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| Aristomenis
ìMeniî Tsirbas
Artist and director Aristomenis
ìMeniî Tsirbas, founder of MeniThings Productions,
has worked at a variety of high-powered Hollywood
effects shops including Digital Domain and Eden
FX. His dream, however, is producing the stories
that bloom in his own unique imagination, and
LightWave 3D has enabled him to do just that
his short film, The Freak, has been the toast
of the film festival circuit during the past year,
carrying away awards from Sundance, The Hollywood
Film Festival, and Seattle's Bumbershoot Arts
Festival. Meni is now preparing to unleash a new
and very ambitious film, Terra, also created using
LightWave 3D.
ìLightWave is a highly
optimized, intelligently designed and very mature
software,î said Meni. ìThe nice thing about
LightWave is that a new user can get up to speed
relatively quickly, since all the sophisticated
features are carefully organized in an interface
that's artist-friendly. I see it as a complete
3D solution, where I can model, animate and render
high quality work within a single package.î
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"I
think LightWave is great for having a quick learning
curve for creative people who have ideas they want
to express. Most independent film, because of small
budgets, would not think of having effects. LightWave
makes the inclusion of special effects possible
for independent film."
Bruce
Branit, Strange Engine |
| Timothy
Albee
Timothy Albee lives in
the 'mush country' of Alaska. His office is a
bare bedroom - it's about as un-Hollywood as you
can get. But with LightWave as his 3D program,
he's been able to create print ads, commercials
and even his own 22-minute CG film, Ghost Warrior.
"LightWave give me all
the power I need at a price I can afford,"
says Albee. "No hidden costs, no charge for
tech support or maintenance upgrades, and both
Mac and PC compatibility. From logos to print
work to character animation, it's the right tool
for the job." |
"For
what I do, there would have been no independent
production without LightWave. An independent guy
isn't going to have 30 CG artists, coders and scriptwriters
in his pocket. I've worked with numerous other pieces
of software and what it came down to is not one
of them gave me everything I needed in one place.
With LightWave I was able to get my show done quickly
and easily and get the results I wanted, not settle
for what the program gave me."
Terrence
Walker, StudioArtFX |
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"I
use LightWave for all my personal projects.
LightWaveís workflow paradigm allows me to
easily swap lo-res mesh for high-res mesh
at any time. Also I can reuse character rigs
and change the model at anytime with out screwing
everything up. Try that with another piece
of software and see if you have any hair left
after the ordeal. Another plus to using LightWave
is the amazing community support. The wealth
of knowledge and the willingness of fellow
users to share with one another is just great."
Kory
Heinzen, Digital Artist, Soul Reaver series |
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| Getting
the most power for your money is the key
to successful independent film production
and to succeeding in business as an independent
3D graphics and animation artist. LightWave
3D accomplishes that for the independent
producer or artist like no other package
on the market.
The first off-the-shelf
general 3D package used to model, texture
and render a complete CGI animated film
(the Oscar-nominated Jimmy Neutron: Boy
Genius) was also the first to include a
cel shader, the first to include subdivision
surfaces, the first to include radiosity,
and the first to include high-dynamic-range
image (HDRI) and light support. And there
are a host of other firsts along the way.
NewTekís LightWave 3D is the leader in extending
the borders of the possible in professional
3D in creation, animation, and rendering.
And you can count on NewTek to keep pushing
those boundaries for you.
Nonlinear
Animation
LightWave includes a nonlinear animation
tool, Motion Mixer, which greatly speeds
the production process by making it easy
to reuse the animation elements you create.
With character animation, for example, previously
saved motion cycles such as walking, running,
or jumping can be mixed and matched, stretched
and shortened as needed to produce just
the movement and timing you need for your
project. Animate once, customize endlessly.
Cel
Shaders
LightWave 3D offers a choice of shaders
to suit the look you need for those projects
where you want to achieve the look of traditional
animation. Super Cel Shader and BESM ("Big
Eyes Small Mouth" - can you say "Anime"?)
provide the power to get just the effect
you want in smooth-shaded rendering with
a "hand-painted" look.
Sasquatch
Lite
With Sasquatch Lite, you can create grass,
fur, hair, leaves, and more. You can fine-tune
the coarseness, frizziness, length, lean
or fall direction, color, and much, much
more. Long strand fiber objects such as
long hair or grass skirts can be created
using chains of two point polygons, and
LightWave's soft-body dynamics can be applied
to supply the natural movement, complete
with wind and gravity effects. Long hair
can be as simple or complex as needed, including
creating knots, bows, or even braids. |
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| Out
Of Our Minds Images
Out Of Our Minds Images (OOOMI), a full-service
graphics and animation house based in North Carolina,
find NewTek's LightWave the tool of choice for
3D both for clients' needs and their own projects.
They, too, have a vision with a unique skew from
reality, and the most recent OOOMI project is
the award-winning short, Dear Sweet Emma. Just
released in March 2003, Emma has already taken
honors at the Kalamazoo Animation Festival and
the Hollywood Underground Film Festival, with
more festival stops to come.
ìThe most challenging element
of Dear Sweet Emma was the timeframe,î says
Danny Oakley, Lead Animator at OOOMI. ìWe made
our decision [to do a short for the SIGGRAPH Animation
Festival] in January, so that gave us about 2
months. The thing I love most about LightWave
is the ability to just get stuff done. And with
our deadline, that was important. You can just
flat out work fast in that program. And being
able to work at that speed doesn't cost you quality.î
ìThe renderer is a godsend
for us. We can really pull all the things we see
in our head out of it,î continues Oakley.
ìModeler is top notch. That may be where the
speed aspect comes in the most. A great toolset
that really lets you get in there and work those
points into something great. And I like the ability
to get a model, throw some bones in there and
just start animating. Sure, you can sit down and
get a good complex rig working for a character,
but for me, just throw on some IK for the legs
and lets get to the animating!î |
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© 2003 Out of Our Minds
Images |
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