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1994-09-08
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70 lines
LightWave Organic Modelling
by David Duberman
reviewed by Steve Bolton
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I know that this is a highly specialised book but then LightWave is a
highly special piece of software. This book is the first volume in a
series of books written by David Duberman, former editor of Video Toaster
User and Avid magazines and author of The Imagine Companion. The
experience David has with both publishing and LightWave shows through in
the easy to use, clear layout of this book as well as the ease of use of
the tutorials.
First off this is not a replacment for the LightWave manuals. It is
purely a book of tutorials showing exactly how to accomplish various tasks
and gives the user a handy reference for any occasion where they are stuck
with trying to get a patch working, etc.
David has chosen to keep the book in a small ring bound format which
makes it very handy for opening out flat and sitting on your lap. This
has also kept the price down ($US19.95) so that it is easily affordable.
The whole book is based around learning spline curve and patch functions
in LightWave's Modeler program. First off you start with creating a
rectangular patch, this is essentially a plane created between curves
which form the edges of a rectangle. Thus as you bend the curve along one
edge the patch surface will deform along with it. This may seem like
simple or boring thing to do but for modelers out there you will know that
this is a really powerful tool when creating more realistic objects (after
all, these days just about every product you buy has its edges rounded!).
You then more on to exploring triangular patches which can create
interesting looking conical objects such as nose cones for aircraft or
spaceships. Next is the lips tutorial (yes, I said lips) where you use
your new found experience with patches to create a pair of comical lips.
You are now ready to face to final project in this book - a seamless hand.
Just have a look at your own hand and try to figure out how to model it.
Not as easy as it sound is it? David takes you step by step through the
process of creating your own hand object (again its a comical one) and
along the way you'll be absorbing the techniques which will help in other
projects.
The tutorials make use of screenshots to show exactly what you should be
seeing on your own screen. Also most of the items are refered to by not
only which menu they are under but also by the relevant keyboard short cut
so that the user get familiar with using the keyboard short cuts quickly
and efficiently.
While this may seem like a small book with not much to offer you are
wrong, it is 100 pages of invaluable information which will help the
professional and amateur modeler/graphics artists alike. Getting a good
experience at the basics of modelling and how to apply that knowledge to
more complex shapes can mean the difference between an object and a
realistic object (which can mean the difference between employment and the
dole for the professional). Overall this is a thoroughly well produced in
informative book and luckily it isn't he only one which David has written.
The Imagine Companion 2.0 is David's other product and in the future he'll
be releasing LightWave books covering texture mapping and animation with
hierachical objects and bones.
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