1 Tutorials LightWave 3D Creating Environments in LightWave®, using Sasquatch and Skytracer Qua Jan 26, 2011 1:56 am
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by Kurt Larsen, Sybil Media |
Making environments in LightWave 3D® is fun and easy. Since all the tools we need come straight out of the box, you won't need to spend any extra money on 3rd party plug-ins. Let's get started. Download Source Files Here Create the land mass 1. We'll start in Modeler to create our land mass. Using the box tool (Create:Ojects:Box), numerically input these values by hitting "n" on the keyboard after selecting the box tool. 2. After creating this object, hit "Shift+T" on your keyboard. This action "triples" the polygonal mesh allowing us to deform the object easier later on. 3. Choose "Details:Polygons:Surface" on your keyboard and change the surface name to "topgrass" and change the color to a dark green. This will serve as our base color later on when we apply a grass shader. 4. Save your object as "topgrass" in your objects folder Applying Sasquatch and Skytracer 1. Launch Layout, load the scene "grassyfield_start" in the scenes folder. 2. Load the "topgrass" object from "Items:Add:Objects:Load Objects" menu 3. We'll now apply a deformation image map to this object to give the land mass topography. Choose "Items:Image Editor:Load" and load "Fractal.jpg" from the images folder. This is a simple grayscale image LightWave® uses to apply a deformation to an object. 4. Once you've loaded in this image, select your topgrass object and select "Item Properties" 5. Select the "T" next to Displacement Map and that opens up yet another panel. Input all the settings from this screen grab into your panel. 6. Close the panel and you'll notice that your flat plane now has topography. This is an easy way to apply a deformation to an object without actually having to model it. (If you want to keep this deformation as a separate object file, you can "Save As Transformed". 7. We're now ready to apply some grass. Select the "Item Properties" of the ground object and add "SasLite" under the "Add Displacement" dropdown box. 8. Double-click "SasLite" and the Sasquatch Lite options pane should pop up. Make your settings look like the panel below. 9. Hit "F9" for a quick test render. Notice how Sasquatch has taken the geometry and applied a nice smooth grassy texture to it. 10. The grass looks cool, but the scene could use a little more variation to make it interesting. Let's load in some background mountains to add some more depth to the scene. Load in the "backhills"object and put it in this position: 11. Hit "F9" again an let's take another look. I've added fog to the scene so the mountains appear bluer in the background. This is known as Atmospheric Perspective. 12. Now we're ready to add some clouds and atmosphere to the scene using LightWave®'s Skytracer. Under "Scene:Backdrop:Add Environment", add Skytracer 2 from the drop down menu. 13. Double-click Skytracer2 and make your settings look like the ones below. 14. Hit "F9" again an let's take a look. |