LightWave 3D 7.0 Character Animation (With CD-ROM) [Paperback]

Timothy Albee (Author)

Book Description

Series: Wordware LightWave Library | Publication Date: March 25, 2002

LightWave 3D is one of the most popular 3D tools on the market today, offering the most complete set of tools, the best-looking and fastest out-of-the-box renderer, and one of the most powerful IK engines available. Professional director/animator Timothy Albee discusses how to use LightWave to build strong, dependable character setups, and provides proven, hands-on tools for mastering the complex mechanics of animation. Additionally, he covers the importance of storytelling and acting through animation—the subtle mastery that brings characters to life.

This book:

* Shows the complete crafting of powerful and reliable character setups.

* Explains Inverse Kinematics as it pertains to character animation.

* Uses LightWave’s tools to create character rigs that allow you to migrate animation from one character to another.

* Describes how to apply point weighting to create believable character skinning.

* Illuminates basic and advanced animation techniques that are the cornerstones for skilled animation such as anticipation, overlapping action, gesture, and silhouette.

* Outlines key steps for taking a scene from start to finish.

* Teaches time-honored acting techniques for helping you "become" your character.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Timothy Albee has been using LightWave 3D since 1991 as a studio animator. Founder of Exile Films and co-founder of Studio Mythos, his credits include Walt Disney feature animation, Babylon5, and numerous theatrical-release and television commercials. He has also worked for Activision.

Product Details

• Paperback: 500 pages
• Publisher: Wordware Publishing, Inc. (March 25, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556229011
• ISBN-13: 978-1556229015
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,188,911 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I recommend this book!, April 25, 2002

By 

Steven M. White (Columbus, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: LightWave 3D 7.0 Character Animation (With CD-ROM) (Paperback)

Instead of trying to write a book covering every possible feature in Lightwave 7, Timothy Albee focuses on setting up a character rig and animating it. He covers setting up your skeleton, point weighting, and how to pose your character for animation. I have found that there is not enough documentation provided by Newtek or it's Lightwave user base on some of the things that Timothy Albee teaches in this book. I found it incredibly helpful and within a few days I was able to get my characters to do things I hadn't been able to figure out in the year I've owned Lightwave. While this book doesn't cover the range of topics that you'll find in Dan Ablan's Inside Lightwave series, it is incredibly helpful if you want to do character animation. Thanks Timothy!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific book, May 1, 2002

By 

Tom Roth (Scotttsdale, Arizona) - See all my reviews

This review is from: LightWave 3D 7.0 Character Animation (With CD-ROM) (Paperback)

Timothy Albee's new book fills a void in the world of character animation. Although there are lots of books covering the technical aspects of computer animation, this one focuses on the specific task of bringing a character to life by fusing classical knowledge of traditional animation with years of experience in CG animation. This book is for computer animators who are frustrated by the lack of information available on this topic and perhaps can't afford to go to such schools as Cal-Arts or Sheridan.

Albee takes you, step by step, from inverse kinematics to creating skeletons through to final skinning so thoroughly that it would be hard to fail if you follow directions. Then, having set-up your model , he introduces you to the time-honored techniques that 2-D animators have been using for decades to breathe life into their characters.

What makes this book refreshingly different from others is that it's not written by someone in academia or in software but someone who has worked in the trenches, dealing with the problems that professionals wrestle with every day.

For those who want to dive right into animation the CD-ROM includes a fully-rigged character as well as examples of animation.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not For Animators, September 13, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: LightWave 3D 7.0 Character Animation (With CD-ROM) (Paperback)

This book is not for mid level to experienced animators looking to learn character animation on Lightwave. I am trying to migrate to Lightwave from Maya for charcater animation purposes only. Any animator serious about his/her trade already owns books specifically written for non computer related animation techniques (ie the animators survival kit, disneys illusion of life, etc.) to fill a book called "LIGHTWAVE character animation" with generic animation exercises and mediocre history lessons is deceiving. I was completely dissapointed with the lack of Lightwave specific functions I thought this book would supply, like detailed graph editor information, morphing exercises, etc. About 30 percent of each page in this book is filled with white space, or huge notations in a box that have very little purpose other than to filibuster about some (relevant?) history of how an IK got started... Is this a history book, a techniques book, or a lightwave book? By the end of chapter 2 The only thing the book accomplishes is building a 2 bone ik chain.. thats it.. then, strangely enough, chapter 3 starts out with "You've got your character all ready to go...."... Huh? if i'm missing something, someone please write back and let me know. I have respect for Mr Albee and his efforts to create this book, I know it must have been a daunting task - but i assure you, not as much as trying to go figure it out.. Sorry, but I have to give this book an "F"