Inside LightWave 7 (Inside (New Riders)) [Paperback]

Dan Ablan (Author)

Book Description

Series: Inside (New Riders) | Publication Date: December 28, 2001

Inside LightWave 7 is designed for the intermediate to advanced 3D artist/animator who is looking to improve his or her skills and efficiency using LightWave.

Inside LightWave 7 takes the reader beyond their basic knowledge of the features of LW to learn how to apply their knowledge to create professional-level scenes and animations. Inspirational graphics combined with real-world tutorials and insider tips make Inside LightWave 7 a must-have for every LightWave user.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

In an effort to continually improve our products, New Riders Publishing is looking for feedback from those who have purchased this book. This feedback is specifically about the CD-ROM that accompanied the book, and its impact on the prodcut. Please email the Media Developer for New Riders Publishing, Jay Payne ([e-mail]) if you would like to participate in the feedback.

From the Author

Inside LightWave 7 is my best book yet. It's 1200 pages of LightWave knowledge - and then some. After hundreds of emails from readers of Inside LightWave 6, I've put together a very comprehensive tome of knowledge for any LightWave 7 user. Basic info as been updated and enhanced for version 7, and due to popular demand, we've kept Stu Aitken's head modeling tutorial, but updated and clarified it even more for 7. You'll find all new tutorials throughout the book covering architectural animation, expressions, broadcast design and animation, bones & skelegons, weights, inverse kinematics, radiosity, caustics, baking radiosity with uv's, two chapters dedicated to particles, motion mixer for nonlinear animation, motion designer for cloth, sasquatch lite for fur and grass, and much much more. Randy Sharp of Digital Domain and Jarrod Davis of Foundation Imaging have added some chapters and shared their expertise and hollywood knowledge. I specifically added a Macintosh G4 to our render farm to write this book - we wanted to make sure both Mac and PC users are in tune with the book's projects. Other benefits of this book include a 70 page plug-in list. Have you ever wondered what the SubDivLOD Tool did? Or how about the Router Tool? This chapter lists every Modeler and Layout plug-in, their locations, and a brief description of what they do. I've also added a chapter on Motion Capture. Programs like Life Forms from Credo Interactive make it very easy for you to generate motion capture files for LightWave. But where do you go from there? This chapter shows you how to take your favorite character and add it to an imported mocap scene. The CD that comes with the book is filled to the brim with textures from Marlin Studios, Demos from Curious Labs, as well as additional textures and compositing images. Every screen grab from the book is on the CD in full color. Add to that a full working demo of LightWave 7 for both the Mac and PC, and you're! ready to go.

-Dan Ablan

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Product Details

• Paperback: 1200 pages
• Publisher: New Riders Press (December 28, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735711348
• ISBN-13: 978-0735711341
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 2.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (66 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,470,688 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dan Ablan is president of AGA Digital Studios, Inc., a 3D animation, photography, and training company in the Chicago area. AGA Digital has produced 3D visuals for broadcast, corporate, and architectural clients since 1994, as well as post-production services in conjunction with Post Meridian, LLC. AGA Digital Studios, Inc. also provides lifestyle photography services with Dan.
Dan is the author of 13 books from New Riders Publishing, Thomson Course Technology, and Sybex. They are: LightWave Power Guide (v5.0), Inside LightWave 3D (v5.5), Inside LightWave [6], LightWave 6.5 Effects Magic, Inside LightWave 7, Inside LightWave 8, and co-author of LightWave 8 Killer Tips. His latest books are Digital Photography for 3D Imaging & Animation, Inside LightWave v9, and The Official Luxology modo Guide. He also is the author of [digital] Cinematography & Directing, and served as technical editor for [digital] Lighting & Rendering. Dan was also a contributor to After Effects 5.5 Magic, from New Riders Publishing. His 12th book is just out this month - The Official Luxology modo 301 Guide. Book #13 is now available, also from New Riders Publishing and Adobe Press -
Photoshop CS4 Studio Techniques. Dan has written the revision to this popular series from Ben Willmore.

