Modeler
As you might expect from the name, Modeler is the part of LightWave where you put your models together. Modeler is, at its heart, a polygonal modeling tool, though it does have pretty robust organic modeling capabilities through its subpatch modeling feature, which is LightWave's version of NURBS modeling. Figure 4 shows the deceptive simplicity of subpatch modeling. Here I've modeled a airplane-type-thing with subpatches, but look closely. While the model appears smooth and organic in the preview panel (top), you can see when I turn subpatch off all that's going on is a smoothing out of the shape inside a relatively simple polygon mesh (bottom). The nice thing is that the subpatch feature is non-destructive; you can turn it on and off without mucking with the original polygons. With subpatch modeling, incredibly complex shapes are possible by starting with a simple box and just extruding or beveling the individual polygons from there. [an error occurred while processing this directive]
Fig. 4: Subpatch modeling: before (bottom) and after.

So, what else can Modeler do? Here's a quick rundown of some Modeler highlights:

• Of course, you have the full range of polygonal modeling tools here (Figure 5), such as a wide selection of primitives, deformation tools, booleans, integrated surfacing, direct control of polygons and vertices, UV mapping, yadda yadda yadda.
• Morph targets can be stored in the object file. Let's say you have a model of a head, and you want a stock range of expressions you want the face to be able to make. Just add a bunch of morph targets, mess with those (which leaves the base model untouched), and you have a library of facial movements you can animate over in Layout without having to import a bunch of different models to perform the various morphs.
• Skelegons, which is a cute name for Modeler's method of creating bones that get stored with the object geometry (instead of separately from the model, a huge pain which was the unfortunate case with earlier versions of LightWave).
• Unlimited object layers. Layering is an outstanding concept here, because it works like a Photoshop document by allowing you to put different geometry into different layers and be able to add and modify shapes on one layer without messing with any other layer.

Fig. 5: Holy mackerel, there's a bunch of the tools available in Modeler. They don't actually appear like this; I just put them together to make it simpler to see everything. See, isn't it simple?



Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next
Related sites: • Animation Artist • AV Video • Creative Mac • Digital Animators • Digital Game Developer • Digital Media Designer • Digital Post Production • Digital Producer • Hollywood Industry
Related forums: •