Creating seven wonders in 3D

[Lindopski]

Hello all
I am currently studying Lightwave 3D 8 in University and I am mighty impressed with the package.
I have never done any 3D work at all before lightwave and we have only been through 15 or so lectures on the basic features and I foolishly decided to base my 2nd year project on Lightwave :) lol.
I took on the task of recreating the seven wonders of the ancient world using lightwave 3D.
I have so far got 5 out of the 7 models pretty much done, the Collosus of rhodes and the statue of zeus I have left till last because I am really not sure how to create characters.
I have made two low poly characters but they look fairly rubbish to be honest.
whilst playing with Lightwave I found saslite and I am now trying to add grass to some of my scenes which is great I am not sure what settings to use really to get 100% great looking grass but some is better than none, especially when we havent covered organics at all.
I wanted to make trees and a fountain but I cant find a good tutorial for them and I tried something called magic bevel but my tree made in it looks rubbish.
We only started Lightwave 3D in January so I am a total novice , but do you guys have any recommendations for me to make my scenes look better.
One thing in particular I find tough is making my scenery stretch to the horizon, I have for example a model of the Temple of Artemis , and to make my scenery I made a big massive box added colour played with it and deformed it a bit to look like land and then stuck my temple on the top with a bit of grass but to be honest it looks a bit rubbish and when I send it to lightwave from modeller my camera is always huge and difficult to zoom in on the now minute temple without dissapearing under the land.
Maybe you know of a few simple tutorials I could follow to improve my scenes.
I think the fountain can be done using an emitter but when I tried it all i got was yellow dots that looked like a fountain in lightwave but when rendering there wasnt anything there.
Oh well Id best get to work its all due in by May 2nd and after 3 weeks solid on it im still not done.
thanks in advance anyway for any advice.
:thumbsup:

[lesterfoster]

and when I send it to lightwave from modeller my camera is always huge and difficult to zoom in on the now minute temple without dissapearing under the land.
:thumbsup:
Try adjusting your Grid Square Size. You can access this in layout by pressing the small “d” key in layout. As far as your other questions go. I hope other’s can help you.

[Amurrell]

If you are using just a particle emitter for your fountain, then nothing will show up in a render since particles don't render. You either have to use a partigon emitter, or better yet for a fountain, you should apply HyperVoxels (HV) to the particles. Look for HV tutorials, they're everywhere, as they would explain the process more accurately than I would in this small space.

Good luck with the project. :thumbsup:

[Lindopski]

Thanks a bundle for the replys filks , I will take all your comments on board.
Have you any tips on how I could make my landscape look better, or even some links to some tutorials for things like
Trees ,grass, Terrain etc.
I am going to find out about hypervoxels now and see if I can get a simple fountain going.
Is fire done this way too by any chance as I was planning to have little torch bearing stands leading up to my temple , but fire is foreign to me in Lightwave , mind you lightwave is still pretty foreign to me so far.
Its a great package though.
:D

[lesterfoster]

Silkrooster has put together a good list of resources for newbies. Here is the list http://www.newtek.com/forums/showthread.php?p=361157#post361157

Proton has made a good video on electricity. I know it's not about fire, but I think it is something that you can use.

ftp://ftp.newtek.com/pub/LightWave/Tutorials/Vidz/electric_CD.mov

[Skinner3D]

Saslite is most probably your best bet for grass. It tends to be a trial and error process. I usually set at least two Saslites to the same surface, one to give the amount of density I want and the other to give some variation.

[Lindopski]

I have found a great tutorial on how to make a fountain in one of my books (lightwave 3D applied) but the book covers v 5.6 of lightwave and I am using version 8
The tutorial is heavily based on something called particlestormlite, but I am not sure where to find it in version 8 , the tutorial is ace , do you guys know where I can find this ParticleStormLite plugin?

[Wonderpup]

I'm pretty sure that a lot of the particle storm stuff is now integrated into lightwave- just remember reading this somwhere.

[peteb]

I'd say the best bet to make landscape quickly is this. Create a big flat grid. Do this by creating a box in one view but not in the others so it remains a flat grid. Then use the arrow keys on the keyboard while still in Box create mode and divide it up a few times, say maybe 8 x 8. Now go to point mode and lasso all the points. Then go to a tool called jitter under Modify tab and Transform. Play around with the setting in the numeric panel as you'll have to set how much you want it to jitter the points, the bigger your grid the bigger the number to see the effect. Once you've done that hit the tab key and you'll a nice smooth effect.

If you're going to use saslite id apply a grass texture to the mesh first to cover any gaps that saslite misses. A lot of people use procedurals and you can get nice results by layering these on top of each other but to be honest I find I get much better and quicker results using photos as ref. For grass take a close up of some grass and then in a paint program make it tillable. Then in Lightwave you can cover all your land with that grass. You can then add procedurals and other photo reference on top to break up the tiled look.

Sorry the last bit is a bit vague, there's lots of tutorials on texturing so you shouldn't have much problem.

Pete B

[Sarford]

If u want ur landscape to extend to the horizon, try using a matte painting instead. A matte painting is a picture in witch ur render fits perfectly. Ofcourse u have to make ur matte painting urself, but some photographs go a long way with that.

[Lindopski]

once again , thank you for the great advice.
Using grass texture then applying Saslite of course doh , it would look miles better than my basic features.
Also the landscape ideas , all brill thanks.
Heck i even got a (admittedly awful) burning flame going the other day lol.
Still cant suss water out but I believe its on of the hardest things to do, maybe ill pass :D