LightWave 3D 8 1001 Tips & Tricks phần 1 pot

In addition to Autumn Light, I was an advisor to the local junior college whenthey were developing their computer animation program and have been teaching one of the advanced LightWave c

LightWave 3D [8]

1001 Tips & Tricks

Editors: Wes “kurv” Beckwith, Steve Warner, and Robin Wood

GERALDABRAHAM• TIMOTHY“AMADHI” ALBEE• PATRIKBECK• WES“KURV” BECKWITH• JACK“DEUCE” BENNETT•

NICHOLASBOUGHEN• RICHARDBRAK• DAVIDEBNER• JONNYGORDEN• TODDGRIMES• JENNIFERHACHIGIAN•

ERKKIHALKKA• KURTISHARRIS• DAVEJERRARD• GEOFFREYKATER• ARNEKAUPANG• BRADKRAUSE•

SAMUELKVAALEN• MIKEPAUZA• KEVINPHILLIPS• POLICARPO• ROBPOWERS• EMANUELESALVUCCI•

LARRYSHULTZ• LEESTRANAHAN• LEESTRINGER• PETERTHOMAS• LEIGH VAN DERBYL•

WILLIAM“PROTON” VAUGHAN• STEVEWARNER• ROBINWOOD

Wordware Publishing, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

ISBN 1-55622-090-1 (pbk., companion cd-rom)

1 Computer animation 2 Computer graphics 3 LightWave 3D.

I Beckwith, Wes, 1971- II Warner, Steve, 1970- III Wood, Robin,

1953-IV Abraham, Gerald.

TR897.7.L49 2004

CIP

© 2004, Wordware Publishing, Inc

All Rights Reserved

2320 Los Rios BoulevardPlano, Texas 75074

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means

without permission in writing from Wordware Publishing, Inc

Printed in the United States of America

All inquiries for volume purchases of this book should be addressed to WordwarePublishing, Inc., at the above address Telephone inquiries may be made by calling:

(972) 423-0090

To my mother, girlfriend, and stepfather, Steve Without them, I wouldn’t be where I

am today —Gerald Abraham

To all those out there who wish those-in-the-know would just cut the posturing, andtell them what they need to know to do what they want to do

—Timothy “Amadhi” Albee

To my wife, Ashley, who sat next to me for countless hours while I modeled, wrote,read, studied, and everything else I did to prep this book without rolling her eyesonce This one is for you, hun I love you!!! “Pump, pump!!” Thank you for alwayssupporting me on everything I do and thank you for always telling me my worklooks better than I think it does! To my mom — I know you won’t know what you’rereading, but try to act like you do when you show people this book, okay? ;-) Thankyou for always expecting more of me than I expect of myself To the authors of thisbook and the LightWave community — you folks make this all worthwhile Thankyou so much for your support, loyalty, and kindness It truly is appreciated!

—Wes “kurv” Beckwith

To my wife, Miracle, who supports me, and my son, Alex, who looks up to me I

love you both —Jack “Deuce” Bennett

To the LightWave community These artists help each other out of deep holes every

day I hope it’s always that way —Nicholas Boughen

I dedicate my contributions in this book to Doreen Hellemn She just passed awaythis year and was a really cool lady who happened to be my grandmother She wasone of those people who you thought of as a friend rather than just a relative Born inEngland, she married a U.S Army medic and came to the United States just afterWWII Later in life she became a world-renowned cake decorator, and just last yearmade the cake for my wedding In the last days of her life, she was helping me and

my wife pick out baby names We will all miss her —David Ebner

To Kelly for always standing by me, and to my family for all of their support

—Todd Grimes

To seekers of LightWave lore —Jennifer Hachigian

I’d like to dedicate my part of this book to my better half, Riikka Maria, due to allthe long nights when I’ve just sat in front of the computer, neglecting the reallyimportant things And for my family, friends, and our cats, Otto, Lassi, and Topi

(RIP) too —Erkki Halkka

To my parents, Jack and Phyllis, for supporting my obsession with making pictures

on a computer, even when I gave up on it myself from time to time —Kurtis Harris

This is for the annoyed animator There you sat, bathed in the eerie glow of the puter monitor, scratching your head when things didn’t work quite right the firsttime In the hope that you could transmit your ideas directly into the computer, you’dbang your head against the monitor If that failed, it was probably due to too muchhair in the way, so you’d start yanking that out of the way in frustration Finally, in a

com-iii

last-ditch effort to convey your ideas to that infernal machine, you’d berate it withobscenities, sharing your true feelings with it, and those around you, until finally

breaking down into tears Annoyed animator, this book’s for you! —David Jerrard

To all the LightWavers in the world and my wife, Ann-Kristin —Arne Kaupang

To my wife and family — my constant source of inspiration —Brad Krause

To Sharon Thank you for your understanding, your support, and your love

—Mike Pauza

To my wife, Marija, for living with my LightWave obsession for all these years and

never once threatening to flush the dongle down the toilet —Kevin Phillips

To Janay for all her love and support —Policarpo

To my friends and family for their undying support and to the numerous industrycolleagues with whom I’ve had the pleasure of sharing, learning, working, and wit-

nessing our magical industry unfold before the eyes of the world —Robert Powers

To my father, Enrico Special thanks to my family, Marta Salustri and family, WesBeckwith and Timothy Albee, all the guys at NewTek and particularly Ben Vost,

Roberto Musso, and Bob Hood —Emanuele Salvucci

To my wife, Camilla, and my two children, Ariel and Daniel Special thanks to Wes,Steve, and the rest of the gang of authors I learned a lot myself This is also forthose people who have spent countless hours banging their heads on the wall trying

to figure things out the night before a deadline —Larry Shultz

To Lauren — LightWave took so much of our life, the least I can do is tell you andeveryone reading this how much I love and appreciate you for dealing with it for aslong as you did Long may you run… To my kids, Blackjack, Olivia, Shane, and Ste-ven — I love you all Thanks for your help on the tours To my brother Ken — I’velearned a lot from you, and I love you To Brad Carvey — Thanks for everythingyou’ve done for me in the time I’ve known you To everyone who’s taken my semi-

nars — Thanks for coming out and making it worthwhile —Lee Stranahan

To my loving wife, Heidi, who lets me spend time playing with LightWave

—Peter Thomas

To my wife, Addie, and my dog, Jack, whose patience is unmatched I would be lostwithout them I would also like to give a special thanks to Wes Beckwith for hiscountless late nights and weekends to bring this book from a simple conversation to

a masterpiece that we will all value for years —William “Proton” Vaughan

To my bosses, Bob Headley and Paul Woodford From the very beginning, you havesupported my development as an artist and encouraged me to grow in my skills.More importantly, though, you enabled that to happen by creating a phenomenalwork environment I would be remiss if I did not say thanks for all that you’ve donefor me If everyone had bosses like you, no one would ever complain about going to

work You have my sincere appreciation and my deepest respect —Steve Warner

To my family, Skyia and Michael, who did my chores for me while I spent all mytime on this book, to all those who use and love LightWave, and to the people whodeveloped the program in the first place Thank you for your hard work and dedica-

