LightWave

Companion CD includes new plug-ins to enhance character setup and animation, available only in this book! Quality rigging and animation preparation is vital for creating characters that can truly act and make an audience believe they are live, emotive beings. LightWave 3D [8] Cartoon Character Creation - Volume 2: Rigging & Animation includes both general theory and comprehensive tutorials for every aspect of rigging and animating 3D characters. Learn how, why, and when to use the most efficient techniques so you can have fun animating your own fantastic 3D characters. Learn all about rigging characters, including weight mapping, bone creation, IK, and deformations. Discover advanced rigging techniques, including expressions, FK/IK blending, quadruped rigging, and more. Find out how to use the animation controls and animate using inverse kinematics. Explore the intricacies of facial animation, including morphs, facial expressions, lip sync, and advanced morph controls. Learn how to use dynamics for secondary body motion and clothing.

Get ready to explore all that LightWave 3D 8 has to offer! Giving you a firm foundation, "LightWave 3D 8 Revealed" allows you to master concepts on both a technical and artistic level. Begin by examining the concept behind each task-the goal and the necessary features that are involved. Then go in depth with the objective of your task as you study examples and learn the steps necessary to complete it. Working your way through comprehensive, step-by-step lessons, you'll develop the confidence you need to create amazing animation and graphics using LightWave 3D 8.

LightWave 3D is one of the most popular 3D packages on the market today, offering the most complete set of tools, the best-looking and fastest out-of-the-box renderer, and one of the most powerful IK engines available. Professional director and animator Timothy Albee updates the best-selling LightWave 3D 7 Character Animation with discussions of advanced animation tools, facial animation, and IK Booster. In addition, he details how to use LightWave to build strong, dependable character setups; provides proven, hands-on tools for mastering the complex mechanics of animation; and covers the importance of storytelling and acting through animation.

* Explore the complete crafting of powerful and reliable character setups.

* Master subtle acting techniques that imbue scenes with life, drama, and power, such as anticipation, gesture, overlapping action, and silhouette.

* Discover how IK Booster adds more power, ease, and functionality to LightWave’s existing Inverse Kinematics system.

* Use LightWave’s Dope Sheet, Dope Track, and Motion Mixer tools to improve your output in creating animation.

* Find out how to use morph targets to sculpt your characters’ facial performances.

On the CD

* Models and setups to enable immediate animation

* Exercises and practice scenes, including pre-animated 3D scenes to study and learn from

* Albee’s animation timer/ time-base converter

* Additional artwork by the author

This title deals with: how to choose and use the right software for your animation needs - covers industry leaders Lightwave, Maya, and Flash; how to create and execute intricate storyboards; character rendering; and lighting in 3-D animation.

Character design, modeling, and texturing are the fundamental building blocks of character animation. LightWave 3D [8] Cartoon Character Creation Volume 1: Modeling & Texturing includes both general theory and comprehensive tutorials for every aspect of modeling and texturing 3D characters. Learn how, why, and when to use the most efficient techniques so you can have fun creating your own fantastic 3D characters. Find out how to configure LightWave 3D for character creation, and learn the necessary steps of the character concept, design, and planning stages. Discover multiple methods for modeling characters and clothing using subdivision patches. Understand the techniques for creating complex UV mapping. Learn about surface attributes and surfacing characters. Enhance the appearance of your characters through the use of gradients and procedural textures. Explore a variety of techniques for creating image maps and applying them to your characters.

LightWave v9 Texturing takes you behind the fine art of surfacing your 3D objects using LightWave 3D. Because many artists find texturing and prepping objects for texturing intimidating or confusing, this book breaks down the process and makes it easier to understand by guiding you through LightWave s powerful surfacing toolset and a number of helpful tutorials. LightWave v9 Texturing also demonstrates how easy it is to create surfaces using LightWave s new, powerful node-based shading system. With this book: Go beyond texturing theory to find out what makes a great realistic texture. Learn how to build textures using both LightWave s classic layer system and the new Node Editor. Discover how to unwrap and edit UV maps. Find out how to create a variety of surfaces through a series of tutorials. Enhance your surfaces with gradients, image maps, and procedural textures.

Provides a comprehensive tutorial to this popular 3D animation and modeling software popular not only in animation, cartoons, but television and computer games.

Includes companion DVD with trial versions of LightWave v9.2! Essential LightWave v9 offers an unparalleled guide to LightWave 3D. Written to help users quickly take control of the software, this book is filled with easy-to-understand explanations, time-saving tips and tricks, and detailed tutorials on nearly every aspect of the software, including the new features in LightWave v9.2! Key features: Learn to model, light, surface animate, and render within the first seven chapters! Master the LightWave v9 Node Editor for advanced surfacing, texturing, and deformations. Learn to model with polygons, Catmull-Clark/Subpatch SubDs, and splines. Uncover the secrets of distortion-free UV mapping and high-quality texturing. Learn to seamlessly composite 3D objects with real-world images. Create professional-quality character animation using FK, IK, and IK Booster. Enhance your animations with expressions, particle effects, and dynamics. Set up a render farm to rip through complex rendering tasks.