From LW to XSI and back...

[Sarford]

Hi all,

I've got an animation project comming up for wich I need a good, stable and flexible CA system. Character animation I've done sofar with LW (although not much) didn't leave me impressed.

Since popular believe has it that XSI has the best CA tools available, I'm looking into that software too add next to LW. I downloaded the trial and am now learning the software. I'm still very happy with LW and will keep using it as my main 3D tool, I just wanna have a CA system that I feel confident with.

My question is, how do you get stuff to XSI for rigging and animation and then get it back to LW again for rendering? Also, can I use mac-LW and pc-XSI in one pipeline or should it be: mac-LW -> pc-XSI -> pc-LW?
What are the problems and drawbacks of using XSI in conjunction with LW?

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

oh, my PC is a P4, 3GHz, 1Gb ram, is this enough or shouldn't I even bother with this setup?

[ben martin]

This is very simple!

1. Open XSi and load your LWO model (character) using Point-Oven XSi importer.
2. Rig the imported mesh in Xsi.
3. Animate you model.
4. Export the animation using XSi MDD format.

MDD stores all mesh points movements in the 3d space - it works like a time-line constant morph.
The only small problem with this method is that depending on the mesh complexity and animation time the MDD file can become very, very, very big (500Mb to Gb) and it will take some time to be generated.

5. In Lightwave aply the XSi MDD file to the LWO character (No Lightwave RIG needed) and you are done… all the animation done in XSi is now applied to the Lightwave same object mesh (the one imported and rigged in XSi) just like that!

Easy enough?

Take care!

[StereoMike]

how much costs pointoven?

mike

[Sarford]

Thanks for the replies guys.

So if I'm correct, I also need a seat of PointOven on the PC to load LWO files?

Are there any drawbacks using this setup (except from the hassle of using multiple programs)?

[ben martin]

Depending on the XSi version the 6 Essentials and Advanced already provide Point-Oven Integrated on the pack.

About the drawbacks… he…he… if you start to like XSi very much you won’t use Lightwave again (maybe to render only).

[Sarford]

Thanks ben martin.

I'm gonna buy the foundation version (if I like XSI enough). Don't realy need the essential couse LW has most of those functions already and advanced is much too expensive (for my need). It is not very nice that XSI is node locked (the foundation version) but if needed I can easely buy an extra version.
The time learning XSI now is spend mostly on rigging and animation, for modeling and rendering im proficient enough in LW so I don't bother (for now) to learn that in XSI. Using multiple platforms is gonna be a pain, until I can aford a new mac :)

[Sarford]

... xsi foundation also have pointoven includet, you can try the free 30 day trial, it have the full functionality for 30 days, you can test to load anything in xsi :-)

Wow, thanks Pagnozzi, I'm gonna try that out! good find!

[ben martin]

... I dont agree with that, there are some other strong points that speak for lightwave :-)

Of course… and that's why I continue to use Lightwave as my main platform!
The only think only thing I really miss in Lightwave is a good Rig and CA system!

I just was just joking! :D

[ben martin]

Jezz... I'm really writing double... lol