Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
kind of red hint when an apple is placed
right next to a white wall). And light can
now obey the laws of
caustics
, meaning that
light “wavicles” will be
refracted
(focused)
through transparent objects (like sunlight
through a magnifying glass) and
reflected
off
shiny objects (like a gold ring throwing a bit
of brightness onto the stone plinth that
holds it).
So, the important thing to remember
when lighting your scene in LightWave is to
think, “How would I light this in real life?”
(Those of you who have studied
photography or directed live-action film or
theater have a distinct advantage in under-
standing lighting. When a room is lit for a
production, it is lit differently than how it
would be lit for general use. Studying how
theatrical and cinematic lighting is
accomplished could not be more strongly
recommended.) As you walk around your
world, always look for how the environ-
ments you are moving through are lit. Then
think about the slight changes to the
real-world lights that you'd have to make to
get the same effect within LightWave.
Virtual Camera
LightWave's “cameras” are the windows
through which your audience will see your
final product (you can have up to 100 cam-
eras in a scene). All of LightWave's other
windows are aids in
constructing
your work;
the camera's viewport is the one window
where you will showcase your work.
can track to items in the scene and inherit
its motion directly from other items (it
could be “parented” to the wingtip of a
plane if you wanted). There are more set-
tings on the LightWave camera than most
of us will ever need — though it is wonder-
ful to know that they're there, just in case
we ever do.
Figure 1-13 has Show Safe Areas active,
which gives me two sets of lines running
around the outside edge of the renderable
area. Even modern televisions cut off much
of the picture. The outer line is known as
“Action Safe” and shows where you can
safely assume that any important action
won't be cut off by a viewer's TV set. The
inner line is known as “Title Safe” and
marks the extents of where important text
or logos should go — just in case the
viewer's TV is really old and crops that
much off the picture.
The partially gridded cross that looks
like it could be in a submarine's range
finder is what's known as a
field chart
.For
traditional animators, a field chart helps cal-
culate
panning
shots (shots where the
background is moving), but for 3D, it is
Figure 1-12: The camera icon serves as a visual
representation for the camera's position and
rotation within three-dimensional space. It also
reflects the camera's field of view, its focal distance
(what will be in focus when using depth of field),
and where objects begin to disappear into
LightWave's fog.
When you tell LightWave to render, what-
ever the camera is “seeing” will be fair
game for the renderer to draw. The camera
can be moved and rotated along all axes. It
