This site contains instruction and tutorials intended for students who take Lightwave courses at Montclair State University: ARIL-319, ARIL-321, ARIL-360 and ARIL-421
Modeler | Layout | Tutorials | Animation | Lighting | Galleries | links
Lightwave Modeler: Modeling
- Basics
- Modeler Intro (Quicktime Movie, 26MB - fromNewtek's Tutorial Site)
This introduction assumes more knowledge of 3D than a beginner will have but is a good way to get started. Just disregard the part on vertex colors / properties. - Layers Overview (Quicktime Movie, 18.2MB - from Newtek's Tutorial Site)
The first five minutes of this Newtek tutorial video are relevant at first, until it starts covering the "layers browser panel". It contains a clear explanation on how to use the Boolean tool. - Using the Backdrop
- Building a Monkey Candle - Example, tips
- More tips on building, refining and cleaning up your model
- Texturing
- UV Texture Editing - Clown Face Example
- Texture test images
- Notes on poly modeling
Lightwave Layout: Rendering and Animation
- Notes on using Layout
- For basic rendering, look at Instruction on how to render your Dino
- Antialiasing
- Keyframe animation in Layout
- Camera Settings
- Adding visual detail using a bump-map An example
- Some notes on Fur
Tutorials
- Tutorial 1: A Simple Chair
- Tutorial 2: Building a Sandcastle
- Tutorial 3 - From the Newtek site
- Tutorial 4: Like Clay - From the Newtek site.
This tutorial I want you to look at, in order to better understand the drawing for modeling assignment
Animation
Advanced Students
- Basics
- Previewing and Rendering
- Tutorial a1: Pivot Points
- Animation Path Manipulation - QuickTime movie (11 MB) on the Newtek site. Link Broken
Explains the path manipulation tools in Layout. You will need to hear the sound, so if you want to look at this movie in class, please use headphones. - Tutorial a2: Making Objects Follow a Path - On the Newtek Site. Link Broken
Note: this is totally unrelated to the movie mentioned above! - Notes on Tutorial a2
- Dope Sheet
- Tutorial a3: Bones, Inverse Kinematics
- Morphing
- Dynamic Parenting
- What, no up-vector? - some notes on rigging
- More on Rigging
- Expressions 101- Basics of writing channel expressions
Lighting / Texturing / Rendering
Notes specifically for those taking ARIL 360
- Light Linking / Shadow Casting
- Three-Point Lighting for 3D Renderings - on 3dRender.com
- Vertex Color Maps - Quicktime, 9 MB. On the Newtek Site.
- Node Editor - Some examples
- Temporal Aliasing: Wagon-Wheel Effect (Weblink)
- Compositing
- Displacement & APS - Combine Displacements with Adaptive Pixel Subdivision for added power and flexibility (movie on Newtek site, 60MB)
New options in LightWave now allow something that resembles displacement at rendertime at the micropolygon level- Create and animate fur & hair with APS and Displacement Maps. - Tutorialvideo on Newtek site (their Tutorial Page also contains a link to Tutorial Assets: Hair_Dis.zip)
Links
- Newtek Lightwave home - You can download a 30 day trial version of the software here.
- If you wish to purchase a copy of Lightwave you are advised to visit studica.com or JourneyEd.com, where the current list price for students is $195.00.
Student Festivals / Competitions
- SpaceTime - The SpaceTime competition is an international juried exhibition for students currently enrolled in school and studying computer graphics and digital arts disciplines. Sponsored by the ACM SIGGRAPH Education Committee
- MetroCAF - NYC Metropolitan Area College Computer Animation Festival
- AniFest 09 - The Center for Graphics Research at Western Connecticut State University is seeking submissions for their Animation Theater, Student Computer Animation Competition, and Art Exhibit.
Deadline February 28, 2009 - Red Stick International Animation Festival. The 2009 festival will be April 22-25, 2009, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. One of the submission categories is "Animated Short Film - Student"
Deadline December 1, 2008
