Student begs for 3D web help!

[diablo1000000]

Hi People!

I'm a student in Multimedia, and for one of my final year projects I want to get some of the simple lightwave scenes I have created into shockwave, and onto the web.

You see, I want to create a 3D interactive environment with simple shapes, so that someone can navigate through a webpage without boring text/.jpgs all over the place.

I know lightwave in-and-out, and pretty good at using Dreamweaver for web... but have NO IDEA on how I do the in-between bit with Shockwave stuff.

Could anyone recommend any tutorials/books/both for me! I'm seriously desperate for info!

Thanks!

T x

[bakasaru]

Have you looked at Swift3d?

http://www.swift3d.com/

[diablo1000000]

I've seen Swift before, and while it's brilliant at getting 3D into flat Flash animation, it doesn't really allow the user to grab an item, spin it around and look at it from another view.

With Shockwave I could set it up so the user could spin around the object at their own pace, click an area and that in turn could take them to another object, or do something special.

Any ideas?!

[bakasaru]

My bad.:rolleyes: I get Flash and Shockwave confused sometimes. Have you tried the Shockwave3D exporter in Layout. I believe its on the Scene tab, maybe under Generic utilities? Let me know what you find.

[diablo1000000]

No worries on last reply; always appreciate any advice! :cool:

I've gone all around Lightwave, and can't find a Shockwave3D exporter. Although I'm using Lightwave 6.0, so that might be something that newer versions have that I don't?

My tutors @ uni don't seem to be any help; they're all 3dMax and 3DMax-Swift3D fans and I'm the lonely Lightwave user! :eek:

T x

[bakasaru]

Yeah, I think the exporter came after 6.0. I don't see any reference to Shockwave or VRML in my pre 7.0 manuals. The only other thing I can think of would be a 3rd party converter like meshbox.

http://www.meshbox.com/english/eng_products.htm


Good luck!

[Sam_Horton]

Depending on what version of lightwave you have installed you will find the exporter in 1 of 2 places. 7.5 has it right in the file->export menu, and you will find it under layout->plugins->generic plug-ins in the older versions.

Once you get your scenes exported as a .w3d file you will need a copy of Macromedia Director 8.5 or greater if you want to do anything with them. You can control your scene and all the models, textures, lights, cameras, and animations contained whithin it using Directors programming language (lingo). If you are not familiar with Director i would suggest getting a book on it as it is a very in-depth program.

this is a very good book on just the 3D stuff (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0201741644/qid=1046641161/sr=8-3/ref=sr_8_3/104-9093657-6494334?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)

It takes some getting used to, but once you do it's amazing what you can accomplish. Keep us posted on whatever you come up with, I'm sure we'd all love to see more shockwave 3D examples being posted.

Good Luck!

You may need to download the exporter, which you can do
here! (http://www.newtek.com/products/lightwave/downloads/index.html)

[diablo1000000]

Thanks for the help Sam! :)

I didn't have the exporter, and I'm currently downloading it now (hope it works on my old Lightwave 6.0!)

I have my fingers crossed that all I'll have to do is export the scene, open it in Director and all my carefull motions and channel-follower expressions will be preserved... is it blind hope?!

There's quite a lot of Director 3D literature at Uni, it woz the lightwave side of things I was confused about. If I do get anything working, I'll post a link to my website here!

BTW, it's www.stewart-net.freeserve.co.uk! :D

Thanks again!

T x

[Jockomo]

You may want to check out the VRML export options. While this amazing format is the bastard child of the internet (was supposed to be the 3D counterpart of HTML) it still works in most browsers with a plugin download.

[iaef]

VRML has been deprecated in favor of a new version of it, named x3D. This new standard is being discussed at w3c. So this means, that maybe in the future this could be an interesting and free option to make a 3D showcase.

[theguaz]

Hi, i' a multimedia designer from Chile and currently use Lightwave3D and director MX, and i have to say taht if you want some scenes i can send you a few files so you can check them...
send me an e- mail to theguaz@123.cl and i'll be happy to help you..

theguaz

[wowens]

I found the book "Director's Third Dimension: Fundamentals of 3D Programming in Director 8.5" by Paul Catanese to be one of the best on the subject.