applying surface editor in modeler

[Gregory Eckrich]

Good afternoon!
Newbie to Lightwave 6.0 and animation/modeling in general.
I have created a vessel and identified a number of surfaces in modeler; however, after opening SURFACE EDITOR and defining a surface treatment for each surface, no change appears on the screen. Each surface treatment does show up in the SURFACE EDITOR's preview box.
--What have I missed (or is it messed)?
:rolleyes:
Thanks!
Greg. Eckrich

[korn_kid]

make sure u have TEXTURE selected in one of your views.

[colkai]

Assuming of course he is talking about image map texturing.
The openGL preview in Modeller will not handle procedural texture display.
For full surfacing, you really need to go into Layout and activate viper. Though this has its limits, such as transparency, reflection and refraction. Even so, it knocks a lot of time off the surfacing of an item.

[Gregory Eckrich]

Good morning gentlemen!
Thank you for your responses.
I turned on texture in my perspective viewport--what a difference a day makes, not to mention a little knowledge!! Some of the textures were present
Also, figured out how to drag the object and surfaces into Layout.
So, we will proceed from here.
Question: have either of you attended any training classes for Lightwave? If so, what and where?
Thanks again,
Greg. Eckrich

[colkai]

Not me,
Only training I get is either from tutorials on th eweb, or in magazines.

The rest, like pretty much everything I do, I pick up as I go along. Not the fastest way to learn, but rewarding when you advance for sure! ;)

[John Fornasar]

I plugged around with LW4, using the manuals, tutorials, magazines, etc. Learned a lot.

However, try to get yourself to a user meeting (check out the User Group Forum below), or watch someone else work - even for a short while, or catch the LW Tour seminar. Besides picking up tons of tricks, I got a tremendous boost in speed using the tools and the LW interface.

[korn_kid]

I took a LightWave class here in California at a nearby community college.
I learn a lot, and the best part is that it ONLY cost me $33 U.S dollars.

[Gregory Eckrich]

Good scoop, gentlemen. I will investigate both.
Thanks much.
Greg.

[Philbert]

I actually just graduated from a school where I learned lightwave 5 hours a day, 5 days a week for a year. We also touched on some After Effects and a couple other programs, but mostly Lightwave

[Adrian@Stufish]

I'm not sure whether that last reply was sad or worrying.
-being of the 'when all else fails read the instructions' school myself, the thought of being 'taught' LW for THAT many hours is just a little wierd.:confused:

[Gregory Eckrich]

Adrian. if you check out daveschool.com (org?) in Orlando, FL I believe you will see how one could indeed want to follow such a path. It would appear to be a true "fast track" to animation success. Be sure to read the LETTER--it explains the motivation behind this school.

All this presupposes that animation excellence is your goal or at least your direction.
Best regards,
Greg.

[Adrian@Stufish]

I'm sure that for kids with access to finance that route is very attractive in many senses. But for most of us oldies, well into our careers, but not into our pension funds, a year out for training is not exactly an option - the odd weekend course evening class is the most we can aspire to. And awareness of the rate of change in software, hardware and client expectation makes one feel that spending a year learning a single product requires awesome faith in it's future development.

[Gregory Eckrich]

Good morning again Adrian.
Your point is well taken. Given our apparent similar age, well understood. As earlier stated, it becomes a function of one's goals or at least of one's direction, does it not?
Best regards,
Greg.

[Philbert]

Actually almost all of my classmates at DAVE were older than me and I'm 26. One was about 50 (I'm guessing). As for financing I had to take out yet another student loan and that didn't cover the entire tuition, so I was lucky that my dad could afford to help me out, but just barely. I'd been to animation and art schools and played with 3D before, so I had a litttle advantage. But the big 3D progs were completely over my head until I started there.

[Wade]

Read the manuel - get a few books - work all the tutorals on this site, and there a bunch. When you get stuck you have come to the right place this forum is greatt.. The Lightwave traveling 2 day traing is good stuff. When its back in houston in a few months I think I will be there allways learn enough to make it worth while. Although I use lightwave almost everyday ( for two plus years) there are so parts yet a mystery to me.

[Philbert]

Well it's also not just learning to use lightwave, or other programs, but also animation techniques, things like weight and the 12 principals of animation (invented by Disney Co.) Not to mention everything I learned from the other students. At the time I didn't know anything about the major 3D progs, or where to go on the web. Now my class, since we graduated, have set up a network. We share tips with eachother, ask questions, if we see a site with good job listings we share it.

I went to Siggraph with the school this past august and found out many things about making a good demo reel that you'd never find on the web. I even had lunch with a guy from ILM who was a friend of a teacher.

I also would not have been able to afford Lightwave without going to the school as they had a deal worked out with Newtek and got us an incredible discount ($300)