Some of my work in LightWave

@ Kholi - Thanks! Yep, this is all mine. I followed tutorials for the McLaren and the superhero but this is my work. The others are originals.

@ Anhar - Thanks Anhar! I posted some screen shots of the rig. Not alot to see, some of the controls are hidden, etc. I did do a simple walk cycle that can be found here:

http://s73.photobucket.com/albums/i204/TowerFan/WolfOfTheCalla/?action=view&current=e7721e46.flv

I also posted the WIPs I captured/rendered along the way. Feel free to browse my stuff if you can stomach the obvious learning curve! :)

I don't have WIPs of the McLaren up there as I type, not sure why, but I'll post those tonight for anyone interested in the process.

Wolf_Rig1.jpg


Wolf_Rig2.jpg


Wolf_Rig3.jpg
 
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BTW - How does one upload an image in a post so it's not an "Attached Image"?!? I don't think people are clicking on the thumbnails. Could be my stuff just sucks!!!:)
 
Hey TowerFan. Those models look really really good. The weighted pixels can be a pain during rigging. Keep posting your progress on the character. That's an area I need alot of work in.

I noticed I had to be logged in to view your pics so that would explain the clicking.
In Photobucket there's three text link choices for a picture, the bottom one begins and ends with IMG in square brackets and that is the one you want. Just copy that line and paste into here.

/just watched the walk test. U nailed it. That dude means business.
 
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Ahhh, now I get it. I'm not as think as you dumb I am:-Dum(DBG):

Thanks Raptor. BTW - your Spitfire is really coming along. Aircraft are pretty tough. One of my unfinished models is an A-10.
 
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Nice rig Tower. Out of curiosity, why a bone system for the cape? Wouldn't that be a hell of a lot easier with soft body dynamics? Or, are you planing an endomorph type system where you will have 5 or 6 sliders to give you lots of control.

Oh, and remember, the same guy who wrote the particle system in Lightwave did the dynamics, so affectors like wind and others usually used for particles will also affect soft body dynamics. A real time saver and useful thing, that.

Set up a cape, add a wind effector, and your cape blows in the wind. I'll try to dig up the tutorial for it.

Actually, took less time than I thought:

ftp://ftp.newtek.com/pub/LightWave/Tutorials

ftp://ftp.newtek.com/pub/LightWave/LW9

http://www.newtek.com/lightwave/tutorials/index.php



Have at it. LOTS of stuff there. almost 2 gigs.
 
Thanks for the links. I rigged the cape mostly for temporary reasons. Set up beauty shots and a few experiments like the walk cycle. I plan on using dynamics for the cape eventually for the finished short. I haven't tried dynamics much yet, just a few token flag and banner type things.
 
Hi,

I used to play in Lightwave from 7 now to 9 but havent in a while, here is a link to an animation I submitted to CalArts, but it was so bad they turned me down, notice the poor mouth movement to story line..LOL

NO WAY PRO, just for fun..

Enjoy..

http://www.rjldesign.net/Video2.html

Give it a bit to download, i set them for 750-1000k download speed, that was stupid too..
 
Just saw the walk cycle test. Looked good. I liked the fact the armor pivoted in all the right places around his knees and feet.


I've never done much rigging, but your rig at the top of the page looks good. I had read that both LW8 & 9 had autoriggers in them. Have you ever tried one? How were the results, if so?


Keep on pumping out material. Very refreshing to see Lightwave work.
 
Thanks Matt. Those armor discs at the joints were tough to model and weight so the animation looks good. There is an included plugin called IK Boost. I've seen a tute or two that uses it but I don't think a bi-ped is too difficult to rig with the stock LW interface.

Good stuff there Crazy.
 
Was wondering what you used as a reference in modelling the gun. Did you use blueprints or just photos? Looks very nice and detailed.

Also, I did a little weight mapping of a monster a while back. I found I had to spread his legs, fingers far apart before the bones & skin were assigned. In the end I still had a goofy looking thumb that I could not use/move without distorting.
 
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Thanks Raptor. I used a little of both. Below shows the image I used to trace the shapes and proportions. I also used a perspective blueprint for visual reference. I took some "artistic liberty" here and there as you can see. The bottom of the clip needs some more detail.

When I revisit the Wolf model for my animation I'm going to experiment with no maps at all and see if I get a better result. In LW you can change the influence of bones on the mesh so I might be able to dial it in that way. Like you mention I'll have to spread out the limbs and fingers as well.

p90_Wire6.jpg
 
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Nice mesh! A little more polys than I would have thought, but there are some areas where they simply have got to be there. And with a trusty Ruger too!

