NewTek announces LightWave ® Rendition™ for Adobe ® Photoshop

NewTek, Inc., manufacturer of industry-leading 3D animation and video products, announced launch plans for their latest development, LightWave Rendition for Adobe Photoshop. The product created by NewTek’s 3D division provides photorealistic 3D render output, such as recently used in the feature film "300", for Adobe's just revealed Photoshop CS3 Extended. Based upon the Emmy ® Award-winning render engine native to LightWave 3D, Rendition for Adobe Photoshop gives creative artists the ability to render models imported through Photoshop CS3 and deliver the richness of detail, textures and lighting attributes found in the original 3D object format, all within the Photoshop environment.
"We're very excited to support Adobe’s effort to bring 3D into the traditional 2D work environment," said Jay Roth, president, NewTek 3D division. "We're keenly aware of how prevalent 3D has become in all aspects of creative production from film to visualization to print graphics and we know how important these tools will become to Photoshop users as they explore the power that realistic 3D imagery brings to their final product."

LightWave Rendition for Adobe Photoshop will ship with its own 3D model art library and works with models from other sources, such as Google SketchUp's 3D Warehouse or any of these readily available common 3D interchange formats: 3DS, OBJ, U3D, KMZ, and COLLADA. LightWave Rendition allows each format to be fully rendered in high-resolution with all of their properties.

"As a fine artist and designer Photoshop is my core software application, the fact that Adobe is bringing 3D capabilities to the suite is unbelievably exciting," said Stephen Burns, author of Advanced Photoshop CS3 Trickery & FX. "I have been integrating 3D graphics into my 2D designs for years and I know the effect a powerful, photo-real 3D render engine like LightWave Rendition for Adobe Photoshop has on the final result: it makes all the difference in the world."

"This is an exciting time for creative artists. Moving easily from 2D to 3D in the Photoshop environment is as big a milestone as when artists progressed in the digital realm from black and white to color. Adobe has now made it possible for its passionate and creative user base to explore 3D within Photoshop CS3," said Michael Kornet, vice president business development, NewTek. "NewTek is thrilled to bring our feature-film quality rendering to the Adobe Photoshop user’s toolset."

Pricing and Availability
LightWave Rendition for Adobe Photoshop will be available for beta test participation beginning in May 2007. An early beta sign-up request form is available at www.LightWave3D.com/renditionps or call NewTek Sales at 1-800-368-5441, for international inquiries dial +1-210-370-8000. The retail price for Rendition for Adobe Photoshop is $149US. Upon initial release it will be available by electronic download from NewTek in North America.