Spacey Tips for New Lightwave Users
Greetings! This tutorial is intended to
give new Lightwave 3D users
an insight into the way textures effect the credibility of sci-fi/space objects.
A good rudimentary knowledge of LW basics and Photoshop is assumed,
but I have attempted to cover each step clearly, with a minimum of text to wade through.
We'll build and surface a simple cylinder, attempting to endow it with
the
industrial quality that one expects from space hardware.
Let's do it. Begin by
creating a cylinder in layout.
Drag out a Disc in the front view, about 500mm across
the X and Y axis and 1m deep on the Z.
In the Numeric requester change Sides to 30
hit OK, and the Return key to Make the object.(Figure 1)
FIGURE 1
(if you're looking at this wondering how
I managed to make
the object and still have the Numeric requester showing...I didn't
I'm compositing stuff together here for illustration purposes)
Press the Q key and assign a
surface called; Cyl. Check Smooth and Apply. (Figure 2)
FIGURE 2
In Polygon select mode, select the 2 end polys (lasso one, shift/lasso
the other)
Cut these polys and Paste them back. This insures that Smooth can be used
without mushing the hard edge between the cylinder body and it's ends. (Figure 3)
FIGURE 3
Save this object as; Cyl.lwo, and close Modeler. Next we open a 24bit
Paint Program
...which one you ask? Doesn't really matter...the most important thing here
is to have a quality airbrush. Without that you're doomed, plain and simple.
I'm using Photoshop for this...it's pricey for a beginner, but buying it
is your first step AWAY from being a beginner...there are several
workarounds for not having a quality airbrush, but the time, energy and
deviousness called for would be better spent finding a way to buy
the good paint program...end of sermon.
Begin with an airbrush, soft edged, about 100 pixels in size, opacity
about 10%.
Select white as your color and whiz around the image, airbrushing to a blotchy grey.
(Figure 4- in progess) (Figure 5- what I ended up with)
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 5
Looking at the side panel, you'll see I have created a group of custom
airbrushes in a variety of sizes, shapes and orientation. I've used some of these
to add some random, yet vaguely symetrical "sheens"...these will show up
as minor variations in diffusion on our final object.
The next step is to divide our image into sections using a straight line tool,
black at about 35% opacity, one pixel wide, antialias on.
Go nuts, do whatever you want, but remember that you want
this to look like somebody built it, and it does something or other.
Here I've just sectioned off with lines, nothing fancy or weird, just simple to start.
FIGURE 6
Here's where the power of a good paint program comes in. Photoshop (and
others)
lets you define groups of areas as stencils (or friskets) that you can paint
through, without affecting the undefined areas. To do this in Photoshop you select
the Marquee tool, draw a box over one of your sections, then holding
the shift key, select a few more...best if they are not adjacent to each other (Figure 7)
FIGURE 7
I'm using an airbrush that's squeezed to a vertical streak, size 30
pixels, black,
10% opacity, normal mode. Here the idea is to lightly bob in and out of the
selected areas, leaving streaks of varying size and density (Figure 8)
FIGURE 8
And here, after a few minutes of repeating the process, is a rough idea
of
what you want to end up with. I've added a few white streaks, some larger
dark blotches, and a few nicks and scratches....cool huh? (Figure 9)
FIGURE 9
The philosophy here is that the leading edge of each panel takes the
brunt of the environmental effects of wear and tear, burns...etc.
Now this IS a terrestrial reality...we expect to see this on earthbound vehicles
such as aircraft, and rather than get into a discussion concerning whether
this is truly going to happen in space...suffice it to say that the credibilty
were looking for is based on what people EXPECT visually, not necessarily
what's based on reality.
This is our finished Diffusion Image...save it as an IFF file, call it; CylDiff.iff
Continued in Part 2, follow the link below... LINK to Part 2 of this Tutorial
Tutorial written by and reproduced here with kind permission of LightwaveDave - a.k.a Dave Adams
Updated: 7th February 2000
