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Learning Lightwave


BlackThief

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While messing around with lightwave I came across this problem several times - the mesh doesn't have a uniform colour in smooth shading, as it should have - sometimes you can see lines, where the colour changes. I think mostly, when you connected two parts of a model.

http://www.thedarkmod.de/misc/differentcolour.jpg

(I know that the wireframe is a bit messy in that area, but I don't think that's the reason)

I guess this has something to do with normals, but I couldn't find a proper way to fix it.

 

Has anyone of the lightwavers around here an idea, how to fix that?

 

(this is nothing darkmod related, so I posted it in the off-topic)

 

 

 

edit: June 7th - forget it. I just figured it out myself :rolleyes:

Edited by BlackThief
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just finished another part of my very first high-poly character (legs are already done) and just wanted to get some feedback. it's the hand - actually a tight gloove, so you can't see much detail, like fingernails, renzatics etc.

http://www.thedarkmod.de/misc/hand.jpg

http://www.thedarkmod.de/misc/hand_wire.jpg

(the back of the hand isn't very detailed, because you won't see it because of the armor)

 

I know that the wireframe isn't very clear - just want to know if it's "the right way" I modelled it in principle.

Some tips, criticism?

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well actually you're right. originally I planed to do it with subpatches, but after a while I totally forgot about that, so almost half of the hand was done, when I remembered to go into subpatch mode. result was, that parts model are now totally fucked up in subpatch mode:

hand_subpatch.jpg

 

stuff like ankles etc does really look better as subpatches though...

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THe reason it's fucked up in subpatch is becasue yu have 5 point polygons. You have to kep it to four sided polys, or three if you have no other choice.

ALso, either you make the whole thing in subpatch or make it in polys. You don't make an orgranic model with some subpatches and some polys.

It's messy around the knucles, there are unnecessary polygons, and the same for the finget tips. It also coun'y be animated in that state either, since there aren't appropreate sections at the joints.

You generally need 3 'slices' through the finger at each joint to get good deformation, though that on;y applies to a subpatch model.

YOu've also put to many secxtions going long ways down the fingers, about 8 polys around is enough, that saves you have to join up all the lose ends where the fingers meet the hand.

It's a perfect shape though, at least from this angle.

 

hand.jpg

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

character models site

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thx for the advices! I tried to find every 5-sided poly, but lightwave still complains about more than 4 sided polygons, when I hit the tab-key. Is there anoption, to highlight specific polygons? Otherwise I'll leave it as it is - the polygons don't look too bad.

 

made some progress on the arms:

trooper1.jpg

....yees it is an imperial stormtrooper - I choose this character, because there's isn't much cloth to model, which makes it easier for a total lw noob, like me.

 

now I'm stuck at the shoulder part of the armor. (reference)

 

I somehow don't get the upper part, where it becomes round, right.

Any advice, what's the best way to model something like that? I modelled most of the stuff just using the extrude or bevel tool, but failed on that issue.

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It' best to use splines to model that. They're basically interlocking 3d bezier curves. you make a patch work frame from them and then either autopatch (which rarely works properly) or select the four points at a time and hit the p key to make a poly.

What you should do is draw out the biggest shape first using the draw sline tool (1)

Select the two points top and bottom and hit ctrl+p to make an open curve (2)

Select that new curve and 3 add points using the add points tool, then drag them out a bit (3)

Make three cross braces by selecting the 3 points and ctrl+p (4)

Make two more long braces the same way (5)

Use add points and make 3 more curves down the middle (6)

Select the polys frpom each square and hit p to make a poly, then subpatch (7)

Select a ring of point around the outside (the select loop tool is great here, just select two points and it'll select the whole ring) then bevel them out a few times and do a bit of final sculpting to the whole shape.

It's literally 5 minutes work.

You'll need to use the same technique for the face and helmet mask and the chest plate.

To get rid of polys that are not 4 or 3 sides, hit the w key to bring up the statistics panel, go into polygon selection mode and it wil give you a list of all visible polys and how many verts they have. Click the cross at the start of the>4 vertices column and it will select any 5 pointers, then use triple or fix them manually.

It's looking pretty good for first organic model though)

pad2.jpg

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

character models site

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thanks, that tutorial learned me a lot!

I subpatched the shoulder part, as you described it in the tutorial, but the rest of the armor are still polygons - tried to subpatch them, but the result was awful: everything was rounded and some areas were screwed up. Is there a way to prevent, that squares get rounded as subpatches? Will there be any issues (when texturing, rendering), when I keep the model as it is (some parts are subpatches some parts are not)?

I don't plan to animate it - just want to do one or two renders and that's it.

 

 

trooper_arm1.jpg

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TO get sharp edges in subpatched geometry you just have to increase the poly count around that area. The closer the lines the sharper the angle you get. THe bandsaw pro tool is great for this.

subs.jpg

Just select two polys, and the bandsaw pro tool will slice all the polys in that row. Hit the n key to bring up the tool option for it, you can add as many slices as you like.

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

character models site

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Speaking of Star Wars, there's a new Star Wars fan film out called I.M.P.S. Great modeling and effects, etc. Should checkit out. It's a 219MB download. Here's the d/l page: http://impstherelentless.com/tek9.asp?pg=chapter1_download

Apparently it's Chapter 1 and has been in production for like 5 years. Another chapter (or more?) to be released later.

Edited by Darkness_Falls
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  • 2 weeks later...

Had a go at the shoulder pad in Blender just for fun. It was a bit more than 5 minutes and needs a bit more subdivision probably, but it came out OK.

 

shoulder5ry.jpg

 

I wish Blender's patch/surface functionality was as good as what Lightwave appears to have. Blender has very good subdivision surfaces but NURBS are fairly basic and Bezier patches do not even exist.

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  • 3 weeks later...

In the past few weeks and didn't have much time, but I'm still tyring to improve my Lightwave modelling skills. Anyway here's a little "project" I started Sunday evening - it's a model of a modern german soldier. Comments and criticism welcome - I hope to improve my skills, so that I'm familiar enough to do proper normalmaps for darkmod textures soon.

 

http://www.thedarkmod.de/misc/idz_wip3.jpg

 

The collar and a lot detail on the sleeves and boots are still missing. However I'm not sure what's the best way to add fine detail, like buckels and lacing. I'd also like to know if the wireframe is basically ok.

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The biggest misconception you have is that you have to model it all as a one piece mesh. You do not. Those pouches, for example, should be separate objects. You can just make one and clone it. The boots should be separate, all the small details like buckes and lacing should be separate.

Basically, everything that is a separate object on the real soldier, should be a separate model in lightwave. You seem to have been trying to bevel everything out from the main mesh.

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

character models site

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well not really - the trousers, the shirt, the vest, the shoulder-parts and the boots are all seperate objects in seperate layers. I actually don't know why I extruded the pouches, but it won't be hard to fix that. Regarding the small details, like bootlaces - does it matter, if the meshes intersect each other`? I know that game engines usually don't like intersecting meshes, so I wasn't sure how the render of lightwave will handle that.

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