Copyright: Copyright 1995, Dean Scott & Ronnie Norwood


Table of Contents

     Topic
 Categories

 Information


Layout Topic Category
Frequently Asked Questions About Layout

  ... Using Bones via The Objects Panel.

  ... Image Mapping and Procedural Textures.

  ... Using Motion Paths Effectively.

  ... Techniques of Morphing Objects.

  ... Light And Flare Effects via The Lights Panel.

  ... Options In The Camera Panel.

  ... BG/FG Techniques And Keys via The Effects Panel.

  ... Using Envelopes Effectively.

  ... Other Features Of LightWave Layout.


Modeler Topic Category
Frequently Asked Questions About Modeler

  ... Using The Various Modeler Boolean Operations.

  ... Using The Various Modeler Extruding Tools.

  ... ARexx Modeler Macros And How To Use Them.

  ... Using Modeler's Metaform Tool.

  ... Using Modeler's Patch Tool.

  ... Manipulating Polygons In Modeler And Layout.

  ... Miscellaneous Modeler Tools And Operations.


General Topic Category
General Frequently Asked Questions

  ... Ideas And Tips For Logo Treatments.

  ... Ways Of Using Particle Animation.

  ... Using The DPS Personal Animation Recorder.

  ... Creating Animation Special Effects.

  ... Space And Science Fiction Techniques.

  ... Making Realistic Environments.

  ... Short Model And Object Construction Tutorials.


Miscellaneous Topic Category
Miscellaneous Frequently Asked Questions

  ... External ARexx Scripts For LightWave.

  ... Hardware Information Associated With LightWave.

  ... Sources Of Information And Technical Support.

  ... Formats, Settings, & Other Technical Information.

  ... Other Miscellaneous Areas.


Using Bones via The Objects Panel
Moving Fingers Using Bones

Moving Legs Using Bones

Making A Page Turn Using Bones


Image Mapping & Procedural Textures
Making Panel Maps 	Making Fire With Procedural Textures

Making Light House Light Beams 	Making Star Trek Deflector Shields

Making Displacement Mapped Canyons 	Correcting Flipped Image Sequences

A Procedural Texture Water Fountain 	Making Lightning-like Neon Objects

Making Spotlight Beams 	Making A Bell Curve Reveal Graph

Surface Settings For A Glass Of Wine 	Faking Translucent Objects

Projecting Slide Transparencies 	Dual Layer Textures With Transparency

Making Seamless Texture Maps 	Making Animated Tank Treads

Diffuse And Specularity Interactions 	Using Additive Surfaces

Simple Clip Mapped Christmas Tree 	Tips On Surface Morphs & Chrome

Making 2D Cutouts With Clip Maps 	Creating Electric/Static Fields

Making Depressed Foot Prints 	Creating Force Fields

Simulating Backlighting Glows 	Studying Grid Value vs Falloff

Using Grid Falloff 	Realistic Lake Water And Waves

Making Laser Beams 	Using An Image Map To Make Bricks

Mixed Dual Surfaces Using Object Morphs 	Faking Multiple Surface Morphs

Making Babylon 5-Like Nebulas 	Sand Storms Using Procedural Textures

Making An Explosion Shock Wave 	Making A Desert Landscape

Good Default Environment Scene 	Making Neon Font Outlines


Using Motion Paths Effectively
Tips On Making Objects Walk

Using Multiple Null Object Parenting

Particle Sand Storms

Smooth Repetitive Object Motions

Satellite Tragectory Using Null Object


Techniques Of Morphing Objects
Making A Bell Curve Reveal Graph

Morphing Particle Volumes

Making Animated Tank Treads

Making A Page Turn Using Bones

Tips On Surface Morphs & Chrome

Wrapping A Flat Polygon Into A Sphere

Faking Multiple Surface Morphs

Mixed Dual Surfaces Using Object Morphs

Moving Liquid Using Multiple Morphs

Making An Explosion Shock Wave


Light And Flare Effects via The Lights Panel
Selective Shadow Map Casting

Simulating Search Light Reflectors

Faking Translucent Objects

Projecting Slide Transparencies

Controling Lens Flare Size

How To Match LW Lighting To Daylight


Options In The Camera Panel
Efficient Scene Renders

Calculating Image Size For Print

Combining Field Rendering & Motion Blur

Field Rendering vs Motion Blur

How Does Adaptive Sampling Work?


BG/FG Techniques And Keys via The Effects Panel
How To Use PAR Clips In LW

How To Use LW For CrossFade Dissolves

Lens Flare Alpha Channel Keys?

Foreground Keying

Animation/Video Keys Using Alphas


Using Envelopes Effectively
Displacement Map Envelope

Moving Liquid Using Multiple Morphs

Particle Sand Storms


Other Features Of LightWave Layout
Selective Shadow Map Casting

Saving Hollywood FX Objects

Paths From An Extruded Object

The Internet LW Mailing List

Saving A Scene Layout As One Object

NewTek BBS Number

LightWave And Toaster Specific BBS's


Using The Various Modeler Boolean Operations
Common Errors From Boolean Usage

Tips On Using Boolean Operations

Solid Drill vs Boolean Subtract


Using The Various Modeler Extruding Tools
How To Make A Wood Screw

How To Make A Spring Object

Basic On Using Rail Extrude

Making A Drill Bit Object


ARexx Modeler Macros And How To Use Them
Using Toaster ARexx & Modeler Macros

Wrapping A Flat Polygon Into A Sphere

Paths From An Extruded Object


Using The Metaform Subdivide Tool
Avoiding Bugs When Metaforming

Metaforming Organic Forms

Metaforming A Phone Handset


Using The Spline Patch Tool
Basics On Using The Patch Function

More Basics On Using Patch

Making A Crane Bird With Spline Patches

Simple Patch Help


Manipulating Polygons in Modeler and Layout
What Are Detail Polygons?

Overcoming Self-Crossing Bevels

Self-Crossing Bevels Conclusion

Understanding Non-Planar Polygons

What's The Maximum Points Per Polygon?


Miscellaneous Modeler Tools, Functions, & Operations
NewTek BBS Number

The Internet LW Mailing List

Saving A Scene Layout As One Object

LightWave And Toaster Specific BBS's


Ideas And Tips For Logo Treatments
Making A Bell Curve Reveal Graph

Dual Layer Textures With Transparency

Melting Font Logo Treatment

Tips On Surface Morphs & Chrome


Ways Of Using Particle Animation
Particle Sand Storms

Morphing Particle Volumes


Using The DPS Personal Animation Recorder
How To Use PAR Clips In LW

Correcting Flipped Image Maps

Advice On PAR Video Capture

Understanding PAR Q & Block Settings


Creating Animation Special Effects
Making Fire Using Procedural Textures

Making Real Explosions For LW Mapping

Making Explosion Image Sequences

Making Lightning-Like Neon Objects

Simulating Search Light Reflectors

Dual Layer Textures With Transparency

Morphing Particle Volumes

Making Animated Tank Treads

Creating Electric/Static Fields

Creating Force Fields

Simulating Backlighting Glows

Using Grid Falloff

Wrapping A Flat Polygon Into A Sphere

Melting Font Logo Treatment

Making Neon Font Outlines


Space And Science Fiction Techniques
Making Star Trek Deflector Shields

Creating Force Fields

Making Laser Beams'

Making Babylon 5-Like Nebulas

Satellite Tragectory Using Null Object


Making Realistic Environments
Making Fire With Procedural Textures

Making Displacement Mapped Canyons

Particle Sand Storms

Sand Storms Using Procedural Textures

Making A Desert Scene

Good Default Environment Scene

Realistic Lake Water And Waves

How To Match LW Lighting To Daylight


Short Model and Object Construction Tutorials
Making Light House Light Beams 	Pixel vs Object Aspect Ratios

Making Star Trek Deflector Shields 	Tips On Making Objects Walk

Making Displacement Mapped Canyons 	How To Make A Wood Screw

A Procedural Texture Water Fountain 	Making Lightning-Like Neon Objects

Making Spotlight Beams 	Faking Translucent Objects

How To Make A Spring Object 	Basics On Using Rail Extrude

Making A Page Turn Using Bones 	Simple Clip Mapped Christmas Tree

Making A Crane Bird With Spline Patches 	Making A Drill Bit Object

Making Depressed Foot Prints 	Making Laser Beams

Metaforming Organic Forms 	Metaforming A Phone Handset

Making Neon Font Outlines 	Paths From An Extruded Object

Moving Liquid Using Multiple Morphs 	Making An Explosion Shock Wave

Making Babylon 5-Like Nebulas


External ARexx Scripts For LightWave
Arexx Script To Render Multiple Scenes

Using Toaster Arexx And Modeler Macros

LockedChannels Usage For Modeler Arexx


Hardware Information Associated With LightWave
Vt4000 Software On An A2000?

Setting Up GigaMem For LW


Sources Of Information And Technical Support
NewTek BBS Number

The Internet LW Mailing List

LightWave And Toaster Specific BBS's


Formats, Settings, And Other Technical Information
Pixel vs Object Aspect Ratios

What Are Detail Polygons?

Efficient Scene Renders

Saving Hollywood FX Objects

Calculating Image Size For Print

Diffuse And Speculatiry Interactions

Lens Flare Alpha Channel Keys?

Setting Up GigaMem For LW

Studying Grid Value vs Falloff

What's The Maximum Points Per Polygon?

LockedChannels Usage For Modeler Arexx

How Does Adaptive Sampling Work?


Other Technical Areas
Making Panel Maps

Making Seamless Texture Maps


All About Power Tips Pro!

POWER TIPS PRO for LightWave Volume 1  in the  Windows Help  hypertext

format is copyright 1995 by Dean Scott and Ronnie Norwood  and  can be

FREELY  distributed  under the general terms of the SHAREWARE concept.

However, it may NOT be altered in any way with intent to redistribute.

The material and information contained herein has been heavily  edited

from each author's original posted e-mail form. They and the compilers

ARE NOT responsible for the results of any information contained here-

in,  which  was  gathered from the FidoNet VIDEO_TOASTER echo and from

the Internet LightWave Maillist and Newsgroup.

If you find POWER TIPS PRO for LightWave Volume 1 to be of worth, then

please honor the shareware concept by REGISTERING your copy!

Future  volumes of POWER TIPS PRO for LightWave will be made available

as Dean and Ronnie search the nets, collecting and compiling hints and

tricks into new hypertext help files, for BOTH Amiga and Windows PCs.

Thanks to all who've contributed to PTP from the various LightWave  e-

mail forums.  Keep up the Great work!  A special thanks to Ron Kramer,

Moderator of the Fidonet  VIDEO_TOASTER  and  to  Daniel J. McCoy  and

David Warner, former and current Moderators of the  Internet LightWave

Maillist and Newsgroup,  for their volunteer labors of love!

LightWave is a registered trademark of NewTek, Inc.


Information About the Authors
Dean Scott is the Video Graphics Artist for WSMH TV 66,  a  Flint,  MI

FOX affiliate.  He's been LightWaving there with an  A2000/030/30/10MB

VT2000 2.0/3.1.  He has a Bachelor of Science in Television Production

and an Asscoiate in Applied Science in Audio/Visual Production.  "I've

been very active in cyberspace for over 4 years and decided to compile

a collection of relevant LightWave e-mail into a large Frequently Ask-

ed Questions document.  The result evolved into POWER TIPS PRO!"

You can e-mail Dean at:  dscott5663@aol.com.


Information About the Authors
Ronnie Norwood is currently owner and Lead Animator of Impact Imaging,

a 3D animation company.   "I  have never owned a computer before in my

life, until I bought the Amiga 4000 Video Toaster. I persued a musical

career for about eighteen years, then I decided  it  was  time  for  a

change  after  doing  almost  everything from teaching guitar, to road

gigs, to running a small demo studio.   I sold almost everything I had

and invested it into the Toaster and Impact Imaging.   Now I do mostly

flying logos and architectural renderings, loving every minute of it!"

You  can  e-mail Ronnie at:  rnorwood@cris.com.


Shareware Concept
Shareware is a method of distributing new software at free to  minimum

cost.  The  software  is  usually  a demo version and usually has some

features  rendered inactive or unusable as an incentive to the user to

buy  the the full commercial version.

Most shareware titles, however, are fully functional and  require  the

user to register the software with payment to the author.

PTP is in this category. It's fully functional and relies on the honor

system and morality of the user to register  their copy of PTP.


Registering PTP
Dean and Ronnie have adopted an interesting method to  register  users

of PTP. In lieu of a check or money order, simply mail each a VHS demo

tape of your LightWave animations as payment for their effort!  If you

have no tape as of yet and would like to help offset the cost of thier

Internet accounts, then please send a donation of $5 to $15 US  (check

or money order only and payable to Ronnie Norwood) to:

                        Impact Imaging

                          PO Box 834

                      Roebuck,  SC  29376

Registering entitles you to recieve the next volume of PTP, FREE!

Your LightWave Demo tapes can be sent to Ronnie Norwood at the above

address and to Dean Scott at:

                         Silicon Magic

                      2043 Hillsdale Dr.

                   Davison,  MI  48423-2313


Making Metallic Panel Maps

QUESTION:

I have an old version of D-Paint and I want to add  a  metal

panel type of look to a mechanical walker robot like most of

the B5 objects have.  Any tips on this?

ANSWER:

Use  DPaint  to  make  simple  16 color (gray scale) maps of

orderly, yet random filled squares and line boxes, then take

it into TPaint (load as a brush) and do  the  streaking  and

dirtying in 24-bit, then take it into Adpro and reduce  with

dithering to 256 step gray-scale. Try making  guidelines  of

varying distances between them (rows) like this:

-------+-----+---+-------+-----+-------

       |     |   |       |     |

----+--+---+-+---+---+---+---+-+---+---

    |      |         |   |   |     |

--+-+-+----+-+--+----+--++---+-----++--

  |   |      |  |       |    |      |

  |   |      |  |       |    |      |

--+---+------+--+-------+----+------+--

---------------------------------------

Then make verticle guidelines of varying widths in each  row

and then bucket fill each with different shades of gray. Put

smaller filled and outline boxes in random sets of patterns.


How To Use PAR Clips In LW

QUESTION:

How do you import PAR clips as image sequences in LightWave?

ANSWER:

In the PAR's Preferences menu, click on EMULATE and then re-

turn to LW (keep the PAR running).   In LW,  when you select

Load Image Sequence, choose the PAR's DDR: drive  and  click

on which animation or video clip you've recorded. The impor-

tant thing is to put a PERIOD at the  END  of  the  selected

filename of the sequence (ie. TestAnim. ).  It will then act

as a sequence and the frames of the clip will correspond  to

the frames of your new anim.

------------------------------------------------------------

You have to have the EXPORT gadget in the PAR  software  set

to IFF and the EMULATE button pressed ON in the PREFS screen.

To load a PAR anim or video clip into LightWave as an  image

sequence, enter the directory path and anim name followed by

a PERIOD.  To load a single frame of an anim do the same but

add the three digit frame number after the period. To load a

PAR still just click on the file name like a  normal  image.

This procedure will also work for AdPro, but not for TPaint.


Making Fire With Procedural Textures

Some excellent results for flames can be created  using  just

the procedural textures in Lightwave.    Use  the  Underwater

texture on the Color channel from black to bright yellow with

Additive ON.   Then  use  a Fractal Noise Transparency map to

make it look more flame-like.  Also, put a fast upward veloc-

ity on both textures.

Here are the suggested settings for a 4.3 by 3.4 meter plane:

FLAMES

------------------------------------------------------------

Surface Color = 0, 0, 0 --> Texture   = Underwater

Luminousity   = 90%         Size      = 9000, 5000, 50000

Diffusion     = 100%        Falloff   = 0, 5, 0

                            Center    = 100, -1, 100

                            Velocity  = 0, 2, 0

                            Color     = 255, 220, 95

                            Wave Src  = 10

                            Wave Lgth = 1

                            Wave Spd  = 0.025

                            Band Shrp = 4

Transparency  = 0%  ------> Texture   = Fractal Noise

                            Size      = 0.5, 1, 0.5

                            Velocity  = 0, 0.25, 0

                            Value     = 100%

                            Freq      = 4

                            Contrast  = 4

Add a second plane the same size just behind with these set-

tings:

COALS

------------------------------------------------------------

Color    = 255, 200, 70 --> Texture   = Fractal Noise

Luminousity  = 90%          Size      = 0.5, 0.5, 0.5

Diffusion    = 50%          Velocity  = 0, 1, 2

                            Color     = 95, 30, 0

                            Freq      = 4

                            Contrast  = 1

Transparency = 0% --------> Texture   = Underwater

                            Size      = 50000, 50000, 50000

                            Center    = 100, 100, 100

                            Velocity  = 0, 2, 0

                            Value     = 100%

                            Wave Src  = 10

                            Wave Lgth = 30

                            Wave Spd  = 1

                            Band Shrp = 10

This yields very realistic fire.   It could be  adapted  for

explosions as well.


Selective Shadow Map Casting

QUESTION:

Is there any way an object can be  excluded  as  a  possible

target for shadow maps?

        ANSWER:

It may be little known, but in order to disable shadow  maps

appearing on an object or an object casting  a  shadow  map,

you must have BOTHh Self Shadow and Cast Shadow options tog-

gled OFF as opposed to the single options for  Ray  Tracing.

