Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Epilogue
It has been a pleasure sharing with you
these
essential
techniques of using
LightWave as a tool for bringing the things
you've got tucked away in your mind into a
form that others can see as well. You've
come a very long way in a very short
amount of time. I hope the “ominous mys-
tique” that may have prevailed before
opening these pages has been replaced with
an overwhelming sense of possibility and
excitement. There is so much you
can
do
with what you know
right now
! This is only
the
beginning of your path
!
The things in these pages are the things
that “the best of the best” have as part of
their “toolboxes” that they use on a daily
basis. (You'd eventually learn them in X
number of years, but why wait?) All we've
done is take some choice things from our
own toolboxs and lay them out for you to
play with, to test their “heft” and “feel.”
(These are things we couldn't work with-
out, no one should have to try to work
without them, unless they consciously
decide they don't want to.)
There may be some other “hotshots”
out there who may wonder why the heck
we're doing this. Doesn't this threaten our
positions as authorities? Let us make this
perfectly clear
: Beyond all shadows of doubt,
absolutely not
!
Consider the kind of
growth
in the field
of 3D that has the possibility of happening
when what was once considered the pinna-
cle of the exploration phase of LightWave is
now merely the beginning
. The things that
you
will discover should be far beyond what
any of us already well along on our own
journeys can imagine. All we ask is that you
share what you learn, what you find out,
with others. What you will be doing is rais-
ing the level that
everyone
will be able to
achieve and what we
expect
of our
achievements.
Just as every seventh-grader today
understands, without even thinking about
it, the theories that took Pythagoras almost
a lifetime to develop, it is our hope that
tomorrow we will all be able to work mira-
cles with 3D, the likes of which are
contemplated only by the wishful dreamers
of today.
Where you go from here is limited only
by what you
choose
to do. You now have the
skill set that it takes most LightWavers
many years to develop. You could explore
character animation and the creation of
your own short films. You could delve into
special effects, even learning LScripting to
create with mathematics things that can be
neither modeled nor animated. You could
find yourself working with other extremely
dedicated and talented artists to create
something even bigger than
Lord of the
Rings
. Or you could find yourself living a
pastoral life, as if on some remote col-
ony-planet, making the films you have
always wanted to see and helping others to
achieve their dreams and goals as well.
Beginnings are wonderful things. Possi-
bilities lay out before you like a never-end-
ing webwork that connects where you are
right now to everywhere you dream to be.
