Since the holiday season is just about over and some of you may not have gotten what you really wanted giftwise, this month’s column may help you out. I’ve been surfing quite heavily lately, most nights until about 3 a.m., and it appears that there are even more and more LightWave-related sites out there. In fact, a recent report in a national newspaper stated that by June 1996, there will be 1 million more World Wide Web sites on the Internet. Yikes! You can be sure that a good percentage of those sites will be LightWave-related.
I’ve been spending a lot of time at ftp sites this past month, checking out some of the wonderful, free LightWave objects, images, macros and plug-ins available. I found some really great, useful objects and plug-ins. Though we cannot include them on a LIGHTWAVEPRO companion disk due to copyright laws, we can list the sites for you to surf yourself.
Some time ago, I found a macro for the Amiga called "Bubbles." It was a Modeler macro that generated an upward stream of bubbles, ranging in size from small to large. Once you’ve created some bubbles with this script (now available as a plug-in for PC LightWave), you can move the stream of bubbles in LightWave to give an underwater bubble-traveling-to-the-surface look. You can also use these for bubbles from a bubble maker, etc.
Use the Random Points Distribution macro/plug-in to generate a series of random points.
Modeler ARexx scripts BUBBLES.LWM and ABSOLUTE.LWM are now available for the Intel Windows NT platform thanks to Robert Hood. The BUBBLES.P plug-in (for Modeler) will convert all points in an object to spheres (globe or tessellated) of a radius in a range you specify. You can use the Random Points Distribution plug-in to create the points, and then this plug-in to generate the "bubbles."
Applying the BUBBLES.P plug-in presents a requester where you can specify bubble parameters.
ABSOLUTE.P is a nice additional plug-in that will move an object in the currently selected foreground or foregrounds to an absolute location in vector space. If you used it, you’ll know that the numeric requester in Modeler will only allow you to specify relative offsets from the object’s current location. Both plug-ins can be found by ftp’ing to tomahawk.welch.jhu.edu(/pub/ LW_NT/incoming/arexx) or ftp.netcom.com(/pub/bh/bhood).
These sites contain countless other items--image maps, objects, and sometimes scene files. At the tomahawk.welch site, remember to look up directories above the ARexx directory for other available objects and scenes.
If you have not connected to an ftp site before, here’s how it works: ftp stands for file transfer protocol. I ftp through a program called Chameleon, which provides me with an interface that looks somewhat like DirectoryOpus or PC File Manager. On the left side of this interface are my system directories. By selecting Connect and entering an ftp address such as the one above, plus the correct password, the right side of the screen becomes the directory of the ftp site. Simply find the directories and files you want and select copy. It’s like a universal network, rather than two directories in just your own computer. As far as passwords are concerned, if there is no password listed with the posting of the address, you can assume that it’s an anonymous ftp site. So, when you’re ftp’ing to a site, enter in the word anonymous for your user name, and anonymous (or sometimes your complete e-mail address) for your password.
Instead of ftp, though, you can simply download from a Web site. From your WWW browsing software--Netscape, for example--enter the address http://tomahawk.welch.jhu.edu and follow the pages as instructed. It takes a little longer to download this way, but it’s often easier. You can also ftp from a DOS prompt by typing a command such as ftp ftp.netcom.com.
Something else to look into at the tomahawk site is Power Tips Pro (PTP). PTP evolved from a document featuring what are commonly termed "frequently asked questions" (FAQ) that Dean Scott began compiling in fall 1994 as plain text. The source of its content came from the FidoNet echo, Video Toaster.
After being well-received by several LightWave users seeking answers to common questions on how to more effectively use the animation program, Ronnie Norwood came up with the idea to code Dean’s LWFAQ into the AmigaGuide hypertext format (with Dean’s permission, of course). The two of them became partners to revise and thoroughly edit several times over that first FAQ. A year later, PTP was born, both in AmigaGuide and Windows Help formats. Every byte of PTP in some way or another made its way through the phone lines, traveling back and forth from Dean’s 486DLC/33 IBM-clone PC to Ronnie’s Amiga 4000. From raw screen grabs and unedited source text to processed images and formatted text, PTP came to be entirely via electronic means. What users now have at their disposal is a fully cross-referenced guide of 100 different questions and answers on over two dozen topics for both Modeler and Layout. The information, though mostly concerning LightWave on its native Amiga, is still indispensable for new LightWave ports to the many other platforms. Check it out.
