Wacom, the brand that leading Creative Professionals use worldwide, is ramping up its product development and marketing capabilities in the 3D space. The company has been experiencing explosive growth across its Display and Mobile Tablet business, driven in part by increased usage with 3D applications. As 3D technology has grown in popularity and workflow has become more mainstream, 3D artists, designers and engineers have been increasingly turning to Wacom's award-winning Cintiq family of creative pen displays and Intuos Pro tablets. This transition is due to the natural and intuitive pressure-sensitive pen input, ergonomics, production speed as well as the support Wacom users can count on from all major 3D application software providers.
"3D Design has been undergoing a transformation driven by trends in 3D engineering, rapid prototyping and on-demand parts production," said Jeff Mandell, Executive Vice President for Wacom's Branded Business. "That is why we have mobilized our resources to accelerate bringing new 3D products and services to market, addressing both legacy use-cases such as 3D, Multimedia and CAD as well as emerging segments such as 3D Printing." Mandell says "The big players in automotive, consumer electronics and fashion have been using Wacom Cintiqs for years, but the evolution of 3D and increases in affordable and powerful software applications such as Solidworks Industrial Designer from Dassault and Autodesk's Mudbox has helped Wacom open a lot of new doors.
Going forward, Wacom will be adding 3D-optimizers to our existing product lines and bringing tailor-made 3D offerings to market that will address the specific needs of our customers and have the potential to reinvent 3D design without changing workflow dynamics. Mandell further adds "Based on what we are seeing in the market and hearing from customers, we are confident that Wacom's pen and touch creative devices and future products will play a major role in the development of this important growth business for Wacom."
At this year's CES, how to get the most out of Wacom technology for 3D design will be an important topic at Wacom's booth (#30459) at the Las Vegas Convention Center's South Hall, January 6 – 9. Wacom will demonstrate how its products, particularly its flagship Cintiq creative pen displays, provide the most efficient way to create 3D objects from sketch to finished product.
Demonstrating a professional 3D workflow at Wacom's CES booth will be Craig Barr, a 17 year veteran of the 3D space, having worked on everything from animation, visual effects and software production. With over 100 technical videos on hardware and software workflows to his credit, Barr's expertise and presentation skills will be highly informative to attendees coming to the Wacom booth. Visitors will get to see how Mr. Barr uses a Cintq 27QHD with various software suites, ranging from Autodesk's Mudbox and Maya to Pixologic's ZBrush, to create perfect 3D models and see the result after it has printed on an Ember 3D printer.
The 3D production environment demands precision, accuracy and speed. Attributes that directly describe Wacom's entire Cintiq family and that are proven by the ubiquitous number of Cintiq displays currently in service at most leading design studios and innovative design schools around the world. Mandell is proud to say that "wherever computer arts, virtual or augmented reality, special effects, 3D models, animation or plain and simple 2D graphics can be found, odds are that Wacom products were used in the creative workflow. And with our increasing focus on 3D, the market segments and type of customers we service will continue to expand our creative design leadership."
