Swift 3D V.3 for Lightwave 3D
by Jeremy Rayment

The Background

There are essentially two schools of thought when it comes to producing 3d content for web distribution. Web 3D (a system whereby polygons and animation data is streamed. i.e. Shockwave 3d) is one option. The other option is to utilize a web authoring package like Flash and utilize stills and actual animation or video rendered from your 3D package of choice. One tool for Lightwave 3d animators/modelers that helps streamline and enhance the process of getting 3D content on the web is Swift 3D LW 3. (Swift 3D is available for 3D Max users to)

Swift 3D allows users to export their Lightwave animations and models to a variety of vector-based formats like Adobe Illustrator, and .eps formats for print-based work or as sequences for animations. Swift 3D also supports .swf exporting by either rendering vectors, or by utilizing the native Lightwave render engine to export raster-based images into the .swf (Flash web format). Swift also supports its own Smart Layer technology export, which allows users to directly import layered Flash files natively into Flash. Smart Layer technology is one of the most innovative and useful functions of the Swift 3D plugin and I will speak to it in more depth later in the review.

Version 3 of the Swift 3D plugin adds increased rendering speeds, new pen styles for organic ink lines, per object rendering styles, and level 3 support for .eps files to name but a few of the new features. So Lightwaver's, think you might want to add web publishing to your toolset? Stick with me as I give Swift 3d LW a test drive.

Understanding basic conventions

Swift 3D has its limits. If you are expecting to load up all your Lightwave scenes or models and magically transform them into vectors you are in for a potential disappointment. Swift 3D only supports 3 or 4 sided models therefore tripling geometry before rendering is required. In addition, an object's environment maps, textures or bitmap materials are not supported. There are also some restrictions pertaining to lights (volumetrics are not supported), and specularity is supported based on the position of a light and on an objects surface editor's settings only. However, once you understand the limits you can go about creating some very good web examples using Swift 3D's toolset.

Swift 3D is a plugin that is installed and run from Lightwave Layout. The built in documentation does a very good job of explaining how to install and setup custom tabs for each of the Swift 3D functions.

Render Options The render options panel is where the majority of the magic occurs, including setting the file type, all the inking options, the colour shading options, specular, and shadow settings. There is support for .ai (sequential and static), .eps (sequential and static), .svg, .swf, US Animation, and the layered Swift 3d importer format (.swft).

Colour Fill Types

The preset list of fill types is quite varied. You can opt from single colour fills, to cartoon full colour, to mesh gradient which is the closest thing you can get to full photo realistic 3D vector graphics in Swift 3d. Swift does a very good job of efficiently rendering out the cartoon type colour fills; balancing both render times and quality. More photoreal like renders are achievable if you are willing to wait for them, but to really keep the integrity of your photoreal model and environments raster-based renders are better. Vector-graphics generally have a difficult time with subtleties and the tones of a more photoreal render.

Fortunately, Swift 3d lets you use the native Lightwave renderer to output .swf images and animations of the raster variety (bitmap type images), so you effectively get the best of both worlds. Vector output for more cartoon type imagery, and raster-based imagery output by using the native image render option and compression features built in to Lightwave. Which is a good thing!

Inking and Pen Styles

New to Swift 3d version 3 are pen outlines which allow for much greater customizability and for more organic type renders. You can adjust the aspect ratio on either an ellipse or square for your pen shape and then determine the colour and thickness of your lines. There are options to render hidden outlines, intersections, transparent edges, and the edge detail. Adjusting the detail angle determines how much of the edge detail shows up. Greater angles will show more ink lines as low angles show less ink. Additionally, there is an option for Two Pass Curve Fitting, which provides a cleaner render for drawing curved lines. There are enough basic options here to achieve good inking results. The new pen styles are implemented well and do offer much greater flexibility then present in previous versions. My biggest complaint with both the inking and colour options is lack of a preview. In order to view any little tweaks, you have to re-render the entire image or scene. I don't know how difficult it would be to implement a realtime preview but it would save a lot of tweaking time and gets my vote for the most wanted feature for future releases.

Per Object Render Styles

New to Swift 3d to is the ability to render different objects in your scene, each with different styles, and outlines. This can lead to some very creative imagery and the setup is very straight forward. Click on an object from the list provided and choose the render style you want for that particular object. The per object level integration left me wanting more. Much more!!! I would love to see per edge render styles, giving you the ability to literally draw ink on a model by selecting actual edges and allocating ink and colour style on the geometry level. Despite my not so subtle feature request (hint, hint, wink, wink) the per object level render styles are a welcome addition and work very well.

Layered Flash Import (.swft)

The .swft layered flash import option is worth the price of this plugin alone for any web animator looking to get into 3D or any 3D artist looking to get into Flash. It isolates items like outlines, shadows, and base colours on separate flash layers which makes animating in Flash much easier. If you wanted to for example adjust the shadow in Flash, or animate the shadow on its own, having an isolated layer to do so is a godsend. Kudos to Erain for this feature!.

Conclusion

Version 3 of the Swift 3D plugin is a must have for previous users of the plugin. The new features including pen outlines, object level rendering, and improved performance are definitely worth it.

For artists looking to add Swift 3d to their tool set, be aware of the limitations. Swift 3D is not a magic web render button. To get the best results out of the plugin you need to take advantage of its strengths. Sometimes that means designing specific content with the limitations in mind, and sometimes it means using the raster-based .swf output instead of fighting a loosing battle trying to get vector images to look like your original Lightwave render.

At the end of the day, the tools and workflow that Swift 3D provides are the most efficient way of getting your Lightwave animations and models into Flash. No more bitmap tracing, no more video encoding or re-compression, efficient web animation workflow based on layered elements and exciting new stylistic, creative output options all make Swift 3D a solid web 3d option.

Article Rating

What We Liked

• Pen Outlines
• .swf raster-based export with Lightwave's native renderer
• Per Object level style editing
• .swft layer-based Flash import
• Good selection of colour modes
  

What Should be Improved

• Some sort of preview option that is closer to real time.
• Geometry-based style editing would be nice (hint hint, wink wink)
• Crash prone on larger more complex scenes and models.

All models and images rendered for this review are based on stock Lightwave models and scenes found on the Lightwave 8 installation CD.

System Requirements

• Requirements NewTek LightWave® 3D 7 and up
• Windows 98, ME, 2K, NT 4.0, XP
• Macintosh OSX
(Also supports US Animation 4.5+ and Toon Boom Opus, Concerto and Harmony)