Dan is also the founder of 3D Garage.com, a website dedicated to computer software based video training. 3D Garage is owned and operated by AGA Digital Studios, Inc. and offers high quality DVD-ROM based LightWave 3D, modo 3D, Mac and Photoshop training courseware. Dan offers a two day, one on one digital photography workshop through 3D Garage.com as well. AGA Digital Studios, Inc. is a NewTek authorized LightWave training facility and reseller. Dan Ablan has written columns and articles for LightWave Pro magazine, Video Toaster User magazine, 3D Design magazine, 3D World magazine, and NewTek Pro magazine. Dan has been teaching LightWave seminars since 1995 across the country, and at AGA Digital Studios, Inc. Some of the companies Dan has trained include Fox Television, ABC-TV New York City, CBS-TV Indianapolis, WTTW-TV PBS Chicago, Lockheed Martin, and many others. Dan served as Editor-in-Chief of Keyframe Magazine (now HDRI 3D magazine) for two years.

In addition to his daily duties at AGA Digital Studios, Inc., Dan Ablan is also an accomplished photographer having photographed since 1980. Coming from the days of film and darkrooms, he has studied photojournalism in college, and has made the full transition to digital. He and his wife have a portrait studio in the Chicago area (www.AblanGallery.com).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy, intuitive, and fun!, June 11, 2002

By 

Douglas Chi-im (Columbus, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inside LightWave 7 (Inside (New Riders)) (Paperback)

As a person resistant to typical classroom learning I hesitated to purchase such a thick reference but within 15 minutes of reading I was navigating Lightwave menus like a veteran. This book guided me through every mouseclick, with screenshots showing me exactly what it was I needed to see while explaining each process in plain English so I could learn the
concepts behind what I was doing.

Honestly, I went from knowing virtually NOTHING about animation to laying out my own artistic concepts in three days,
investing only a couple of hours a day! I got some useful rendered footage after just a week and am confident that Inside Lightwave 7 will keep teaching me as I get further into the application.

Typically I don't write reviews but this book really got me going in a direction I didn't think I could go so quickly.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Lightwave text, January 30, 2002

By 

Marque Pierre Sondergaard (London, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Inside LightWave 7 (Inside (New Riders)) (Paperback)

After the recent lauch of LW 7 I was so pleased to already find the cornerstone of Lightwave books updated. What can I say, Dan Ablan has done it again!

The best word that describes this tome is "comprehensive!" Of all the computer books I have, this one is by far the fattest. It features everything you need: Detailed reference material and tutorials to make it all come together.

I don't know if I can recommend it fully to complete beginners in 3D AND Lightwave, but if you have just a tad of experience in either, this is your manual to learn this awesome and powerful animation package. From my point of view it is all you need.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fair book, but not for the beginner, January 8, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Inside LightWave 7 (Inside (New Riders)) (Paperback)

I was new to Lightwave when I purchased this book. On the surface it looked like it covers a good deal of material and it does. However, I take issue with the way some of it is presented. To the beginner, it felt like, "getting a drink from a fire hose." I was looking for a few simple examples to learn the basics from and gradually work to larger tutorials. I didn't find too much of that here. The first parts of the book jumped into texturing objects, before it really explained how to make the object in the first place. (i.e. modeling) This made it difficult to build objects that you could experiment on using different textures. The modeling section jumped right into designing a large city block or an entire human head at the start. It never really demonstrated how to do "simple" objects from start to finish. The closest it came to that delt with making subsections of skyscrapers that didn't look like anything until the entire building was completed. It would have been nice to do a few simple models before trying to build complex items like a city or human head. If you worked slowly through every step of the tutorials, you will eventually learn quite a bit. Unfortunately, by that time you've spent many, many hours before you have anything to show for the effort. You don't feel like you accomplish very much in the process. You can skip sections of the tutorials, but if you do, you will miss a trick or key that may not be repeated elsewhere.
The book has a good deal of tricks and information in it, but I still had to keep jumping between it and the Newtek manual before I was able to understand some sections.
Overall, it does cover a very large amount of modeling and texturing. I like that, but I didn't like how it didn't ramp up to "large projects." Finally, I would like to have seen a little more information on actually using Lightwave to animate with. It goes into overwhelming detail on modeling and texturing, but very little on making the model actually animate.