tion; you make it possible for me to do what I do —Robin Wood

iv | Dedications

Forewords ix

About the Authors xvi

Acknowledgments xxv

Introduction xxvii

Chapter 1 Sage Advice 1

General Tips 1

Chapter 2 Design, Pre-visualization, and Prep 13

Project Goals 13

Reference Material 17

Pre-visualization 24

Design 30

Chapter 3 Program Setup 39

Installation and Configuration 39

Interface Adjustments 48

Menu Layout 51

Keyboard Shortcuts 56

Interface Navigation 64

General Options 73

General Options>Modeler 74

General Options>Layout 74

Display Options 75

Display Options>Modeler 76

Display Options>Layout 88

Hub 89

Plug-ins 97

Import/Export 100

Chapter 4 Modeling 103

General Tips 103

Scanning and Setup 105

Object Construction 106

Layers 109

Selection 111

Copy/Paste 118

Create Primitives 119

Points/Polygons 120

Curves 121

Modify, Translate, Rotate 121

v

Multiply, Extend, Beveling, Thicken 129

Rail Extrude 133

Array, Duplicate 134

Subdividing 136

Construct, Reduce 137

Combine 139

Splines 139

SubPatches 141

Detail 148

Character Modeling 148

Symmetry 151

Work Clean 153

Pivot 153

VMaps 153

Surfacing 155

Color VMaps 158

Transparent Surfaces 158

Tricks for Surfacing 159

Weights 164

UVs 167

Endomorphs 193

Skelegons 197

Luxigons 198

Powergons 199

Chapter 5 Texturing 201

General Tips 202

Basic Attributes 210

Image Maps 216

Gradients 226

Procedurals 234

Advanced Attributes 246

Environmental Attributes 248

Shaders 250

Presets 254

VIPER 257

Image Editor 259

Chapter 6 Staging/Digital Cinematography 261

General Tips 261

Chapter 7 Lighting 277

Tips from LightWave 3D 8 Lighting 277

General Tips 286

Global Illumination/Radiosity 315

Flares 321

Volumetrics 325

Shadows 327

vi | Contents

Chapter 8 Animating 335

General Tips 335

Basic Principles 341

Keyframes 342

Inverse Kinematics 345

Expressions 347

Expressions>LScript 349

Expressions>Channel Expressions 350

Expressions>Expression Examples 351

Channel Modifiers 356

Character Animation 357

Deformations 364

Deformations>Bones 365

Deformations>Morphing and Endomorphs 369

Deformations>Displacement 374

Character Rigging 379

Motion Designer LW 6-7.5 394

Motion Designer LW 6-7.5>Simulating Solid-Like Objects 402

Motion Designer LW 6-7.5>Simulating Cloth-Like Objects 404

Motion Designer LW 6-7.5>Simulating Line-Like Objects 406

Motion Designer LW 6-7.5>Collision Basics 408

Motion Effects LW 8 409

Motion Effects LW 8>Soft-Body Dynamics 415

Motion Effects LW 8>ClothFX 417

Motion Effects LW 8>Solid Dynamics 420

Motion Effects LW 8>Collision Basics 421

Particle Simulation 421

Simulation Examples 426

Editor Windows>Scene Editor 428

Editor Windows>Graph Editor 430

Motion Mixer 433

Chapter 9 Special Effects 435

General Tips 435

Volumetrics 436

Fog 439

HyperVoxels 441

SasLite 442

Environments 444

SkyTracer 445

Textured Environment 446

Image World 449

Filters 451

Chapter 10 Rendering 455

General Tips 455

Celshading 478

Previews 483

FPrime 490

Network Rendering 494

Contents | vii

Chapter 11 Compositing 503

General Tips 503

Splitting Renders into Layered Elements 508

Exporting Channels (Depth/Spec/etc.) 508

Digital Fusion 510

After Effects 511

Chapter 12 Scripting 513

LScripts 513

Expressions 538

Chapter 13 LightWave in Print 543

General Tips 543

Chapter 14 LightWave 3D Troubleshooting 551

NewTek Information 552

Installation 554

Registration 559

Files 561

General Tips 564

Modeler 569

Layout 570

Hub 577

Chapter 15 Bonus Section 581

Optimization Pays at Render Time 581

Some of My Best Friends Are Nulls 582

CaféFX 584

Zoic Studios 598

Index 603

viii | Contents

I need this book Even with my background

It all started on a beautiful, warm spring day in Los Gatos, California I left workearly to go see the new Amiga computer, which was not yet available, at the localComputer Land store I was the third person to get my name on the waiting list.After the store closed, I stood and stared at the computer from outside Two otherpeople were standing with me, Mitch Lopes and Paul Montgomery We decided to

go to Denny’s to talk about the Amiga This chance meeting, nineteen years ago,was my first step toward becoming a computer artist

At the time I was an engineer at Diasonics, working in the research departmentdesigning ultrasonic equipment to detect disease in the body with sound waves.Being a computer artist was not in the plans, but things would change I was primar-ily interested in the Amiga for its outstanding hardware and expansion capabilities.For example, I built a 256K-byte memory expansion board for the Amiga 1000,based on the memory expansion connector’s pin names Eventually, I would develop

a few other products for the Amiga

In the mid-1980s, I moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to work on mous robots at Sandia National Laboratories, returning to the Bay Area uponoccasion to visit During one visit, I met Alan Hastings Alan had created a 3D spaceanimation with the Amiga computer I was really impressed with what Alan haddone I got excited by the thought of trying to create my own 3D computer art on theAmiga

autono-I first started playing around with digital computer art using Deluxe Paint, andlater acquired NewTek’s DigiPaint, a 4,095-color HAM paint program DigiPaintworked with LCD shutter glasses, and it was possible to paint 3D objects in realtime Tim Jenison had written a paint program before for the Radio Shack ColorComputer and was a musician, artist, and engineer This mutual interest and myengineering background encouraged Paul Montgomery to introduce me to TimJenison Paul wanted Tim and me to work together on a project There were severalideas suggested, but Paul liked an idea Tim had for a unique way to manipulatevideo Tim sketched out his idea on a napkin, at a pizza restaurant Later, while at atrade show, I was asked what I was working on with NewTek I told John Faust and

a few other writers that I was working on a Laser Toaster, which would toast breadwith hotel logos at 300 slices per minute, with an optional jelly jet printer, whichcould squirt sixteen shades of jelly on the toast The joke got a lot of press and when

it came time to reveal the real product, NewTek decided to call it the Video Toaster

In November 1988, NewTek showed the Video Toaster for the first time atComdex The only room we could find the night before the show was the bridal suite

at a very grungy, run-down, two-story motel in a creepy area of Las Vegas Thebridal suite was the last room on the second floor and was exactly the same as all theother rooms, with one small exception Bound to the railing of the walkway with

ix

baling wire next to the door was a cheesy cement cupid with its wings broken off.That night, a bunch of us slept on the floor, while the software guys (Tim Jenison,Steve Kell, and Steve Hartford) worked all night adding effects for the show TheVideo Toaster was shown in the Commodore Amiga booth and was a big hit.

I started spending a lot of time playing with LightWave, learning, exploring, anddeveloping techniques to get what I wanted In 1995, after seeing what I was doing

at home with the Video Toaster, a Hollywood producer got funding to start a visualeffects studio We created Free Range Digital Imaging I built the studio, then hiredand trained local computer artists We were in business for about four years and

worked on shows like Space: Above and Beyond and Michael Jackson’s “History”

music video

Since then, Joe Conti, Scott Helgesen, and I formed a company called Autumn

Light Entertainment Our first job was the opening sequence to the movie Men In Black.

In addition to Autumn Light, I was an advisor to the local junior college whenthey were developing their computer animation program and have been teaching one

of the advanced LightWave classes, as well as doing freelance work for movies andcontinuing my engineering consulting business

In my work as a computer artist, I have had to develop my own techniques,tricks, and tips as I came upon difficult circumstances Because I work at home inNew Mexico, I am primarily self taught but I have benefited from other computerartists’ secret tips and techniques Watching someone working is always a learningexperience Everyone does things differently I saw someone “shift select” the bones

in a character’s back and then rotate them Each bone rotated the same amount, sothe arc was smooth and uniform It had never occurred to me that I could selectmultiple bones and rotate them

So, why do I need this book? For the same reason that you need this book Tobenefit from the exploration and experience of others — their tips and tricks At thecollege where I teach, students learn both Maya and LightWave However, theyalways do their best work in LightWave I believe this is because it is possible tolearn LightWave on your own, with just a little help from the instructors Maya, onthe other hand, requires a lot more effort and guidance, and so students often learnone way, the instructor’s way However, there is always more than one way to skin a

CG cat, and learning on one’s own requires that each individual come up with his orher own way Some of these ways are better, faster, or more efficient than others.These are tips and tricks Also, it is almost impossible to keep up to date on all thenew stuff Having a lot of people exploring and developing their own tricks and thencompiling the best ones together is the most efficient way to get the most out ofLightWave

Learning a 3D animation program is like learning a foreign language Each vidual word is easy to learn, but only after learning lots of words well is it possible

indi-to create interesting and meaningful sentences With LightWave, you don’t need indi-toknow a lot of new words before you can use them to do something cool, but themore you have in your repertoire, the more efficient you can be And each tip ortrick that someone develops is like a new word This is why a tips and tricks book is

so important Add new “words” to your vocabulary and play with them until youknow them well With books like this one and programs like LightWave, it is easy tocreate stuff to impress your clients, your friends, and yourself

Brad Carvey

x | Forewords

LightWave is a huge and complex program We demand it to be, since we want thepower to create the art that’s burning in our minds But power is useless if you can-not control it, and control comes from understanding.