For an object not to recieve a shadow map,  turn OFF Receive

Shadow AND Self Shadow.


Making Light House Light Beams

QUESTION:

I'm trying to make a beam of light that rotates for a light-

house.  I made a cylinder and  tried  using  a  transparency

image map to create a gradient so  the  light  would fade in

the distance, but this hasn't worked right.   How's it done?

ANSWER:

Here's a real simple way to get what you want...

Assumeing that your light beam is made of two cylinders, one

for each direction, and that it was modeled in  the  XY view

so that the length lies on  X, AND that  their  pivot points

are  on  the origin (0, 0, 0), AND that each has a DIFFERENT

surface name like "beam1" "beam2", AND each is saved as sep-

erate objects, do the following:

What you need to know first is exactly how long one beam  is

on the X axis  (use Automatic Size to get an exact measure).

Let's say for instance that it's 500 meters long.

For the LEFT HAND side beam (the one extending in the  minus

X direction):

In Layout use the GRID texture for a Transparency Map with a

Line Size of 1 (100% coverage, no holes) on the X axis.  The

Texture Size  is null and void in this condition so just ig-

nore it.

Next, divide 100 by the length of this object (this example:

100/500=0.2)  and  enter  this  value for an X axis Falloff.

This causes the "Grid," which is now  really  just  a  plain

solid surface, to become a gradient,  starting  at 100% tex-

ture and falling off 0.2% per meter so that at  the  end  of

500 meters the texture has completely fallen off to 0%.   If

you need the beam to remain "solid" longer, just double  the

falloff value or increase it value to suit your needs.

Now you have to place the center of falloff at  the  END  of

your beam.  Do so by entering  the  NEGATIVE  value  of  the

beam's length on the X axis for Texture Center.

Here's the trick. Set TEXTURE value to 100% (meaning the end

will be 100% transparent) and set  the  actual  TRANSPARENCY

value to 0%.  In this way the texture is a gradient map tel-

ling Transparency to go from 100% to 0% transparency.

If you need the beam to be see-thru even at the source, then

simply set the Transparency value to a higher value, instead

of 0%.

Set the edge treshold to 2 and edges to Transparent.

Set luminousity to 100%.

TIP:  If you want the appearance of haze or fog in the  beam,

then use a Luminousity Map of fractal noise with  a  suitable

size and about 80% value.  SET WORLD COORDINATES 'ON' so that

the noise DOES NOT travel WITH the beam as  it  rotates,  the

beams slicing through the texture, instead.

Surface Color will give you the color of the light you want.

The only other thing to do is REPEAT the above for the second

right-hand beam, remembering to "reverse" the polarity of the

setting for Transparency Texture Center, that is, instead  of

a negative value on the X axis, use the postive value of  the

beam's length.  This will move the center of the  falloff  to

the start end of this beam.   The falloff occurs in BOTH dir-

ections, so by moving it to this end, you'll  get  the  other

side of the falloff and not have to change any of  the  other

settings.

That's all there is to it!   AND  it  doesn't take up any RAM

since there's NO image map involved.   Of course, you'll want

to put a real spot light with a suitable flare at the  source

of each beam...  just  remember  to  set an Intensity Falloff

value of say 1% on each light (intensity=100%)  so  that  the

lights are completely faded out at 100 meters, instead of af-

fecting everything out to infinity!


Pixel vs Object Aspect Ratios

QUESTION:

After reading the thread on the whole aspect ratio debate and

modeling a flat plane to fit the camera/video  aspect  ratio,

I've got one question:   How did the 1.346:1 aspect ratio get

calculated?  What's it based on in the  "real world?"

ANSWER:

It comes from the  real-world  width-to-height  ratio  of  a

single framestore or Toaster RGB IFF pixel.

When using a VIDEO image in LightWave, this aspect ratio has

to be accounted for to maintain the proper  aspect  ratio of

the frame of video.  If  you  were  to model a panel that is

exactly 752mm x 480mm (RGB pixel dimensions)  and  automatic

size an image having 752 x 480 pixels  onto  that panel, the

panel would cause the image to be distorted horizonally when

rendered since the panel does not fill the dimensions of the

screen due to it's construction using square units  and  not

units corresponding to the shape of the image's pixels.  One

non-square pixel would be rendered in the shape of a  square

millimeter.  That right there is your  problem,  the  metric

dimensions in LightWave are perfectly square,  but the image

being mapped isn't.

The extra work of creating objects with the 1.346:1 ratio in

mind is ONLY necessary  when  mapping  captured  video/still

images onto them.

For example:

In modeler, make a box with the following settings in meters:

                Low             High            Segments

        X      -1.346           1.346              1

        Y      -1.0             1.0                1

        Z       0.0 *           0.0                1

* If  you want depth for this box and to make that depth the

  same as the width, enter the same values as for X

Surface this box as "Screen" (or your choice), and save it.

To position it  (using the flat box example, with no depth),

set the object's Z position in Layout as 3.2  -  the same as

the camera's Zoom factor.   Make a keyframe, and you're set.

Now, if you had made the box with the same depth as  it  has

width, you would have to position it at 3.2 meters plus half

of the depth of 1.346 meters, or 3.2 + .673 = 3.873,  to get

the front face of the box to exactly fill the screen.

In this way, you can make a 3D transition from one source to

another by starting the animated 3D  transistion  effect  on

the same frame that you cut to the animation  from  source 1

and ending the transition on the same frame that you cut  to

source 2.


Common Errors From Boolean Usage

QUESTION:

Have  any of you been getting the  error  message:   Polygon

Partitioning Error:  Add Small Offset To Data And Retry?   I

get these  A  LOT  when using the Boolean Union funtion.  It

usually happens when dealing with high polygon counts.

         ANSWER:

2 reasons and a tip:

         Reason 1:  Boolean functions REALLY  don't  like  non-planar

           polygons,  including degenerate polygons -- poly-

           gons in which more than one of the points  occupy

           exactly the same coordinates.

         Reason 2:  Boolean functions aren't much happier with seper-

           ate  polygons  for  which  one polygon has one or

           more points occupying the same coordinates as one

           or more of the seperate (unmerged) points in  the

           other polygon.

         Merge Points in the area of the boolean  operation  for  the

operation, then break the polygons into seperates  again  if

that's what your model calls for.

TIP:  Select  only  those  polygons  that  will  be directly

      affected  by  the  boolean  operation.  This will gen-

      erally speed up boolean ops tremendously,  giving  you

      that partitioning error without the wait.  ;-)


Tips On Using Boolean Operations

When using Boolean operators make sure you ALWAYS check  for

doubled points.  Some operators leave 2 points  where  there

was only one and some do not.   Subtract  is one of the them

that does.  Always Merge Points after useing  Boolean opera-

tors just to be sure.


Making Real Explosions For LW Mapping

Here are some ways to make miniture explosions for highspeed

filming that can be used as image sequences for LW effects.

Try a baloon with some Acytelene inside it  (NOT  TOO  MUCH)

get  a  long fire cracker wick and some string to secure  it

(acytelene floats).  This is actually an implosion/concusion

type  detonation  which  is what a large spaceship would do.

If you don't happen to have a  ready  supply  of  Acytelene,

Calcium Carbide in water produces Acytelene gas. It's avail-

able from many camping gear stores for use in lamps.

Use  the  magnesium  innards of a flashbulb and hang it from

a black ceiling and ignite it electrically while filming  in

very high speed from below.  This technique, very similar to

the explosion technique in Star Wars,  works  very  well and

doesn't require a pyro license (to my knowledge).

One part Potassium Chlorate (KCLO3) to 3 or 4 parts 4x powd-

ered sugar make a violet/purple fast burning flame with LOTS

of white smoke.

Pure Benzoyl Peroxide (the stuff in Clearasil) burns like  a

miniture petroleum fueled explosion or oil fire with LOTS of

black sooty smoke and yellow orange rolling flames.

DISLCAIMER:

Professional explosion effects are an exact science.  Don't

do this at home, whether you are an adult or not.   Call  a

pyrotechnic engineer, they're in the yellow pages.   Anyone

doing pyro effects for stage shows can setup something PRE-

DICTABLE. These guys have all kinds  of  great  tools.  One

candidate is the flash pot driven by condensed  air.   They

have special containers, look like big hydraulic pumps. The

powder is electrically ignited on the top, the next instant

the  cylinder shoots air up into the flame creating a roll-

ing fireball.


How To Use LW For Crossfade Dissolves

QUESTION:

Does anyone know of an easy way to cross fade one sequence of

frames to another?  Perhaps using ADPro, FrEd, Multi-Frame or

something like that?

ANSWER:

LightWave!

Put one sequence in the Foreground (Effects Panel)  and  the

other  one in the Background and use the Foreground Fade En-

velope to control the transition.


Making Star Trek Deflector Shields

QUESTION:

I'm trying to create a deflector shield  effect  similar  to

that seen on the modern Star Trek series.  You know, the egg

shaped object around a ship  that  glows  when  hit.  I  can

create the glow by fiddling with the  Transparency  envelope

of the "egg," but is there a way to make it glow in just one

spot? (maybe some specularity  setting  or  something  along

with a light source?)

ANSWER:

Basically, make a 3D sheild object, egg or whatever, then in

a paint program and make a grayscale circular gradient  from

white to black.  Use it as a Transparency or Luminousity map

(its ONE of them ), then just fool around with  the  texture

coordinates until you get it at the right spot [the blast].

(In fact, if you use DeluxePaint,  you could make an anim of

the impact zone (gray scale)  showing the firey dispersal of

the energy along with a  fractal noise  texture with a large

velocity and some falloff.   You may need to have TWO sheild

objects, one slightly larger than the other.   The inner one

should have the fractal noise as  a  Transparency  map,  the

outter one should have the  animation  sequence  as  both  a

Transparency and Luminousity map. -- Editors).


Tips On Making Objects Walk

QUESTION:

I've constructed a walking mechanical looking thing  similar

to the Sand Walkers in Star Wars, but much smaller and  only

two legs.   This objects starts it's motion from  a crouched

position then stands and starts to walk.   When  the  object

begins it's standing motion the feet go below ground.   When

giving multiple parented objects such as this a walking  mo-

tion path, it seems that the feet slide as the object  takes

a step.  How do I overcome these problems?

ANSWER:

A good looking walking motion is one of the most deceptively

difficult tasks to animate properly. Plan to spend some time

with this. I can give you some hints though.

First, don't try to make a single set of motions to make the

object stand up and then walk.   Break it down into two dif-ferent sets of motions, where the end position of the stand-

ing motion is the start position of the walking motion.

Second, work with the model alone in the layout, without any

background elements.  Create  the  stand and walk "in place"

without forward motion.  That comes later.

Third, work out the walk motion on a piece  of  graph  paper

first.  Figure  out  exactly where you are going to move the

feet, and make sure that when the foot is  in  contact  with

the ground that it has a linear velocity.    If it speeds up

and  slows  down as the foot draws back, it will make it ex-

tremely difficult to add the forward velocity  to  the  body

and not have the feet slide. Figure out the movement for ONE

leg, and then copy and transpose the values for  the  other,

once you get the first leg figured out.

Save the "Standing" Scene and "Walking" Scene as two differ-

ent scenes, because what you will want to do is to work  out

a single walking cycle and then have it repeat over and over

again in the final scene as you move the body around.

Fourth, once you have the legs walking, you can  then  start

to play with the forward motion,  figuring  out  how far the

body has to move so that the feet don't slide.

Dean Scott adds:

He he!  Even the gang at FI can't do this!  Take a good look

at part 2 of the episode where they find the planetary mach-

ine inside Epsilon 3, the planet B5 orbits.   Look  for  the

"slide" walking Londo on the catwalk about 3/4 thru.

Best that you can do is to eyeball it.   Can't  get  perfect

without inverse kinematics  (foot stays planted  while  body

moves forward, leg pieces follow).   It can be done, though.

The art is to move the body using a start and end key,  then

make a single cycle of the legs to match  the  speed  of the

body (use Scale Keyframes in each object's motion  graph  to

adjust the "frequency")  and  set  end  of motion to Repeat.

Scaling the keys will squish or stretch the keys  until  the

feet "move" at the same speed as the body in opposite direc-

tions.

In this way, all you have to do is set the initial STYLE  of

leg movement keys once.  Just make  sure  you  scale  adjust

EQUALLY to EVERY piece.


Making Displacement Mapped Canyons

QUESTION:

What is a good method of creating canyon cliffs?

ANSWER:

Simply clear TPaint to white and used a black brush to carve

out trenches.  Then use various settings of transparency us-

ing Darken to get thin gradients from the black canyon floor

to the white cliff tops. Add very light touches of gray "air

brush" to add bumps to the canyon floor and the plateau tops

and to cut water gullies, notches, and mounds.

Save this quarter-screen sized image as a brush, take it in-

to Adpro and reduce to a 256 step gray-scale, then Displace-

ment Map it on to a 100 x 100 meter, 20,000 polygon triangle

mesh.  Planar and Bump image map it using your favorite rock

texture.


Moving Fingers Using Bones

QUESTION:

My character a living tree, is supposed to have 3 seperately

moveable fingers, but each one of the bones affects  all  3!

I've turned Limited Range ON, decreasing the value, but this

only results in lack of control of the finger tips. Is there

a way to restrict the effects of a bone to an one surface?

ANSWER:

Unfortunately,  all  bones  in an object affect all parts of

the object.  In this case "Limited Range" will be of "Limit-

ed Usefullness."  Even if you get the bones  to  where  they

only  control  the  finger  they  are  in, when you move the

fingers close together, the bones will again  interact  with

the other fingers.

You might try making each "finger" a separate  object.   The

only problem with this is if you are going to move the  arms

with bones.   The  finger objects will not follow the end of

the arm if it is moved with bones.  If the arm is a separate

object then making the fingers seperate objects with the arm

(or hand) as a parent should solve your problem.


What Are Detail Polygons?

QUESTION:

In the LW object file  description  Allen  Hastings  posted,

there's a mention of Detail polygons.    I've never heard of

them before.    The manual says nothing about them,  either.

Anyone know what they are and do?

ANSWER:

Detail polygons are a hold over from Allen's earlier program

Videoscape 3D.

Detail polygons are polygons which are 'attached'  to  other

polygons such that they always  render  after  the  polygons

they are attached to.  This made sure that the Z buffer  did

not wipe these out during its distance calculations. They're

useful for things like putting markings on things  like  the

sides of an aircraft fuselage or on a road sign.

Detail  polygons  are  a remnant of VideoScape,  LightWave's

predecessor. It's best to think of them as a workaround that

hasn't been needed for a long  time  now.   LW  still  loads

objects that have them, though.   An example is  3D:Objects/

Computer/FloppyDisk  (I think that's one of the objects that

at some point came with LW).


How To Make A Wood Screw

QUESTION:

I'm trying to model a screw and was wondering  if anyone has

any ideas on how to build the tapered part of it?  How would

you go about making the threads that winds down to a point?

ANSWER:

Create a notch cross section using the Disc tool with only 3

sides so that it looks like "<".

Use the Lathe command with an offset equal to the  height of

the notch, an end angle of a say 3600 degrees (10 rotations)

Use Taper to "wind it down"

1. Make a flat triangle (use disk with 3 sides and no depth)

2. Rotate it if needed so that one side is parallel with the

   axis of the screw.

3. Move the triangle away from center in 1D,  1/2  the width

   of the base of the screw.

4. Lathe 360 degrees with an offset of exactly the width (or

   less) of one side of the triangle.  The offset determines

   the pitch of the screw.  What you now have is,  to coin a

   phrase, "one turn of the screw."

5. Clone as many as you need to make up the  length  of  the

   screw, offset exactly half the length of one turn.

6. Taper.

This will make a wood screw.  For  a  machine  screw  use  a

trapezoid on it's side instead of a triangle and don't taper.


Making Scenes More Render Efficient

QUESTION:

I read someone say that segment size was a factor in  making

scenes render more effieciently.  As far as I know, it's ir-

relevant unless you use anti-aliasing where it has to  anti-

alias between the segments, also.  What's the truth?

ANSWER:

It's NOT irrelevant at all!   In  fact, this feature was re-

quested  back  when  Allen  Hastings first implemented field

rendering. LW does a fair amount of setup calculations every

time there is camera or object motion. With field rendering,

their is motion between the two fields, meaning  that  these

calculations must be performed twice.  But,  when you render

with multiple segments, the setup calcs are performed  twice

for each segment. Using the default segment size, that means

8 times rather than 2. This can really add up for relatively

complex scenes.  The  same is true for Motion Blur and Depth

Of Field,  ie. Number of Setup Calculations = (AA passes)  *

(# of segments).  This is one of the many little  things  to

make scenes more efficient that most people don't know about.

Another  way  to  chop  render  time significantly is to not

render your entire scene for every frame.    Compositing  is

much faster than rendering.

If your camera is locked off, render the Background once and

then composite it with your foreground objects.   You can do

some  amazing  things  in  a  compositer that would be quite

costly to do in the render.   And  if  your render is just a

tad off, you can fix many minor faults in the process,  like

gamma, contrast, and other color correction issues.

Even if you have a moving camera, you'll save yourself a ton

of time by rendering out your BG and FG  layers  seperately.

When the lighting for one layer  is  done,  that's  it,  you

never have to render it again.

