Lightwave 3D - Showroom & Tutorials

[Muadib]

Btw, thanks for the gif instructions. I wasn't aware that ffmpeg could handle anims!
Now I am happy!!

[emufan]

Originally Posted by Muadib

Btw, thanks for the gif instructions. I wasn't aware that ffmpeg could handle anims!
Now I am happy!!

I'm using this command line:

 ffmpeg.exe -i input.anim -vf scale=90:60  output.gif

size of attached gif is limited to 370kb only, but most the time it does fit that restiction.
this is a bit tiny, but good enough to see the effect,
while it does animate even in the preview state.

[emufan]

short ping pong anim of an exploding bowling pin.
done with Break and Explosion macro from the Gonzalo Arexx pack.
lightning and object motion is done by the macro, I only adjusted the camera position and light intensity a bit.

*anim removed to save some space*

[emufan]

I'm experimenting with a scene using bones, doing some walking towards the camera.
Layout is a bit weird here: you choose Edit --> Bones, but you cannot choose any bone
from the popup, instead you have to choose the bone in the scene tab.

the other weird thing: i have two bones for a leg of an object.
the laast bone has it's IK goal to an animated null object.
while the null object does animate over time, the damn bone
(with it's parent bone) does nothing.

if i move the child bone, it does detache from the parent bone.
something is wrong, but I do not know what :/

any idea what I do wrong?

#1) conclusion: Newtek finaly needs to release an update for Lightwave,
maybe an easier task, than finishing LW2018

#2) some cool tool I was using to setup the bones is a Modeler macro, Add Bones 2.0
from the Gonzalo Arexx Macro Package.
you load your object, put it in the background layer. in another layer draw some curves with the
sketch tool, where you want to have bones generated.
you can draw as many curves as you like. it will create one bone between two point , of the curve.
the macro does generate a scene file. In layout you only have to replace a NUll object with your object.

to adjust the bones, it is advised to deactivate all bones, before doing so.

#3) I was using the motion from another scene, but it was too short.
you goto the Motion Graph, choose a well visible graph ( for example position x) and copy and paste
your keframe range to a new position.
fun fact, it does also extend the other channels (y,z, scale ...) with their own motion graph - very usefull.

#4) if you want use an object from LW2015, export as LW 5.0 object.
load it in the amiga Modeler, and use Tools -> Custom -> MetaFormPlus.
if you have some single points from a rig floating arround:
select point mode, press w and select (+) "1 Polygon" -> now push "del" to remove them.
the saved object you can now use in layout.

this is all so ancient, if you compare it with that rig'ing thing from lw2015 (genoma)
but it is really cool


#5) High quality GIF with FFmpeg

[Muadib]

Strange... Let me see into it, brb...

[Muadib]

I see. It happens because you probably have selected Null Object before, without going first through the object that actually owns the bones, which is logical but not that obvious. Try changing object first!

[Muadib]

Regarding the second weird thing, you also have to activate "Full-time IK" for the last bone...

[emufan]

Originally Posted by Muadib

Regarding the second weird thing, you also have to activate "Full-time IK" for the last bone...

I've attached the scene, as seen in the little gif anim.
Just take a look if u have a minute. I think it is easier this way.

the Gonzalo bone setup macro added some "dumb" to all bone-chains,
I'm not really sure what to do with them.
I activated the bone "dumb to chain 3" (just a little cross visible) - and parented it to the chain3 object.
with aktivating full ik, for that "dumb" (same done with dumb 1 and chain 1)
it did work somehow, but object is distored too much.

maybe the bone setup itself is not correct, some strange switch of postion at frame 86->87 for example.

maybe the result of my copy/paste of some motion range, to extend the walking sequence

[Muadib]

Sure thing, I'll check it out! Not familiar with Gonzalo bone setup yet... You' re not in a hurry with this, right?