I don’t understand LightWave In fact, nobody can fully understand every part of

such a versatile art-creating engine, even the creators Imagine the time and effort ittakes to master drawing with a pencil But even a pencil can’t be fully mastered; it’s

an open-ended, infinitely creative tool that can always do more LightWave is evenmore complex than a pencil, and so there is always much more to learn and discover.That’s what makes this book you hold so valuable Its format is unique and excit-ing The number and unprecedented range of topics is guaranteed to give you newideas and inspiration Some tips will cover ideas you’ve discovered yourself Otherswill be on topics that aren’t your interest What remains are hundreds of immediatelyuseful methods and ideas to help you! The scattered topics become like beacons inthe LightWave world, a way to guide you to the new places you’ve been hoping andtrying to go to

But, from experience, there is hidden treasure in that “boring” second category

of tips, the ones that describe parts of LightWave you’re not interested in It is those

gems that may be most valuable to you in the end, since those are likely the topics

you know least about, and this book is ready to help guide you in those directions

that aren’t your current skills.

As a programmer, I know the most powerful way to grow skills is to always keep learning and keep practicing Artists must do the same! Enjoy this wonderful com-

pendium, and use it as your treasure map to keep learning about LightWave 3D!

Steven Worley

Worley Labs

The field of 3D has exploded in the last decade — captivating audiences of cinemaand television, interacting with game players like never before, enriching scientificvisualizations, and so on

When I first started in the business of computer-generated art, I had to explainwhat a 3D artist is How a model can be graphed on paper and coordinates can beentered to build a 3D model one vector at a time Surface attributes and light areapplied so that you can render an image or frame of animation Except for a few,many people did not understand the application of such skills Now it is one of thefastest growing and most exciting industries

In the past, you had to be both technically adept as well as artistically talented.Today, 3D programs such as LightWave have evolved into tools that are much easier

to use, intuitive, and natural for the artist There are technical artists who can makebeautiful particle flows or simulate natural effects such as water, fire, smoke, etc.Being an artist is about living a life of discovery and creation Becoming a suc-cessful 3D artist requires continuous education and experience

This book is the sharing of LightWave discoveries and useful tips learned fromthe experience of leading artists in the industry Whether you are a recent purchaser

of LightWave or if you are like me and have been using LightWave since picking upone of the first 100 Toasters for the Amiga, you will find this collection of tips to beinvaluable — inviting you to open doors in your mind and propel your personalartistic exploration

David Ebner

Forewords | xi

Let’s face it — learning to use 3D software is an extremely difficult process If youhave learned even the basics of making objects, loading them up, making thempretty, making them move, and rendering the whole thing out … well, that’s a bigaccomplishment right there There’s just so much to learn, so many different possiblepoints of entry, and so many things that can go wrong Once you have the basicsdown, it’s all just adding layers.

That’s why this book is such a great idea — you can start anywhere, open to anypage, and you’ll find some useful information that you can put to work right away.You can start to build the layers of information, and let them benefit your work Notonly that, you’re also learning from such a huge pool of talent that you’re going toget techniques and hints that will hit you from all over So, I’m going to keep thisshort … you have work to do!

Lee Stranahan

As you read through the list of authors contributing to this compendium, you mayhave noticed that it reads like a “who’s who” of the LightWave community

In concept alone, the book is stunning One has to wonder why nobody has done

it before — harnessed the vast knowledge and experience of so many talented artistsfrom across the globe and spanning so many industries

This one concept virtually assures the reader (that’s you) secrets and techniquesfrom the broadest possible spectrum of LightWave artists Among the contributorsare graphic designers, web designers, print artists, character animators, visual effectsartists, architects, industrial designers, and pure artists, just to name a few Each ofthese vocations requires different tools, uses, and techniques and has its own set ofrules regarding render time versus quality

Furthermore, it seems that no two artists of any genre work exactly the same.Everybody has different ways of doing things, different preferred techniques, ortricks they’ve devised themselves over the years, so even among the character ani-mators or the visual effects artists, you are likely to find more than one way ofaccomplishing the same task The real value here is not necessarily the specific tech-nique, but the thinking process that brought the artist to her inevitable conclusion.Reading through these pages, you are likely to discover new ways of regardingLightWave’s tools You’ll soon discover that there are always at least half a dozenways of achieving your goal

One is virtually guaranteed to find tips or tricks of value within the pages of thisbook, regardless of where you fall in the LightWave spectrum and whether you are abeginner or a seasoned expert

So read along Don’t skip pages, even if you are a cynical sort, burnt out by toomany long days, weeks, and months The gems are in here waiting to be discovered.The only real disadvantage to reading this book will be when you discover the tipthat would have saved you six weeks of work if Wordware had only published thedarn thing a couple of weeks earlier!

Good hunting

Nicholas Boughen

Senior Visual Effects Animator, Rainmaker

“Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore, get wisdom.”

—Proverbs 4:7xii | Forewords

Nearly 1000 years before the birth of Christ, a group of Jewish rabbis set out to lect the poems, short stories, and parables that had been passed down to them bytheir forefathers Over the course of the next 700 years, the axioms they gatheredwere compiled into a book that would stand the test of time Given the title “SepherHokhmah,” or “Book of Wisdom,” it contained teachings on love, hate, fear, happi-ness, ethics, morality, and spirituality In other words, it taught about life and how tolive it to its fullest It was later given the descriptive title “Liber Proverbiorum,”which translates to “Book for many words,” due to its ability to condense otherwiselengthy teachings into short, simple phrases In English it is called “Book of

col-Proverbs.”

Although it is one of the defining works on the subject, the Book of Proverbs isnot unique Similar books of wisdom can be found in Egyptian, Chinese, Indian, andArab cultures It would seem that wherever men gather in the pursuit of knowledge,

a collection of aphoristic writings can be found It is no surprise, then, that you areholding this book in your hands, for you have come seeking knowledge I am here totell you that you have found it This is your book of proverbs

In the next 550-plus pages, you will find 1,354 tips spanning 132 categorieswritten by 31 of the world’s leading LightWave artists They range from hidden pro-gram configurations and little-known keyboard shortcuts to advanced workflowtechniques and time-saving production secrets They are the product of years ofhard-earned experience Whether you are a LightWave novice or a seasoned pro, thisbook will meet you where you are and grow with you throughout your career.The Book of Proverbs is sometimes referred to as “the Book of Books.” Simi-

larly, Wordware’s LightWave 3D [8]: 1001 Tips & Tricks could be called a “CGI

Book of Books.” Its scope is enormous Its teachings are timeless And its value tothe LightWave community cannot be overestimated

“Sty-lot but say very little Cut to the chase! I don’t have time to weed through a bunch of

meaningless words and pictures in a vain effort to glean a femtometer’s worth ofinfo amid a hectare of chaff

So when Wes Beckwith pitched me his idea for a “1,001 tips and tricks” book forLightWave, it froze me in my tracks (the true sign of an idea that is matched in bril-liance only by its simplicity) No filler, no nonsense, just a whole lot of tips andtricks from industry professionals It was brilliant!

The end result is that thirty-one of the absolute top people in their respectivefields have contributed gems of knowledge that leave even thirteen-year LightWaveveterans, such as myself, shaking their heads in amazement at quick-and-easy LWtricks they never knew And the amazing thing is that of all the tips and tricks sub-mitted, there were only a handful that were identical

This is a sign of just how huge and powerful LightWave has become And thatthis book distills the techniques of the best “LightWave jockeys” in the world andputs those revelations into a concise, no-nonsense package is exhilarating beyondcompare! If this book can make a long-time veteran feel as excited as a newbie,

Forewords | xiii

leafing through pages upon pages of insights, I can only imagine the kind of effect

this book will have on the folks building their skillz!

