Simply put, I gave Kat the go-ahead to provide my entire animation content series (parts 1-5) for free to SoftImage users who pick up Lightwave. I spent 600 hours of my life producing that content and I do believe it is the very best character animation workflow that Lightwave has to offer concerning motion. It is the result of all of the trade secrets that i've learned from master animators, and addresses many of the problems and issues revolving around character animation in Lightwave in a practical, easy to understand manner. I do realize SoftImage has a lot of advantages over Lightwave, and justly so considering its pricepoint. In fact there are features in SI that I'd love to see make their way into LW over time. What I want to demonstrate in this quick sample video is that the stigma that LW is not a viable character animation tool isn't accurate:kat wrote:Ryan also produced an amazing manual for IKBooster in the fall. I think Ryan is about to post here right now, so I will let him explain more.
More info on the series, and other demo videos are available on the liberty3d.com website.
The focus of the content obviously isn't character modeling and that isn't my specialty nor is it the focus of the series, but I have been animating for decades and i've never felt held back by LW's offerings in terms of achieving character motions quickly and efficiently; utilizing automation controls where necessary to deal with situations where hand-keying isn't efficient (IE: raycasting, constraints, expressions, nodal dynamic motions, etc).
The workflows I describe in that video aren't workarounds or "smoke-n-mirrors" tricks, nor are they workflows that expect the user to sit at their chair until cobwebs start appearing... this is the actual workflow I use and it has existed for almost a decade now in Lightwave... I do regret that what held it back was the fact that it was never properly documented and i've worked very hard to take the mystery out of IKBooster entirely because it is a tool made by an animator, for animators.
I understand that capabilities revolving around deformations are important too, and could very well be something that could make or break someone being able to consider LW for character animation or similar functions. With the introduction of the 3rdpowers toolset, we now have time-based sculpting workflows in layout that can eliminate the need to construct complex facial rigs and other complex deforming entities. The other highlight is MetaMesh which has taken modeler to a new level in terms of options that artists have when creating content:
Finally, I want to bring to attention that LWCAD is often mistaken as being solely a CAD tool. This isn't entirely accurate either, as hinted by a user who was generous enough to demonstrate quickly the major tools that come bundled with it; some of them which replace Lightwave's default tools with ones that provide real-time feedback. (NOTE: LWCAD is currently on sale until March 31st)
Do not underestimate Lightwave, especially as of 11.6 featuring a highly stable and rapid viewport preview renderer. No other commercial 3d software offers the sheer value that Lightwave does for what users pay into it. You get the entire production pipeline, not pieces of it.
