How do I make 3D water?

[jf3000]

Can someone please point me in the right direction of making 3D water in Lightwave please?

Thank you.

[Darrell Lawrence]

http://www.majesticimaging.com/html/lw_watertut/

[jf3000]

Warrior, there is only one person on this forum that inspires me to strive forward, you're now No. 2. Thank you. Also enjoy using alot of models that you convert etc. Thank you.

[jf3000]

Just out of curosity, where do I get the ShaderHandler plugin please?

[jf3000]

Nevermind, I worked it out.

[Darrell Lawrence]

I've been meaning to try out that tutorial myself.

How's it working out?

[jf3000]

Its not working out, I ran the scene and it doesnt look anything like what they posted on the site, must either have missing plugins, or something else isnt right.....

[evil_genius_180]

Why don't you just do a shiny, semi transparent plane with a wavy bump map over it? That will work unless you're planning to animate said water.

[jf3000]

Its easier said than done, if u look at there preview, it looks awesome, thats what i was aiming for, but when you say what u said above, its like getting me to tell you how to fly and F1-11.

[evil_genius_180]

I don't even use Lightwave, so I didn't even look at the tutorial.

[jf3000]

All good im sure someone will be able to assist. So what is your specialty then Evil One?

[evil_genius_180]

Plots to overthrow governments, torture methodology, weaponry and...

Oh, you meant my 3D specialty!! It's trueSpace. That's all I use for my 3D work.

[Darrell Lawrence]

toySpace users aside, I'll give that tutorial a shot tomorrow after work, which will be around this same time tomorrow

I assume you're using LW 7 or 8?

The tutorial was for LW 5.6 with LW 7+ info at the bottom (namely, the type of HV you're using: HV 2 vs HV 3)

[Darrell Lawrence]

...ummm Ignore the HV comments Got my tutorials on that site mixed up.

[Darrell Lawrence]

...ewwww I see what you mean. That guy must have left a step or two out, cuz even his files don't look the same/as good.

[jf3000]

Yerr I know what u mean. How off topic here, I just rendered some particles, tell me what u think please :

http://www.jf3000.com/boom.avi

Using the Xvid codec as well.

[jf3000]

Been spending a few hours playing, and I have come up with this, I used one of the models from the download area as well, so here goes nothing :



And some choppy water :

[evil_genius_180]

Originally Posted by Warrior

toySpace users aside, I'll give that tutorial a shot tomorrow after work, which will be around this same time tomorrow

It's not the tools that matter, it's how you use them. Besides, if I had a couple grand to spare, while it would be awesome to buy Lightwave, (I wouldn't touch Max with a 20 foot cattle prod) I'd probably pay some bills. :cylon:

Dude, that water looks pretty sweet.

[jf3000]

I hate max as well, too complicated, you either are brought up on it, or your not. Thanks Evil. It doesnt animate, but I guess if your flying over it, then it wouldnt really matter, cos it would look like its moving anyway.

[evil_genius_180]

Plus, according to what I've seen, it seems like Max doesn't have some of the nicer features some of the other programs do and, for some reason, it's a lot more expensive. There are things I can do in the crappy old version of tS that I have that people using Max can't do.

[jf3000]

well there you go, another reason to not buy max. It may be complex and do some nifty things, but for me LW seems to just slide right into my brain and im able to understand little elements of it. You know In modeller, its simple to make a box, you go to Max and try make a simple box, lol, I still dont know how, with modeller in LW, too easy.

[evil_genius_180]

You can't even glue stuff together in Max. So, if you have a complex object, rather than having a scene with one large object that's comprised of 2000 smaller objects, you've just got the 2000 smaller objects to sift through!! No offense to any Max users reading this, but I'm surprised that crap's so popular.

[jf3000]

lol, so how long have you been using ts? Is it hard to use or learn to use?

[evil_genius_180]

I wouldn't say it's hard, but it's tempermental. It's got a crazy way of doing some things. Plus, the UV mapping blows. But, I've been using it for about 5-6 years and I think I've about got it figured out.

[jf3000]

I have been playing with my water again, and getting some shots in, and changing the lighting around etc, and currently working on a very small quick render of a romulan warbird coming down on a little shuttle pod thing, I actually think the bird nearly hits the water, funny as, but only to see if it looks okay, please dont expect anything fancy. Will post the render in about 30mins.

[jf3000]

Lol, this is so funny, please have a look at this and tell me what u think, I know the camera should be slowed down as well, but im still learning.

http://www.jf3000.com/3d/Shuttle_Warbird.avi

[jf3000]

Have taken the next scene, since im no good at making lasers etc, I just played around til something happened, and created the following, shot from the warbird aiming for the shuttle :



Will add render soon.

[Darrell Lawrence]

How's this water look?

[jf3000]

Looks alot different to my water thats for sure, very cool. What did you use to make that with?

[Darrell Lawrence]

This is an old LW 5.6 scene file. I have yet to try it in LW 7. I have a few other water scenes I need to check out too.