It’s been a fantastically enlightening experience, being a part of the creation ofthis book I can’t wait to see the effect it’ll have on the world of 3D artistry!

Timothy “Amadhi” Albee

“Anything that is of value in life only multiplies when it is given.”

—Deepak ChopraAll my life I wanted to have a pet A dog, pot-bellied pig, rabbit, tree frog, hell, even

a pet rock would have been cool My family was always on the go, so pets didn’treally fit into our schedule when I was growing up I always told people the firstthing I was going to do when I moved away from home was go out and get a choco-late Lab Then college and my first few jobs got in the way and there just wasn’tenough time or I didn’t have a big enough yard for a pet like that to run around in

At the rate things were going I would never own a pet

However, the inevitable finally happened Last year I broke down and made thecommitment of bringing a pet into my family Nothing could have prepared me forthe path that I had taken when I brought Jack Black, my chocolate Lab, home Thefirst three nights were torture! Who would have guessed that such a cute creaturecould make such a horrible whine at 4 in the morning? After three days of gettingabsolutely no sleep, I was at the end of my rope when I got a fortuitous call fromKelly Dove at Boxx Technologies She could sense my pain, or heard me dozing off

on the phone, and gave me some advice that I will never forget She suggested that Itake an old wind-up alarm clock, wrap it up in a towel, and put it in Jack’s kennel onhis blanket and he would go right to sleep thinking it was his mother’s heartbeat.Could this be true?

It worked like a charm In a million years I would have never thought of that!Over the past year many people have helped me by giving me invaluable tips andtricks on raising Jack to be the best family companion anyone could ever ask for.Some of the other tips I have gotten over the last year were, “Always praise yourpet,” “Take him out the same door every time to go potty (did I just use the word

“potty”?) and he will go to that door when he needs to go potty — giving you thevisual cue to take him out.” A big one that I’m glad my vet told me was, “Don’tbathe him more than once every two weeks or he could loose his water-resistant furcoat.” There is a long road ahead for Jack and me, and I look forward to it I amgrateful to learn from others and to help others by sharing these experiences withdog owners who have been down the road I’m on; I am sure it will save myself andothers a little headache and make life for both Jack and me a lot better And the more

I share, the more I receive in return

Like my experience with Jack, over the past eight

years, I have learned dozens of valuable tips and tricks

from other LightWave artists I have talked and worked

with, as well as come up with many of my own valuable

lessons through trial and error I use these tips over and

over again, saving myself a lot of headaches, and that is

a good thing Sometimes it takes that outside source to

help you see things in a different light, or to go down a

path you otherwise wouldn’t have taken

xiv | Forewords

This book that you’re holding in your hands could be the key to meeting yournext deadline or adding that extra step that takes your work to the next higher level

of quality Wordware has gathered some of the best and brightest minds in the try and pulled from them the best tips and tricks for LightWave and graphic art ingeneral and put them all right here into one indispensable reference Although thisbook was in production for only one year, you are holding many years worth ofknowledge and skill that is ready to be applied to your next project

indus-Whether you are a hobbyist working out of your garage or a professional wood animator, this book has all kinds of goodies for you The authors have coveredevery pixel of LightWave, offering up amazing tips and tricks that you won’t be able

Holly-to live without once you try them If all you walk away with from this book is justtwo or three tips that you can apply to your everyday work to save you time andenergy, then you have more than paid for the price of the book

Learn over a thousand ways that thirty-one industry professionals shave minutes(sometimes even hours!) off their daily work while using LightWave to create themind-blowing effects you see on the big screen, television, print advertising, webdesign, military animations, and much more Take advantage of these and you will

be a better animator, designer, worker, hobbyist, or whatever you choose to be Shareyour knowledge with others and you will be their friends, and they will be yours, justlike Jack and me

William “Proton” Vaughan

NewTek’s LightWave 3D Evangelist

“The man who does not read good books has noadvantage over the man who cannot read them.”

—Mark Twain

Take a horde of LightWave 3D professionals, tie them up, and force all of them totell you their favorite LightWave tips and tricks and you too could have authored thisbook! This is an amazing resource that will save you time and help keep your sanityand your hair (too late for me) It’s like finding a mine full of gold nuggets — somany, in fact, you just don’t know where to start collecting them! It covers every-thing from creating expressions that automatically animate a cannon ball to tips onhow to better animate your favorite character LightWave is a great tool that enablesyou to give life to your imagination, and this book will help you to speed that pro-cess The tips are short enough not to bore you and long enough to give you thedetails

My studio, Lost Pencil Animation Studios, provides character animation, ing, texturing, and rigging services We also create training material to show youexactly how we accomplish these tasks This book is an excellent companion to ourvideo training material Even after using LightWave for over six years, I can’tbelieve what I’ve learned from this book It just goes to show you that in thisindustry you never stop learning So what are you waiting for — quit reading thisforeword and start mining the nuggets!

model-Paul Mikulecky

Character Animator, Lost PencilAnimation Studios www.lostpencil.com

Forewords | xv

About the Authors

Formerly a print designer for numerous video game publications,

Gerald Abraham began his venture into the 3D world in early

1999 For Gerald, LightWave has gone from being a tary tool for creating design elements to a primary choice forcreating photorealistic imagery He currently works as aLightWave artist at Sway Studio in Santa Monica, California

supplemen-Timothy “Amadhi” Albee is a veteran of Walt Disney Feature

Animation, broadcast television, syndicated television, cials, and video games He co-founded two animation studios inthe Los Angeles area before moving to Fairbanks, Alaska, to focus

commer-on his visicommer-on of “micro-team” filmmaking His goal of “no

secrets” is embodied in his books, Essential LightWave 3D 7.5

(which gives the reader the skill level of a long-time studio

vet-eran), LightWave 3D 7 Character Animation (which discusses the fastest way to produce feature-quality animation), and CGI Filmmaking: The Creation of Ghost Warrior (which explores every detail of micro-team production from ideation to dis- tribution) Albee’s most recent work, the short film Kaze, Ghost Warrior, is an

application of the micro-team theories of production: It was created on a budget of

$5,000 (USD) on two consumer-end PC computers by one person in six months ofproduction

Patrik Beck has been an animator for over fifteen years, and a

musician for longer than that He is the founder and owner of tric Crayon Studio, an animation and graphics facility Patrik isalso a part-time teacher and an author, having written severalbooks and numerous magazine articles In recent years Patrik hasturned his attention to independent filmmaking His years of expe-rience in computer animation translate directly to the emergingfields of DV and high-definition video production Patrik oftenspeaks at and holds seminars for professional organizations such as N.A.B.,

Elec-Siggraph, and Wisconsin’s own FilmCon He currently has several projects in theworks, including preproduction of a feature-length movie based on the Ball Lightingshort called “Strange Voltage.”

Wes “kurv” Beckwith has been a LightWave hobbyist since

ver-sion 6.5, but recently started using LightWave in a profesver-sionalmanner after taking Larry Shultz’s training course Wes has adegree in electronic engineering and spent two years working forTexas Instruments, where he implemented several cost-saving soft-ware ideas that saved TI millions of dollars ongoing on a yearly

xvi

basis Wes was recently promoted to the position of Acquisition Editor at WordwarePublishing, and has been working to make Wordware the CG publisher of choice inthe industry Wes implemented several cost-saving procedures at Wordware as well,saving the company 35% of its production costs yearly In his spare time, Wes ownsand operates a web development and hosting business, which was featured in the

Dallas Morning News as a local success story in April 2002.

