L3 Texture provides 15 new nodes to build advanced texture networks in Maya. The plugin contains procedural noise textures, regular pattern generators, coordinate displacement nodes and additional utilities. All texture features are fully animatable and mapable. Combination of procedural textures results in a huge amount of pattern. Examples include regular cell pattern, irregular structures like marble, wood or rock surface, irregular or regular wave pattern and many more.

Originally L3 Texture was designed as an extension to our L3 Deformer toolset. L3 Deformer makes heavy use of texture sampling and the more texture generators you have at your disposal, the more powerful and flexible L3 Deformer will be.

During the development process we decided to make L3 Texture a fully featured solution that also supports rendering of textures and can generate details way beyond the requirements of L3 Deformer. Please note, that L3 Texture contains Maya software renderer nodes only, but you can of course bake all textures to be used with any other renderer.

Content:

L3 Cell 2d (regular 2d cell pattern)
L3 Cell 3d (regular 3d cell pattern)
L3 Cell Noise 2d (irregular 2d cell pattern)
L3 Cell Noise 3d (irregular 3d cell pattern)
L3 Cell Shuffle 2d (cell shuffling (10 input slots) and HSV/rotation randomization)
L3 Cube Noise 2d (randomly shaded cubic 2d cells)
L3 Cube Noise 3d (randomly shaded cubic 3d cells)
L3 File (simple replacement for Maya’s file texture node that fixes some bugs)
L3 Liquid Noise 2d (2d noise specifically designed for liquid surfaces)
L3 Liquid Noise 3d (3d noise specifically designed for liquid surfaces)
L3 Placement 2d (2d coordinate displacement)
L3 Placement 3d (3d coordinate displacement)
L3 Plasma 2d (2d plasma wave pattern using up to 8 emitters)
L3 Plasma 3d (3d plasma wave pattern using up to 8 emitters)
L3 Volume (volumetric falloff)

We are currently beta testing the software. More information will follow within the next weeks.

L3 Texture Teaser from Lightstorm3D on Vimeo.

L3Deformer Trial Version

You can now download a trial version of the L3Deformer toolset for Maya 2009, 2010 and 2011 Windows. The trial has no time restrictions but we removed advanced features and added some limitations. To download the trial you need an user account (free registration) on our tools website.

The purpose of this trial is to give you a basic idea how these tools can be used. The archives include the complete documentation and the UIs still show the full set of features.

On the L3Deformer trial download page you will also find basic sample scenes specifically created for this trial.

L3Deformer Tutorials

The tutorial section has been redesigned and we added new video tutorials. Some of these tutorials will not work with the trial version, but having a look at both trial and tutorials should give you an idea what this toolset is capable of.

L3Library V1.0.4

A new L3Library update is available for download. This update is required to run the L3Deformer trial version.

We added a new Surface Deformer tutorial video to the tutorial section called "Sculpt Bracer". The tutorial shows the wrapping and extensive paint features of the Surface Deformer.

As usual the video is also available on Vimeo, Youtube and Facebook.

The L3Deformer V1.0.1 and L3Library V1.0.3 updates have been released.

Both plugins are now also available for Maya 2009 and 2010. We have lowered the price of L3Deformer for Maya 2009/2010 to 139,00€ (no tax included). We also offer new bundle and discount options to purchase L3Deformer for multiple versions of Maya.

L3Deformer V1.0.1 (free update)

UI Streamlining

We had a look at all UIs and streamlined some designs that required redundant extra clicks.

Performance Enhancements

We started to replace more Maya API classes and methods with our own technology that supports multithreading. Performance of texture and curve deformer has been increased. We will continue to push performance with each release cycle. We would like to ask you to request more API multithreading support from Autodesk. Being able to use all CPUs/cores of a modern system will not only drastically increase performance of our tools, but affect overall Maya performance and that of other custom tools.

New Features

Usually we do not add vast amounts of new features in a minor version update. Nevertheless L3Deformer V1.0.1 comes with some new features that have a huge impact on how some tools can be used.

• Viewport 2.0 Support
  All deformer handles and support nodes now also show up in Viewport 2.0. Please note, that Maya’s Viewport 2.0 is still work in progress and missing a lot of functionality from the old viewport.

• Curve Deformer: Per object texture sampling coordinate offsets
  Two new attributes allow to offset 2D/3D texture coordinates per target object attached to a curve deformer. This makes is very easy to apply texture based geometry randomization effects in curve space, without the need to use multiple curve deformers. Lightning effects with multiple streaks are a good example how to apply this new feature.

• Curve Deformer: Tangent Mode
  The tangent computation method can now be set separately from normal mode. This provides a lot more flexibility when omitting the alignment curve.

• Collision Deformer: Relax Iterations
  Relax iterations now use a float value instead of an integer. Thus the next relax cycle can be blended in smoothly. This allows to use varying relax iterations as an animated effect. Originally relax iterations were designed as a static mesh equalization feature. In addition the deformer will now work without any actual collision geometry. This allows to use the relax feature only, which can be handy to equalize e.g. nParticle, fluids or RealFlow meshes.

• Texture Deformer: Slope Vector Mode
  When using geometry space displacement you can now optionally use the polygon normal instead of the actual displacement vector to compute the slope falloff.

For a complete list of changes please refer to the L3Deformer history page.

Bugfixes

Luckily there have been very few bug reports and everything that popped up since release has been fixed.

L3Library V1.0.3

The free L3Library now supports a customizable floating shelf window (Maya 2011 and higher). We have taken our old CPS Toolbox and pimped it with QT features like docking options and 10 shelf tabs.

For a complete list of changes please refer to the L3Library history page.

We just added another L3Deformer tutorial video that shows how to use the Curve Deformer to model a seam. The video also explains how to apply a twist control curve in combination with the L3AnimCurveWrapper to shape the twist effect. This modelling approach can be used to model any type of helix type geometry like telephone cords or springs.

We have added a new L3Deformer tutorial video that shows how to use the Collision Deformer to clean a mesh for rendering.

We have started to move some of our CPS (Connect Poly Shape) technology for Maya to the L3Library. This is a preview of the old CPS Toolbox. It’s now called L3 Floating Shelf, supports 10 tabs and is dockable in all areas. The UI has been trimmed to be as small as possible. This means no tab display and no trashcan. Tab switching is done using a right mouse button context menu.

The L3 Floating Shelf will be available with the next L3Library update.

This is a hotfix release, that should solve a problem with the Library menu entry not appearing in the Lightstorm3D menu.

You can download L3Library V1.0.2 here.

A new version of our L3Library is available for download.

Here you can find a detailed version history.

The Installation & Licensing documentation has been updated based on the feedback we received during the past days.

New features include an UI to generate fingerprints, a setup check UI to verify the installation and two small tools to create a smoothed polygon cube and create clusters for curve CVs. You may have seen both tools in the latest tutorial videos.

The L3Library is free of charge.

We have added a new pricing options page that does not require an account on this website. It provides a good overview of current pricing, bundle and discount options.

We have made several updates and added new information throughout the website. Safari users should no longer have problems being redirected erroneously to the login page.

If you watched the latest L3Deformer tutorial videos closely you may have noticed new L3Library features accessible from Maya’s main menu. We are currently working on L3Library V1.0.1 that should ship shortly. As we work on updates that are close to release, the history page will show upcoming additions, changes and bugfixes.