Rendering in layers affords  scenes  of  greater  complexity

than  your  current  level of RAM can hold.  But most impor-

tantly, anything that cuts back on  per-frame  compute  time

will allow for more iterations on a scene.  I know it sounds

rather snotty but a majority of the images published  in  LW

and PC graphics mags look like the artist tried  one  or two

cracks at their lighting and that was that.

Watch your favorite CGI laden film, commercial, video,  etc.

and you can bet that each and  every  rendered  element  was

tested and tested and tested, tweaked and tweaked and tweak-

ed, ten, twenty, thirty iterations.   Not  aways  full frame

ranges, sometimes tweaking parameters on  single  frames  is

all it takes.   The devil's in the details, and sometimes it

just takes a few tests to make something that looks "ok" in-

to something that looks "outstanding."


Overcoming Self-Crossing Bevels

QUESTION:

I'm in the middle of a large flying-logo animation and having

a problem modeling the main part of the logo.  When Beveling

acute angles like this:

             ^

            / \

           /   \

          / / \ \

         / /   \ \

        /_/     \_\

 ... it looks like this:

             ^

            /_\

           /_X_\  <-----The points on either side  of  the

          /_/ \_\       vertex bevel in two different dir-

         /_/   \_\      ections, crossing over each other,

        /_/     \_\     making the tip polygons  very non-

                        planar.

Is there any way to fix this?

ANSWER:

In descending order of difficulty:

* Edit the overlapping points of the bevel by hand.   Or be-

  fore beveling:

*     Move some points to round off the sharp vertices.

*     Move any points close to a vertex away from the vertex

      to allow more room for the bevel to clear itself.

* Delete any points close to a vertex.

---------------

Your best best with complex shapes  is  to  bevel  outwards.

This means setting the Shift and Inset to  NEGATIVE  numbers

to generate a bevel AWAY from the selected poly  rather than

impinging on it.

You do have to mess around to get the right face polys  back

again, but it's not too terribily difficult.  An outer bevel

will have none of the same problems creating self-crossings.

4.0 Modeler has a new option to generate outter bevels since

they are so useful.


Self-Crossing Bevels Conclusion

In a couple of previous posts by  JG and  SF, they suggested

bevelling OUT  to avoid the problem on sharp convex portions

of an object's outline.  This works  (I'm somewhat reluctant

to debate the point with these guys)  however, if the object

also has sharp concave areas, it will cause the same sort of

crossed up polygons in those areas.

---------------

Ah, but there's a big difference - the crossed polygons that

occur in concave areas when beveling outward are hidden  in-

side  the  object.  Unless  the letters are transparent, the

object will look perfect when rendered.  I agree with JG and

SF  that outside beveling is the way to go, with thick fonts

as well as thin.

I would also like to follow up on the beveled font smoothing

angle issue.  Beveled fonts are a great example of why I put

in an adjustable smoothing angle in the first place. There's

no need to bother with separate surface names for faces  vs.

bevels (although that's not a bad idea for  other  reasons),

or point-doubling along the borders of the  faces,  just  to

prevent smoothing from the faces to  the  bevels.   Instead,

just set the max. smoothing angle to 40 degrees or so.  Some

people complained that such an angle might prevent smoothing

on the curving sides of letters,  but you'd have to be using

a really crude font for that to happen.  In most fonts,  the

angle  between  the  segments making up a curve will be more

like 15 degrees or less.   In  situations where more extreme

angles are found (such as the indent on the right side of  a

capital "B"), you really want a sharp crease in the shading,

so lowering the smoothing angle will help there too.

- AH


Correcting Flipped Image Maps

QUESTION:

Why would a PAR sequence mapped onto a flat plane  be  flip?

Viewed from the PAR the grabbed video looks fine,  but  when

applied to a plane (single flat plane) the image is  flipped

(left to right).  The image is  Cubic Mapped and the poly is

a single sided type with double sided turned OFF.

ANSWER:

I don't think the problem is with the PAR sequence,  but the

way the image was mapped.  You say the image is to be  on  a

flat plane?  Use Planar image mapping.   Cubic image mapping

is for cubes and reverses the image on some sides.

> Even when I tried just a Planar map  it  remained flipped.

You could be looking at the back side of the  polygon, if it

is double sided.  To flip it the other way, simply make your

"width" axis negative.  For instance,  if you're Planar map-

ping on Z, you would make your X  texture  size  a  NEGATIVE

value. This will flip the image left to right.


Saving Hollywood FX Objects

Concerning saving scenes from Hollywood FX, when you install

the program, it creates a "Work" directory  in  the  Toaster

directory.  It  should  be something similiar for the stand-

alone version.

In that Work directory, there are 3 directories: Images, Ob-

jects, and Scenes.  The Images and Scene directories are ac-

cessible and filled at all times so you can access the scene

directory at any time. The Object directory is empty.

Hollywood FX accesses the objects as it needs them for  each

individual scene it renders.   This  means that the only ob-

jects  that  are  in  the Object directory are the ones that

Hollywood FX is using at that time.  While rendering,  Alt-M

out of the render and use a directory utility to look in the

HFX Object directory to get your objects.

Remember, after each render Hollywood FX deletes the objects

from the Object Directory. If you want to save  every object

that Hollywood FX uses,  you'll have to load each scene file

and start to render, Alt-M out of the render, then save  the

temporary objects in use into a diefferent  directory.   You

can then abort the render and start the next, etc.


A Procedural Texture Water Fountain

QUESTION:

I have a fountain on top of a pyrimid and want to make flow-

ing water spray from the top.  What's the best way to create

one?  Particles?

ANSWER:

For the water fountain,  particles certainly help the effect

and Sparks will do the trick.   If  you can't afford Sparks,

there is a PD program called Particle Fountain that will  do

a similiar effect but obviously with less features.

However,  you  don't  have  to use particles as particles by

themselves will not do a complete water fountain with spray.

For that you can use a fractal noise transparency.   Map  it

onto a cylinder and give the texture a positive Y  velocity.

Then create a morph target for the cylinder  by  succesively

pulling down the topmost points of the cylinder  to  form  a

fountain  shaped  sheet  of  water  object.   The positive Y

velocity will now curve back down to form the parabola of  a

water trajectory.   By playing with the transparency  values

and also using a moving fractal noise specular  texture  you

can mimic the spray of water with a static object.


Avoiding Bugs When Metaforming

QUESTION:

If I triple a extruded font and later metaform  the  object,

when I render why are there many strange errors on the  face

sides?  I want to build rounded letters.

ANSWER:

There  appears  to  be a bug in Metaform which flips polygon

surfaces  under  certain  conditions.  For example, when the

polygons get real small, or when the surface face is slight-

ly non-planar.

Try to avoid this problem by using un-tripled polygons  only

during Metaform.  This seems to help.  It means you have  to

use 4 point polygons only, but this is not difficult  if you

plan from the beginning for it.

Tripling  polygons  prior  to  Metaform also increases object

"stiffness" and mutes the Metaform  process,  sometimes  pro-

foundly.  Better results are obtained when using only 4 point

polygons.


Making Explosion Image Sequences

Here's a poor mans way to make "digitized" explosions.

Paint about 5 frames of an explosion in Brilliance.  DPaint,

Toaster Paint, Alpha Paint, or  Black & Decker  Paint  works

well, too.

These 5 images are just just "key frames" to make a 90 frame

explosion created using Morph Plus to make 'tweens'.   True,

it's not the BEST soulition but it is _A_ solution.

Painting 3 frames of buring fire and morphing them into a 60

frame loop is another application of this technique.


Making Lightning-like Neon Objects

QUESTION:

I'm trying to do some neon-like stuff (it's not really neon-

like, it's more lightning-like energy rays going  around  an

object).  Any way to get objects to glow?

ANSWER:

Use the Sketch tool to draw  a  zig-zag, bent-wire-like line

in one layer.   Make  a flat disc that is the right diameter

for your lightn-ing-like objects in another layer and rotate

and position it at the start of the sketched line in the BG.

Rail Extrude the disc.  This will give you a tubular version

of your lightning-like object. Surface it as "LightningGlow"

or something similar. Redo the above extrude, but use a flat

disc that's 1/3 to 1/4 the  size.   Surface  the  result  as

"Lightning." Put both of these objects in the foreground and

save them as one object.

In Layout, surface the outter glow tube like this:

  Color same as the inner lightning object

  Additive ON

  Luminosity 100%

  Diffusion 0%

  Transparency 40%

  Smoothing ON

  Edges to Transparent

  Treshold > 2

Surface the inner tube like this:

  Luminousity 100%

  Diffusion 0%

  Transparency 0%

  Smoothing ON

  Edges to Transparent

  Threshold > 2

This will make a nice glow around the lightning. If you make

your disc with 8 sides sides, it shouldn't take that long to

render.

A similar technique would work for a glow on a neon sign.


Multiple Null Object parenting

Using "extra" parents via null objects gives ypu much better

control over spline motion.  An example is when 2 boxes have

to land, one after the other, inside  a larger box.  In this

case each box takes up half of the larger box and any spline

motion in the X direction will make the second box crash in-

to the first as it lands.

The  solution  is  to parent the second box to a null  object

which  is  used to provide the X-axis motion.  Now, by making

the  spline  Linear on the X-axis, you can still have the ob-

ject ease into place on the Y-axis. This is a very successful

technique.


Simulating Search Light Reflectors

QUESTION:

How  difficult  would  it be to add a flare effect that sim-

ulates  a  reflector based on light sources such as a flash-

light,  car headlights, or helicopter searchlights?  For in-

stance,  when a  helicopter's  searchlight  is  oriented  45

degrees away from the camera, the flare (and glow)  is  much

less intense than if the light were pointed straight  at the

lens.

ANSWER:

By recessing your flare source into your  reflector  object,

enabling Fade Behind Object, and making the object a  shadow

caster, you will get a very basic  attenuation.   The  flare

will  fade  quickly as the reflector obscures the source and

maybe not as gradually as you might want. Although it is not

perfectly accurate, it looks pretty good.


Advise On PAR Video Capture

QUESTION:

Consider I only have S-VHS equipment, I have trouble getting

my PAR to playback captured S-VHS video at a descent quality

and I fear Betacam footage won't fare any better. What's the

secret to getting the PAR to playback clean video?

ANSWER:

There are two things you can do to make sure  the  video you

record onto the PAR is the highest quality:

1) Start with good quality source material, free from noise.

   Starting with BetaCam is a good way to go, since anything

   done to a professional level with  that kind of equipment

   will  be  free  of the noise and composite artifacts that

   makes the PAR work harder to compress the video.

2) Get the fastest hard drive you can afford for the PAR.  A

   Micropolis 1.7 Gb should allow you to capture video  at a

   high Q and Block limit setting.

There are other ways to do what you want.  You could capture

the video as "position only" or rough-work frames for use in

positioning things in LightWave,  and  then render the scene

out with a black or colored background that can then be lum-

inance or chroma-keyed over the original video source.  This

would totally eliminate any recording problems with the  PAR

because you would not be using the  PAR version of the video

to produce the final job.   To  do  this, you would not only

need to rent two BetaCam decks, you'd also need some type of

chroma-key equipment to combine the PAR animation  with  the

original source video.  However, you'd get the best possible

final quality that way.


VT4000 Software On An A2000?

QUESTION:

Can the Toaster 4000 (3.0) system be loaded  onto  an  A2000

with the 2.0 card?

ANSWER:

No!   The  VT4000 software for the 4000 card ONLY works on a

A4000  system  with  the  VT4000 card.  NewTek DOES have the

newer 3.x version of the  Toaster  software  for  the  A2000

with the 2.0 card.   Should  be  quite reasonable to get the

upgrade, now that 4.0 is shipping!


Understanding Non-Planar Polygons?
Understanding Non-Planar Polygons

QUESTION:

What exactly are non-planar polygons?  Why do  they  pop  up

when bending or stretching objects?   The manual does not go

into detail about non-planar poly's and why they are created

exactly.

ANSWER:

According to February 1994's issue of VTU,  and some experi-

mentation:

A non-planar polygon has 4 or more points that do not make a

flat surface. If you have 3 points in a polygon,  no  matter

where the points are you will have a flat surface unless  it

is degenerated by having more than one point  occupying  the

same location.

Some good rules to follow as you build objects:

1) Merge points as you build and join each piece if you  use

   booleans, cut, paste, mirror, etc.

2) Also always check with the stats menu as  you  build  for

   non-planar and degenerate polygons, especially if  you're

   using drag, twist, taper, stretch tools, etc.

3) Always triple the non-planar polygons. Unless you want to

   cut it or rebuild it.

4) Building a clean object means faster render  times,  less

   RAM usage, and less time figuring out the problem.

The tools mentioned here are merely examples to give you  an

idea of the type of operations that cause  these  non-planar

polys. Hope this clears things up a bit for you!


Making Irregular Shaped Light Beams

QUESTION:

I would like to put a light inside a planet and make a state

or country transparent in a manner that I could  see  inside

the planet as a light  beam  comes  out,   projecting  light

streaks all over the place in the shape of  the  outline.  I

think that this is not too difficult if I use the 'lightbeam

trick,' but I want the beam to be 'broken' as if dust was in

the air.  How can I do this?

ANSWER:

Here are some ideas:

Planet:

------------------------------------------------------------

Make a tessalated sphere in modeler or use the  planet  that

came with LW. Be sure to give the planet a surface name like

"planetsurf" (if you use the one that came with LW, be aware

that it is constructed of two spheres, one as the planet and

one slightly larger for the atmosphere).

You may wanna use this and you may not depending on the type

of scene you need.

Planet Map:

------------------------------------------------------------

If you don't have a planet map, go into your  paint  program

and paint the planet's terrain as if it were flat. Make sure

the left and right edges (also top and bottom)  connect  and

match up when wrapped around the sphere.   Save  this map as

something like "Planetmap.iff."

Now paint Black (on this same image) the section of  terrain

that you want to be transparent.  Make sure that nothing but

the section that you want to be transparent is black.   Save

as "PlanetTrans.iff" and import it into something like Adpro

and convert to a grayscale image and resave under  the  same

name.

Mapping:

------------------------------------------------------------

Load the planet object and the two planet maps into  Layout.

Go to the surfaces menu  and  select  Planet  surface,  then

under the surface color section, choose  'T'  and  use  your

"planetmap.iff" as a spherical image map.   Choose Automatic

sizing and Ok.

Under the transparency section choose 'T' again and use  the

"PlanetTrans.iff" as a spherical transparency map, auto size

and Ok.

Surface:

------------------------------------------------------------

You can get as detailed as you need, but for simplicity, use

the default surface settings and add doublesided and smooth-

ing. Now the black area of the planetTrans map  should  give

you a transparent hole for that section of the planet.

Lightbeam:

------------------------------------------------------------

I'm not sure what kind of light beam you're looking for, but

here is what my first impression was.  Go into Modeler, load

the planettrans map as a back ground image  (on the Y axis -

Editors).  With the point making tool,  simply  outline  the

black  section of the map with points in a clock wise direc-

tion. Choose make.

Now that we have a polygon in the shape of the black section

of terrain (you can turn the BG image off now),  choose  the

extrude tool and extrude this polygon to the desired  length

(on the Y axis - Editors).

Enlarge the top polygon to the desired beam angle dimensions

to achieve the 'V' shape of a light  beam.   Surface  it  as

"Planetbeam" and save the object by exporting it out to Lay-

out as "PlanetBeam.lwo."  Once in Layout,  postion the  beam

properly at the right location of the planet.

Lightbeam surface:

------------------------------------------------------------

Choose smoothing, additive, transparent edges and doublesid-

ed.  Set the desired color for the beam.

Choose 'T' beside Transparency and use the Grid texture (with

a Line size of 1 - Editors) as a gradient (transparency) map

(with a falloff value calculated  by  dividing  the  Y  axis

length of the beam by 100 and a center value  on  that  same

axis equal to its length - Editors).  A texture value of (0%

and a Transparency value of 100% - Editors)  should do it...

This will make the beam brighter at the light end  and  fall

off towards the other end.  Play  with  the settings (if the

effect is reversed - Editors).

To break the beam up as if dust particles would do, set up a

Luminousity fractal noise  texture.   You'll  have  to  play

around with the fractal sizes to get the desired effect  and

also the contrast and frequencies.   (Set  the Texture value

at 100% and Luminousity at 40% - 60% - Editors).   Set World

Coordinates ON if you plan to move the light beam around. If

not, and you want the dust itself to fly  around,  give  the

texture itself a velocity setting.

Final Touches:

------------------------------------------------------------

After  saving all of the objects with there new surface set-

tings, load a second copy of the planet and for this one re-

move the planettrans map.  Save it as "PlanetPlain.lwo."

Set the two planets up to morph and turn the  Morph Surfaces

button ON.  Use an object  Dissolve  Envelope  to  fade  the

lightbeam object in as the plain Planet morphs to the trans-

parent hole planet.

Last thing to do is to put a light inside  the  planet  with

the desired flares and envelopes.


Solid Drill vs. Boolean Subtract

QUESTION:

What are the main differences between Solid Drill Tunnel and

Boolean-Subtract? From what I read, it seems that  only  the

surface names affected are different.

ANSWER:

Solid Drill only creates a hole in existing polygons, no NEW

polygons are created.  Boolean Subtract creates new interior

polygons. It is like the difference between cutting  into  a

hollow object (drill) and a solid object (subtract).


