VideoTutorial: Creating wakes...

Cageman · 01-23-2008, 04:47 PM

Hi people!

I just got time to finish another tutorial on how to create wakes and make things float using some free thirdparty tools as well as native tools in LightWave. The tutorial will also deal with some piepline issues and solutions and how to make it as flexible as possible when constant changes are more or less a rule of life when doing 3D. Some things may not make sense right off the bat, but further down the pipe those "strange" things will probably just click.

Part 0: Introduction, 7.68MB
Part 1: The tools, 4.92MB
Part 2: Modeler preparations, 8.9MB
Part 3: Animation and collision, 21MB
Part 4: Creating the wake, 56.9MB
Part 5: Displacements, bones and make it float, 36.3MB
Part 6: Pipeline issues and solutions, 36MB

Links to tools:

DPKit and Node Item Motion
SP_Floater
SHM_Polychain

Since evenflcw doesn't have a site for his plugins, I've attached the Dynamic Bonechain pluginpack.

Feel free to give comments, suggestions or simply just ask questions.

K-Dawg · 01-23-2008, 06:39 PM

Very nice and interesting tutorial. Thanks allot for sharing.

Just one question. Is the Floater plug-in needed or will the Lightwave native Sticky modifier work aswell?

And nice small and quick introduction to the DPKit Node modifier.

Greetz

Cageman · 01-23-2008, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by K-Dawg

Very nice and interesting tutorial. Thanks allot for sharing.

Just one question. Is the Floater plug-in needed or will the Lightwave native Sticky modifier work aswell?

And nice small and quick introduction to the DPKit Node modifier.

Greetz

Thanks!

Sticky could work, but then the object is locked to the surface. With SP_Floter, the object can move outside the object.

WilliamVaughan · 01-23-2008, 06:43 PM

Awesome work....very cool!

K-Dawg · 01-23-2008, 06:48 PM

@ Cageman
Ah ok I see.

Again, Thanks allot for this great Tutorial

Greetz

RonGC · 01-23-2008, 07:41 PM

Hi , nice work however as i am one of those pesky Mac users, can this be done with Lw Native tools without the Windows only plugins?

If so it would be nice to see a version of this tut with LW native tools as it is always good to see alternate ways of doing things. Also it allows us Mac users to play too. LOL

Thanks

Ron

RTSchramm · 01-23-2008, 09:52 PM

Nice tutorial. Saved it for later reference. Very professionally done.

Thanks again,

Rich

JeffrySG · 01-23-2008, 10:17 PM

This looks like a great tutorial! Thanks so much for putting this out there!

I hope that they release MacUB versions of all the plugins eventually. I haven't gone through all the videos yet, but like Ron asked, is there a way to complete it without the plugins?

Thanks again!
Jeff

Cageman · 01-24-2008, 02:30 AM

Hi guys!

Thanks for the feedback! I forgot to mention that SP_Floater and Dynamic Bonechain toolset are only avaliable for Windows, not just Node Item Motion. The floating effect can be achived by either using Sticky/Sticky surface, and there are some tedious workarounds to achive the follower effect without Node Item Motion, but I hope that Dennis can release a Mac-version for that tool, because it opens up so many possibilities that are either hard or simply impossible to achive.

With all this said, I'm going to work out a tutorial addendum which deals with the workflow without any third party tools; hence it will be usefull for Mac-users as well. Then everyone can compare the native way of doing things and see how much time is saved when using the 3:rd party tools. And you mac-guys, e-mail Denis and demand a Mac-version!

I hope I can start with this tonight after work. There is another addendum I want to add as well, dealing with issues/solutions when wanting to have much more detailed wakes/displacements without the overhead of dynamics calculation.

Stay tuned...

RonGC · 01-24-2008, 02:59 AM

Sounds excellent, look forward to the addendums.

Ron

walfridson · 01-24-2008, 03:44 AM

Very nice!

About sticky.. It finds its closest point on target mesh, not the Y intersect point. So it can give some wacky results if your doing stuff with big slopes etc. Just a note

littlewaves · 01-24-2008, 07:28 AM

I think Lightwolf did the other mac versions for DPkit so I suppose we should plead with him...

Have to remember of course that all these guys do all these fantastic things for free and probably have to work for a living too.

All the same the parts of the DPkit that already work on the mac have been fantastically useful to me when playing around learning about nodes and the intel only ones look really useful.

So if you're out there Lightwolf and you have the time... Pleeeeaaaase!

serge · 01-24-2008, 07:19 PM

Awesome. Thank you very much Cageman!

IMI · 01-24-2008, 07:37 PM

Very very cool Cageman, thank you!

lightmann · 01-25-2008, 12:44 AM

great man¡¡¡.thanks