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JANUARY 12, 2004 Roundup: Macworld Expo 2004
 3D software developers were also at the Macworld conference in force. While NewTek wasn't out on the show floor, representatives were on hand to give me a private preview of LightWave 8 running on Mac OS X. The suite, which NewTek says is just "this close" to shipping, has come a long way since the alpha preview I saw at the Siggraph convention back in July. At this point, the software is nearing completion and gains performance improvements and significant enhancements to dynamics, character animation, modeling workflow, animation workflow and texturing tools. I'll be providing more details on what I saw of LightWave 8 in a separate article later today, but suffice to say that the new features, particularly in Layout, will blow some of you away, including the ability to import, export and modify character rigs, automated IK, expressions and other areas. NewTek also announced that it has extended its special offer for Mac users in print design, offering version 7.5 for $795 through the first quarter of 2004. The offer applies to registered users of various Adobe, Macromedia and Quark software packages. More info: http://www.newtek.com/. Eovia also had a couple of announcements for the 3D world at the show, including a new version of Carrara Studio and a preview of a plugin for Carrara that allows for the import and manipulation of Poser 5 scenes. The new Carrara Studio 3.0.3 adds improved Booleans. OpenGL work support for ATI cards and more than 60 miscellaneous improvements. The company also introduced a forthcoming addition to its software lineup called Poser Transporter. This new plugin is designed to provide a bridge between Poser 5 and Carrara Studio 3, offering support for textures, transparency, maps, clothes and animation. It will require both Carrara Studio 3 and Poser 5 and is expected to ship this quarter for Mac OS X and Windows. More info: http://www.eovia.com/.[an error occurred while processing this directive]For Alias, the Macworld Expo came at mid-development cycle for Maya, so there's no major news on that front. But the company did relaunch the Maya Productivity Pack and launch the new Maya Explorer Bundle. The Productivity Pack includes the Maya Complete 5 software, a 90-day trial membership to Alias eSupport and the Maya Explorer Bundle for $2,198. The Explorer Bundle itself includes six learning titles for Maya and sells for $199. More info: http://www.alias.com/.And also for the 3D community, @Last launched a new version of its visualization and design tool, SketchUp, and also announced a new SketchUp plugin for ArchiCAD. SketchUp is a complement to existing AEC tools, designed to provide tools for quick conceptualization, creation and modification of 3D elements. The new 3.1 update, unveiled at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco this week, adds thumbnail images to the component browser; 2D vector export (PDF, EPS, DWG and DXF); enhanced Piranesi EPIX format support; improved 3ds export support; and improved shadow features. @Last has also debuted a beta version of a new plugin for ArchiCAD 8 that allows for the import of native SketchUp geometry into ArchiCAD. Translation can be automatic or user-specified. The beta is available publicly for a limited time. More info: http://www.sketchup.com/. Prev 1 2 3 4 Next Related sites: • Animation Artist • Creative Mac • Digital Animators • Digital Media Designer • Digital Post Production • Digital Producer • Digital Video Editing • DV Format • Film and Video Magazine • Presentation Master • The WWUG Related forums: [an error occurred while processing this directive] 
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