Customer Reviews

LightWave 3D 8 Texturing (Wordware Game and Graphics Library)

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Wordware's line of Lightwave books is rapidly becoming an encyclopedic reference to the Lightwave system. This book may be the best one they've done so far.

My copy just arrived today, but already I can see that this one is destined to be a classic.

This is the first title I'm aware of that's dedicated to the topic of texturing, specifically for Lightwave. It takes a subject that's only covered lightly in the official documentation and expands it to 480 pages of in-depth information, advice and examples.

The "all-in-one" Lightwave books always suffer from the problem of trying to cover in one book a multitude of topics, each of which one could make into a career, and each of which could (should) be expanded into a full-sized book of its own. For the topic of surfacing and texturing, this is that book.

If you want to learn about texturing in Lightwave, forget about the manual, forget the other books you might have (for now), and GET THIS BOOK!

G.

I already own Digital Texturing and Painting. I found it to be good but a bit difficult to apply. This book however offers theory and covers practical application as well. Many topics cover common mistakes and offers work-arounds. Being a Lightwave user, I found that the detailed descriptions and renders of the procedurals worth the price of the book alone. This book is a great way to get a jumpstart on texturing and a solid understanding of workflow for Lightwave3d texturing.

It's interesting to read "A reader" and Kathy's review of this book. I wouldn't have bought it if I just go by their advice alone, it sounds like this book doesn't worth a dime in their opinion.

But I did purchase the book before I read their advice, and I found it to be one of those texture book you want to own, especially if you use Lightwave. For other programs, it might not be as helpful, because it's still a LW based book. But it has information that other users of program would find helpful also.

The author of this book teaches you why you should or shouldn't do on a texture map, and if you're serious about 3D, any beginner to intermediate users would find the theory and application of this book very helpful, because texture painting principles are fundemental skills common to all programs, not just LW, and this author does teach you those things by referring to Photoshop.

The author gives detail explanation of what to look for when you paint your texture, focus on character's face painting, as well as ordinary objects. I must admit I learn a lot from this book alone on paining textures for characters that you can use in games or animation.

The book is easy to read and follow. It sums up the author's texturing experience, and it saves especially beginner time from trial and error becasue this book does that for you already, so you can learn from someone who has experience in texturing that would give you a huge jump start.

I would say this book is a must-have for LW users, and other program's user who want to learn theory and principles on painting texture would find this book helpful also.
If you're serious about 3D texturing, and you want to better yourelf, I would suggest this book a must-buy.

Off topic:
Recently in newspaper, there is this debate as to who are the people posting reviews here, and it seems that publishers from other companies use this review function to knock down other's book in order to increase their own books' sale. I don't know if this is the case or not, but I think reader should keep this in mind when you read any reviews here.

I think the harsh reviews this book has received are childish and undeserved. The comments about Leigh on the forums has nothing to do with the book and are irrelevant. I consider myself to be an advanced user and I also teach Lightwave. Ive been using Lightwave since before it was Lightwave. I also have many years in the 3D industry.
The book is targetted at beginners and intermediate users and more then delivers the goods. Leigh covers everything I can think of very thoroughly and in a logical fashion. The book is a nice balance between being informative enough even for an intermediate user but not too heavy with unecessary details that would certainly confuse a beginner. This book is definately better then the manual for explaining texturing and I would certainly use it to use to teach from. I dont agree with all of Leighs views on texturing but I would have to say that those disagreements are at a more advanced level and more to do with particular details rather then the good solid principles she covers. I didnt see much or anything in her book that I didnt agree with. I think its a good solid book and highly recommend it.

Texture and shading knowledge is a key in a 3d world, and Leigh did a wonderful work to write a clean and well document book on how different parameters works, and how texture alter it.

if you don't understand texturing and shading work in Lightwave, you will understand it after reading of that book. She did a good work on tutorials and interaction with daily work of texture artist.

texture and shading not have segrets, need only to understand how they work in different software. i reed many books, but most of authors are very foggy on "why" and very generous on "do that", Leigh wrote why and where of texturing work.

Wonderful book Leigh

I' ve been using Lightwave for about a year now, so I' m in the beginner/intermediate bracket and this is the perfect book for me. I started off just making models and I' ve now progressed to making models for a game mod. I now have to UV map and skin my models, which I never did before, because it looked scary ! I used to just use a quick procedural for dirt mainly and never had the confidence to make my own maps.

However, along comes this book at just the right time for me. There' s lots of texturing books out there, but nothing really compares to a book specifically for the 3D package you are using.

So ,what' s in this book ? Well, the author starts off with a quick overview of surfaces, trying to get us to study the surfaces around us in more detail ( The way light falls differently on different surfaces, the effects of weathering on materials and so on). After all, attention to detail is the difference between good maps and great maps.

