Calling all Lightwave3D Modelers!

[djlithium]

Hi there in mod/modeling land for SW:BF.

I am looking to gather some support in the form of gamers and modders and modelers alike and try and get a conversion utility for producing models loadable into BFs created in Lightwave 3D.
For those of us who actually WORK in the business - everyone knows that Lightwave has the best modeling tools and efficient poly construction system out there at any price. So I am interested to see if there are more Lightwavers out there that would like to see a tool like this come about and start working on some mods that are dying to be done, but in-line with story from the films, books and games.
Any takers??
Hit my website, email me from there if you are interested or reply to this thread.

I am a working VFX professional here in Vancouver (although this place is about to implode) so I know full well what kind of can of worms I have opened stating that lightwave kicks the snot of out of XSI/Maya for this or that. I get it from all directions all the time but everyone who is anyone in this town has "Maya" on their desktop for when the boss walks by - but has Lightwave running off to the side in order to get their work done on time and on budget. LW3D isn't really known as a gaming tool but I am looking to go through the complete mod process with Lightwave on these ideas that I have to show that it can be done.

I can't wait for full tools. BTW, who on this board knows anything about the audio system in this game and how that might be modded to a great improvement. I find the soundtrack playback engine for trigger on action engagment to be rather lacking. It would be interesting to find out if that could be adjusted.

[djlithium]

Final Polygon budgets for characters once in the game engine. Does anyone have any accurate numbers for budgets?? I am an excellent low poly modeler so I would like to try my hand and revamping or replacing complete characters much like people have be talking about with the Bounty Hunters Class on another thread.

Is there a way to find this information out using the BViewer?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Rends]

djlithium,
you can also post your question at gametoast.com where you can go in discussions with one of the DEVs.

Rends

[italegion]

i am working on a clip wih Lightwave
this a test for laser with 2 TIE and 2 Xwings

prova497_741divx.avi (http://www.angelfire.com/film/3dlab/prova497_741divx.avi)
->save object as
4mb in Divx

but frankly i dont know how to import all this in SWBF

[richcz3]

I'm Lightwave user and have been for many years. I don't know about LW kicking the snot out of XSI. The XSI EXP abilities for Half-Life 2 are pretty solid and impressive.
But LW's poly modeling is probably 2nd to none and I would prefer to work in LW than start anew in XSI. It would be great to know what the poly budgets and other capabilities/limitations are capable in game.

richcz3

[djlithium]

Thanks for your replies guys.
It's good to see some lightwavers come out of the cracks here.

I have also been doing some of my own cutscene/animation revisits as part of the 3D section of my demoreel.

If you want to check it out here is a link for the stills render test section for a WIP to completely redo the final trench battle in SW:ANH while maintaining a "film" look to it...
http://www.djlithium.com/swvfx/index.html

Basically the goal is to take one person, with one machine, 2 software applications (Lightwave 3D and Digital Fusion 4.0) completed on my NewTek VideoToaster4 (no not the amiga version you silly ewok, go here www.videotoaster.com and be stunned) and time the process to completion where I am convinced I can push through a whole sequence of shots like this on a TV time schedule. Of course the render "style" I have choosen for this piece is not really appropriate for today but I like the look so far.

I haven't had much time as of late to work on this so I have stopped the clock but I left off at just under 3 days for the work shown here which is primarly lighting and shot composition work. I am a skilled modeler but I will be damd if I am going to build yet another X-Wing. Many of the models here are from a site called sci-fi3d.com or something of the sort so please check them out or look on the net for links to check out the original model artists. All of the deathstar surface, including the massive assortment of buildings is my work however, along with the DS Canon which I rebuilt from an incredibly poly heavy 3DSMAx model (over 200,000 for a poly count!! WHAT?? I got it down to well under 10,000 while adding detail), the DS large scale globe model (not a major hassle to be built so I put one together quickly) and of course the animation, camera work, compositing and additional post production.

The pupose? Have fun re-creating the battle itself.. kind of why I like battle fronts so much and wish to improve on it.

You can also check out a DIVX test render sequence I did of older renders used to give a rough cut audio session some form.. its completely useless now for final inclusion as all of this material has since been rendered out again for HDTV at 24fps and has had some final tweaks done to each piece to sell the look as a whole. here is the link http://www.djlithium.com/swvfx/SWANH-Redux_divx.avi


Your feed back and comments are appreciated.

[italegion]

impressive work
any tips concerning laser? did u use particles as i did? how could u link an explosion after collision particel/object?
did u use lights for xwing engines or it's just the object color sets? where to find a death star LW model? there is not in scifi3d..
btw i changed the engine color of xwings, it looks too much red i guess than the original

changed lights
http://img141.exs.cx/img141/2626/xwings24il.jpg

reference pic from ep. IV
http://img141.exs.cx/img141/2079/starwarsepisodeiv67vq.jpg