Making A Bell Curve Reveal Graph

QUESTION:

How would I go about making the line of a bell shaped  curve

graph reveal itself from left to right?

ANSWER:

For the sake of simplicity let's say the shape of your graph

that you want to reveal is an upside down letter  'U' (close

to a bell-shaped curve).  Let's assume you'd like the  curve

to start being revealed from the left, proceed  up  the left

leg around the arch and down the right leg.

Modeler Steps:

1. Create a long straight bar in the Face view by using  the

   square tool, let's say 4 meters long on the X axis and .5

   meters high. If you want you can give it some depth along

   the Z axis, but for test purposes don't  add  any  depth.

   Give the bar about 50 segments on the X axis.   The  more

   segments, the smoother your final image will look.

2. Name the polygons for this bar "StraightBar" and save the

   object with the name "StraightBar.lwo"

3. Copy this object to layer 2.

4. Now comes the fun part.  Using the bend tool under Modify

   bend the bar until you get the shape you  want  (in  this

   case an upside down 'U').

5. Rename the polygons to "BentBar" and save the object with

   the name "BentBar.lwo"

Layout Steps:

1. Load your two objects "StraightBar.lwo" and "BentBar.lwo"

   into Layout.

2. Under the Objects panel, set Object Desolve for "BentBar"

   to 100%.  We're only using this for a morphing target, so

   it shouldn't be visable.

3. Select the "StraightBar" object and set Metamorph to 100%

   and Metamorph Target to "BentBar."   If all has gone well

   your "StraightBar" will look just like "BentBar."

4. Now go to the Surfaces panel and  apply  the  (previously

   created image brush sequence of a black rectangle turning

   white from left to right over 60 to 120 frames - Editors)

   as a transparency map.

The trick here is that the surface maps still see "Straight-

Bar" as being straight and not as having been morphed to the

bent version (so that the image  sequence  travels  straight

across the straightbar now morphed into the bell curve bar -

Editors).

Remember  that  an object that has been  morphed  and  who's

surfaces have any Specular Level at all will prevent the ob-

ject from being 100% transparent when using an image map  or

animated sequence.


Understanding PAR Q And Block Settings

QUESTION:

Does anybody know what level of video quality you can record

to the PAR with a TBCIV?  I only have S-VHS and have trouble

getting super clean video out of the PAR.  If I raise the  Q

level and Block setting to the point where  a  single  frame

looks great, when I try to capture a stream  of video, I get

the "Block Setting Exceeded" message.

ANSWER:

Here's the problem, when you are recording an animation from

Lightwave to the PAR, the PAR software has the time  to  try

to maximize the Q-Level setting to fit your block size on  a

frame by frame basis. When you are trying to digitize video,

the PAR has only 1/30th of a second to  digitize  and  store

each frame.  Therefore, it can only try one quality setting,

and that one quality setting has to fit the entire recording

for good and bad frames alike.

Super clean video (ie. very little signal noise) will  allow

you to set a very  high  quality  setting  when  digitizing.

Dirty (noisy) video will force you to use a very low quality

setting.  The reason? The hardware does not have the ability

to discriminate between noise and detail.   The  compression

algorithm used (JPEG) is set up to maximize detail retention

and loose the most on large flat areas  of  slowly  changing

colour.  Lots of noise in  the  signal  makes  JPEG  "think"

there is lots of detail.   Your  compression  goes  into the

toilet and the number of blocks it takes to store each frame

on the PAR hard drive exceeds the block limit that you  set.

Clean video compresses very well,  so  you  can set a higher

quality level and still meet the block limit for storing the

frames.

There are a couple of ways to help  the  PAR  with  marginal

video.   One  way  is to "compress" the dynamic range of the

video by playing with the TBC IV's  proc-amp  settings.   By

raising the black pedstal and lowering the brightness you're

compressing the contrast range (dynamic range) of the  video

signal.  This has the effect of minimizing noise and detail,

and makes the signal slightly easier to compress.   You  can

regain  the  full  dynamic  range  by  processing the frames

through ADPro or Imagemaster to regain image contrast before

you use the frames as a series of backdrop images  in  a  LW

rendering.  This will cause a slight banding  in  the  image

(depending on how severly you killed the contrast  to  begin

with) but this is less objectionable than the JPEG artifacts

you'd get by lowering the PAR's Q-factor to record the  same

signal at full dynamic range.

Another way to help the PAR out is by  filtering (softening)

the video before it gets to the TBC IV and the PAR  with  an

external video processing box. You'll loose image sharpness,

but again, this is less objectionable than JPEG artifacts.

The best way is to just have super clean video to begin with.

A good camera, good tape, and betacam equipment should do the

trick here.


Surface Settings For A Glass Of Wine

QUESTION:

I know how to make water in Lightwave, but I would  like  to

make a glass of wine WITH WINE IN IT  and  I  cannot  figure

out how to make realistic looking wine.   The surface of the

wine would be easy if I applied the  same  method  as making

water, but what about the rest of the wine?   We  should  be

able to see the whine through the glass, and MOVING.    What

settings are suggested?

ANSWER:

I have been working on a drink bottle for a few days and ran

into all kinds of problems but have  since  solved  most  of

them.  For a nice looking liquid I set the appropriate color

for the drink.  I used '0' for  Luminosity,  Diffuse  level,

Specular level, and Reflectivity (since mine was  in  a bot-

tle, I gave the specular and reflective values to the bottle

itself, not the liquid, but in your case  you  may  need  to

give both of these some values). I used Transparency 85% and

gave it a Refractive Index of 1.2 with Color Filter, Smooth-

ing, and Double Sided ON.  When rendering make sure you turn

on Trace Refraction.  My  bottle  has  a  98%  Transparency,

a  Surface  Color  of  225,  225,  225,   100%  Luminousity,

Specular level 100%, Glossiness = High, Refelectivity set at

15%, Refractive index 1.1,  and  I  turned  Color Filter ON,

Smoothing, and Double Sided.  I used shadow maps to  cast  a

shadow and the final image looks excellent.  Maybe  you  can

incorporate some of this into your  project.   I  just  kept

rendering test frames in low res,  tweaking  this  and  that

each time until I got it right.


Faking Translucent Objects

QUESTION:

I have a lamp from a kit that is made up of many  pieces  of

very thin wood.  The wood's thin enough that  light  on  one

side shines through the other, making it glow in such a  way

that you can see the light's hot  spot,  but  not  the light

itself.   How can I model/render this effect in LW?

ANSWER:

You have an interesting problem there.   What it sounds like

what you are trying to simulate is  translucency,  which  is

something that LightWave has to be tricked into doing.  Add-

ing a little luminosity to the surface sounds  like  a  good

start for getting a little glow into the wood.  But here's a

more subtle approach.

Try to place a light inside the object,  set  to  Ray Traced

shadows. This will give you the pattern of light coming from

the object as it shines on other objects.  To make the  wood

glow properly, try placing several small lights  around  the

outside of object set to an orangish colour with low intens-

ity and moderate intensity falloff.    This  will  have  two

benefits... it will warm up the  shadows  in  the  immediate

vicinity of the lamp (simulating translucency) and will make

the wood appear to have a glow.

By carefully  positioning these external lights and by care-

fully controlling their intensity and intensity falloff, you

can get a more realistic effect than just luminosity  alone.

Have a look at the real lamp and see if the glow in the wood

strips isn't more intense at the midpoint and less so at the

top and bottom.   The external lights will help you simulate

this kind of effect.

As for the light being visible inside the object -- it won't

be unless you go out of your way to make it so.


Moving Legs Using Bones

QUESTION:

I'm  having  a  problem using Bones for the first time.  I'm

trying to move a human figure, but when I  try  to  move the

bones to bend one leg why does the other leg and foot deform?

ANSWER:

Try thinking of bones as skins rather than bones. If you put

only a central bone in something like a leg,  you  will  get

those problems where the influence of the bone affects  some

places you don't want influenced, and misses some places you

do.

Do this:  put a central bone as a parent for 6 or 8 bones in

a ring around it.  You don't even need to activate the  cen-

tral bone.  You need to do something similar for the  thigh,

leg, and foot.  Then you manipulate the central bone and the

others follow.   Since they are right on the polygon skin of

the object, you get better influence.

Don't forget to put a bone/skin structure into any area  ad-

jacent to the areas you are moving, to act as an anchor. For

example, even if you will only move one leg,  put  bones  in

the other so the influence doesn't 'leak.'   And  if you are

moving the legs, you must put bones in the belly, so it does

not distort as the legs move.


How To Make A Spring Object

QUESTION:

How can I create a spring object?

ANSWER:

Rail Extrude is what you want. Make a spiraling spline curve

and in another layer with the spiral curve in the background

layer, make a small disc and orient it  so  that  it  points

along the path.  Click Rail Extrude.

(Or, you could use this easier approach.   Make a small flat

1 mm circle poly on the XY axis  and  offset  -40 mm  on  X.

Select Clone on the Multiply panel and under  Numeric  enter

Clones = 360, Angle = 3600,  Y axis Offset of 20 mm, and all

other fields defaulted.   Click OK,  and  Make.   A  perfect

spiral spring having 10 turns and 36 sections per turn  will

be created -- Editors).


Projecting Slide Transparencies

QUESTION:

Can spotlights shine through partially  transparent  objects

to make a soft shadow on something?  I know you can use Clip

Maps to allow a Shadow Mapped spot to cast a  shadow  of  an

image  (like  the  letters example in the  manual),  but  it

creates a hard edge.

ANSWER:

Spotlights can be set to "shadow mapping" which casts  soft-

edged  shadows,  but  these  do  not recognize object trans-

parency.  Ray-traced shadows are hard edged,  but  they cast

shadows that vary according to oject transparency.   It's  a

trade off.  Clip Mapping is something else.   The example in

the  manual is trying to show you the difference between ob-

ject transparency and clip mapping with  respect  to  shadow

mapping.  Since the shadow mapped spotlight will  not  honor

transparent objects, don't use transparency to shape objects

that are to cast shadows;  use clip maps instead.

QUESTION:  Okay, what I want is a  slide  projector  effect.

Can an image be mapped onto a plane and have a  light  shine

through that image to project that same image onto  the rest

of the objects in the scene?

Yes.  Make sure that the surface of your "slide" polygon  is

set to "doublesided," otherwise it will not cast  a  shadow.

Map the picture you want projected onto  the  polygon  as  a

color texture, set transparency to 100%, and press the Color

Filter button ON.  Set up your spotlight  to  shine  through

this  polygon (view from light works great for this) and ad-

just your  spotlight  Cone Angle  to  control the spread and

coverage along with the light placement.    The  closer  the

light is to the polygon and the  wider  its  Cone Angle, the

wider the field you can cover with the projection.   Turn on

"trace shadows" in the camera and you are all set.

(This will cast hard edged images since it's done  via  ray-

tracing, using a processed image that's blurred  or softened

a bit will make for a more diffuse image will be projected -

Editors)


Calculating Image Size For Print

QUESTION:

How  do  I  go  about figuring out the correct resolution to

render at for specific print sizes?

ANSWER:

What you need to have is a couple of pieces  of  information

regarding the final printed image.  You  need  the size, and

you need the density of the line screen.  You  can  then use

these pieces of information to figure out what pixel resolu-

tion you need for a given print job.   The  relationship  is

that you need between 1.5 and 2 times the number  of  pixels

as you have halftone dots.  For simplicity, let's use 2x the

line screen and work from there.

Let's say that your printer tells you that your image is go-

ing to be reproduced at 8.5 x 11,  with  a  133  line screen

(common in magazine work).

Translated, this means that there will be 133 halftone  dots

per inch in the final piece.  That  means,  you will need 2x

that, or 266 pixels per inch, in order to produce a  quality

reproduction.

Now,  you  know  the  size of the piece is 8 1/2 x 11, which

means your image has to be 8.5 x 266 = 2261 pixels wide, and

11 x 266 = 2926 pixels tall.

If the line screen goes up, so does the resolution you need.

For example, say that the 8.5 x 11 is going  to  be  printed

with a 150 line screen.  Then you'd need  300  dpi  in  your

image, which works out to 2550 x 3300 pixels.    If the line

screen goes down, then you need less resolution.   That same

8.5 x 11 at an 85 line  screen  (common in low-end printing)

would only need to be 1445 x 1870 pixels.

Now that is in theory.  In  practice  you  can get away with

less resolution.  The 2x quality factor we used above is the

limit.  Beyond 2x there are no quality gains.  However, gen-

erally anything above 1.7x is a waste of resolution and will

not result in a visible difference  in  the  printed  piece.

Have a look at the following chart,  which  shows resolution

requirements for that 8.5 x 11  picture  at  different  line

screens and quality factors:

Line Screen    2x Quality Factor   1.7x Quality Factor

    85             1445 x 1870         1228 x 1589

   133             2261 x 2926         1921 x 2486

   150             2550 x 3300         2167 x 2805


Dual Layer Textures Using Transparency

QUESTION:

What I'm trying to do is have the white part  of an image be

transparent to an underlying procedural texture and have the

black part of the image superimposed on top of it.   I  have

tried using a Transparency Map, but it makes the whole  sur-

face transparent where it's white.  What's the trick?

ANSWER:

LW  does not treat the various surface settings as seperate,

overlapping layers, but instead, as a hieracrchy with Trans-

parency being the highest (over-riding) attribute.  Thus, to

accomplish what you're asking requires that you have  actual

surface layers by making an slightly larger object from  the

original and use this to map your B/W image on to.

You can do this by taking your base object into Modeler  and

select all the polys assigned to the  surface  in  question.

Copy them to another layer and give them a  different  name,

something relating to being a transparency.   Put  your base

model in the BG and select a view that  gives  the  clearest

side view of the copied polys and model.   SLIGHTLY move the

copied polys out away from the center of the model,  even  a

millimeter will do (use the Numberic button).  If the copied

polys  surround  the  object  (like a sphere),  use the Size

function and Numeric to increase the polygons  a  fractional

amount, say a factor of 1.01 or so.

Save these polys as a new object and load it up  along  with

the base model. Now you can use your Tx map OVER your under-

lying Surface map.


Making Seamless Texture Maps

Here's a good trick to  render  your  own  seamless  Fractal

Noise bitmap!

1.  Start with a single rectangular polygon that fills  your

    screen.  Don't worry if it hangs off the edge.

3.  Create the surface you would like to have repeat includ-

    ing any fractal texture you want.

4.  Select Save RGB and render a frame.

5.  Run ADPro and load the image you just rendered.

6.  Use  the  Crop Visual  operator  to crop away all of the

    image EXCEPT for 50 pixels on the right side.  Save this

    part of the image (50 x 480, if you used Medium Res)  to

    the TEMP buffer.

7.  Load the original image again.

8.  Use  Crop Visual to crop away the 50 pixels on the right

    side (leaving 702 x 480 in Medium Res).

9.  Set the Compose/Replace/Landscape cycle gadget to Compose

    (ADPro 2.5 only).

10. Open the Backdrop Loader.

11. Set Type to Gray, Mode to Gradient, Width to 50 and Height

    to whatever the height of the image is.

12. Set the color of the two left rectangles to white (value

    255) and the two right rectangles  to  black  (value 0).

    This will create a grayscale gradient spanning 50 pixels

    from white to black.  Select OK.

13. The ADPro Composition Screen opens up.  Select As Alpha.

14. When control returns, load the TEMP buffer.

15. The ADPro Composition Screen opens up.  Make sure X and

    Y offsets are 0,  Mix is 100, and Alpha is set to Alpha

    Memory.

16. Select Compose.

17. Save your finished image.

Why is this seamless?  You've effectively rolled  the  image

into a cylinder with a 50 pixel overlap. Thanks to the Alpha

channel gradient, the left edge fades in as the  right  edge

fades out.

A similar procedure can be used to make the top  and  bottom

seamless, also.

If you find that 50 pixels looks rough on your textures, ad-

just accordingly:  you can create a gradient up to 256 lines

wide without repeating a single color, and thus have a wide,

perfectly smooth fade from one edge to the other.

There's also a fairly easy way to do this in  Toaster Paint,

if you don't mind trying to work around the 1/4 screen limi-

tation.


Particle Sand Storms

QUESTION:

I would like to make a storm of some kind with wind  blowing

dust around and I don't know how to create such.

ANSWER:

For the dust storm you might want to make a  particle  cloud

using the Points Spread macros in Modeler.  Save it as Dust,

then load multiple copies into layout.  Make sure each cloud

is a fairly large cube, possibly covering 500 meters.

If you want steady moving dust, try using parenting in rows.

This way, you can cycle each row back to  repeat  a  pattern

for constantly moving dust like this:

Try loading 12 copies of your dust object.  Parent copies  1

& 2 to 3;  4 & 5 to 6;  7 & 8 to 9;  and 10 & 11 to 12.  Now

arrange them in 4 rows using the X and Z values given  below

for each numbered copy:

            Particle Cloud # | Z value

            -----------------|---------

              1  |   2 |   3 |   1500

              4  |   5 |   6 |   1000

              7  |   8 |   9 |    500

             10  |  11 |  12 |      0

           ------|-----|-----|---------

  X value   1000 | 500 |   0 |

(This is if you used the 500 meter size in modeler)

Now, by moving the parents  3, 6, 9, and 12, each entire row

will move.  To make this dust cloud cycle,  set  the  motion

envelopes for the row parents as follows:

(all values given are for the Z position):

       Frame#    Value                  Frame#    Value

----------------------          -----------------------

Dust3:    0       1500          Dust6:     0       1000

         74       2000                   149       2000

         75          0                   150          0

        300       1500                   300       1000

Dust9:    0        500          Dust12:    0          0

        224       2000                   300       2000

        225          0

        300        500

Set all motion envelopes to repeat, with ALL keyframe spline

controls on Linear.  This will cause all the dust to move at

200 meters/second, covering 2 Km in 10 seconds and making  a

complete cycle of the rows.   You can scale the keyframes as

you wish to speed up or slow down the dust.