Jack “Deuce” Bennett has an extensive background in motion

picture/television special effects (including Lonesome Dove, RoboCop, DOA, and Walker, Texas Ranger) He received his first

computer at age nine, when he started making his own rudimentarygraphics programs Now he has combined the two to become aLightWave jack-of-all-trades Currently he is providing variousmilitary contractors with concept visualizations When he is notdoing that, he can be found writing articles for various publications and assistingNewTek with future LightWave development

Nicholas Boughen enjoys a career in feature film and television

working for Rainmaker in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

For the MGM feature film Good Boy!, Nick was instrumental in

creating a new technology to matchmove the 500+ talking-doghead shots in the movie After training a team of eight artists on hisground-breaking technology, the team was able to produce a mini-mum of 20 shots per week Nick has worked on countless

television commercials, pilots, and miniseries including Dead Like Me, Aftershock: Earthquake in New York, Voyage of the Unicorn, Snow White, Time Tunnel, Stargate SG-1, and others, providing modeling, texturing, lighting, and animation Nick’s feature film work includes The Lizzie McGuire Movie and Good Boy! and he is currently working as a senior animator on the Fox feature, Garfield Nick is the best-selling author of LightWave 3D 8 Lighting, which has changed how artists look

at all aspects of lighting and is a must-have for every serious LightWave artist

Richard Brak has been a LightWave user since version 5.6 came

out Although he has used most of LightWave in many projects, hespecializes in geometric visualization of mathematical objects,both in 2D posters and 3D animations He has also written severalLightWave plug-ins, with Rounder being the best known RichardBrak has a PhD in mathematical physics (London University) andwas an undergraduate at Oxford University In addition to 3D, heenjoys pencil sketching and also does a little oil and digital paint-ing from time to time His web site is www.richardbrak.net

Digital effects supervisor David Ebner is a cofounder of CaféFX

and the leader of its creative staff He is an extraordinarily talentedartist and has broad expertise in all aspects of computer animation.His thorough knowledge of computer graphics techniques and ofthe latest software and hardware products is invaluable in deter-mining the best approach for any given project Among Ebner’sspecialties is photorealism He has created an astonishing array of3D objects from cars to food to spacecraft, rendered in such remarkable detail that it

is virtually impossible to tell that they are artificial creations Ebner has led the team

of supervisors and talent behind all of CaféFX’s most ambitious projects, which

About the Authors | xvii

includes roughly thirty feature film credits He oversaw CaféFX’s work on the

fea-ture films Armageddon, Flubber, Spy Kids II and III, Panic Room, and Master and Commander In addition, he co-founded THE SYNDICATE in Santa Monica, which

is a commercial and music video effects, telecine, and finishing studio THESYNDICATE recently won the MVPA awards for best telecine artist of the yearand best effects in a music video

After discovering an affinity for computer graphics on the Atari in

1990, Jonny Gorden got a job creating 2D graphics and

anima-tion for edutainment software titles Jonny convinced his employer

to acquire 3D software in 1992 after drooling over 3D images andanimation he saw on cover disks Jonny first saw LightWave 3D 5

at the inaugural Digital Media World Expo in Sydney, Australia, in

1996 Then working as lead artist for an international game oper, he made the decision for the company to use LightWave 3Dfor all its 3D production Jonny started his own company, Zero Gravity Entertain-ment, in 1997 to develop the first commercial Quake mod for Marvel Entertainment,X-Men: The Ravages of Apocalypse X-Men: ROA was one of the first real-time 3Dgames to have all the characters and models for the game created and animated inLightWave 3D Zero Gravity Entertainment has produced a number of games, andsince 2001 has concentrated on 3D animation production for TV, DVD, and print

devel-Jonny’s contribution to Wordware’s LightWave 3D [8]: 1001 Tips & Tricks is just a taste of what’s to come in his eagerly anticipated book, LightWave 3D 8 Character Creation: From Concept to Animation.

Todd Grimes is an experienced Hollywood animator who has

worked at numerous studios including Omation, Threshold tainment, Nickelodeon, and Warner Brothers Home Video Hisproduction credits include Hershey’s Really Big 3D Show,

Enter-FoodFight!, Edward Fudwupper Fibbed Big (a short based on Berkeley Breathed stories), and Butt Ugly Martians In 2003, Todd

formed a production company focusing on the development andcreation of character animation Todd’s experience extends farbeyond the studio walls and directly into the classroom He is an accomplished 3Dinstructor who has taught all over the world, and has also been published in numer-ous industry magazines

In 1997, Jennifer Hachigian earned her bachelor’s degree in

com-puter science from Michigan State University That same year, shesaw examples of LightWave 3D renders that looked like hand-drawn animation cels Entranced, she started learning LightWave.Jennifer has since developed a knack for creating 3D renders thatlook hand-drawn She also knows more technical informationabout LightWave and Motion Designer than most folks Jenniferruns the Celshader.com web site and currently works in SouthernCalifornia as a digital artist

Eki Halkka is a Finnish animator, photographer, editor, and compositor with well

over ten years of experience in most aspects of video production He has worked onhundreds of TV commercials, TV programs, and other video productions over theyears, also directing occasionally Eki is the creator of Eki’s PlugPak and Eki’sxviii | About the Authors

ModPak plug-in collections for LightWave 3D animation software His web site ishttp://www.kolumbus.fi/erkki.halkka/.

Kurtis Harris has been working with LightWave 3D professionally since 1996 He

is currently working for NewTek, Inc., the makers of LightWave 3D, in San Antonio,Texas, as a member of the Technical Support department Kurtis has a range of 3Dexperience, having produced graphics for industrial training, web, corporate identity,and games He has also worked as an adjunct instructor in Houston CommunityCollege’s Technical Communication department, teaching 3D Modeling 1, 3DAnimation 1, and Web Design 1, and as an instructor in San Antonio College’sContinuing Education department, teaching Introduction to 3D Animation

David Jerrard began his career in 3D animation in early 1990 in

his hometown of London, Ontario, Canada, and was quicklysought by local video production studios Four years later heco-founded one of the first CGI studios in London, specializing ingraphics for video and print, and winning the Silver and Goldawards in the 1995 Ads & Sales Awards for best television com-mercials During this period, he developed his own concepts andtechniques, many of which are currently in use at leading effectsstudios today These techniques, which he shared on the Internet, led to his position

as lead tutorial writer for NewTekniques magazine in 1997 In 1998 he co-authored Advanstar’s popular book, LightWave 3D Applied v5.6 In 1999 Dave became a tech- nical director at Foundation Imaging, working on Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles, and moved to California Since then he’s co-authored the second book in the series, LightWave 3D Applied v6.5 & 7, and has moved on to doing visual effects

for film He’s worked at such studios as Unified Film Organization, Flash

Filmworks, and most recently Stan Winston Digital

Geoffrey Kater studied transportation design at the Art Center

College of Design in Pasadena, California, where he worked onautomotive designs for companies like Honda, American Steel,and JPL Such collaboration brought early success as a two-timeNational Industrial Design Competitions winner and two-year

SEMA scholarship recipient with published works in Business Week, Car Styling, and Popular Hot Rodding His love for auto-

mobiles and futuristic worlds landed him a job in 1995 working as a prop designer

on the Emmy Award-winning show Where On Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? After a three-month stint on Carmen, he was hired at Saban Entertainment as the lead prop designer on a futuristic sci-fi show, Bureau of Alien Detectors In 1997 he became the lead space ship designer on the Silver Surfer animated series Geoffrey started his

own design/animation company, One Pen, Inc., in 1998 During the first year he washeavily involved in designing and developing a new game show for The Fox FamilyChannel’s Reality Game Show division He was also the lead animation designer/modeler for Steve Oedekerk’s “Thumb Wars” and developed 3D animated main titlesequences for Fox Kids November 1999 marked the start of S4 Studios, LLC., inVan Nuys, California, a venture in which Geoffrey teamed up with old pal,

twenty-year animation veteran Dale Hendrickson, who was credited with art

direc-tion and CG producer for Silver Surfer Over the last four years, Geoffrey has

produced countless CGI shows, movie trailers, and commercials and directed sixonline animated webisodes for Sony Playstation’s “Twisted Metal: Black.” As a

