; and stunning visual effects for the destruction of downtown L.A. in James Cameron’s Terminator 2.
In addition to his role as co-founder and CEO of Electric Image, Inc., Roth has vast experience in the visual effects industry beginning in 1980 working at Roger Corman’s New World Pictures, with Academy Award winners James Cameron and Robert and Dennis Skotak. Roth has over 40 feature film, television and commercial credits, including CGI effects for Mattel HotWheels Octoblast, MacGyver, Entertainment Tonight, Bandai Power Rangers Dino Thunder, The Stepford Wives, X Files and SBC DSL, and main title design for A Minute with Stan Hooper.
Roth’s product management expertise extended beyond his role at Electric Image, Inc., when Sony appointed Roth to design and supervise the 3D compositing environment for Socratto, an unreleased film compositing product.
The company also announced optimization of LightWave 3D for multi-core processor systems, as well as the forthcoming release of its free 8.3 update to LightWave 3D. In addition to full support of the new generation multi-core processor systems, the new release offers enhanced vector blur routines and improved integration with other production tools via updated PSD support, as well as a new gradient option for HyperVoxels (LightWave’s volumetric rendering system), improved text tools for Modeler, and new features and functions in the Scene Editor and Dope Track. . Following NewTek’s industry first 64-bit beta announcement, LightWave 3D is leading the industry again as the first professional 3D graphics application to provide optimization and support for multi-core technology. Native multi-core support will be included in the upcoming 8.3 release of LightWave 3D.
Multi-core processor technology will provide the power of two processors on a single chip, allowing LightWave® to leverage system resources to significantly improve work flow, performance and the speed of the 3D rendering process over the current generation single-core processor systems. For the end-user, multi-core processor technology will offer the best performance-per-watt ratio, offering systems more efficiency and performance while reducing heat dissipation and consuming less power than multiple single-core systems.
Even though LightWave can now run on upcoming multi-core chips, NewTek will continue to license LightWave on a per seat basis with 999 free render nodes; there will be no additional charge for multi-core support, the copnay described.
LightWave 3D, version 8.3 Includes:
-Multi-core processor support
-PSD Import/Export revised to include a variety of new options, filters and controls, as well as enhanced processing of LightWave's internal buffers for better compatibility on export
-New "Text Layers" tool for creating text with a variety of controls and options
-Improved Vector Blur routines
-New "Relative Particle Age" gradient option for HyperVoxels
-New "Blending" surface-tension control for HyperVoxels.
-HyperVoxels now work in combination with fog
-HyperVoxels refraction now works in combination with dissolve and fog
-Point limit per polygon increased from 1024 to 16383.
-Enhanced Documentation for LightWave's Object Properties Edge Tab functions
Pricing and Availability
LightWave 3D Electronic Full Competitive Upgrade is available for $495US, for registered owners of Maya, Softimage XSI, 3ds max, Electric Image, Strata Studio Pro, Cinema 4D, Truespace, Hash Animation Master, Autocad, Pro/Engineer and SolidWorks. Proof of ownership required to qualify. Registered LightWave owners will also be able to purchase an additional seat of LightWave at the $495 price. This special offer is available through April 30, 2005, from any NewTek Authorized Reseller or directly from NewTek.
For more information, visit
www.newtek.com
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