[emufan]

Originally Posted by Muadib

Sure thing, I'll check it out! Not familiar with Gonzalo bone setup yet... You' re not in a hurry with this, right?

cool. time is not a problem

here are the steps, how it does work:
with the Bone macro, you load your object in a bg layer.
in a new fg layer you draw some curves (scetch tool), according to the object in bg layer.
the macro will place bones at the position of each curve.
there will be a bone between two points along the curve.

the macro writes a new scene. loading it in layout, you just have to
replace the "replace me with object" null-object with your desired object.

with only a few bones I'm using, it would have been easier, to place them manualy,
but i'm not that familar with that bone stuff at all, so i was using the macro

[Muadib]

Oh, it must be creating an awful lot of bones, since a curve has tens(if not hundreds) of points. I 'll check it out.

I would suggest to do it traditionally through layout, though, it really is easier than it looks. But I'll also take a look at the scene.

Just let me know and I'll type some bone-crushing instructions for your scene! :-D

[emufan]

yep, default curve is a bit too big. i simply removed those redundant points,
so at the end i had a curve with 3 points only.
moving the points so they fit the puppet's leg in the bg layer. this way i got the 2 bones

will tryin next days, will post my result, with placing the bones manually.

[Muadib]

Ok, here is an attempt of what I think you are trying to achieve.

What I did is:
1. Add anchors for the head and torso
2. Add anchors for the toes
3. Constrained the rotation of the bones by deactivating their respective axis
4. Limited the influence range of the bones so that they don't interact with other parts of the object

Let me know what you think!


Cheers!
muadib

[emufan]

Originally Posted by Muadib

Let me know what you think!

that's cool. thanks


I'll go through the setup and try to understand what you did.


as a side note. there are plenty of those MOtionCAPture data on the net, at least I was collecting those in the past.
trouble is, we do not have any plugin/extension to use those with the amiga version.
otherwise we could made those puppets dance and stuff more easily .)

[Muadib]

Sure, let me know if there's something you don't understand.

Yeah, MOCAP is cool! I remember a study in Blender a guy had done with a puppet doing martial arts movements. Great stuff.

I hope one day some of us will have the knowledge and create some plugin to load these MoCap data in LW5...

[emufan]

the other day I found LifeForms/DanceForms for the pc and mac.
is now free available with a collection of mocap data.

a tutorial pdf (page 10+) says, you may export bones/skeleton to a lw scene file.
not yet tested, but I think this is old enough to support LW5. at least worth a try.

if the mac software works with an OS we can emulate on the amiga,
we can truthfully tell them, it's all done on the amiga

#1) just installed DanceForm - it is indeed a cool tool win98-win8.

#2) LWS export plugin missing, you need to download it at the links below.

#3) PC Lightwave Plugin for DanceForms (archive.org link)
Mac Lightwave Plugin - sit.hqx - Mac Lightwave update .sea.hqx - not tested.

read the included README for where you have to place the included files.

now there is a Lightwave Scene export option in the DanceForms Export requester

#4) the exported scene you can load in LW5 - it does work

#5) lightwave-tutorial.zip - example scenes included

[Muadib]

If this could work, it would be awesome!

[emufan]

Originally Posted by Muadib

If this could work, it would be awesome!

it really does, i've the impresson it can apply the MOCAPs to single mesh objects using bones,

and to those multi object constructions, those human objects with single objects for legs, head, hands and so on

#1) I made the puppet walk, using an exported bone anim from DanceForms/LifeForms.

I only resized the puppet mesh in modeler. need to fix the arms position

[Muadib]

Cool walking!

And at last, here's a short scene with the Viper mk2:


I just want to model some bullet objects and I'll upload it to Aminet...

[SnkBitten]

Originally Posted by Muadib

Cool walking!

And at last, here's a short scene with the Viper mk2:


I just want to model some bullet objects and I'll upload it to Aminet...

Nice! I've been playing with the Viper Mk1 model in LW 2015 (Win10) and experimenting with HyperVoxels for the turbo thrust.
http://www.tomcrews.com/Vids/viper4a.mp4

I did this on my Amithlon system running the Amiga Lightwave 3d 5.x...
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1...XZzZEh5VDN5ZUU

Definitely a beginner who doesn't like to read manuals and ends up doing lots of clicking around until I get something