Project needs help and hints

[locked]

Hi everybody,
im using Lightwave 10 for a project right now and have some very specific questions. Im pretty much new to modeling and am working with LW for 2 weeks now and like it so far.

Within the frame of a student project im modeling and animating some characters which then will be used in a browser game. Since this game will not use Flash in any way, the models have to be rendered in parts (such as head,body,arms etc) and will be displayed (via Z index) in the browser using jQuery.

So basicly the rendered bodyparts will be layered on each other to form a character.

So with that out of the way, here are my questions regarding my workflow.

1. Is it possible to render with a transperant background without having to use ps in postproduction?

2. Would it be best to do the full animation and simply hide the bodyparts I dont want to render?

3. The game will have an isometric view, what cameratyp would you recommend?

4. Can I tell Layout to render 8 cameras at the same time?


Well thats it for now, thanks in advance for any advice.

[Lewis]

Hi everybody,
Hi there and welcome to LW :)


1. Is it possible to render with a transperant background without having to use ps in postproduction?

You can set output render to 32Bit PNG ,32 bit TIFF,or 32 bit TGA, all of those 32bit version have Alpha channel so it can be transparent background without need to use other software for transparency. Or you can render Alpha channel as separate file if you wish at same time when you render to other format(s).


2. Would it be best to do the full animation and simply hide the bodyparts I dont want to render?

Seems like simpler plan than animating separate parts and rendering each one separately. You'll have less flexibility but it sure will be faster/easier that way :).


3. The game will have an isometric view, what cameratyp would you recommend?

There is few tricks how to do it in LW but closest and maybe easiest would be to use "Shift camera" type to "kill" perspective amount.


4. Can I tell Layout to render 8 cameras at the same time?

Well you can use Master plugin (native) "Universal Camera Selector" or regular "Camera selector" and tell Lw which camera to render which frames (you'll get popup with options when you add master plugin) if you wish to change cameras during frames.

But if you wish to render different camera types over same span of frames then you might be better to save New Scene file for each camera (and don't forget to set different Output names for each one before saving) and then open up Render-Q and add multiple scenes and hit render until all is done since Lw will automatically load scenes and continue to render all 8 scenes = 8 cameras in your case.


cheers

[locked]

Thanks a lot ill try everything right away :)

[locked]

How many frames do i need for a decent looking walk or a runcycle ?
My project lead told me that I can only use 6-8 frames for every animation cause of traffic issues. Is it even possible to animate smoothly with that kinda restrictions?

[Silkrooster]

How many frames do i need for a decent looking walk or a runcycle ?
My project lead told me that I can only use 6-8 frames for every animation cause of traffic issues. Is it even possible to animate smoothly with that kinda restrictions?

Get out a stop watch and ask someone to walk for you. Stop the watch when they took 2 steps. That should give you an idea of the number of frames needed, for a smooth walk. Depending on the time, it may be possible to reduce that number. But trial and error is as always, your friend.

[locked]

Hey, its me again. Thanks you for your hints so far. The animations are looking decent. Another issues came up tough.

How do I actually hide a surface in Layout for animation purposes?


Thanks again
Christoph

[Silkrooster]

Hey, its me again. Thanks you for your hints so far. The animations are looking decent. Another issues came up tough.

How do I actually hide a surface in Layout for animation purposes?


Thanks again
Christoph

Just to verify your request. Do you want to hide the texture or the mesh it self?

[locked]

Hey, sorry if I wasnt clear there.
I'd like to hide everything but a certain bodypart so only that bodypart gets rendered. I guess that makes it texture and mesh ?

[Andrew March]

Arrghhh Mehearties!

[locked]

Is it talk like a pirate day again?

Topic is still hot btw.