To surface the dust, make it the same color as  your  desert

and maybe a tad transparent. Use Particle Blur on the Camera

panel to make the motion less strobed  and  possibly  Motion

Blur as well.


Morphing Particle Volumes

QUESTION:

Is it possible to create an object, make its shape into par-

ticles, and then create another object with different shape,

but with the same # of particles and then morph  both of the

one particle object into the other?    In other words, part-

icle morphing?

ANSWER:

Creating objects filled with particles is pretty simple:

Use Modeler's Point Distribution macro  to  create  lots  of

points in a sphere. Use the object that  you  need  to  fill

with  particles  as  a cookie cutter and use the AND boolean

function between the object and the mass of  particles.  You

will be left with only those particles contained within  the

object's shape

(Do  this for each object volume and make sure the same num-

ber of points are in each volume.  If not (most likely) then

add the required number by hand. -- Editors)


Making Animated Tank Treads

QUESTION:

I need to make tank treads move.  What's the best way to  do

this?

ANSWER:

Create a Bump and/or Displacement Map  in  a  paint  program

with the raised area of the tread white and  the  in-between

areas black.  Then go into modeler and create  a  two  sided

plane object with a slight amount of thickness.   Be sure to

create it with a generous amount  of  segments.  Give it the

surface name of "Treads" and save it.  Now use the Bend tool

and curve the plane back upon itself in the manner of a tank

tread.  When you have the proper shape give it  a  different

surface name and save it under a  different  name.   Now, in

Layout load both objects and give the plane object the  Bump

Map, or the Displacement Map if it has lots of polys.  Morph

the the plane into the tread shaped object and give the tex-

ture a velocity on the lengthwise axis.   The  texture  will

now  follow  the  circular path giving the illusion that the

tank treads are moving.


Diffuse And Specularity Interactions

QUESTION:

How does Diffuse interact with Specularity and shadows?

ANSWER:

Here is a quick way to think  about  the  different  surface

attributes.

Picture a wooden ball.   It's  fully diffuse (light reflects

off the entire surface).  Paint it with varnish.   It's  now

less diffuse.  It gets "generally" darker, yet has the  same

color as before as you look at it where the light is direct-

ly perpendicular to the surface, but gets  darker  faster as

the angle of incidence to the light increases).   Now,  buff

that ball a little, and you start to see a foggy  highlight.

You have now increased the specularity.  Polish the ball un-

til you get a tiny, hard highlight.   You've  now  increased

the gloss, yet the diffusity and color remain the same. Gen-

erally, the only time you'd reduce the diffuse setting on  a

surface is if you're trying to make  it  look  varnished  or

shiny (shiny objects are never 100% diffuse). This goes hand

in hand with the specular setting which determines the kind,

size, and highlight strength the surface will have.


Basics On Using The Patch Function

QUESTION:

I'm having problems getting the PATCH command in Modeler  to

work. Anyone have any quick tips that might point me in  the

right direction?

ANSWER:

You must have a completely enclosed area bounded by three or

four connected spline  curves.  To  connect  spline  curves,

either start a curve from a point on a pre-existing curve or

select a point on each curve and use Merge or Weld.

Curves are connected if they share a point, but  it  doesn't

have to be the start or end point.  If  you  use  the sketch

command to create curves, they'll sometimes look  like  they

share points, but if you zoom in far enough you'll find that

they don't.  Make sure the curves completely enclose an area

and directly select the curves before using patch.  The  re-

questor that pops up allows you to  specify  the  number  of

polys generated (ie. a 10 x 10 grid would have  100  polys).

Patches defined by 4 curves will generally  render  smoother

than those defined by only three.


Basics On Using Rail Extrude
Basics On Using Rail Extrudes

QUESTION:

I got LWPro magazine, and read the tutorial on spline usage,

but I didn't get as much out of it as I  would  have  liked.

What are some tips on Splines and perhaps a real application

example?

ANSWER:

Without getting too technical or  detailed,  here  are  some

examples:

Making Handle bars for a bicycle:

Use the Sketch tool in the objects menu to make a curve in a

handle bar shape, like this:

                       |_____           _____  X

       Disk obj.  ---> |     \         /

      (side view)              \_____/  <--- Spline Path

                                  Y

Below the Sketch button, select Make.   Now that your spline

rail is made, go to the disk tool and make a flat disk about

1" in diameter on the X axis like above.   Be  sure  to make

this in another layer with the spline in a  background layer

so that you can postion the center of the disk exactly where

the first starting point of the  spline  (indicated  by  the

diamond symbol when you use Polygon select at the bottom  of

the screen).

Once every thing is in place, choose the Rail Extrusion tool

from the Multiply menu.  For now,  just try the default set-

tings and hit OK.  The  disk  should have extruded along the

spline curve, creating smooth bends in the bar (disk).

Note:   If the polygons are turned the wrong way in the fin-

ished product, you can flip them back or flip  the  disk be-

fore performing the extrusion.  Also, for a  more  realistic

set of handle bars, try manualy  entering  the  points  into

position and then selecting the Curve button under the Tools

menu to create a spline from the selected points.

Try pulling the ends of the spline into the negative Z  axis

and then perform the extrusion.  If you do this, you'll have

to reposition the disk so that it's aligned with the spline.

The object that is to be extruded must be  at  the  starting

point of the spline, and whatever angle the object has rela-

tive to the spline, it will be maintained throughout the ex-

trusion, so be sure to have it postioned properly.

With this technique in mind you  could  make  the  bicycle's

frame, a water slide (by extruding a U shaped polygon  along

a winding spline), or a high banked turn for  a  race  track

(by extruding a short and wide rectangle).


More Basics On Using Patch

Patches work with spline curves.   Look  at  it  this way, a

spline is actually a piece of bent metal  that  boat  makers

used to use to tie wet pieces of wood to, leaving them  tied

like that for a few days.  The tension of the ropes  pulling

on  the  wood towards the curved metal (Spline) would event-

ually make the wood take the shape of the spline.

So, in Modeler from left to right make four points (X axis).

With them highlighted, go to the Tools menu and select  Make

under the Curves section.  This  will  make the Spline Curve

out of these points.

           |

     1*    |   2*

           |

           |

   X ------+--------

           |

           |

     4*    |   3*

           |

           Y

     (Front View)

Now, if you select Polygon from the bottom of the screen you

should see the spline curve highlighted. Deselect all points

and go back to the Tool menu.  Select points 1 & 2 and click

Make (Curve). Select points 2 & 3 and  click  Make.   Select

points 3 & 4 and click Make.  Select points 4 & 1 and  click

Make. Now you have an enclosed square of spline curves. Even

though they look straight they are considered spline curves.

If you now select Polygon from the bottom menu,  you  should

see the splines highlighted.   With all highlighted,  select

Patch from the multiply menu. A requestor will pop up.  Just

click OK.  You should see those splines turned into a  wire-

frame mesh.

It's time to expirement.  Do  the  exact same thing as above

only add a middle point to each set of points like below.

             |

        1*  2*   3*

             |

   X ---8*---+---4*----

             |

        7*  6*   5*

             |

             Y

Deslect all points and go to the  Tools  menu.   Select  the

points like before only in threes.  Select points  1, 2, & 3

then click Make, etc.

With Points on the bottom menu still slected,  use the  Drag

tool in the Modify menu and drag the middle points back into

the Z axis. Now choose Polygon from the bottom menu and make

sure that all of the  splines are highlighted.   Go  to  the

Multiply menu and Patch these just as before.  You should've

gotten a wavey wireframe mesh this time.   What's  happening

is that the splines are forcing the  mesh  (defined  by  the

Patch requester) to take the shape of the curves!

Try using half circles next time, or use the sketch tool  to

draw the splines and then patch them!  The thing to remember

is that the splines have to ENCLOSE a volume  of  space, ie.

be connected end-to-end, for this to  work.   You  can  only

patch only 4 splines at one time.


Using The Additive Surface Button

QUESTION:

What is the Additive button on the  Surface Panel good  for?

What exactly does it do, and what would be a possible use of

it?

ANSWER:

It's been used successfully to create static electric fields

by setting the object to black and applying a  texture  like

Underwater with a light blue color and setting Additive  ON.

The manual gives another couple of uses for this setting.


Making Alphas For Lens Flares

QUESTION:

Is there a way to produce an  alpha  channel for lensflares?

Please explain the theory behind it to me.

ANSWER:

Read the article on alpha channels in the July 1994 issue of

LWPro.  This as well as many other issues were covered.

Lens flares are an additive effect, ie. adding them to  some

image should not in any way diminish the intensity contribu-

tion of any pixel.  The  standard  formula for combining two

images using alpha is: PixNew = [PixFG * alpha] +  [PixBG  *

(1 - alpha)]  where  alpha is scaled to a value from 0 to 1.

As you can see, with a translucent object (say alpha = 0.5),

the  background  will be decreased in value by 50% to arrive

at the new pixel value.  Therefore,  what you really want to

do is render your lens flares over a black  background,  and

then when you composite them,  simply do an absolute add  of

flare to the background (or using the format of the equation

above:  PixNew = PixFG + PixBG).  Once your flares are rend-

ered over a black background,  you  simply load the image(s)

into the forground in LW and composite them over your  other

graphics using a completely black image for alpha  (or using

the alpha that was generated by  LW  when  the  flares  were

rendered, which will be all black unless there were  objects

other than lights in the scene).  The  other  option  is  to

composite the flares externally in something  like  ImageFX.

In this case, you would use the  "absolute add"  compositing

mode for the flares.


Arexx Script To Render Multiple Scenes
Aress Script To Render Multiple Scenes

Here  is  a  program  I  wrote  to  allow batch rendering of

LightWave scenes.

 /* This program batch renders user specified LightWave*/

 /* scene files.  By Dan Bloomfield */

 address 'LightWaveARexx.port'

 say 'How many scenes do you want to batch render? '

 pull SceneNumber

 do Loop=1 to SceneNumber

 say 'What is the name of Scene number 'Loop''

 pull SceneName.Loop

 end

 say 'Specify directory path for saved frames '

 pull DirPath

 say 'Now Batch Rendering'

 do Loop=1 to SceneNumber

 'LoadScene Scenes/'SceneName.Loop

 'SaveImages 'DirPath'/'SceneName.Loop

 'Render 1'

 end

 say 'Batch Render done. Rendered 'SceneNumber 'files.'

 exit

Save the above script as "BatchRender"

To launch this program from a shell just make sure  ARexx is

active and type:

rx BatchRender

To render Framestores instead of RGB files  just  substitute

the 'SaveFrames' command for the 'SaveImages' command.


Controlling Lens Flare Size

QUESTION:

I'm  working  on  an anim where there are  30 - 40  animated

lights.  Each changes intensity  over  time,  starting  very

close to the lights then moving away.  Unfortunatly,  as you

move away, the flares don't get smaller in the distance.  Is

this normal?

ANSWER:

I did an animation that simulates a fiber  optic  cable.  My

scene has more than 30 lights!   I didn't set  the  Dissolve

With Distance option ON in the Flare Options Panel  (version

3.5 only). Instead I used envelopes for both light and flare

intensity and it works very well. I wanted to have some kind

of flash at the beginning and the results were great.  After

the camera went into the fiber optic cable,  I put the light

and flare intensity to zero.


Making A Page Turn Using Bones

QUESTION:

How  does one use bones to turn a page of a book object?   I

need an inside page to flip realistically to the next  page,

as if it were pulled from the top corner.

ANSWER:

I will tell you how to do this with bones, but  I  think  it

would probably be simpler with morphing.  First  triple  the

polys in your page in modeler and subdivide until you have a

few hundred polys.  Then be sure to save the page as a  sep-

erate  object  from  the  book,  because you do not want the

bones to influence the rest of the  book.   Export  back  to

layout and with the page object selected, go to the Skeleton

menu and add two bones.  In  Bone  Select  mode,  select the

first bone and select Rest Length from the tool menu on  the

left of the screen.  Now,  make the bone about the same size

as your page and poisition the bone so  that  it's  axis  is

parallel to the page.  Hit Enter to make a key frame for the

bone at frame 0, and hit 'r' to make the bone active. Select

the second bone and  with  rest length active make the  bone

about 1/4 the size of the  page.   Make  the  first bone the

parent of the second one and place the second  bone  at  the

corner that you want to curl and set a key frame at  0,  and

at the last frame before your curl starts.  Hit 'r' to  make

the bone active.  Moving the  second  bone  should cause the

corner of the page to curl after it,  while moving the first

bone will move the entire page.  Since the  page is a seper-

ate object it will have to be parented to the book  and have

it's pivot point moved to the books' spine so that  rotating

the page  on the correct axis will cause it  to  turn  while

moving the bones will cause the page to curl. In my opinion,

it would be simpler to curl and turn the page in modeler and

save several copies in different positions and morph between

them.


Simple Clip Mapped Christmas Tree

Christmas tree:

What you need is an image of a tree. Make yourself a christ-

mas tree shaped image, black on white.   Using your favorite

software, throw it through some sort of noise filter so that

the black shape is still noticable but it has grey and white

holes all over it. The best way I can explain this "look" is

the way the shadow of a tree looks during the  summer,  with

the sun shining through the leaves.  Try  and  leave it more

solid towards the center (to simulate the trunk and increas-

ed density of leaves)

You will use this as a clip map in LW by taking 2 flat poly-

gons and intersecting them at right angles.   You'll have an

extruded X shape.  Clip Map your polygons with the image you

created and set the surface color  to  a  dark  green.  Now,

when you view the tree at most angles (except from below  or

above) it will look just like a tree.  BTW,  this only works

for trees at a distance from the camera...  if it's going to

be close, you either need more than two polygons  intersect-

ing,  or you need to build a tree model... for this I'd sug-

gest maybe looking for an arexx macro to do this...

There  is  no  snow on this tree, so you might want to use a

surface color map of the same  image  but  colored  so  that

there's a brown trunk and green and white leaves... then you

might want to add some fractal noise as  a  diffuse  map  to

"dirty up" the tree a bit... making it look more  realistic.

Under the clip map settings... make  sure  antialiasing  and

pixel blending is off... you also might need to toggle nega-

tive image, depending on whether  your  original  image  was

black on white or white on black.


Tips On Surface Morphs & Chrome

QUESTION:

I want to do a morph between two objects.   The only problem

is, the morphed object takes the  parent  object's  surface.

What do I do?

ANSWER:

Turn ON the  Morph Surfaces  button.  Surface  settings  are

fully morphable, but only between a source  and ONE  target,

i.e. you can't do morph sequences.

QUESTION:   What is a good method of creating  a  believable

liguid chrome surface?   I  haven't played with chrome text-

ures, but I think that if a liquid object had its polys tri-

pled and subdivided  that you could then use a  Displacement

Map on it to get a true rippling chrome look.

The fractal reflections image included with the Toaster used

as a Reflection Map combined with a fractal  Bump  Map  with

the texture size set at around 1/100 the size of the surface

will yield a decent chrome.


Making 2D Cutouts With Clip Maps
Making 2D Cutouts Using Clip Maps

QUESTION:

How do I import an image or brush into Layout and convert it

into a 2D cutout following the edges of the  image  (like  a

tree) rather than  rendering  the whole polygon?

ANSWER:

Make a version of your brush in a paint program that is pure

white where you want the tree to be, and pure black where it

isn't.   Now,  save  your  brush with the same name and file

extension .clp and use this brush as a Clip Map  on  a  flat

polygon object with Negative Image toggled on and  no  anti-

aliasing  or pixel blending  (they  cause problems with clip

maps).  Use your original brush as a planar image  map  with

the  same  dimensions as the clip map and only the tree will

be rendered.


Combining Field Rendering & Motion Blur

Motion Blur pretty much overwhelms the effect of field rend-

ering. Also, I was >told<... that FR and MB are mutually de-

feating, and if memory serves...  Allen  Hastings  confirmed

that conjecture.

See also:  Field Rendering vs. Motion Blur


Making A Crane Bird With Spline Patches

QUESTION:

How tough was it to make  the  crane  from  spline  patches?

Would there be enough room for a quick tutorial?

ANSWER:

Reader's Digest version:

Make XY and XZ outlines of your object (use a BG image as  a

guide) by making Points roughly equally  spaced  around  the

perimeters. In my XZ view the outline was symetrical on  the

X so only half was drawn.  These points were also 'deformed'

on Y to roughly follow the center line of mass  through  the

XY outline.

