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APRIL 22, 2002 LightWave 7.5
Powergons and Luxigons Modeler has not undergone as many changes as Layout, but there are significant improvements. LightWave 7.0 introduced Bandsaw, which allows users to split rows of polygons into smaller parts. The new Bandsaw Pro gives interactive control over the splitting of polygons and rows. LightWave 7.5 also has Bandglue, which merges contiguous rows of polygons together if your object gets too polygon heavy.
If an animator wants to quickly create fluid shapes, LightWave 7.5 has included Magic Bevel, which allows interactive dragging of a bevel. The new bevel tool works on nearly every type of polygon; polygons, one-point polygons, two-point polygons, SubPatches, and Metaballs. This is very cool, because all you have to do is drag a control handle and draw out a path for the bevels to follow. Tentacles, tree branches, and the like are now a breeze to create.
There are two other major additions to LightWave Modeler, which may have you scratching your head. Luxigons and Powergons. If this verbiage isn’t familiar to you, all you have to think about is a previous feature - Skelegons. Skelegons allow the user to "create" bones in Modeler. Following that train of though, these two new items are also tied to creation and placement of items in Layout. [an error occurred while processing this directive] Powergons allow you to attach a Layout command script to polygons inside Modeler. Let’s say you have created a 3D racetrack, and you want to use multiple cameras in the scene to "switch" between different views of the race. By applying Powergons to the polygons of the racetrack where the cameras go, as soon as you run the accompanying command in Layout, all new cameras will be positioned exactly where you want them. You can even include information on camera settings. There are probably many other uses for this new feature, and I’m sure we’ll see what users come up with over the next couple of weeks.  Luxigons, it turns out are specialized versions of Powergons that just allow you to place lights and light properties to polygons. A perfect use of a Luxigon would be when modeling a car. Those polygons, which represent the bulb socket of the headlights, can be turned into a Luxigon. When opened in Layout and converted, lights are placed perfectly with no other tweaking needed.  Related sites: • Animation Artist • Animation Supplement • Corporate Media News • Creative Mac • Digital Animators • Digital Producer • Digital Webcast • Film and Video Magazine • Film Imaging • Hollywood Industry • Siggraph News • The WWUG Related forums: [an error occurred while processing this directive] 
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