CAST Group of Toronto, Canada has just released the latest version of its industry standard and pre-visualisation suite, wysiwyg R29. R29 is available to download from the Members ONLY section of the CAST website.
wysiwyg is the award-winning tool for professionals in the production industry that enables lighting designers to create stunning previsualisations and renders of a planned event, without having to spend time and money making it happen at the venue in advance. The software is so named because what you see is exactly what you get. What’s more, it encourages creativity because previsualisation means it is quick and easy to try out concepts and tweak ideas.
Version R29 builds on the considerable advancements in R28 launched by CAST earlier this year. Feedback from beta testing on R29 has been unanimously positive, with experienced users commending the multitude of new features and its improved functionality. These include: Shaded View fixture selection and manipulation, which allows the user to very quickly make artistic changes to their lighting designs without having to switch modes within the software; the 6D camera system, Drawing Purge tool, Truss End Indicators, Multi-rotate function, new World coordinate Gyroscope, World grid, Production Team Information Wizard and several back end enhancements to the Layer Database window.
In wysiwyg’s new Shaded View design mode, users can now select fixtures and manipulate their parameters within Shaded View — without having to switch Mode tabs. By hitting the TAB key, Shaded View selection will be enabled allowing fixture selection by dragging or clicking for fast look-making or creating Fixture Groups. Fixtures can then be focussed in design mode and their colour, beam, position or intensity altered. Also new to the Shaded View mode is an enhanced gyroscope and vector-representative world grid, both of which assist the user in gauging the precise orientation of the view.
CAST has developed a brand new camera movement system for wysiwyg R29. Named the Six Degrees of Freedom camera, it now moves on all six axes, allowing roll, pitch, and yaw orientation, as well as the basic X, Y, and Z 3D positioning. In simple terms, this means that the camera now has 100 per cent complete freedom of movement. Check it out: http://youtu.be/uZC5vzEZNaQ
But there’s even more. R29 includes a Purge tool, which can be used to delete unnecessary renderings, Library Items, and Layers to reduce file size. The new Multi-Rotate function allows the selection of multiple items and rotation of each one independently of the others, while rotating all selected items simultaneously. Truss End Indicators reveal the piecing of the truss design for easy assembly by stagehands and riggers, eliminating the double handling of truss by providing the right information first time. CAST has also added the Production Team Information Wizard (where personnel contacts, urgent deadlines and dates, and important numbers can be stored within wysiwyg) and made several workflow enhancements to the front and back end of the Layer Database.
Feedback from our Members is unanimously positive: Another home run!
You can download your copy by going to www.cast-soft.com and follow the instructions for R29.
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