Select the points that define a  significant  shape.   In my

case I selected only the points  outlining  the  tail,  rear

half of the body, front half, rear half  of  the neck, front

half, and lastly the head and beak.  Make each set of points

into Curves, the end point of one becoming the  start  point

for the next.  IMPORTANT:  the starting and ending points of

the  entire  top  half  of  an  outline MUST NOT be the same

points for the lower half of the outline.  They must be sep-

erate points, though very close together,  thus  in  my case

the  tips  of the beak and tail had three individual points,

one for each spline (top XY, bot XY and XZ)

Using the YZ view (looking down the X), add a point (or more

if  the  YZ outline of the desired object requires them) be-

tween the starting points of each set of TWO splines (top XY

and XZ, then bot XY and XZ).  Use  the  XY view to make sure

these new points line up with the verticle  line  formed  by

each spline's starting points. Select the starting point for

the first top XY spline, then the newly added mid-points be-

tween  it  and  the  starting  point of the corresponding XZ

spline and make them into a NEW Curve.  Do this for each set

of  splines  so  that you end up with a large grid of inter-

secting/JOINED (shared end point) splines defining the shape

of the object, somewhat as shown:

                                           Y   Z

                                           | /

                                       ----/---X

                                         / |

          XZ splines   top XY splines

                |             |                _|~~~-______

              __|_--|------__ V         ___---~ |----------|

 ___--|~~~~~~~  |   |        ~~~-|__--~~__|---~~|____-~~~~~

|-----|--_____  V   |    ________|__--~~__|--~~~

  ~-__|       ~~~~~~|~~~~        |__--~~        :

      ~~~---__ /--->|     ___---~~        :     :

      .      / ~~~__|-~~~~ /\    .        :     :

YZ splines_/        .       |    :        :     :

      :             : bot XY splines      :     :

 -----:-------------:------------:--------:-----:-----------

 tail :  rear half  : front half :  rear  :front: head

      :             :            :  neck  : neck: & beak

Now, select the 4 splines defining the contour of each major

shape and click on Patch (Multiply),  see below.   Setup the

requester.  Click on UNDO if the results aren't  satisfying,

repeating until a smooth mesh is EVENLY spaced on the set of

splines.  Make note of the settings and enter  them  in  for

the next set of four splines.  The KEY is to get all the new

points created ON one set of splines to  meet  up  "exactly"

with the last patch so that  a  MERGE  POINTS  function  can

unify the polys where their edges meet on a spline.

                           Patch 1      2

                                        |

                         --|--------___ V

  new mesh points     1 -->|           ~~~~|<--- 3

  must coincide with       |    4 _________|_

  existing points on     ~~|~~~~~~ 4       |<--- 3

  splines 1, 3, 4.    1 -->|        ___---~~~

                         __|---~~~~~ ^

                                     |   Patch 2

                                     2

When  all  sets  of  splines  have  been  patched  correctly

(checking the polygon normals as you go),  select  only  the

splines (Display/Stats) cut and paste 'em to a new layer and

save them if you haven't already.

Merge Points using Automatic first.  Go back and Merge  them

again using Absolute, setting the value  to  an  appropriate

distance based on the size of the object.   Use  the  Volume

enclosure to limit the merges as smaller distances  will  be

needed  as  the  mesh  converges on small sections (like the

beak and tail in my example).

If the object is symetrical on an axis (like my  example  of

half a body side looking down on the  XZ)  then  mirror  the

other half and merge points (Auto) again.

Wa La... Spline Patched object!


Displacement Map Envelope
Displacement Map Envelopes

QUESTION:

What I would like to do is morph one object with a Displace-

ment Map into another object without one.    On  the  source

object I have an animated rippling  displacement (so I can't

just save transformed).   When I morph to the target object,

the Displacement Map of the parent  still  sticks.   I  wish

there was an envelope menu to control the time span and % of

the displacement, then I could ramp it out as I ramp in  the

morph.  Is there a way to fix or fake such?

ANSWER:

There's a hidden feauture of using the Polygon Size envelope

to control a Displacement Map.  Be careful only to use 1 for

100%. 0.5 for 50%, and 0 for 0%, or any thing in between and

not 100 for 100%. etc.


Good Default Environment Scene

QUESTION:

I have tried setting up a default  scene  which  includes  a

ground object, a sky object w/clouds, and 2 lights that sim-

ulate sunlight.   What are some suggested light settings and

positions for these objects?

                         ANSWER:

Step 1:  In Modeler make a polygon 8 Km square, centered  at

         0,0,0. Change the surface name to "Ground" and save

         the object as "Grassy_Field".

Step 2:  Move the square in Modeler so that the Y  value  is

         1000 meters.  Flip the polygon.  Change the surface

         name to "Sky" and save as "High_Stratus."

Step 3:  Go  to  Layout, load  these  two  objects.  Set the

         Camera position to  0, 1.6, 0  (for eye level)  and

         create a key.  Change the grid size to 10 or so.

Step 4:  Go to the Effects menu, and enter the following:

         Turn off Solid Backdrop,

         enter these values for the backdrop colours:

           Zenith:  15,  75, 125

           Sky:    190, 190, 200

           Ground: 190, 190, 200

           Nadir:   15,  75, 125

           Gradient Squeeze: 5, 5

         Turn on Backdrop Fog, and choose Non-Linear 1.

         Set the maximum fog distance to 15000.

Step 5:  For the grass, make these surface settings:

           Colour: 80, 154, 59.

           Colour Texture: Fractal Noise

           Texture size:   .2, .2, .2

           Texture Colour: 68, 91, 43

           Frequencies:    3

           Contrast:       1

           Bump Map Texture: Fractal Bumps

           Texture Size:     100, 100, 100

           Texture Amplitude: 50%

           Frequencies:       5

Step 6:  For the Sky, make these surface settings:

           Colour: 255, 255, 255

           Transparency: 50%

           Transparency Texture: Fractal Noise

           Texture Size: 300, 300, 1200

           Texture Value: 150%

           Frequencies:   5

           Contrast:      1.5

(Remember  to  SAVE OBJECTS  to anchor these settings to the

objects)


Making A Drill Bit Object

QUESTION:

What's the easiest way to make a drill bit object?

ANSWER:

Create a bit cross section by making a flat disc with 2 half

circle notches cutout on either side.  Extrude it  with lots

of segments, then use twist to make the notches spiral  down

the length.

Finally, use a boolean subtract to cut a point  on  the  tip.

Make sure to triple all non-planar polys before the boolean.


Creating Electric/Static Fields

QUESTION:

What settings for the Marble texture creates a static  elec-

tricty-like field?   I've  gotten the  Underwater texture to

look pretty good, but think a bit of Marble  velocity  could

accent or generate a totally new effect.

ANSWER:

Here are some settings and suggestions:

Copy object and size it slightly larger  than  the  original

and give it a new surface name like "static."   Use polygons

and select half the object and name it "static1." Parent the

object to original.  Your original object probably has  many

surfaces,  the  slightly larger object only has two surfaces

(for nice variations try slicing the object in to  irregular

shapes with surface names 'static2, static3... etc).

                    Settings depend highly on your object, which direction...etc

SURFACE 0,0,0 --> Texture = MARBLE

                  TEXTURE CENTER Y = -5.0

                  T-FALLOFF Y = 10%

                  T-VELOCITY X = .01, Y = .01, Z = .07

                  TEXTURE COLOR = 224 201 0

                  FREQ= 3

                  TURB= 0.5

                  V SPACE 0.5

                  V SHARP 6.0

LUMINOSITY 200%

ADDITIVE ON

EDGE = TRANSPARENT

SMOOTHING ON

Now, do the same for "static1" but when you get  to  Texture

velocity give it a negative direction.   As  you  can see by

having more then one surface we can give the illusion of bi-

directional travel.  If  the  object  had  more  surfaces we

could use an envelope to fade the texture in and  out  while

changing the velocity (X,Y,Z)  for each location. This gives

the static energy discharge a little bit of presence.


Foreground Keying

I recently used this trick for a flying logo.  Using a fore-

ground image as a key, I got Lightwave to render  the  frame

where the logo came to a stop,  then  used  ToasterPaint  to

color the image red (R=255, G=0, B=0) wherever I wanted  the

foreground image to be transparent.  In  fact, I  cut  off a

little extra so the object itself would be partially visible

behind the keyed image.

This way, Lightwave would be forced to render and anti-alias

the places where the object met  the  background, which  was

also animated; a 100 frame loop I'd previously  rendered and

saved to the hard drive,  used as a sequence in this scene).

The  keyed  image  was  rendered  seamlessly with the object

right behind it, and Lightwave wasted no time  rendering the

part of the object that was covered by the mask.

I'm still using 2.0, so it was important that I  be  able to

render  this part of the sequence in high resolution.   With

the foreground mask, it took about a minute  to  render each

frame;  without the pre-rendered foreground, it took  nearly

ten.  The "fly on" and "fly off" parts of the logo were done

in medium resolution. You can't tell the difference when the

logo is moving especially since the  moving  background seq-

uence was also rendered in high res.


Making Depressed Foot Prints

I have used grey scale anims of foot prints as Bump and Dis-

placment Maps.   Create  the anim of the prints using Dpaint

brush options to create gradient fills.  Make two prints for

left and right foot.  Make simple brush anims of foot prints

and stamp them along as big a picture as your memory allows.

I  used  the  anim as a Bumb Map for wide shots and the Dis-

placment Map for zoomed in shots.   Also  I  was creating an

invisable man.  If your object making the prints is visible,

I would use the Displacment Map,  allowing  you  to  see the

print for positioning.


Creating Force Fields

QUESTION:

How did they create the electricity effect on Babylon 5 when

a StarFury was disabled by a Minbari cruiser?

ANSWER:

Mojo writes,  in Lightwave Pro,  that you use the Underwater

texture on a slightly larger version of the object you  want

to have  the  electricty  on.  He  mentions  to  change  the

Surface Color to black, select a bluish tint for the  Under-

water Color and make sure the object is Additive, which will

cause anything black to be transparent and  anything  that's

not (the water effect) to show  up.  You  then  parent  this

larger version to the original.


Fields Rendering vs. Motion Blur
Field Rendering vs. Motion Blur

If one is trying to emulate the "film look,"  Motion Blur is

much  more an artifact of film than video, so MB is more de-

sirable for film look.  Field  Rendering  is  exclusively  a

video phenomenom,  so motions  rendered with FR are going to

look more video-ish, for better or for worse.


Setting Up GigaMem For LW

(Gigamem must be properly customized for Lightwave  so  that

you don't get those "not enough memory," "no memory for Z or

RGB buffers," etc. messages)

If  Gigamem  doesn't  work  on your system, you don't have a

functioning MMU. If it does, then you will need to customize

it for Lightwave and Modeler as follows:  Go  into  Advanced

Settings for both of these two applications  and  make  sure

the settings are:

buffer     4.0 <-- this varies depending on your real memory

cache      300 <-- this varies depending on your real memory

attribute  0   <-- this is the default

mask       1   <-- this is the default

minsize    10  <-- this setting is the critical one!!!

Your buffer and cache settings may vary  due  to  the  exact

amount of real memory on your specific machine  (they affect

performance) but the other settings of attribute,  mask  and

minsize MUST be set as above for both Modeler and Lightwave.

P.S. There is another virtual memory manager on  AMINET  for

     anyone who does not have GIGAMEM called VMM and it  now

     works with an '030.   Some  have reported that it works

     much better than GigaMem, too.


Simulating Backlighting Glows Pre LW 4.0

QUESTION:

Is it possible to make object surfaces become lights?

ANSWER:

Unfortunately, multiple light sources become computationally

intensive very quickly.  Therefore, unless you're running LW

on a DEC Alpha or a Raptor,  chances  are  you  should avoid

area or diffuse lighting like the plague!

One trick to give you the effect you want,  for backlit let-

ters for example,  would  be  to use a Luminosity Map on the

background behind them to simulate the light shining on  it.

You may also need to use a color map to desaturate  the  lit

region if the glow is supposed to be very bright.


Studying Grid Value vs Falloff

It  should  be understood that grid spacing values represent

the proportion of the texture size that the grid covers, ie,

0.5 is half the area, 0.75 is three quarters, 1.0 is  all of

the area, or a solid texture.  If this is true,  going above

Line Size = 1  should not affect Falloff, since Falloff only

affects the VALUE of the texture, not any of the other para-

meters.

However, following is a table that seems to demonstrate other

wise.  The Grid Texture was rendered once with a Grid Size of

1 and a Falloff of 50%, and once with a Grid Size of 2 and  a

Falloff of 50%.  No difference was seen. However, if you want

a texture to start falling off a few  meters from the  center

give it a texture value above 100%.   Look  at the comparison

table.

(this one starts falling off VISUALLY at 1.5 meters)

Texture    Texture          Value at

 Value     Falloff   Center   1M    2M   3M

 100%        50%      100%    50%   0%   0%

 400%        50%      400%   200%   0%   0%

------------------------------------------------------------

(this one STARTS falling off VISUALLY at 3 meters)

 100%        25%      100%    75%  50%  25%

 400%        25%      400%   300% 200% 100%

------------------------------------------------------------

(this one STARTS falling off VISUALLY at 2.25 meters)

  50%   33.3333%       50%  33.3% 16.7%  0%

 100%   33.3333%      100%  66.7% 33.3%  0%

 400%   33.3333%      400% 266.7% 133.3% 0%

------------------------------------------------------------

       (assume a grid texture with grid spacing of 1)

Notice that the falloff in all cases is ABSOLUTE.   That is,

a 50%/meter falloff will reduce 100% to 50% in 1 meter,  and

400% to 200% in one meter. So the 50%/meter means "reduce by

50% OF the value", NOT "subtract 50% FROM the value."


Using Grid Falloff

The trick in working with the Grid Texture to make gradients

using Falloff is to not think of the texture as a grid,  but

as a SOLID plane IF AND ONLY IF the grid line SIZE is set to

1 (100%).  After that is done, Texture Size has NO effect on

it, so it doesn't matter what they are set to.

Use  Automatic Size to get the length of the object you want

to apply a gradient to, end to end.  The axis with the larg-

est value is usually the same axis for  the  falloff  value.

The size value on this axis is also valuable in setting  the

Texture Center value.  Use it to place the start of  falloff

at the far end of your object if its other end lies on  Mod-

eler's origin (0, 0, 0).  Otherwise, use one half the  value

if the object is centered on 0, 0, 0.  A negative value  can

be used to move the texture's center to the opposite end  in

these cases.

To calculate the Falloff Value,  divide 100 by the length of

the object as given  in  Texture Size  by  Automatic Sizing.

This maps the falloff from 100% to 0% over the full lenth of

the object. If a shorter gradient is desired simply increase

the Falloff value; a longer gradient, decrease the value.


Realistic Lake Water And Waves

QUESTION:

What is a good way to create good looking lakes?

ANSWER:

Create  a  1 meter square polygon, triple it, Array Clone it

into a 100 x 100 mesh of a couple thousand  triangle  polys,

and Merged Points.  Displacement Map it using Ripples with 2

to 3 frequencies, an amplitude of 20-30%,  and  a wavelength

and speed to match the  size  of  the  object.   Using  this

method allows you to SEE the actual effect of the mapping in

a wireframe preview.

Next,  Surface Color  it  a  lovely shade of blue, a fractal

noise texture color slightly darker that the  main  color, a

fractional velocity on the Y axis so that the shape  of  the

texture changes as it intersects the mesh, a  50-80%  medium

speculatiry  (no  color highlights), and 100% diffusion.

                             Then apply a fractal  noise  Bump Map  texture  at  100-200%

amplitude at 1/10 - 1/20th the  Surface Color  fractal noise

texture size and with a Y axis velocity at 5 times.

          Place a Point lihgt in front of the camera a couple  'hours'

above the water's surface with lens flares ON set to Central

Glow active only at 50-70%.

Renders show a nicely rolling, sparkely surface like a  calm

lake with 1 to 2 foot waves.   The Bump Map  is  really  the

texture that makes it work, simulating the random choppiness

of water while displacement ripples gives the gental undula-

tions of  the  slower larger waves.


Making Laser And Light Beams

LIGHTBEAMS

Simply make a 1 meter long DISC with 32 "sides" along the  X

axis.  Select all the points of one  end  and  STRETCH  them

equally in both directions so  that they form a much smaller

CIRCLE, giving you a truncated cone.  CUT the two  "end cap"

polygons and apply a surface to the remaining  side polygons

something like "spotlight" and save or export this object as

"spotlight."  Center the small end at 0, 0, 0.

In Layout,define your spotlight object's surface:

    Surface Color: (whatever color you want your lightbeam)

    Luminousity:  100%

    Luminousity Texture:  Grid -- Falloff: 100 on X axis

                                  Line Thinckness:  1

                                  Texture Value:  0%

                                  Additive:  On

                                  Diffuse:   0%

                                  No Specularity

                                  Edge:  Transparent

                                  Edge Threshold:  2

The Grid texture creates a smooth falloff  for  Luminousity,

getting darker until 0% luminous at  the  wide  end  of  the

lightbeam.  Additive is a neat way to fake transparency. Any

part of an object's surface that's BLACK is 100% transparent

to anything behind it.  So, with the Grid texture creating a

gradient  falloff  to  black, the lightbeam becomes progres-

sively transparent without having to set up the Transparency

Texture.  The Edge setting of Transparent makes the sides of

the lightbeam fuzzy instead of hard.

Now PARENT the small end of this object to your light (type=

spotlight) and rotate it to match the beam's direction.  Set

the light's cone angle and edge to 10 degrees each.

