Electric Rain Inc. has released Swift 3D LW Version 2.0, a plug-in for LightWave 3D that enables users to render scenes in the SWF file format. It creates vector and raster-based output, and besides SWF also supports formats including AI, EPS, SVG and PNT (used by Toon Boom).
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Swift 3D LW 2.0 uses Electric Rain’s own RAViX III rendering engine, which supports transparency, reflectivity, advanced specularity, and overlapping shadows. Swift 3D LW 2.0 produces full-textured renderings for raster-based output to SWF files. It also supports per-frame cropping to maximize performance.
Swift 3D also supports “SmartLayer” layering technology in conjunction with the Swift 3D Importer plug-in for Macromedia Flash MX, which renders out certain aspects of scenes like colors, outlines, shadows, and more into individual layers. SmartLayer also creates separate layers for stationary and moving objects, and inserts Swift 3D LW renderings directly into Flash MX libraries.
Available for Mac OS 9, Mac OS X and Windows, Swift 3D LW 2.0 works with LightWave 3D 6.5 and later. The suggested retail price is US$295; upgrades are available for US$129 through December 20, 2002 and $149 thereafter.