LightWave™ 3D Getting Started v 1.0 LightWave™ Getting Started Contents Contents Introduction Welcome to LightWave 3D . 1 Conventions Terms and Conventions . 2 Key LightWave Vocabulary and Concepts . 2 Working With The Interface . 4 LightWave Panels and Dialogs . 6 Color Selection . 7 Standard List Windows . 8 Tips for Successful LightWave Use . 9 Modeler Introduction to Modeling . 11 Components of a 3D Object . 11 Modeling in 3D . 12 The Modeler Interface . 13 Selecting Points, Edges and Polygons . 18 The Origin and Pivot Points . 20 Tips for Successful Modeling . 24 Running tutorial - Truck . 25 Layout Introduction . 35 LightWave’s Virtual World . 35 World, Parent and Local Axes . 36 The Layout Interface . 37 Your Point of View . 43 Taking Aim . 46 Selecting an Item in Layout . 47 The Grid . 48 Schematic View . 49 Close/Save Window . 50 Tips for Successful Layout Use . 52 Running Tutorial - Truck . 53 Surfacing Surface Editor . 62 To assign surface names to polygons . 63 Surface Management . 64 Surface Editor Panel . 65 Surface Edit Modes . 66 Surface List . 67 © Copyright 1990-2013 LightWave 3D Group, a division of NewTek, Inc. All rights reserved. LightWave™ Getting Started Mass Surface Changes . 69 Preview Window . 70 Basic Surface Parameters . 72 Envelopes and Textures . 78 Surface Smoothing . 79 Vertex Normal Map . 80 Exclude from VStack . 80 Comment . 80 Tips for Successful Surfacing . 81 Running Tutorial - Truck . 82 Animating Introduction . 92 Example: First Animation . 92 Example: Dimming the Light . 97 Other types of animation . 104 Tips for Successful Animating . 105 Running Tutorial - Truck . 106 Rendering Render Globals . 115 Render Globals - General Tab . 115 Render Globals - Render Tab . 120 Render Globals - Global Illumination Tab . 126 Render Globals - Camera Tab . 135 Render Globals - Lights Tab . 139 Render Globals - Output Tab . 140 Save Animation . 140 Special Animation Types . 141 Saving Individual Images . 141 Render Frame . 142 Render Scene . 142 Render Selected Object . 142 Mac-specific Rendering . 142 Rendering for Print . 143 Rendering a Limited Region . 143 Tips for Successful Rendering . 145 Running Tutorial - Truck . 146 Information For More Information and Updates . 151 © Copyright 1990-2013 LightWave 3D Group, a division of NewTek, Inc. All rights reserved. LightWave™ Getting Started Introduction Welcome to LightWave 3D Whether LightWave is your first dip of a toe into the world of professional 3D applications or you are an old salt with other packages, this Getting Started guide should comfortably introduce you to the world of LightWave 3D . This PDF will not attempt to give you the ins and outs of every part of LightWave . There is a complete reference guide for LightWave version 10 included with the installation and much of the smaller detail for the software can be found therein . Equally, there is an addendum for elements new to LightWave 11 included in your account and LightWave version 12 will see a new, revamped system that marries the two sets of documentation in a new interactive fashion After the guide to LightWave conventions, this document is split into five sections . The first is a guide to how Modeler works and how to build your first objects . Next is a guide to Layout and how to get around its interface . Our third section is devoted to surfacing our objects and the fourth to animating them . Our fifth and last section is for using LightWave’s Render Globals window and outputting your animation or still image . Each section has a page of tips for good workflow and a running tutorial that will lead you through a simple project from start to finish . Come on, dive in . The water’s fine . © Copyright 1990-2013 LightWave 3D Group, a division of NewTek, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 1 LightWave™ Getting Started Conventions Terms and Conventions Before we start with the individual sections it’s good to know how LightWave works . Here are some of the main conventions used . Mouse Operations LMB - Left mouse button MMB - Middle mouse button RMB - Right mouse button Selecting - Single-clicking an element with the LMB so that it becomes active or selected . Deselecting - Single-clicking an element with the LMB so that it becomes inactive or unselected . Clicking - Placing your mouse pointer over something and then pressing a mouse button . This nearly always means the LMB . Right-clicking - Clicking an element with your RMB . Double-clicking - Rapidly clicking an element twice . Dragging - Selecting an element with your mouse pointer and continuing to hold the mouse button down as you move your mouse . This nearly always means with the LMB . Symbols NOTE: The note symbol and paragraph style will highlight a discussion that is particularly noteworthy or a tip for better workflow. WARNING: The warning symbol and paragraph style will highlight a discussion that warns you about something. You should pay special attention to text marked with this symbol. Key LightWave Vocabulary and Concepts The