About the Authors | xix

four-year-old CG animation company now located in Hollywood, S4 Studios, LLC.,continues to deliver high-quality, diverse CGI animated projects for clients such asthe Cartoon Network, Disney, and MGM Recent works can be seen at

www.s4studios.com

Born in Geilo, Norway, Arne Kaupang started working as a

graphic designer at a local advertising agency after school at theage of thirteen He found out that this was what he wanted to do inlife, and since then he has moved to Oslo and worked in advertis-ing agencies, graphic design studios, and been the art director for

the fashion magazines ELLE and TIQUE a.o In 1995 he started

his current design studio, AKD, and today, at the age of three, he designs for a number of different types of clients, includ-ing record companies, magazines, events, sports, and fashion He’s been usingLightWave on the Mac since version 5.6 for print and television In 2001 he wasnominated as a finalist in the Logos & Idents category at the 3D Festival Awards,and has also picked up a few design awards in his home country, Norway His website is at http://www.akdesign.no

thirty-Brad Krause lives and works in Milwaukee, Wisconsin He

graduated from UW Eau Claire in 1988 with a degree in graphicdesign Not being a graphic designer, he quickly plummeted to thebottom of the print design heap and worked in print production forsix years, preparing other people’s artwork to be printed on plasticpackaging and boxes In the meantime he practiced his airbrush,drafting, and inking skills Buying his first Mac quickly landedhim a job in a graphic design studio as an illustrator and designer,and he’s been doing graphic design, illustration, web, technical writing, and printproduction ever since He acquired LightWave with version 5.0 when it came out forthe Macintosh During the day he runs a graphic design studio for a point-of-pur-chase company and in the evening he works on freelance 3D projects You can seesome samples of his work at his web site, http://www.radiance-media.com

Samuel Kvaalen, born into a family with a heritage of artists and

scientists, was always influenced and inspired by both sides As akid he would switch between artistic and scientific projects At theage of fifteen he became inspired by movie-making and visualeffects and from that learned about LightWave 3D Since then hehas been able to exercise both of his passions — art and science —

at the same time He is the author of numerous LightWave plug-ins, both free andcommercial Samuel is currently a student in Paris and does occasional freelancework

Mike Pauza holds a degree in computational physics, and has

done simulation/animation work for clients such as the NationalCenter for Supercomputing Applications and Sierra On-Line.Mike is fascinated with all types of realistic motion and hasworked on a diverse assortment of simulation projects rangingfrom rocket science to bridge dynamics In his free time, Mikeenjoys 3D modeling, digital painting, and spending time with hisfamily Mike lives in Champaign, Illinois

xx | About the Authors

Kevin Phillips hails from the sunny shores of clean and green

New Zealand, a country well known for its hobbits, orcs, and closeresemblance to Middle-earth His work week is currently splitbetween doing CGI with LightWave at Flux Animation Studios(http://www.fluxmedia.co.nz) and teaching LightWave at NatcollDesign Technology (http://www.natcoll.ac.nz) Kevin has free-lanced for several years, having experience in many areas ofLightWave from plug-in development to character animation andmodeling, has lectured on 3D, and has written, developed, and run 3D short-coursesfor the Auckland University of Technology Having founded the New Zealand

LightWave Users Group, Kiwavers (pronounced kee-wavers) back in 1998, Kevin

has always been a strong supporter and promoter of LightWave as a key tool for ducing outstanding 3D art and animation Every month he endeavors to share some

pro-of his extensive knowledge and experience with his fellow LightWave users

A visual designer from Austin, Texas, Policarpo has been

involved with digital image making for more than ten years With

a background in interactive media, UI design, studio art, literature,and illustration, he brings a unique vision to projects with a keeneye on altering the perception of expectations A closet surrealist

by nature, he welcomes invitations to discuss the weather and itseffects on dreams and creativity when studied from afar throughancient telescopes once handled by Galileo Feel free to drop him

a line at visual.design@policarpo.us, or visit him online at www.policarpo.us

Robert Powers graduated from the University of Southern

Cali-fornia Film School and attended the American Film Institute Hehas created animation and effects for a wide range of TV series

and feature films, including Disney’s Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, HBO’s The Sender, Voltron: The Third Dimension, Destination Films’ feature BATS, and MGM’s Disturbing Behavior For the Emmy-award-winning television show Ally McBeal, Robert devel-

oped many of the key effects for the first season and was a leadanimator of the famous 3D baby Robert’s articles and tutorials have been published

in leading industry magazines worldwide As supervising animator, he worked on

the animated television series Max Steel at NDEI for Sony Television and Warner

Brothers In 2000, Robert led a team of professionals in Shanghai, China, and built

a world-class animation facility from the ground up in conjunction with the worldfamous Shanghai Film Studios Robert served as animation supervisor on the Steven

King miniseries Rose Red at Kleiser-Walczak, and the Emmy-nominated opening for the NORM show created by Autonomy included Robert’s 3D lighting work He has worked on national commercial campaigns, including the Men In Black II Burger

King “Alien” spots and the “Twix in the Mix” campaign, and on music videos,including Britney Spears’ “Boyz” and Papa Roach’s “She Loves Me Not,” for whichRobert did on-set effects supervision Most recently Robert completed an animatedpilot character animation test for Walt Disney Television and in 2004 launchedIGNITE! Digital Studio, a high-end animation and effects boutique located inGlendale, California Currently, IGNITE! is working with veteran effects companyCreative Logik on character designs and animation for an upcoming James Cameronproject Visit Rob at www.robpowers.com and www.ignitedigitalstudio.com

About the Authors | xxi

Emanuele Salvucci started his professional career in 1997,

providing 3D art and animation for Digitrace He then joinedPrograph Research as a 3D artist/animator, where he developed hisfirst 3D real-time game, Tsunami 2265, and created art for anothertitle At Revolution Software, he researched visual style for Bro-ken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon, inventing the lightmappingtechnique behind the game as well as being background artist andLightWave 3D tools developer He also contributed to other projects like Who Wants

to be a Millionaire – Second Edition (Playstation2) His passion for games led him tobegin working independently on his own game project, Notcom Racing, his sixthproject after having published five titles by the age of twenty-six His professionalskills vary from traditional arts to almost every field of computer graphics, includingscripting and basic C and CG programming He is the author of several scripts forLightWave 3D that he has shared with the community, and some of his tutorials havebeen featured on the NewTek web site and in international magazines Emanuelewas one of the judges at the 2004 Independent Games Festival and started the ItalianIgda chapter along with Italian industry professionals His work can be found on theGamasutra artist gallery and on the ForwardGames web site at

www.forwardgames.com

Larry Shultz has been involved with computer graphics since the

mid-1980s He began using LightWave 3D in its early days for TVcommercials and other projects at a CGI company he co-foundedduring the early ’90s called The Animation Factory in Albuquer-que Since those days Larry has worked for such companies asAmerican Laser Games, Sony Development, Discovery Channel,Netter Digital, Foundation Imaging, Amalgamated Pixels, andSquarehouse Entertainment, as well as working on a freelancebasis for many other companies Larry is very experienced in almost every aspect ofLightWave, working as lead artist, technical director, and in many other positions on

a variety of projects He brings all that experience to this book Larry is also heavilyinvolved with LightWave training He has taught seminars all over the United Statesand several schools including NewTek Inc., Albuquerque Technical Vocational Insti-tute, Video Symphony, Foundation Institute, and 3D Exchange Larry also developedthe first online courses specifically for LightWave more than two years ago Clientsinclude various studios, government facilities, and universities around the world Hiscourses can be found at http://www.3dtrainingonline.com Larry’s personal web site

is located at http://www.splinegod.com

Lee Stranahan started the first LightWave user group and the first magazine

dedi-cated to NewTek products, and has hosted more LightWave seminars and loggedmore miles doing LightWave training than anyone on planet Earth He’s also worked

in TV and film as a visual effects artist and supervisor For the past several years,he’s focused on producing and directing, working mainly with 35mm motion picturefilm on a feature, short films, industrials, and stock footage packages for severalleading companies He’s also an award-winning photographer Lee has new, afford-able seminars planned for LightWave 3D 8; visit his site at LearnLightWave.com formore details If you’re interested in Digital Fusion training, visit his site at

LearnDigitalFusion.com

xxii | About the Authors

Lee Stringer is a CG supervisor at Zoic Studios where he is currently working on

the pilot for a new Lost in Space series His other projects for Zoic include Battlestar Galactica, Joss Whedon’s Firefly, which won the 2003 Emmy for special visual effects, Steven Bochco’s pilot for NYPD 2069, and the “Sketchernauts” shoes com-

mercial Lee has a broad visual effects background that includes work on featurefilms, music videos, theme park attractions, fully animated episodic television, andvideo games At Foundation Imaging, he worked on the Robert Wise Director’s Edi-

tion of Star Trek: The Motion Picture and spent several seasons on Star Trek: Voyager Additionally, he worked on Roughnecks: The Starship Trooper Chronicles and Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future Lee was nominated for an Emmy in 2002 for his work on the ABC movie Superfire He also taught at the Foundation Institute and has

been a guest instructor at the DAVE School in Orlando, Florida Prior to his career inthe world of visual effects, Lee worked in IT operations and support for JP MorganBank in London He created his own company, ModelEFX, where he specialized invisual effects and web site design, and sold television and film-related merchandise.Lee is also a model maker and has created miniatures for film and television produc-

tions, including Cartoon Network’s Space Ghost Coast to Coast Lee’s interest in filmmaking, miniatures, and effects was sparked by the Gerry Anderson series Thun- derbirds and Space: 1999 while growing up in Great Britain.