LASERS

Make a  V E R Y   L O N G  tube using the DISC Tool, default

16 sides. COPY and paste this down in  the  next  layer  and

STRETCH the diameter to twice  as  large  as  the  original.

Select the first layer and surface  the small tube  beam  as

"InsideLaser."  Select the next layer and srface the  larger

object as "OutsideLaser."   Save  or  export as "LaserBeam."

Define the inside surface using Surface Color Fractal Noise,

Luminousity 100%.  Surface the  outside  using  Transparency

Fractal  Noise  at  100%  Value, Edge to Transparent, Thres-

hold = 2,  Surface Color same as the inside color  (or maybe

something just a bit different),  and  Luminousity  at 100%.

Set each Fractal Noise velocity to a large setting  so  that

the texture moves a large distance from frame  to  frame  on

whatever axis the tube was created.


Using Toaster And Modeler Arexx Scripts

QUESTION:

Can someone tell me how to use the Arexx port of the Toaster

and LightWave's Modeler?

 ANSWER:

What you need to do is  doubleclick  on  the  RexxMast  icon

(for os/3.0).   It's probably best to just drag it into  the

WBStartup drawer so that it executes on  startup.   You  can

find RexxMast in the WorkBench system drawer.

 Most of the LW scripts are run from Modeler along  with  all

of the Modeler scripts. To do this you have several options.

1) Click and hold the Macro botton in Modeler's object menu.

   You will see a list of macros (arexx scripts).   You  can

   pull the mouse down through the list untill you reach the

   one you want to run.

2) At the top of this list, you will see these options:

   Configure List,  Configure Keys,  Direct Command

   A) Configure List allows you to add/delete, along with  a

      few more options) macros to and from the list mention-

      ed above.

   B) Configure Keys allows you to add and delete macros  to

      and from you're F-keys.  Simply click  on  one  of  >>

      buttons and a requester will pop up showing you all of

      the macros in the lwm directory.   Choose one and that

      macro will now be assigned to  that  paricular  F-key.

      Very useful for macros that you use alot.

   C) Direct Command  allows  you  to  execute  a  macro  by

      clicking on the >> button and choosing  a  macro  from

      the requester or possibly by entering a rexx  command.

      The later I'm not sure about.

3) As far as the TPaint scripts, go into TPaint and hot  key

   back to the WorkBench by hitting the left  Amiga-M  keys.

   Open a shell and type the follwoing:

          RX HD3:Toaster/Arexx_Examples/TPaint/TPBars.rexx

             ^    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^       ^

             |               |                    |

Drive/Partition - Complete path to the script - Script name

Read the scripts in a text viewer before executing. Usually

the authors will have a discription of the script and some-

times instructions in the header.


Simple Patch Help

The easiest way to learn how patching works is by creating 4

points in one window as if they were the four corners  of  a

square.  After creating all 4 points,  deselect all of them.

Next, starting in the upper left corner  and  working clock-

wise, select 2 points and hit  Control-P  (or the Make Curve

button).  After you make the first two into  a  Curve,  make

sure they're deselected and select the upper right point and

the lower right and repeat.   Do  this  until  you have four

curves which all will share end points.

Once  you  have your four curves,  practice  selecting  them

and using the PATCH button  (Control-F) to patch them.   Try

undoing and changing the parameters and repatching.


Using An Image Map To Make Bricks

QUESTION:

I need a 100 x 200 ft splitfaced block wall (8" x 16" cinder

block with an uneven rough face).    How  do  I create one?

ANSWER:

What you are going to have to do is to create a  "repeating"

bitmap to make the bricks.  You  can  control how many times

the map repeats by adjusting its Texture Size in the Texture

control panel in the Surfaces menu.

Let's do the math:  you have a wall that is 200 ft wide, and

blocks that are 16" wide so, there will be 150 bricks across

the face of this wall.  The wall is 100' high and the bricks

are 8" tall so,  there will be 150 bricks up the face of the

wall.

Let's  say  you  create  a nicely detailed bitmap that has 2

bricks across, and 2 bricks tall.   You  don't have to worry

too much about the relative proportions of the  bricks,  but

they should be fairly close to what  you want. It would look

something like this:

       -------+-------

              |

              |

       -------+------+

                     |

                     |

       --------------+

Make sure that when this map is butted up against itself  on

all 4 edges that it tiles perfectly with  no  visible  seam.

Keeping the mortar at the edges will help accomplish this.

Now,  you  have  to position this on your wall.  The trouble

here is that you're working with inches and feet and  Layout

is stricly metric. This is no problem though  --  you  don't

have to do any conversion.  Simply  do  this...  apply  your

bitmap to the wall, and choose Automatic Sizing".  This will

take your 2 x 2 brick map and stretch it to cover the entire

wall.  Then, go into the texture size,  and you'll see some-

thing like so:

X  60.96

Y  30.48

Z   1.0

What you need to do is to divide the X and Y numbers  by  75

(150 is the number of bricks we need,  and  half of that be-

cause our bitmap is 2 bricks wide and tall).   So,  plug  in

these values:

X  0.8128

Y  0.4064

Z  1.0

Your wall should now be completely covered with appropriately

sized bricks in perfect scale.


Wraping A Flat Plane Into A Sphere

QUESTION:

I saw a cool demo where somebody took a map of the earth  on

a flat plane and morphed it  into  a  globe, but it was done

perfectly!  How was this accomplished?

ANSWER:

The Wrap-To-Sphere Modeler macro does a fine job of  turning

a flat plane into a sphere.

One trick in using Wrap-To-Sphere macro  is  to  rotate  the

original flat plane 180 degrees on the Y axis  (if the plane

is in the XY axis, for example) and resave it as the  source

object AFTER running the Macro.  This avoids the "implosion"

look to the morph.

You also have to start off, before using the  Wrap-To-Sphere

macro,  with  the polygons of the flat plane facing the away

from the camera.

Another idea you might try is careful use of the  bend  tool

to create a cylinder from the flat plane as  an intermediate

morph to the macro-created sphere;  this allows more control

and generates a more pleasing morph.


Matching LW Lighting To Daylight

For matching daylight shots,  it  is often handy to crank up

the  ambient  light a bit to mimic all the diffuse reflected

light that is present outdoors.

Here's another tip.   Find your brightest and darkest values

in the footage you're trying to match to.  Now match your CG

elements to these values.  The  brightest  part  of your CGI

element should be no brighter than in the live plate,  like-

wise the darkest areas.

A good inspection of your live plate will also show you  any

bias towards a particular primary that you need to  match as

well as the distribution of midtones.   Once  you  find  the

range that you should be in either wank on your CGI  element

in the render, altering object and lighting settings, or  do

it post-render in a compositer/image processor.  Neither way

is going to be quick or  painless  (rendering  a  relatively

neutral CGI element gives you latitude to color  correct  it

in the compisition, but at the same  time  if  you  have  to

alter  your CGI element too far you'll start  clipping  your

values).

      o Light your object with ZERO specularity...phong

        shading looks like phong shading, and after THE

        LAWNMOWER MAN even Ma & Pa Kettle out in BFE

        know what phong shading looks like.

      o Get your diffuse lighting working.  Get your color

        going in the right direction, contrast, etc.

      o Create some planar objects which will represent your

        lights like squares, circles, etc.  Make them com-

        pletely ambient (LUMINOUS) so that they do not shade

        but will look like a flat color.

        Turn off shadows for these objects completely.

        Position these objects so that they're approximately

        where your lights are.   You  can  even  parent  the

        shapes to your actual lights.   Just  make sure that

        they aren't in your picture.

      o Now add reflectivity to your object needing specular

        highlights and tweak until your highlights appear as

        desired.

...this  works  really  well at simulating light from light-

boxes and bounce cards and lets you create nice little  "Tin

Toy"-like windowframe highlights too!   But,  if  you  think

about it, and look closely at the objects around  you,  most

highlights don't look like little pinpoints of white,  which

is all you get out of most CGI packages.

This technique also makes shiny objects look  "slick,"  more

like they were lacquered.   Many  colored shiny surfaces are

actually two surfaces:  a rather matte layer of color with a

glossy clearcoat over the top. Phong shading doesn't approx-

imate a non-homogenous surface like this very well.


Polygon Maximum Points

QUESTION:

What is the limit to the number of points and polygons  that

an object can have?   The manual does not make this clear.

ANSWER:

You can have up to 65,535  (2^16 - 1) points and polygons in

one object.   At  one time there was a limit of 200 vertices

you could have in one  polygon,  but  the  manual  now says,

"There is no limit to the number of vertices a  polygon  may

have.  However, we recommend that single polygons be limited

to no more than 16,000 vertices."   I'd  stick with 200 as a

rule of thumb anyway.


Melting Font Logo Treatment

QUESTION:

I would like to melt a gold surfaced logo and was  going  to

take it into Modeler and attempt to disect and deform it in-

to another object (equal polygon count) and try to morph it.

Any other suggestions?

ANSWER:

Your idea is good, but a lot of  work.   You  could  achieve

almost the same effect much more easily by simply using  two

objects, one of the logo  --  the  other of the melted pool.

Have the logo drop slowly through the floor as the object of

the  melted  pool  grows larger under the logo (use the same

surface with fractal reflections and move the  texture  down

the  logo  and  have the mottling expand outward as the pool

grows).  As ice melts it doesn't change its form much, other

than shrinking  (melting takes place primarily at the bottom

where the puddle is growing).   You  could  even  shrink the

logo slightly as it melts.  Much easier than morphing into a

melted version of the logo.


Metaforming Organic Forms

QUESTION:

I have the old Motion Man object, but I also need to  create

other types of living creatures. I've been working with rail

extrusions, multiple RE's, patches, lathing, etc., and can't

achieve the nice flowing curved shapes of a living creature.

 What tool am I missing that can do the job?

ANSWER:

SUGGESTION:

Use  METAFORM,  and  make sure everything is made of 4 point

polys on your first subdivion pass.   Also,  make  sure your

polygons are SINGLE SIDED,  with  points merged after opera-

tions  like  extrude,  etc.,  and that there are no internal

polygons left in the interior of the object(s) you create.

Metaform's smooth curves and easy  interface  make  creating

believable organic models comparativly  easier  (and  better

looking) than using tools like CSG Booleans.

TIP: "Constructing creatures with bi-lateral geometry"

Working on creatures in separte parts is a good  time-saving

idea.  I like to start with the head first, which  helps  me

get a feel for what the rest of the body  should  look like.

It's always a good idea to save any  changes  in  a  seprate

file as you go.  Once you have a head, you can use  it  over

and over in different metaform projects.   Working  in scale

is always a good idea and helps if you can  find  real-world

measurments for your objects.

All you need now is one arm and one leg, created in the same

4 point manner.   I  like  to  trade off between doing these

parts so that it saves me from going mad and lets me take  a

fresh look at the other parts when I go back to  them.  Make

sure to save each revision as you go in case you need to  go

back if the  software  gets  cranky  and  messes  with  your

object. For example, if Merge Points merges TOO MANY points,

then  you  may  have accidently ruined your object for Meta-

form.   To check,  copy the metaformed object and paste into

an empty layer and give it one pass with  Metaform.   If  it

looks weird, you may need to start fresh (re-boot) and  load

up you last saved version. This is the safest way I've found

around this problem.

TIP: Putting it together

Use mirror to make a copy for the appendages on each side of

your meta-object and position them in  the  rough  positions

you want.  The only object you need at this point would be a

chest area, which everything is connected to.  All it really

is, is a box that has been subdivided by other boxes on  its

surface.  Cut out the polys between where your  arms,  legs,

and head will attach.   There  should be NO polygons between

the attachment!

Make sure the point number  between  the  objects  match, so

that you have a fully attached  part.   Use  WELD  or  merge

points to connect the parts.   Some manipulation of your ob-

jects will be always be required, no  matter  how  well  you

pre-plan.  Save your work and then test render a single pass

metaform or your new object to look  for  rendering  errors.

Parts that are not fully attached will have a sharp  looking

line around the joined area.  This should help you hunt down

the offending area, so you can fix it later.

TIP:  Muscles and surface details

A humanoid chest has pecs and abdominal muscles.  These  can

be easily created by using BEVEL (set data options to create

four point polys first!) if its only one polygon, or EXTRUDE

if its a group of polygons that you need to  either  push to

pull from the meta_object's surface.  Make SURE to KILL ("k"

key) all internal polygons when you entrude.   Merge  points

after such operations, and before you  start  moving  points

around.

Test  render  to see if the angle of your bevel and the dis-

tance away from your "chest"  made  the  proper  curves  you

desired.   Its  hard  to second guess just how metaform will

create a smoothed  object,  but  it  does  get  easier  with

practice.

Remember to name your surfaces as you  go.   Metaform  makes

far  too  many polygons to be able to manipulate effeciently

later on, should you choose to wait to surface your finished

object.

Due to the curves that are created by metaform, the surfaces

you define will be pulled and stretched in ways you may  not

prefer.  You will have to use the new hide tools to help you

clean up and perfect your surface names to  fit  the  curves

better  since  your  original  object was made from box-like

shapes.

TIP: FINE TUNING YOUR META_OBJECT WITH BONES

If you want a higher polygon count for animation with bones,

set the data options for polygon creation  to  quadrangular.

Select metaform, and your object will  be  smoothed  without

the strange "spiderwebbing" that metaform seems to do on its

second subdivision pass.  This cleans up the form for better

kinematic motion without inducing weird rendering artifacts,

which are especially noticeable with shadow mapped lights.

When you've reached the level of polygon density you desire,

simply tripple your four point polys so that  you  have  the

needed triangles to animate properly with bones.

It's a good idea to test render the metaformed object, since

the  smoothing operation of Metaform can be hard to predict,

and it might take some pushing and pulling of points (or re-

construction) to get the look you want.  Remember to save as

you go, and have fun!


Metaforming A Phone Handset

James Hastings-Trew, 126 Willow Street, Saskatoon, SK Canada

                 S7J 0C2 FidoNet 1:140/90

The documentation that accompanies LightWave 3.5 does not go

into  too  much detail regarding the function and use of the

"Metaform" subdivide tool in LightWave's  Modeler.   I  have

created this step-by-step tutorial to illustrate the use  of

this important, but underdocumented feature of the software.

By  following this tutorial I hope that you will gain an un-

derstanding of the use of the metaform tool.

This  tutorial  assumes  that  you  are  very  familiar with

Modeler 3.5 or above and have  experience  creating  points,

polygons, and modifying and manipulating objects.

The object that you'll create in following this  tutorial is

the  handset from an old-fashioned  telephone.   These hand-

sets  were  highly  rounded,  sculpted objects that would be

difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to properly model with the

standard lathe and extrude  tools.  The  metaform  subdivide

allows  us  to  construct  a very crude approximation of the

shape  we  want  using  simple-to-work shapes and tools, and

then  creates  the  smoothly  changing contours based on the

geometry of our original shape.

Step 1:  To  begin,  create  a  rough outline of the general

         shape of one of the handset's ear/mouth pieces.

Figure 1

         Looking at Figure 1, you'll see that I've used  the

         minimum possible geometry.  There is a point placed

         only wherever the curve of the  final  object  will

         change direction.

Step 2:  Lathe this shape but use only 8 segments. This will

         be adequate for the metaform tool to  turn  into  a

         completely rounded shape and allows us to work with

         very simple object geometry.

Step 3:  Rotate this shape 22.5 degrees which will straight-

         en out the object so that we  can  easily  add  the

         handle.

Figure 2

Step 4:  We need to make sure our geometry is as  simple  as

         possible.   This means we must reduce the number of

         polygons as much as  possible.  Looking at Figure 3

         you will see that the top and bottom of  the  shape

         consist of 8 triangles meeting at a  point  in  the

         center.   This is a result of the lathing operation

         in Step 2.  Using the right mouse button, lasso the

         top polygons then cut and paste them  into  another

         layer.  Press "k" on the keyboard to kill  (Remove)

         these polygons, leaving  only  the  points.  Select

         and delete the middle point and  then  construct  3

         polygons from the remaining points.

         You need to make sure that the polygons you  create

         for metaforming contain no more  than  4  vertices.

         This is optimal. Cut the polygons you have created,

         return to the original object, and paste them.

Figure 3

Step 5:  Repeat Step 4, but perform  the  operation  on  the

         lower 8 center polygons.   Lasso the polygons,  cut

         them  to  another  layer, kill  the  polygons,  and

         delete the center point.  Construct 3 new  polygons

         and cut and paste them into the original object.

Step 6:  We need to create a hole to which we can attach the

         handle of the handset.   Metaform objects must con-

         sist of an external "skin" only --  there can be no

         "internal" polygons.   Therefore,  we cannot simply

         make  a  handle  and  let  it overlap into the ear/

         mouthpiece of the handset -- it must be attached to

         it and be part of the surface. The best way to make

         a hole is to remove a polygon from our shape.  How-

         ever, if we were to  remove  an  entire  side,  the

         handle attachement would be too large.   Therefore,

         we are going to "slice" the object at  a  point  to

         create a point at which we can cut the hole.  Go to

         a  new  layer, and set your original layer  to  the

         background.  Create a two point  polygon  that cuts

         through the object slightly below center.

         Return to the original layer,  and select the layer

         with the two-point polygon as the background layer.