following is a brief selection of some common terms and concepts used with LightWave that will help you to get started . • Animation Channel - Animation Channel refers to the different Position, Rotation, and Scaling settings an item can have in Layout . It can also refer to other envelopeable elements like light intensity . See also Motion Channel and Envelope . • Axis - Axis refers to the coordinates used as the basis for positioning and rotating elements in LightWave’s 3D space . It is somewhat like the concept of left/right (X), up/down (Y), and near/far (Z) in position and Heading (H) - turning left/right, Pitch (P) - pointing up/down, and Bank (B) - tipping sideways for rotation . © Copyright 1990-2013 LightWave 3D Group, a division of NewTek, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 2 LightWave™ Getting Started Conventions • Bone - For any object, you can define a skeletal system composed of bones . By moving bones around, you can deform the shape of an object . LightWave also supports Joints . • Bounding Box - A Bounding Box is a shape conforming to the outer dimensions of an object . It is commonly used as a quickly-drawn stand-in for a more complex object . • Camera - As in real life, a camera records events . Looking through LightWave’s camera shows you the view that will be rendered . • Dynamics - the simulation of physical properties on objects . LightWave has Bullet, a widely- used dynamics engine to simulate rigid and soft body interaction, in addition to the ParticleFX particle engine . • Envelope - An envelope is a way of setting a particular value that changes over time using a graph . See also Animation Channel and Motion Channel . • Frames - LightWave works with frames . A frame is one image out of many that define an animation . Standard frame rates are 25 frames per second (fps) in Europe, 30 fps in the US, and 24 fps in film . • Item - An item in Layout refers to an object, bone, light, or camera . • Keyframe (also known as just a key) - A keyframe is a frame for which you define a value for an animation channel(s) (e .g ., position or rotation) for an item in Layout . Animations are composed of a beginning keyframe, an ending keyframe and usually some number of keyframes in between . • Scripting- LScript and Python are LightWave’s built-in scripting languages . LScripts or Python scripts can be installed and used just like plugins and many third party examples are available . • Motion Channel - Motion Channel is generally the same as Animation Channel, but refers only to position, rotation, and scale (i .e ., not light intensity) . See also Envelope . • Normal - A polygon normal is the imaginary line projecting out perpendicular to a surface at any point indicating the direction of the polygon . A polygon surface normal is represented as dashed lines on selected polygons in Modeler . LightWave sees polygons or faces of an object only from the surface normal side . A single-sided polygon with its normal facing away from the camera will be invisible to the camera from that viewpoint (unless the surface is using the Double Sided option) . A vertex normal’s direction is the average of the polygon normals it is connected to . • Null Object - A null object is an object that contains no geometry and will not show up in a rendered image . Nulls are vital for tracking; grouping (parenting); and for inverse kinematics functions . • Object - An object is composed of points and faces . Points connected together to form a polygon define a face . Faces joined together form an object . • Parenting - Parenting refers to LightWave’s ability to set hierarchical associations between items in a Scene . Generally, the parent item will have some level of influence on its child, whether it is position, rotation, size, etc . The child can also be a parent to another item . • Particles - Usually refers to animated points used for sparks, fire, etc . LightWave’s particle engine is called ParticleFX . © Copyright 1990-2013 LightWave 3D Group, a division of NewTek, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 3 LightWave™ Getting Started Conventions • Pivot Point - The position in an object that acts as the center of rotation and position reference . • Pixel - A pixel is the smallest unit of measurement in an image and is used to describe the image’s width and height . • Plug-in - A plug-in is a program that works with and extends the functionality of LightWave . • Render - Rendering is the computer’s process of calculating and generating an image based on the values you have selected for the different options in LightWave . • Scene - A Scene is a LightWave project defining the objects loaded and their motions, the number of lights and their values/motions, the resolution of the final image, special effects, Camera settings, and so on . It doesn’t not contain surfacing information for objects . This ASCII text file is saved from Layout . • SubPatch - SubPatch is a modeling mode where polygons become a cage that controls an underlying mesh .