Lightwave beginner

[sierra]

Dear Knowledgeable friends, well make that Godlike Knowledgeable friends,

I am following a video tutorial I bought from desktopimages.com. It is called Getting Into 7. And it is BASIC. (Well, so am I.)

I made a humorous little body for a character called Buzzy on layer 1. (As instructed in the tutorial). Then I made what I regard as a rather wondrous eyeball on layer 2 (well if you saw the first 2 eyeballs, you might agree this one could be called wondrous). But now I can't see the eyeball in the face of "Buzzy" because the body layer obscures the layer the eyeball is on when I shift click to see both layers together.

I have succeeded in putting the eyeball, layer2 in front with the body, layer1 as a shadow wireframe in the background. And I have found how to do that in the manual I downloaded. It is only when I shift click on the layer tabs to see them together as real images that I can't figure out how to get the eyeball layer in front of the body layer so I can see the eye in the face. The good thing is that at last after several tries, the eyeball is facing forward rather than up to the sky. You are not working with the sharpest knife in the drawer here=-)

This doesn't happen to the person giving the tutorial and I wonder what he forgot to mention as we click along in his confident path. I am in the Modeler in case that helps. I can't find anything about changing the arrangement of layers in the stack other than just to ghost one when you are working on the other. ??? Any help would be most encouraging. (But ask yourself, do you really want to encourage a person like me? hehe)

Thanks. Sierra Rose who is tired of freaking out over the fact that all new software thwarts me:)

[munky]

It's not the arrangement of the layers that gives priorety but where each layer object is in 3d space so if your eyeball is behind the body then it really is behind it regardless of which layer it's on. If you click on the lower half of the body layer so it's a black guide then see where the eye is in relation to it and move it forewards in the x axis till it's in the right place. Use the quad view layout so you can see the sides, top, front and a perpective view. The Idea with the layers is that you can build very complex objects or things in simple parts to join later or animate each layer seperatley in layout. They arn'nt the same as say photoshop or after fx layers which have a stacking order.
Go to flay.com for loads of links and tutorials

and yes everyone is welcome to help and encouragement by lightwavers as we have all been there at page one


also check out newteks tutorials and get inside lightwave 7 or 8 when it ships by dan ablan as it's great for learning lightwave.

regards

paul

[sierra]

Thanks, Paul. That was the piece of info I needed. Working in Mirage and Aura, the layers give priority. So I need to move the eyeball forward? But, I did try that and the eye turned out to be too low. I'll work with it and eventually, I will get it (as I always do if I just keep trying.)

Also thanks about flay.com. Never heard of it. I'll go check it out now.

I get to the point where I just have to laugh to keep the spirits up to keep going. It's always some little thing....you just never would think of, eh? Oh but the rewards are soooo worth it. Thanks again.

Sierra Rose

[riki]

hehe sorry had a bit of a laugh :) It sounds like you just need to move the eye balls so that they're not inside buzzy's head (ie where his brian should be). Sorry no slur intended.

PS post a pix so we can see wat you mean.