Another great site for free objects is the Avalon site at http://www.viewpoint.com/avalon.html, a link from the ViewPoint Datalabs home page. Some of the models are very nice; others need some cleanup. Not all are LightWave format, though. What you can do is download the 3DS or DXF objects, and change the format to LWO through any program that will do so on the PC, such as PolyForm or Interchange. You can also load 3DS, DXF and Wavefront objects directly into Modeler version 4.0. Or, if you have Amiga LightWave, you can directly import 3DS objects and DXF into Layout.
Moving on to other Internet places, there is one spot that shouldn’t go unmentioned: Disney’s Toy Story site at www.toystory.com. Although not directly related to LightWave, this is revolutionary filmmaking that any LightWaver should pay attention to. (Note: Keep an eye on upcoming issues of LIGHTWAVEPRO for a tutorial on creating your very own animated toy!)
On to the LightWave mailing lists and newsgroups for the month. I’m seeing that many of you are very hungry for additional LightWave training, information and examples of other animators’ work. If you keep looking, you’ll find that many LightWave users are opening WWW sites.
It’s always a good idea to keep bookmarks of LightWave user sites, as they can often link you to other cool 3D sites, objects, images, scene files, and plug-ins. Much of the talk this month on the mailing lists was about animating a character in LightWave, which was partly sparked by the release of Toy Story, and the Blue M&M commercials (look for the article in January 1996’s VTU), created using LightWave. Keep your eyes on LIGHTWAVEPRO for more on character animation techniques.
As I mentioned in the last column, it’s great to see so many of you back on track and posting your LightWave questions, tips, tricks and comments, rather than complaints about software and systems. Once again, the address for the LightWave list has changed locations. To subscribe, send an e-mail to listserve@garcia.com and indicate "subscribe LightWave." Don’t forget to include your return e-mail address.
I’ve had numerous people ask me about surfing the net with their Amiga at the recent Avid training seminars, and through phone conversations and meetings. Granted, most WWW services center around the PC, but there is hope for the Amiga users. I-Net 225 is a professional, SANA-II compliant, TCP/IP networking software package for the Amiga. TCP/IP is an internationally accepted network protocol that exists on virtually all computer platforms, giving different systems a common means by which to exchange data. Finally the Amiga can communicate with everyone else (i.e., Mac, PC, SGI and Windows NT)!
Utilities that were written for AS225R2 should be fully compatible with I-Net 225. There are quite a number of these utilities available on BBSs and ftp sites around the world. I-Net 225 comes with a full host of clients and servers, allowing the Amiga to not only connect with remote hosts, but also to host other systems on the network. I-Net 225 is SANA-II compliant, allowing it to operate concurrently with any other SANA-II compliant networking package, like ENLAN-DFS. For more information, contact:
Interworks Professional Network Solutions
43191 Camino Casillas
Temecula, CA 92592-3714
Phone: (909) 699-8120
Fax: (909) 699-8279
I can’t vouch for the software at this time, though I’ve read a few positive comments about it. Even though I use my Amiga every day, I don’t use if for e-mail or Internet services, not because it’s not good for such things, but because I have my PC already linked with full color.
If you do get connected with your Amiga, you’ll soon find out what all the talk is about. Between E-mail lists, newsgroups and cool WWW sites, I probably spend close to two hours a day on-line. It’s almost as bad as being in Vegas. Remember to e-mail me with your web sites, questions and comments. This column is for you, so keep in touch.
And, as always, a few cool sites to link into when you get a chance:
http://zebu.uoregon.edu/galaxy.html
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/95fact/index.html
http://www.acs.ryerson.ca/~aonsen/
http://www.electriciti.com/~dwhite/
Dan Ablan is president of AGA Digital Studios in Chicago, Ill., using LightWave for animation and Internet graphics. Reach him at dma@mcs.com. Also, check out his latest web page at http://www.mcs.com/~dma/home.html.