essential lightwave 3d 8

[...]... wanted to see a light “bulb,” you would Figure 1 -8: Point light Without light, we would see nothing The same applies to the virtual world within LightWave In order to “see” anything in LightWave, you must (in essence) use one of LightWave s lights to send a “wavicle” (a wave/particle of light) scattering off the surface of an object and into the lens of LightWave s camera (When you think of your eyes... remember that you are always and only just scratching the surface of the power contained within LightWave. ) 8 LightWave makes use of the idea of “separation of power” better than any other 3D package I’ve used In Modeler, you sculpt your objects; in Layout, you lay them out to create your scene If you’ve worked with 3D packages in which you have to fight with modeling the details on an object while it is... into the nuts and bolts of the major LightWave tools, we’ve got to make sure everyone is on the same page about understanding the core concepts of 3D Math and geometry figure heavily in these core concepts, but they come into play in such a way that they’re fun (This is probably because when working in 3D, math no longer represents abstract, almost arcane, concepts In 3D, math and geometry are almost tangible... 5 28 531 543 544 545 552 553 555 556 556 559 Epilogue 565 Appendix A Plug-ins and Programs 567 Appendix B Resources 590 Appendix C LightWave s Default Hot Keys 602 Index 607 x Introduction What you have in your hands is, quite simply, a collection of tools and techniques that many professional LightWave. .. Then think about the slight changes to the real-world lights that you’d have to make to get the same effect within LightWave Virtual Camera LightWave s “cameras” are the windows through which your audience will see your final product (you can have up to 100 cameras in a scene) All of LightWave s other windows are aids in constructing your work; the camera’s viewport is the one window where you will... begin to disappear into LightWave s fog When you tell LightWave to render, whatever the camera is “seeing” will be fair game for the renderer to draw The camera can be moved and rotated along all axes It 6 can track to items in the scene and inherit its motion directly from other items (it could be “parented” to the wingtip of a plane if you wanted) There are more settings on the LightWave camera than... shots (shots where the background is moving), but for 3D, it is · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · Playing in Three Dimensions Figure 1-13: The Camera view The areas shaded with tan on the left and right of the viewport are indications of what is outside the camera’s 640x 480 field of view used mostly as a reference guide for element placement Note While LightWave s camera has, literally, no strings attached... basic concepts, that’s about all there is to 3D! Everything else is just about finding new ways of putting things together Your greatest assets are creativity, problem-solving skills, and a darn good sense of humor 7 Chapter 2 LightWave Dissected I’d like to take a moment to point out that while this book may cover a great many things, it isn’t trying to be the LightWave manual Its focus is that of being... easy to think of as LightWave s “handle” on its reality No matter how you spin an object, no matter how you rotate a viewport, LightWave will always keep X=0, Y=0, and Z=0 exactly where it always has been (and forever will be) So, like in Figure 1-1, the viewport can be rotated counterclockwise a bit and tilted up just a bit so you can see the axes all nicely laid out before you, but LightWave s 2 Figure... functions behind the scenes; you could spend an entire career with LightWave and never do more than add plug-ins you find freely available over the Internet (mondo thanks to the wonderful, supportive, and blisteringly intelligent LightWave user/support base out there) But should you want to “pop the hood” and “trick her out,” with LScript and LightWave s open-ended functionality, there is, quite literally, . 482 An Introduction to Dynamics 482 Personal Dynamics 483 Social Dynamics 483 Relational Dynamics 483 The Dynamics Community 484 Dynamic Decisions 485 Applied Dynamics 486 Collision Effects 486 HardFX. (Keys) 380 “Motion” Graph Editor 385 Adjusting Timing 388 Previews 394 Rendering an Animation 395 Chapter 16 Layout 3: Character Animation 3 98 A Brief Introduction to Character Animation 3 98 Bones. Timothy. Essential lightwave 3D8 /byTimothy Albee and Steve Warner with Robin Wood. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 1-55622- 082 -0 (pbk., companion CD-ROM) 1. Computer animation. 2. Computer graphics. 3. LightWave