Peter Thomas worked as a CAD draftsman for nine years doing

architectural design and 3D pre-visualization for projects aroundthe world But a love of cartoons and 3D animation drew himtoward the movement side of 3D For the last five years, Peter hasworked as a freelance 3D artist, and has worked for many multi-media companies, television stations, and game developers Healso rigs characters for many artists around the world CurrentlyPeter is working on two independent games and a short film

Leigh van der Byl is a young yet experienced 3D texturing artist

and modeler as well as a lecturer on a number of different softwarepackages including LightWave 3D Having started with computergraphics programs at an obscenely young age, she now pursues thequest of photorealism with an ever-fervent, almost frighteningdedication She is one of the very few people who actually enjoysediting UV maps, as she finds the mindless monotony of it a pleas-ant change from the chaos of creating stuff When she is notpushing polygons and painting texture maps, Leigh can usually be found trawling

online forums preaching about good Photoshop layer habits or watching Lord of the Rings for the thousandth time She firmly believes that logical thinking, theoretical

knowledge, a trained eye, and well-defined creative processes are the key to ing perfection in CG, which is why she now writes useful stuff for people to read so

achiev-that they can develop good, healthy CG habits She is the author of LightWave 3D 8 Texturing.

William “Proton” Vaughan is a seasoned LightWave veteran

currently working for the makers of LightWave 3D, NewTek, Inc.,

in San Antonio, Texas, as NewTek’s LightWave 3D Evangelist.William loves working in LightWave and promoting it around theglobe for NewTek The recipient of several New Media Addy

About the Authors | xxiii

awards, William brings broad-based experience to his position at NewTek, havingdone 3D work for print, web, multimedia, games, and broadcast Over the past tenyears, William has established a strong reputation for his award-winning work forclients such as Compaq, New Line Cinema, Halliburton, and many others He hasalso worked in the LightWave community as an instructor at North Harris Commu-nity College His other activities in LightWave user education include trainingcompanies such as NASA, Fulbright & Jaworski, and KHOU Channel 11, the CBSaffiliate in Houston, to use LightWave.

Steve Warner was born and raised in Yuma, Arizona He created

his first computer animation in 1982 on a Timex Sinclair 1000,spending several days writing a Pac Man simulation on a computerwith just 2K of memory In 1993, Steve graduated from The Uni-versity of Arizona with a BFA in fine art and founded TrinityMedia, Inc TMI provided graphic design, broadcast video post-production, and 3D animation to advertising agencies and corpo-rate clients throughout the area In the eight years that followed,TMI produced work for such clients as The Young Astronauts Council of NASA,AlphaGraphics Printshops of the Future, The Milwaukee Brewins, The United StatesArmy, The United States Border Patrol, and The United States Department ofJustice In 2001, Steve took a job with CAE, an international supplier of militarytraining and simulation services He now works for CAE’s Courseware DevelopmentTeam at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona In addition to his work

as an author and editor on LightWave 3D [8]: 1001 Tips & Tricks, Steve is co-author with Timothy Albee on Essential LightWave 3D 8 and author of the upcoming LightWave 3D 8 Modeling, A Definitive Guide He can be contacted via email at

steve@stevewarner.com

Robin Wood is well known for her covers for Dragon magazine

and her “traditional media” illustrations in numerous books, cards,etc She began to experiment with digital art in 1984, and has beenusing LightWave since May 2000 She sells prints of her work atshows and conventions across the county and from her web site athttp://www.robinwood.com/, where you can also find some verypopular and useful tutorials

xxiv | About the Authors

This book represents a lot of work by a lot of people who I must thank publicly.First, I would like to thank Robin Wood for all of the incredible hard work she did intechnically checking and editing this book Without her, this book would simply nothave happened There were several occasions when I would email her a question at 2a.m or later and get a response from her, as she was up working on this book aswell A few times I would receive an email at 7 a.m as she went to bed All thethanks I have given her over the past eight months are not enough Thank you,Robin!! Robin is a true professional who works tirelessly through a project andnever misses a deadline

I would also like to thank Steve Warner, also without whom this book would nothave been possible Steve was also there through my countless questions, late-nightphone calls, emails, more phone calls, etc :-) Steve made himself available for over

a month solid after work every day until 9 p.m., making sure he was ahead of me onthis and double-checking everything Thank you, Steve You are a true friend and aninvaluable person on this project Steve is also responsible for a lot of the ideasbehind this book I should also say a big thanks to Michelle, Steve’s wife, who put

up with the phone calls during all hours of the day, week after week I still am notquite sure what Rodeo Week is but I got the opportunity to talk to her one night dur-ing “rodeo week” and she actually acted like she was happy to talk to me ;-) Thankyou, Steve, for all your hard work I appreciate it, my friend!!

Timothy Albee What can I say about Tim that I have not already said? Tim is

an amazing artist, person, and friend If you asked me who I thought was a person

of utmost loyalty and integrity, one of the first people I would think of is Tim Albee.Tim, thank you for your time while working on two other books and an animatedfilm I sincerely appreciate your time and effort on this project I look forward toworking with you on future projects Watch out for the moose!

William “Proton” Vaughan and I worked closely on this book, and I have gained

a whole new respect for William and what he does at NewTek William works lessly and always makes time for projects like these The idea for this book actuallycame out of a phone conversation between myself and William William, thank youfor all your hard work on this book I know that many times when I was asking youquestions you were knee deep in LightWave 8, help files, projects, SpinQuad, and allthe other countless outside things you do Thank you for taking time out to help me

tire-on this book I truly have gained a friend and hope you feel the same Please tellAddie and Jack hi for me

NewTek! Wow, what a group of people! These folks are so passionate about theirproducts and their customers Without NewTek, Donetta Colboch, Chuck Baker,Kurtis Harris, Jack “Deuce” Bennett, Scott Thompson, Andrew Cross, KevinNations, Tim Jenison, and Jim Plant — to be specific — we would have had a veryhard time getting this book out the door Thank you to the entire group at NewTek

xxv

for the help You folks are sincerely appreciated!! You make the best 3D application

in the world, and I will never need another 3D graphics package since I already havethe best Thank you!

To the authors:

I want you readers to know that getting the best artists in the industry to write a booklike this was extremely difficult Don’t believe me? Try to find another book withthirty-one authors We are not the only ones who know how good they are in theirfields They have jobs on top of jobs and work fourteen to twenty hours a day, some-times more than twenty-four hours straight, and it is not easy for them to stop theirlives and work to write for a book like this But every author in this book sacrificedtime, energy, and money to make this book a success With as many authors as wehave on this book, the authors will not make near the money they would have on a

“normal” book or a CG project

I knew you were the best, but when I read your tips it truly hit home how muchknowledge and experience you have in this industry You would be hard pressed tofind anyone better than the thirty-one people who worked on this book to work foryour next project, no matter how big or small These thirty-one people are the best ofthe best and it shows!