         Use Drill in the Tools panel to "Slice" the  object

         on the Z axis.  At this point,  it  would be a good

         idea to Merge Points on the object so far.

Step 7:  Select the polygon on the top right-hand  side  and

         delete it.

Figure 4

Step 8:  Rotate the entire object -12 degrees.

Step 9:  Move the entire object to the left.

Step 10: Mirror the object.

Figure 5

Step 11: Select the points around the "holes" that we creat-

         ed in Step 6.   Note:  there are 8 points selected.

         Copy these points and paste them in a new layer.

Figure 6

Step 12: Create additional points to  create  the  framework

         for a crude handle for our handset, which will join

         the ear and mouth piece.

Step 13: Create polygons between these points to create  the

         handle.

         Remember  that  when picking points to create poly-

         gons they must be selected in  clockwise  order  if

         the polygon's normal is to face you in the view you

         are working in, and counter-clockwise if it  is  to

         face away from you.

Step 14: Cut the handle and paste it into the original layer

         which contains the ear and mouth pieces.

Figure 7

         Merge the points.  At this point, we have  a  good,

         but crude, approximation of our final shape.  It is

         constructed entirely  of  4  vertice  polygons.  It

         would be a good idea at this  point  to  check  the

         orientation of these polygons and flip any that are

         facing the wrong way.   Once you begin  metaforming

         this shape you will have too many polygons to  deal

         with in trying to fix normal directions then!

Step 15: In  the  Polygon panel, select Metaform under  Sub-

         divide. You should end up with something that looks

         like what's shown in the Figure 8 popup window.

Figure 8

Step 16: If your object is going to be far from the  camera,

         you can skip this step.  If your object is going to

         be seen in close up, then I suggest that you repeat

         the above Subdivide/Metaform operation again.  This

         will improve the smoothness and make  the  it  more

         realistic.

Step 17: Choose Polygon selection,  go to the Display panel,

         and select Stats.   At the bottom of the Statistics

         display,  you  will see buttons marked "+" and  "-"

         next to an item called "Non-Planar."   The metaform

         function  has a tendency to create non-planar poly-

         gons,  which  can cause rendering errors.  Pressing

         the  "+"  button here will  select  all  non-planar

         polygons in the object.  Then  you  can  go  to the

         Polygon panel and choose Triple to divide them into

         triangles.

        Step 18: Apply surfaces and save your object.

        I  hope that this tutorial has helped you realize the poten-

tial of the metaform tool.


Making Neon Font Outlines

QUESTION:

I've been experimenting with creating glowing, ie.  neon-lit

objects, by extruding 2 disks along a path.    What I'd like

to do is use some regular PS fonts.   The  problem  is,  how

would I create a slightly larger copy of the text?  The Size

 and  Stretch functions will enlarge the font,  but  what  I

really need is an outline?

ANSWER:

The easiest way to do this is by doing a bevel operation  on

the PS font.  Make your letters with the Text command,  then

bevel the flat faces.  Use a negtive inset value to make the

bevel come out LARGER than the letters  (as  opposed  to the

normal  bevel's  function,  which  is to make them smaller).

Make sure you still assign a shift value so it'll be  easier

to select the polygons you'll want to  keep.   Next,  select

the polygons you don't want with Volume Include and Kill (k)

them (this may possibly make some 2-point polys you'll  have

to delete from the Stats/2 sided panel).

The catch:  this will only work if you need to enlarge some-

thing FLAT (like a normal bevel would be good for). The only

way to make a path for the extrusions would be to select the

outter points making up the bevel  manually  (in the correct

order).


NewTek In Cyberspace

QUESTION:

What are the Newtek BBS and Internet sites?

ANSWER:

               Newtek BBS:  913-271-9297

        Internet FTP site:  ftp.newtek.com

           World Wide Web:  http:www.newtek.com


Motion Path From An Extruded Object

QUESTION:

I know you can take a camera or object motion path and create

an object that follows the path, but is there a way to create

an object first and then create a motion  path for the camera

that follows the shape of the object?  I want to  create  the

object first, then have the camera move through it.

ANSWER:

First, create your object with a curve (ie via rail extrude)

the Path-To-Motion macro will take that curve and write  out

a motion file.


Faking Multiple Surface Morphs

QUESTION:

I  know you can morph from one object to another to  another

to another (just with successive morph parenting and setting

morph envelopes appropriately),  but  I  thought this worked

with surface morphing as well?

ANSWER:

No,  you can't morph surfaces beyond the first morph target.

But,  as with most things in LW,  there's a good way to fake

it.

1.  Load objects 1, 2, and 3.

2.  Set 1 to morph to 2, 2 to morph to 3.  Turn  Morph  Sur-

    faces on for object 1 only.

3.  Set up an object 3 Dissolve Envelope that starts  at  0%

    and remains there until the frame right before it's 100%

    morphed to 2.  Create  a  Dissolve  Envelope  for 2 that

    starts at 100% and remains there until the  frame  right

    before 1 is morphed to 2.  At this frame, set the envel-

    ope for 1 to 100%, the envelope for 2 to 0%, and set the

    spline for the frame to Linear.

4.  Create Morph Envelopes for 1 and 2.

When you render and playback the animation, object 1 and its

surfaces should morph to object 2, which should  then  seam-

lessly morph to object 3 and its surfaces.


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Smooth Repetitive Object Motions

QUESTION:

I've set up a 30 frame animation of an object swinging  back

and  forth.   When  I  create a wireframe preview, the point

where it goes from frame 30 back to 1 is very rigid.  I want

it to be smooth.  How do I do this?

ANSWER:

Are your start & end key frames in the same place like fig 2?

                            INCORRECT

 fig 1       Frame 0                        Frame 30

                /                              \

              /                                  \

            /                                      \

          *                                          *

                             CORRECT

 fig 2      Frame 0 and 30                  Frame 15

                   /                           \

                 /                               \

               /                                   \

             *                                       *

You should not have a keyframe at  1 and the Tension setting

for 0 and 30 should be 1.0.

(set the motion path mode to REPEAT and the object will  use

those first 3 keyframes throughout an entire  animation,  no

matter how long it is -- Editors)


Saving A Scene Layout As One Object

QUESTION:

Does anyone know of a utility that  will  save  a  Lightwave

scene's objects as a single object?   If  not,  how  can one

save all the objects in a scene as one object without having

to rebuild/reposition them manually in Modeler?

   ANSWER:

1: Load up the scene you want to save as a single object.

2: Go to the Objects menu, and for each object in the scene,

   use the SAVE TRANSFORMED function to save it under a sim-

   ple temporary name in a common directory.

3: Clear the scene, and enter Modeler.

4: Load each object you just saved from Layout into Modeler,

   in ONE layer.  Since you saved them from Layout with SAVE

   TRANSFORMED, the objects will load into modeller with the

   size, orientation, and placement they had in layout.

5: Save this new object out.

Note that this will affect any bitmap placements  on  object

surfaces, and may affect various textures as well.  You will

likely have to reload the new object into Layout and inspect

and adjust some of the surfaces.


Making Babylon 5-like Nebulas

QUESTION:

Anyone know how Ron Thorton makes those BEAUTIFUL  Babylon 5

nebulas in LightWave?

ANSWER:

One way is to paint the nebula in  a  24-bit  paint  package

using a spray paint or some other tool that paints with soft

edges.

(Map it as a Luminosity and Transparency Cylinderical Map on

an object made  from  half of a 1000 Km diameter sphere that

has  all  but  two  rows  of  polygons  above  and below the

"equator" cut.  Set the Width Tiling to 2 so that  the  full

width of the image fits into the 180 degree arc of  the  ob-

ject it's mapped onto. -- Editors)


Keying Animations Over Video Using Alpha Mattes

QUESTION:

How do you superimpose LW animations  over  video?   I  have

tried using the Toaster's Luma Keyer with very poor results.

I get a lot of bleed through  on  darker objects and shadows

even after adjusting the key clip level.

ANSWER:

You can composite animations over video  by  rendering  your

animation on a black background, render mattes, and  combine

it over any video footage you want. In this way you have the

option of changing the background footage at any time.

When rendering you have the option of saving  alpha  channel

animations in either 8 or 24 bits.   Alpha channels are pure

white shapes over a black background everywhere an object is

rendered. In the switcher you can use the art card effect to

combine an alpha channel animation with it's normal counter-

part over a video background.  Because the alpha channel  is

pure white  over black it cuts a hole for the regular anima-

tion to be luma keyed through, even self shadows.

With the art card active, have your background  selected  on

the program bus, the alpha channel on the  preview  bus, and

the animation on the superimpose bus.  Key on black to allow

the background to show through.


LightWave And Toaster Specific BBS's

Here are several BBS's that I call frequenty and  are  worth

every penny.

Ron Kramer's Obstical Illusion: (616) 791-2109 (Michigan)

The Lightwaved BBS: (510) 228-0886 (Florida)

NewTek's BBS: (913) 271-9299 (Kansas)


LockedChannels Usage For Modeler Arexx

QUESTION:

Could  a programmer describe how 'LockedChannels' is imple-

mented?   What are the codes for XYZ, HPB, ScaleXYZ?

ANSWER:

The "channels" in LockedChannels refers to the XYZ  and  HPB

buttons in the Mouse section of the Layout  interface.   The

<int> following LockedChannels contains bit fields for  each

of these. From within ARexx, the value of the bit fields can

be tested by the BITAND() function like this:

   a = readln( file )

   if word( a, 1 ) = "LockedChannels" then do

      channels = d2c( word( a, 2 ))

      if bitand( channels, n ) ~= 0 then

      /* channel n is locked */

The table of values for <n> is:

   '0001'x  Move X

   '0002'x  Move Y

   '0004'x  Move Z

   '0008'x  Rotate H

   '0010'x  Rotate P

   '0020'x  Rotate B

   '0040'x  Size/Stretch X

   '0080'x  Size/Stretch Y

   '0100'x  Size/Stretch Z

   '0200'x  Move Pivot Pt X

   '0400'x  Move Pivot Pt Y

   '0800'x  Move Pivot Pt Z

(The  notation  '0001'x is the ARexx way to write the packed

binary image of a number using hex digits.  ARexx ordinarily

stores numbers, like everything else, as text strings.)


Sand Storms Using Procedural Textures

QUESTION:

I'd like to make a storm of some kind with wind blowing dust

around and I don't know how to create this.

ANSWER:

A moving fractal noise texture used as both a Color Map  and

a Trasnsparency Map  should do the trick used on sphere sur-

rounding your pyramid.   Depending on your camera placement,

you might want to use more than one. If the camera is placed

inside the sphere be sure and flip the polygons inward.

Study the cloud texture in the texture examples scene to get

ideas  on  how  to do this.


Moving Liquid Using Multiple Morphs

If you just want to have wine (or any liquid) seen through a

glass, you'd have to make sure that not  only was the liquid

surface at the proper refraction index (and color for wine),

but  also  the polygons of the glass that are below the sur-

face  of  the  wine  would  have  to be the same refraction,

color, etc.

Now, to get the wine to move, as in up and down the sides of

the glass, the only way I know would be to use morphing.  In

Modeler, create three identical wine glasses, and make three

different wine appearances in each one. One glass would have

the wine surface level; completely horizontal. This could be

named Wine1.   The second and third would have the wine at a

slant,  as if sloshing inside the glass...  one slanting one

direction (Wine2), the other in the opposite dir. (Wine3).

In Layout, set Wine2 as the morph target of Wine1, and Wine3

as the target of Wine2.  Now set a repetitive morph envelope

for Wine2:  have it at 0% at frame 0,  100% at frame 8,  and

back to 0% at frame 16, with the  envelope  set  to  Repeat.

This will set the sloshing effect of the wine.

Now set the morph envelope of Wine1.  Let's say you have the

wine glass on a table, and the table gets bumped so the wine

sloshes around a bit, finally settling back to a stable con-

dition.  Set a key in the morph envelope  one  frame  before

you want the sloshing to begin, with the morph level  at  0%

and the spline control at Linear.  On the next frame, set  a

key at 100% morph level. Now calculate how long you want the

sloshing to go before settling down completely.  If you want

it to slosh for 8 seconds,  set  a  key 240 frames after the

sloshing began, with the morph level at 0%.

I borrowed this idea from a trick I read on how  to  make  a

plucked string vibrate, then settle.   The  principle is the

same (set the Wine2 and Wine3 glasses at 100% dissolve). For

Wine1, it will be stable until its morph is  anything  above

0%.  Then it will begin morphing into Wine2, which is oscil-

lating from its own sloshed state to the opposite  slosh  in

Wine3, and back again constantly.  Therefore, with the Wine1

morph at 100%, you will get the full sloshing effect. As the

morph level decreases, the sloshing decreases in intensity.

To add realism in the sloshing, slowly rotate the  glass  on

the Y axis as it sloshes.   Since  the glass is symmetrical,

the rotation should not be noticed, and it will appear as if

the wine is randomly sloshing around the glass,  instead  of

just back and forth in the same positions.


Making An Explosion Shock Wave

QUESTION:

If anyone has seen STVI: The Undiscovered Country, there's a

scene where the Klingon moon,  Praxis,  explodes sending out

a ring "shock wave." How can this be done in LW?

ANSWER:

Here is a short and simple summary:   Create a long rectang-

ular strip (or bar) with 40 or more segments along on the  X

axis with dimensions something like X = 60, Y = 0, &  Z = 6.

Save it.  Perform a 360 degree X axis Bend so that the strip

loops around on itself. Save it as a morph target.  Now load

the first object and morph it 100% to the target.  Then  use

multiple noise textures that move toward the center  of  the

ring and falloff to 100% transparent on the inside. Give the

textures some velocity and then animate the whole  thing  by

just scaling it up from size = 0.

(Try using the  Disc tool to make an eliptical tube in stead

of a bar and setting  Edges  to Transparent with a Threshold

of 2 - 10 -- Editors).


Making A Desert Landscape

QUESTION:

I'm trying to make a desert-like landscape like one I saw on

an Aminet animation called Waves.  It used Displacement Map-

ping to give a flat plane a  rippled  surface.  I've fiddled

with this, but I can't seem to get the hang of it.  How does

Displacement Mapping work?

ANSWER:

First Question... What are you using for  your  flat  plane?

A single square poly WON't work!   You  need a dense mesh of

triangle polys so that their vertices can  be  displaced  by

your image map or procedural texture.  To make one, make a 1

meter square flat poly, then triple it.  Array Clone  it  to

make a mesh grid (100 x 100).  Don't forget to MERGE POINTS!

Displacement Mapping moves the VERTICES of polygons, deform-

ing them to fit the luminance values of the image or proced-

ural  being  mapped.  Without thousands of points, Displace-

ment Mapping can't work its deforming magic. Thus the reason

a single poly with only 4 points can't be deformed.

Here's a tip... after setting up a  Displacement  Map  using

the RIPPLES procedural on this large 100 x 100 meter mesh of

polys with a pleasing  "ripples in the sand"  effect,  "Save

Transformed" as another object.  Now take this new "deformed

with ripples" object mesh and apply to IT a Displacement Map

of fractal noise on a large scale and amplitude in order  to

create your dune structures, the ripples "riding the waves."


Satellite Tragectory Using Null Object

QUESTION:

How can I animate the motion of a satellite that orbits  the

Earth in a perfect circle then shoots toward then begins  to

orbit the moon?

ANSWER:

Parent the satellite to a null, but don't parent the null to

the Earth.  Instead, select the Earth object and get its co-

ordinates from the numeric requester and input them for  the

null and make a key.  Spin the null to  make  the  satellite

orbit the Earth and make a key at the end of its rotation at

the point you want the satellite to fly off.   At  this key,

set Linear motion so the null won't anticipate the  take-off

move and set Tension to -1 for a fast "throw" away from  the

Earth.

To get the satellite to leave the orbit and head towards the

moon, make a new key with the null at t he  moon's  position

(use the numeric requester again) and the motion tension for

this key at 1 to ease the null into position.   At this same

frame, adjust the position of the satellite in  relation  to

the null to account for the moon's different size. This way,

while the satellite is moving from the earth to the moon, it

is slowly changing its distance from the null in preparation

for a new orbit size.

Finally, rotate the null to spin the  satellite  around  the

moon, and make a key where the rotation ends.  Set motion to

Linear so the null won't over-shoot its position at the moon

after coming from the Earth.


How Does Adaptive Sampling Work?

LW does appear to use all three colors in the edge detection

during adaptive sampling, but the red must vary by twice the

threshold, and the blue by four times the threshold.  If any

of the three colors exceeds its limit, the  pixel  is  anti-

aliased.

This  was  figured  out experimentally by renderring a scene

with nothing in it but a diagonal polygon with a color grad-

ient on it (and a reticule) against a black background,  one

each for red, green, blue, and yellow.   Note  was  taken of

where  the  AA  stopped  and  checked the color value of the

gradient at that point.  The numbers came out almost exactly

to threshold for green, 2x for red, and 4x for blue.


Mixed Dual Surfaces Using Object Morphs

QUESTION:

How  do  I add multiple textures to a surface  in  LightWave

when  they  have  to  be  created  using  the  same  surface

channel like Color or Diffusion?

ANSWER:

One way to combine two (and only two) textures is to set  up

a morph from an object to a copy of  the  same  object  with

different surfaces names using  Surface Morphing  turned  ON

and the Morph Envelope set to 50%.