When you are finished with that model, any chance of a quick 3 second rotation of it against a simple backdrop? I'de like to see it.

Great work on the grips! That looks like it would have been a little bit of a pain to do, but the results are great.
 
Spreading out the limbs as an after thought has it's own issues. Really the model should be modelled that way in the beginning.
Barring that, as in my case and yours, a little 'technique' is required in rotating the limbs around and stretching/repositioning the joint area. Then adjusting the 'weight bubble' around the joints and later soft weighting the troublesome parts. But as you know, one bad move and smuck, so lots of backups are saved just in case. You are right. This is an art in itself.

Funny, I never noticed the clip/handle thingy at the bottom in the original. When it comes to entertainment most people are not experts in everything. That's where the artistic licence comes in. Throw in a little story, some action and movement and forget about it. Aliens (aka Alien 2-James Cameron-1986)is one of my fav movies. And look what he got away with. I pointed out a few majorly obvious bloopers to a friend, some 20 years later, and still all of this time they never saw it. (Either did I till I watched the bonus-commentary DVD.)

Ohhhh. I've tried to read this thread back to front several times but have CRT dyslexia and keep missing this line. What is the name of the short this gun will be used in again? I'd like to see that.

Oh, lol ,I can't believe I said "weighted pixels" a while back. Ofcourse I meant weighted vertices. I was 'thinking' pixels looking at the screen.

/BTW CRT dyslexia was a joke.-Cathode Ray Tube Dyslexia.
 
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Had some time while my Avid machine was transcoding so I made a new shooting animation. Saw a tutorial on muzzle flashes for After Effects (just got AE a couple weeks ago) so was wanting to do this anywho. Anyone recommend an upload site where the videos look good?

http://s73.photobucket.com/albums/i204/TowerFan/Jakes%20Ruger/?action=view&current=RugerShooting_3.flv

Yeah, it's a bit poly heavy. Weighs in at 9700 faces, 3200 sub-d's. I agree about the artistic license. I'm not really going for hyper-realism with this, just good enough for some possible close-ups. That weight mapping is a tricky business, very hard to get right.

I don't think I mentioned the title for my short. It's called "Say Your Lesson, Jake." Based on a scene from Stephen King's novel Wolves of the Calla. Will probably be 2.5 to 3 minutes depending on what music I choose. I still have to build Jake, a 12 year-old Gunslinger Apprentice, the outside environment, a few more props, and a horse. The wolf characters attack on horseback with offensive weapons, etc.

Probably won't be done for a few months, at least. My current video project is a killer, two camera shoot of 6 youth basketball games, and it won't be finished for a while. I've been feelin' really motivated lately, thanks in part the enthusiasm and possitive feedback I've met with here, so when the b-ball gig is done I'll get back to it.

Thanks all for your comments and suggestions!
 
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Jake Chambers

Jake Chambers

Hey All,

Finished my basketball video gig so I started in on the next character for my short.

Jake Chambers is the 12 year old apprentice of the Last Gunslinger. Obviously a WIP. He has the blood of Kings in him so I've tried to make his looks a bit hawkish. Wound up not looking too much like a kid. Will work on that some more.

Comments and crits welcome!


Jake_003.jpg


Jake_004.jpg
 
Towerfan, if you can do facial rigging, I'll start hiring you myself! :)

So far very good, can't wait for the texture and rigging, keep at it.
 
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I notice some discoloration in the lower jaw area. I had the same thing with my spline version of the spitfire. I aligned the normals but was never able to get it. I think the angle or orientation/rotation is off from the adjoing polys.

Probably wont see it with a texture but might be worth a check.
Not even sure if it is a problem or just something to do with preview mode.

Good job in the modelling.

I think the main thing with a kids face is the relationship between the size of the head and the rest of the body, as in animals. The head grows more slowly than the rest of the body because of the brain so it starts off bigger.
If that proportion is right then the face itself would become less important.
Just a very rough looking kid.

Also the nose starts off smaller and grows with age. So it would be a bit smaller. But then that throws off the rest of the face.
 
Thanks for the comments, was away from the comp for a while there.

Thanks Raptor for putting proportions in perspective for me. I messed around with his proportions some more but still not sure. I'll stop with that until I get more built and adjust when I have more reference. One could tweak on this stuff for an eternity! The discolorations are because these are screenshots from the interface of LightWave, not renders.

Here's some progress, hope to have updates more often.


Jake_005.jpg


Jake_006.jpg
 
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