LightWave 6.5 Project Handbook [With CDROM]

by Patrik Beck

NewTek's Lightwave is a multi-platform, 3D modelling, animation, and digital effects program. Its powerful effects can be seen in movies like Titanic, Men in Black, and The Fifth Element, and with... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1584500948
• ISBN13: 9781584500940
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: Charles River Media
• Length: 464 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 7.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A must have for any Lightwaver

This is an excellent book, and very applicable to version 7.5 as well. It consists of many small tutorials and has some excellent solutions to complex problems. The only complaint I can find with this book, and the only thing keeping it from 5 stars, is that the book gets you going on creating an effect, then kind of trails off with some suggestions for improving the effect. Some of the effect ideas in this book are well worth the price of the book. Mr. Beck's burning paper effect is awesome, and the time to work thru the tutorial and create the effect is very minimal (5-10 minutes). I've worked several of the tutorials in this book and found myself saying "Wow!" quite a few times.

I like this book...

So you've purchased Lightwave and are confronted with an endless array of tabs and menus. You have some idea as to what HyperVoxels are, (or maybe not), but certainly don't know how to activate or create them, or know how to assign bones, model simple items and assign surfaces to them, or use lighting to create various effects. If you are looking for a good place to start, I personally found this collection of short projects to be a great way to begin to understand some of the many things that you can do with Lightwave; providing a great launching point to start experimenting from, now having a primary understanding as to how to "get around" in the program. Those with previous experience in Lightwave specifically or other advanced 3D applications in general may not benefit from this book, but I sure did. I spent a fair amount of money for this program and it has been useless to me - until now. While it doesn't cover any one aspect of Lightwave completely, it does introduce a new user like myself to a wide range of key features of the program. The tutorials are step by step, and once you have finished a lesson you begin to immediately have ideas as to how you can apply them. Reading this book has given me the general understanding I was wanting in order to proceed with more in-depth books such as Lightwave Applied and Inside Lightwave. While some reviewers have accused this book of glossing over some of the details, I have found that the introduction to a wide range of topics and tutorials worth the trade off in detail in any one area. Plus, it was fun. Oh yeah... and don't buy Modeling in Lightwave by Shamms Mortier; it's the worst computer book ever conceived.

Offering a wealth of in-depth tutorials

NewTek's LightWave is one of the most powerful, multi-platform 3D applications available today. In The LightWave 6.5/7.0 Project Handbook computer animation expert Patrik Beck presents a comprehensive survey of the features and functionality that make LightWave a tool of choice for special effects professionals in the film and television industry. Offering a wealth of in-depth tutorials, the reader is provided with information on all aspects of LightWave including the creation of text and logos, using cameras and lights, modeling, texturing, surfacing, animation, and much, much more. The individual chapters are self-contained making it an ideal instructional for the novice and a continuingly useful reference text for even the more experienced LightWave user. The highly recommended text is accompanied by a CD-ROM which includes a limited-use Demo of NewTek's LightWave 7.0 for Windows, OS9, and OSX; support files and worked-through examples from the tutorials in the book; as well as sample animations and pictures.

Great For Beginners

This is a great book for beginners trying to understand many of the features LW 6.5 has to offer. Many easy tutorials cover subjects like texturing, simple modeling, gradients, graph editor, simple animations etc. Great for logo and texture projects.This is the book I use to teach an intro to computer graphics class. This book may not be needed for the seasoned LW artist. It doesn't have any character (modeling/ rigging/ animating) techniques. A good addition to your library if you're a beginner. The other books on Lightwave can come later as your skills improve.

Better than other Lightwave books

This book is good. I've got the other Lightwave books by Dan Ablan. Ablan knows his stuff, but is sometimes not a good teacher as he takes many things for granted and doesn't explain everything.Patrik Beck, the author of this book, is a better teacher. He doesn't assume you already know everything, so doesn't leave anything out. Despite his simple way of explaining things, Patrik Beck manages to show you some of the most amazing effects I've seen done in Lightwave.I wish this book was around a couple of years ago when I first started to learn Lightwave. It would have made things a lot easier.