I wanted to be sure to thank all of you authors for putting up with me over thepast year — all the phone calls, emails, pesky cell phone calls, etc Thank you fortaking time to make a project like this such an extreme success Your time andpatience were incredible and I sincerely appreciate it

Please know that your time and efforts are truly valued This book is simplyamazing and to have it come together so well was really a surprise to me and proved

a few people wrong in the publishing industry I had a lot of fun working with all ofyou and I hope you feel the same about working with me I truly look up to all ofyou and hope we have an opportunity to work together again

Everyone on this book gave 120% and has worked hard to make this book somuch more than just another LightWave title This book will truly be the litmus testall other LightWave books will be measured against from this point forward

To the production team at Wordware Publishing:

Beth Kohler, Martha McCuller, Denise McEvoy, and Alan McCuller — You producesome of the best work in the industry You folks do a fantastic job and do not get alot of thank you’s, so thank you for your hard work on this book! I know it was a lotmore difficult than a normal title, and you spent a lot of time making sure it lookedgreat and met the needs of the audience Thank you!

Wes “kurv” BeckwithPublisher, Wordware PublishingLightWave artist

xxvi | Acknowledgments

Tip #1

If you’re in the bookstore reading this book, buy it It will be one of the best ments you can make There are years of experience in this book, and it will becomeyour favorite secret weapon

invest-William “Proton” Vaughan

What’s the next best thing to having an experienced LightWave artist at your side tohelp you get through the bumps and hurdles of your 3D projects?

Having thirty-one of them! What’s the next best thing? It would have to be thisbook!

Most of the people who worked on this book have all worked in various studios,and they have helped many co-workers (as well as each other) problem solve theshots they needed to get done I’ve been told by several people I’ve worked with thatthey would love to have a collection of all those little tricks I use in one spot so theycould look them up Well, here they are, along with many more by a bunch of people

I know and respect There’s so much to LightWave now that no single person canmaster everything in it What we have here is a group of artists who are consideredexperts in various aspects of LightWave 3D It’s a collective mastery of the software,with some of the top minds in character modeling, texturing, effects, you name it Ifthere’s a hidden feature or cool way of doing something, one of these people hasmost likely done it, and they’re sharing it here

David Jerrard

There is an old saying that wisdom is acquired by experience, not just by age If youbelieve that statement to be true, then this book has more wisdom than any otherLightWave book ever published

As the person who collected the tips and had an integral part in building thisbook, I have written and rewritten this introduction several times, trying to do thisbook justice It was not until I read every tip chapter by chapter that I realized whatthis preface needed to be

As I was reading this book for the umpteenth time, I realized what it was like to

me I imagined a room with a large, round table Thirty-one of the world’s best ists sat around it, each one of them known for their specialty in computer graphics

art-A question was proposed, “How do you design and pre-visualize your work?” One

by one, each of the artists would give feedback, drawing on each other’s answers,building wisdom as more and more tips and tricks were heard Another question wasproposed, “How do you model such photorealistic or incredible cartoon characters?”Again, the artists gave from their years of experience, one by one going around thetable

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That is how I envision this book We presented more than 100 topics to theseartists from design and pre-visualization, program setup and installation, modeling,surfacing, and texturing to cinematography, lighting, animating, compositing, script-ing, rendering, and special effects They in turn gave us more than 1,300 tips andtricks on how they accomplish their mind-blowing work.

What you have in your hands is wisdom Read it, take it in, and when you thinkyou have taken it all in, read it again I guarantee you will always see somethingdifferent in tips you have read over and over again

Wes “kurv” BeckwithPublisher, Wordware PublishingLightWave artist

xxviii | Introduction

Chapter 1

Sage Advice

General Tips

Don’t discount this chapter!

As we have all been told in life, anything worth doing is worth doing well Ifyou are an advanced CG artist, in order to raise your level of ability you have to

go back and look at the foundational things that spark creativity for you or theprocess you currently use for your work flow If you are new to CG, your foun-dation should be built on good practices; otherwise, you will develop bad habits.This chapter will help you look at your work habits, methods, and practicesand assist you in sharpening your skills Please read through this chapter — asyou should all chapters — and look for those nuggets of information This book

is an important resource with a multitude of tips Different tips will appeal todifferent people based on individual work flow, methods, and techniques Besure not to skip any chapters as you read through Even this advice chaptermight have a tip here and there that can save you a lot of time on your nextproject

— Wes “kurv” Beckwithwww.kurvstudios.com

1 William “Proton” Vaughan | General Tips | All Levels

Enjoy!

The most important tip I can share with you is to always make sure youenjoy your work and have fun with LightWave It’s truly an amazing tool thathelps you bring your imagination to life With all the features and gadgets thatare in LightWave we can easily lose sight of why we got into this crazy 3Dworld to begin with — to create killer art! Always remember to enjoy!

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2 Wes “kurv” Beckwith | General Tips | All Levels

LightWave 3D Community Support

Find a community for support and help In learning LightWave 3D, having

an online community to help and support you is invaluable You can literally talk

to most of the authors of this book and many other professionals on the forumboards Here is a list of my favorite forums:

http://www.spinquad.com — All things LightWave, best forums available, news,and all the professionals hang out here

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http://www.3dtrainingonline.com — Great LightWave training material If youmention this book, Larry might even give you a little discount ;) I usedLarry’s training material and was posting awesome work in no time Trust

me — Larry’s training videos are the best, hands-down!

http://www.kurvstudios.com — LightWave resource site, tutorials, training, port forums

sup-http://www.flay.com — Everyone knows flay; if you don’t, where have youbeen? :) Information ranges from notice of plug-ins to new books, tutorials,and on and on

http://vbulletin.newtek.com — NewTek’s bulletin board; great tutorials andsupport

www.lw3dg.com — Great forum resource

http://www.simplylightwave.com — Tutorials, training, etc

http://www.cgchannel.com—Online forums, news, and articles

http://www.wordware.com/lightwave — 37% off LightWave books like this oneand free shipping in the continental U.S

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3 Eki Halkka | General Tips | All Levels

Get a Paint Program

If you don’t own a painting application, get one now Painting your own ture maps is often essential For example, you can usually avoid creating smalldetail geometry if you have a good custom-made bump map A paint application

tex-is also useful for modifying the image after rendering

Adobe’s Photoshop has become the industry standard, but there are manycheaper alternatives if you can’t afford it

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4 Wes “kurv” Beckwith | General Tips | All Levels

Use Those Plug-ins

There are numerous plug-ins available for LightWave Once you have loaded all the recommended plug-ins from the forums, play with them Do notjust let them sit there As with everything that is worthwhile, put in some train-ing time with those boring objects Make a plain old box and test out some ofthese fancy new tools

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2 | Chapter 1

General Tips

6 Wes “kurv” Beckwith | General Tips | All Levels

7 Wes “kurv” Beckwith | General Tips | All Levels

Raising the Bar

Sometimes the best way to learn something is to challenge yourself Picksomething you think is two or three steps above your ability, and go for it!

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8 Wes “kurv” Beckwith | General Tips | All Levels

Finish Those Projects

It’s not always enough to just go for more difficult things You need to finish

them, no matter how bad they look You will always learn something from it So

finish it!

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9 Patrik Beck | General Tips | All Levels

Create an Animation without LightWave

Take a breather from the mathematical 3D world and get your hands dirty Ifyou are currently doing animation, chances are you have the tools to do othertypes of animation as well Ignore the fact that your drawing skills may resemblethe renderings of a disturbed five-year-old, and go ahead and hand draw a series

of cels that no one else needs to see Draw it on paper and scan it in, or if that istoo much trouble, go ahead and use a paint program Take an afternoon andexperiment with stop-motion Grab a camera, some clay, and a few of the toysyou have laying around and find out what it was like to animate “old school.”This type of activity stretches you as an animator

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10 William “Proton” Vaughan | General Tips | All Levels

Learn by Doing

This may sound like a given but hear me out Many newcomers to

LightWave (or any new program) try to learn every little detail in the beginning,but get frustrated and give up, saying it is too hard for them to learn Learn bycreating a small project Learn what you need to get specific tasks completed,and before you know it you will master the tools in LightWave

Also remember that you will always be a student of 3D; there will always beroom for growth I would be surprised to hear someone claiming to know

Sage Advice | 3

General Tips