After a quick review of different lights, it then goes into extensive detail of the Surface Editor, explaining just about every button in there, with example pictures of what each one does beside it. Reflections, transparency, shaders, you name it, it' s in there ( the pages explaining how to use Surface Baker was particularly good. I' ll definitely be trying that on game models ). After 30 pages on procedurals, again each with pictures of what they look like, we get to the tutorials.

First is gradients with 3 tutorials on that, then one on weight maps, a load more on image maps ( seamless textures, using photos for textures, colour, glossy, luminosity, diffuse and lots more, all explained with short tutorials on each one.)

After another overview of the rest of Lightwaves buttons, we then learn about every kind of image map, each with thorough explanations of each one, and how to avoid mistakes beginners make when applying them. Then my favourite part of the book and which I found most useful, UV maps ! A total of 60 pages are devoted to that alone ! How to unwrap a head and fix stretching, planer, spherical, cylindrical, atlas, all have tutorials and are explained very well, plus an explanation of all of Lightwaves UV mapping buttons.

Then to finish off, there' s yet more tutorials ! Texturing a cars body, painting a gun, rust, wood and finally one on painting a face.

A huge amount of work has been put into this book and it shows. ( Screen grabbing all the pictures must have taken ages ! These are in B/W, but are reproduced on the CD ).This is an excellent book for beginners and intermediates and is packed with tutorials and loads of useful tips from the author, which will prevent easy ( usually frustrating ) mistakes.

If you have this, plus Essential Lightwave, and the Character animation book from Timothy Albee, you have everything you need to learn and produce great animations.

Thumbs up ! Highly recommended !

I was waiting for this book since my birthday, and when it arrived early June, all I did was run to my room and read it. Now mind you, I am very good at modeling and animation, but my knowledge of texturing humans is kind of sparse. After reading this book, back and front, I suddenly got the urge to draw characters and texture my organic models properly. With Leigh's direction, the writing was a great relation and those who understand the idea behind texturing (especially someone who is a young person). Some tutorials I have read on the net are good, but sometimes, it is not enough. Tutorials skip ahead and not tell you why, exploiting their veteran status in the field.

After reading it again (I finished the whole book in one night) and using the demos on the CD, I am definitely recommending this book to anyone, beginner or advanced, and students, who really wants to learn about texturing models. Despite its title, and most of it is geared toward Lightwave, it can be helpful to any high end software program. The pictures in the book (black and white) are very great and well understood, as well as colored versions on the CD. The tutorials are great, but some of them are very involved...(I do wish the book had a unwrapping of human eyes tutorial but that is something unimportant here) Bottom line, the book is great for those who want to learn the features of Lightwave, which is a truly excellent program, but also to learn how to create believable environments.

I also visit the CGTalk forums, and the work there reflects. Those who want dead on info on making believable textures, get this book!! GET IT!! You will not regret it...

This book really goes all out to explore the intricacies of Lightwave texturing, and does it at a level that beginners to advanced users can understand. It contains literally hundreds of well-disgrammed examples...should be a must-read for anyone serious about using Lightwave.

I am 1/4 through the book and I like it so far. The book starts with basic things, explaining what is what in the texture editor. She gives some crucial hints along the way as to what to do and what no to do, something that might be missted by beginners. For Example.. setting both reflection and diffusion at %100. You might know it, I might know it, but there are some who do not. As I said, the book starts at the very beginning of the topic. I do not know the rest of the book, but judging from the work that Leigh has done I expect some good stuff. The same goes for the comments saying that she does not have lifelong experience with texturing, blah blah. Well, look at her work first. And then, you do no needt much of the "lifetime" for an industry that is barely 10-15 years old (excluding those early visualization years, with nothing more than glassy spheres,checkered planes and such). Some people learn certain things quicker. If I could not learn good texturing in 10 years, it does not mean someone else could not.
Leight has a specific style of writing. For example she seem to like to point out the "mistakes" that some beginners make. Also she is more interested in painting her own textures than using procedurals. To tell you the truth, to texture a living organism such as human or an animal, you will never do a good job with procedurals alone, but that is my opinion.
Some readers apparently do not her style of writing or texturing techniques, but the book deserves at least 3 stars even if that style bothers you. Leave 1 star reviews for "great" books by mr. Shamms Mortier.
If you are still unsure, go to your local book store. Hopefully it will have Leigh's texturing book in stock. Browse through it and if you like it, come back to amazon and buy it. Or, if you decide you cannot wait (quite likely), buy it right there!

I sincerely doubt any of the negative reviewers here have actually read the book. This book is an excellent resource and makes a great addition to your Lightwave library. It covers a broad range of topics and gives you an excellent foundation to develop your skillset from. It's easy enough for the beginner to start with, and yet contains enough gems for intermediate/advanced users to easily justify the reasonable purchase price.