LOCATION:
Auckland University of Technology (AUT)
State Building (corner of Wakefield and Queen streets)
13th floor (room 1307)
Auckland

DATE:
Tuesday, 22nd May 2001
5:30 to 9:00pm.

WHAT HAPPENED:
I wanted to see how well the LightWave lab would video. Since the tutorial this meeting covered basic Character Animation, I wanted to test the viability of recording some of these tutorials for later archival.

BITS OF THE USUAL
As always, I had another collection of new and unviewed 3D animation from the web - One of the coolest so far (other then Final Fantasy) was indeed the very cool new music video from Robbie Williams - Animated in LightWave using Project:Messiah, this, like the Eiffel65 video ('Get down on it') prove that LightWave really does provide outstanding commercial quality!

I also updated the LightWave installation to 6.5b - We looked at a few (very few, however) items as we worked through the evening... Don't forget that you can download the 6.5b upgrade free if you already own LightWave 6.0 from Newtek.

CHARACTER ANIMATION
We almost ran out of time for this altogether, because we took a break to munch on some muffins and other refreshments, kindly supplied by Stuart...


This is a skill I really have wanted to pick up for some years, but in the past I've had nothing but bad experiences with IK, bones and generally everything to do with it - So it was easier to stick with Spaceships and flying logo's!

Which reminds me, If you are keen to seriously learn LightWave, then I can recommend any of the LightWave tutorial videotapes from Desktop Images. Presented by industry professionals, these tapes are usually top-notch in quality, and make learning Lightwave extremely easy! They have two character animation tapes, both of which I've been learning with and they've just made life so much easier!

With that said, Character Animation in LightWave 6.5b is so easy compared to the old days, where IK would be flakey, and bones would distort, pinch and rip your model in places too horrid to describe! With advanced features like Weightmaps and Hybrid IK, if you are still running an old version of LightWave and are serious about your character animation, you should consider upgrading to LightWave 6.5... Otherwise you are making life hard for yourself!

Here's a reminder of the key hilights:

• Learn with a good model - humanmale.lwo on the LightWave CD is a brilliant one to start with!
• Read your 6.5b manuals if you want to use Vertex Paint properly! Narf! Narf! ;-)
• When setting up your IK chain, remember to rotate your bones slightly in the direction you want the IK to bend them, and keyframe them at 0 - This will help LightWave calculate its IK solution correctly. And remember to place your IK goal at the right end of your foot bone!
• You can adjust the 'goal strength' to better lock your feet onto their NULL IK target objects. I tend to use a value of 100.

Of course, there was a lot more to the tutorial then those brief hilights. And I hope that I helped those that attended with a little bit of what I've been learning (with the exception of a few who already have this area of animation mastered!)

Afterall, that's the goal of these meetings... To be a resource for you - Whether it be an outlet for you to share your work with others, to share your knowledge, to come and learn something or just hang out and talk 3D all night!

Until next month (and a special month it should be too! More soon...)


Kevman