Advanced Interactive Media/Newtek's 3-D & Animation with Lightwave

One of the industry leading software for motion graphics is Lightwave. Maya monopolized character animation (for film, cartoon, etc.), but most professionals agree that Lightwave is a superior tools for motion graphics like the kind you see on sports shows and openers for TV programming.

3-D software can be overwhelming on first encounter because the professional tools are more complex than video/audio editing software and other multimedia software products. The learning curve is well-worth it when you realize how 3-D expertise can set apart your work in a very competitive job market.

Wikipedia tells us, "LightWave gained fame as the program used to create special effects for the Babylon 5, Star Trek Voyager and seaQuest DSV science fiction television series; the program was also utilized in the production of Titanic as well as the recent Battlestar Galactica TV-series, Sin City and Star Wars movies." Most recently though, Lightwave was used for the special effects and environmental effects in the film, "300."
Quote reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightwave
External link: http://www.newtek.com/lightwave/profiles/300/index.php

Lightwave is not only used for motion graphics however. It, like Maya, is used to create still images of 3d renders for use in graphic designs. Graphic artists have been known to utilize the imported image data from Lightwave as focus points for artwork or for complimentary geometry within a design.

The actual Lightwave program consists of two separate programs that were designed for specific tasks.

Modeler	Modeler is the application within the Lightwave package that allows the user to create or manipulate 3D models within a limitless workspace.
Layout	Layout is the application within the Lightwave package that allows lighting and animation to be added to models that were created within Modeler.