Ghost Warrior 2004 Full CG Film -- Lightwave 3D

[3dhotshot]

In late 2003 I began production on a experimental short film in hopes of proving that technology
had progressed to the point that a small team of dedicated artists could produce an animated film
that could stand on its own in terms of visual quality when compared with other animated films of the day.
I had access to two home computers, one artist (myself), and a $5,000 advance from my book publisher
that I could eek out to survive on for six months. KAZE: GHOST WARRIOR (2004) is the result.

Kaze, Ghost Warrior is an independent, computer animated film featuring anthropomorphic animals as the inhabitants of a distant world.
The 22-minute pilot episode, created entirely by Timothy Albee, is intended to be viewed as both the first episode of a projected series,
and as a Lightwave technology demo. Wikipedia

>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6nvFzosWxk

>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EatcylsjpI

[TheLexx]

Thank you for posting. Albee is a fascinating character for sure. A quick note to avoid name confusion for anyone who is unaware - Emily Amadhia King and Tim Albee are the same person. A quick summary of Albee resources, which drift in and out of availability:-

Book - Essential Lightwave 3D 8: The Fastest Way To Master Lightwave 3D
Book - Lightwave 3D 8 Character Animation
Book - CGI Short Filmmaking: The Creation of Ghost Warrior
DVD - LightWave 9 Foundations of Character Animation
DVD - Kaze, Ghost Warrior

I hope this might kick off any thought about where we are today with character animation in LW, even if to say not much change. The lipsync in Kaze was done using TAFA which was a software collaboration between Tim Albee and Mac Reiter, and the last chunk of Albee's animation book is essentially a manual of how to use it. I hope TAFA 2 appears at some point, otherwise a grovelling email to Mac might (!) get you a sale of TAFA today.

I would just draw attention to the Bannaflak website, where the Face Cap and Face Scan are specifically mentioned as LW compatible.

[3dhotshot]

Thanks for the information regarding this extremely helpful and yes my thoughts exactly on current status of character animation in lw ....

more cool lightwave here >> http://www.ta-animation.com/TAA_Demo_Reel.mp4

[Nicolas Jordan]

I still have a copy of the DVD for this short film. It is a very inspirational short film done in Lightwave 7 I think.

[TheLexx]

Not as well known as Kaze is the very short film Excercise Delta One, made in Lightwave 6.5 by Nigel Hendrickson, which can still be downloaded from Nigel's site (only 14.9MB). The film won the Silver Star award for Best Computer Animation at the 2002 California SUN International Animation Festival. There still exists a Making Of page and the Storyboard.

Okay, by todays standards of aesthetics like Senua in Hellblade with Unreal Engine, some might take a little snipe, but I think it is a tight little masterpiece of sorts.

[gdkeast]

I hope to be using LW in a couple of short films later this year or early in 2020. This is all very inspirational. It's also nice to see the work someone did earlier in their career, then see their later work. You can really appreciate all the work and the evolution of it all.

[macb]

Thanks for sharing Zahir,

I'm a fan of Timothy Albee's work.
Had his book years ago "CGI Filmmaking: The Creation of Ghost Warrior" but seem to have misplaced it,
so just reordered a copy now.

Wish I could take 6 months off and do a short film.