Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Render away!
Note
One of the coolest uses of Backdrop Only
radiosity is to use the image, sequence, or
movie you'll be compositing your work onto
(either in LightWave or in a compositing pro-
gram like Video Toaster 4, Digital Fusion,
After Effects, Chalice, Flint, Flame, or
Inferno) as a texture environment (Window |
Backdrop Options | Add Environment | Tex-
ture Environment) to light your entire scene!
This quickly lets you get an
exact match
for
the lighting in your “live-action” plate, using
only one or two other lights in your scene for
generating shadows.
Figure 4-32: For being a “fake,” it doesn't look
bad at all. The fact that it took one-quarter the
time “real” radiosity took makes it look even better
(from a production manager's point of view, that
is).
Note
The scene for the above render is: Scenes\
Chapter_04\StillLife_06_Radiosity2_F.lws.
Advanced Surfacing
The first thing that comes to most people's
minds when they think of computer graph-
ics (CG) is those chrome spheres floating
over infinite chessboards done in the early
'80s or some other long-past concept of
what 3D is capable of doing. Today, using
just LightWave's lighting and surfacing fea-
tures, you can create models that even the
sharpest expert can't tell from real life.
Whether your aim is to make something
look real or just make something look good,
there are two main things you've got to
keep in mind when working on surfacing:
subtlety
and
layering
. Things that look good
rarely make a big show of looking good
(subtlety). Things that look good generally
have many levels of things about them that
hold your eye (layering).
Note
As an artist, you will need to be able to sort
out what things “really” look like, what you
“think” they look like, and what people in
general “expect” them to look like.
Let's take a look at a chrome sphere for our
first example.
Step 1: Chrome Sphere
a.
Load
Scenes\Chapter_04\StillLife_
07_Surfacing1_Raw.lws
to get us all
started at the same point.
b.
With the StillLife_Raw object selected,
use
File | Save | Save Current
Object
to save the object as something
you can work with, preserving the
“raw” version for later, if you ever
need it.
