Lightwave workflow

[Matt - Puppetman]

Hi all,

are there any tutes available to illustrate the 3DC/Lightwave workflow? It's simplicity itself exporting a sculpture from 3DC with trillions of polys (slight exageration) but if you want to rig it and animate the character, how do you take a retoplogised object and export/import displacement and normal maps to achieve visually what you had in 3DC but that can be easily animated in LW?

if this has already been a thread before, my apologies.

thanks for any pointers

Matt

[philnolan3d]

As a LightWave user you're in luck since 3DC works especially well with LightWave. If you have sculpted a model and done the retopo you will need to mark seams on it and Unwrap the UV map, that can all be done in the Retopo room. Next go to Retopo > Merge Model Into Scene (Microverts). That will create the normal map for you and move everything to the painting room. If you like you can do your texturing here, or just go to File > Export > Export Model (pick .LWO format). When you load the LWO into LightWave you will find that all of the normal map and texture you created are already applied.

There are other options you can choose but this one is the most direct I think.

Andrew and the team are working on a number of App Links for various programs right now so soon this process may become even easier.

[Matt - Puppetman]

As a LightWave user you're in luck since 3DC works especially well with LightWave. If you have sculpted a model and done the retopo you will need to mark seams on it and Unwrap the UV map, that can all be done in the Retopo room. Next go to Retopo > Merge Model Into Scene (Microverts). That will create the normal map for you and move everything to the painting room. If you like you can do your texturing here, or just go to File > Export > Export Model (pick .LWO format). When you load the LWO into LightWave you will find that all of the normal map and texture you created are already applied.

There are other options you can choose but this one is the most direct I think.

Andrew and the team are working on a number of App Links for various programs right now so soon this process may become even easier.

hi Phil,

thanks for the reply, I will have a crack at that tomorrow.

I will watch the future developments with interest, but I'm pretty much sold and before the trial version expires (in 10 days), I'll be buying the full version.

brace yourself for a bombardment of newbie questions.

thanks again

Matt

Merged Posts together -Custodian

[Matt - Puppetman]

Hi Phil & all,

sorry for the triple posting, finger problems.

had a go at the retopologising, works a treat, very elegant. I ended up with three models laying on top of each other, but I think I can figure that one out.

If I want to set up displacement maps in LW, I assume I export displacement maps from 3DC and assign them manually in the LW scene (nodes)? Do I export them with black as zero, I think that's how LW prefers it?

thanks for the assistance

cheers

Matt

[philnolan3d]

Hey Matt, I cleaned up your triple posts for you. I've been using Zero Level is Gray for displacement export. I'll attach some LW nodes that come with instructions. They were made for ZB displacement, but it works here too. Sorry I can't recall who set them up, I found it on a forum a while back.

Just load the .nodes file into the displacement Node Editor in Layout

DisplacementNode.zip

[Matt - Puppetman]

thanks Phil,

very much appreciated.

speak soon

Matt

[Matt - Puppetman]

Hi Phil,

can I assume that you are the resident Lightwave/3D Coat specialist? If so, any chance you could send me a good example of a LW model and scene to show me what details are best served by geometry, which are deformation maps and which are normal maps etc?

I've exported a test or two and I'm struggling to get the same level of detail in LW as I had in 3DC.

I've bought the full version today and I haven't felt this giddy about buying a piece of software since the first license of Lightwave I bought over 15 years ago!!!

cheers

Matt

[philnolan3d]

Sorry to say I've really only got a couple of models that I've taken all the way through to Lightwave and I'm not quite willing to give those out.

I will share some info though if it helps. Below is my orc with and without displacement so you can see the difference.

Under the displacement Node Editor I have Node Displacement Order set to "Before Local Displacement. Then on the geometry tab I have Render Subpatch set to "Per Polygon Level" and 30. Also I don't even remember where I saw this, I think it was in a William Vaughan tutorial, but hit the T for the Texture and set up a gradient like below. The other layer you see is just the displacement map with 100% layer opacity. This will apply more subdivisions where they're needed, based on the displacement map.

I really just figure this stuff out as I'm going along. Since I finished this orc I keep loading the scene back up to figure out how I did something. Hope this helps.

[Matt - Puppetman]

Hi Phil,

thanks again for the tips, I'll leave you alone for a bit now and have a play for a while.

I'll let you know how I get along, my learning curve might be of use to others.

Thanks again

Matt