NewTek’s Lightwave is one of the most powerful, multi-platform, 3D modeling, animation, and digital effects programs available. Its powerful effects can be seen in movies like Titanic, Men in Black, and The Fifth Element, and with each new release, the program becomes faster and more powerful. To harness this power, animators need guidance and practice that allows them to investigate new features and functionality while working on real projects. The Lightwave 6.5 Project Handbook is written to provide this practice through real-world examples and in-depth tutorials. The book contains over 50 tutorials designed to give both new and experienced users a solid foundation in the basic animation tools as well as the more advanced special effects functions. All of the modeling, texturing, and lighting procedures are also thoroughly covered through practical applications. The unique structure of this book allows users to jump around from topic to topic as they need, or from beginning to end.

The LightWave 6.5/7.0 Project Handbook deftly explores LightWave’s rich features while still being approachable enough for beginners. Complete with a CD-ROM that includes demo versions of the program as well as the data files needed for each chapter, this book is well suited for the new LightWave user willing to sit down and learn the program.

Ten chapters detail the application, from the fundamentals of creating objects and animation to the deeper features of particle systems, texture mapping, and rendering. Although there are no color pictures, each chapter is richly illustrated and the screen shots used in the book are included in color on the CD-ROM. Final renderings of each project are also included.

The author writes clearly, laying out the purpose of each chapter in the first few paragraphs, followed by a step-by-step tutorial towards the final goal. Each tutorial ends with a closing discussion and suggestions for going further with the techniques just covered. Early chapters cover the creation of text and basic shapes, models, and the use of particle systems. The latter half of the book covers texturing and rendering, and creating sophisticated images ready for broadcast.

A veteran of the 3-D animation world, LightWave dates back to the early days when the Amiga ruled and a 16 MHz computer (yes, 16) was considered fast. Now up to version 7, LightWave has been widely used in both television and feature films and boasts a worldwide user base. Contemporary computer graphics artists owe a great deal to LightWave, and new users climbing the LightWave learning curve can’t go wrong with The LightWave 6.5/7.0 Project Handbook. --Mike Caputo

Harness the power of NewTek’s LightWave, one of the most powerful, multi-platform 3D applications available.

With The LightWave 6.5/7.0 Project Handbook, you’ll explore the best array of features and functionality that make LightWave a tool of choice for the television and film industries. Using a variety of real-world examples and in-depth tutorials, you’ll gain all the hands-on practice needed to understand this feature-packed application. From creating objects in the Modeler to setting up scenes in Layout, both new and experienced users will understand the enhancements found in versions 6.5 and 7.0.

The book is packed with information on everything from creating text, logos, and using cameras and lights, to modeling, texturing, surfacing, animation, and more. Self-contained chapters give the book a flexible structure that allows newer users to progress from start to finish, and more experienced users to jump from topic to topic. So whether you are just getting started with LightWave, or are upgrading to the newest release, you’ll find a wealth of practical techniques and ideas to move you a step ahead in your creation.

Key Features: - Covers versions 6.0, 6.5, and 7.0 - Includes in-depth coverage of the new surface texturing techniques - Details rendering techniques ranging from photorealistic to hand-drawn cartoons - Provides practical uses for weightmaps, morph mixing, and subdivision surfaces - Includes worked-through examples using particle animations and hypervoxels - Covers many frequently asked questions, including how to create raindrop ripples and lightning bolts - Includes a variety of hands-on tutorials written in n easy-to-read, conversational style - Provides in depth examples of popular animation tasks

A must have for any Lightwaver

This is an excellent book, and very applicable to version 7.5 as well. It consists of many small tutorials and has some excellent solutions to complex problems. The only complaint I can find with this book, and the only thing keeping it from 5 stars, is that the book gets you going on creating an effect, then kind of trails off with some suggestions for improving the effect.

Some of the effect ideas in this book are well worth the price of the book. Mr. Beck’s burning paper effect is awesome, and the time to work thru the tutorial and create the effect is very minimal (5-10 minutes). I’ve worked several of the tutorials in this book and found myself saying "Wow!" quite a few times.

I like this book...

So you’ve purchased Lightwave and are confronted with an endless array of tabs and menus. You have some idea as to what HyperVoxels are, (or maybe not), but certainly don’t know how to activate or create them, or know how to assign bones, model simple items and assign surfaces to them, or use lighting to create various effects. If you are looking for a good place to start, I personally found this collection of short projects to be a great way to begin to understand some of the many things that you can do with Lightwave; providing a great launching point to start experimenting from, now having a primary understanding as to how to "get around" in the program. Those with previous experience in Lightwave specifically or other advanced 3D applications in general may not benefit from this book, but I sure did. I spent a fair amount of money for this program and it has been useless to me - until now.
While it doesn’t cover any one aspect of Lightwave completely, it does introduce a new user like myself to a wide range of key features of the program. The tutorials are step by step, and once you have finished a lesson you begin to immediately have ideas as to how you can apply them. Reading this book has given me the general understanding I was wanting in order to proceed with more in-depth books such as Lightwave Applied and Inside Lightwave. While some reviewers have accused this book of glossing over some of the details, I have found that the introduction to a wide range of topics and tutorials worth the trade off in detail in any one area. Plus, it was fun.
Oh yeah... and don’t buy Modeling in Lightwave by Shamms Mortier; it’s the worst computer book ever conceived.

Waste of my time and money.

I am a newbie to Lightwave and 3D and I had hoped for this book to ease my transition into this interesting subject. Rather, it caused me grief. There were so many errors that I have to read over and over in order to grasp the faintest idea of what the author seemed to imply. An Advance user may not find the book useful since much of the stuff are geared towards beginners but the number of errors and inconsistencies makes the book a pain for a any beginner. Patrik may know the in and out of Lightwave 3D, but from this book, he failed to get that across. My advice to Patrick - next time you write a book, please spend more time going over it and save unsuspecting victims like me from wasting time and money. As a matter of fact, I’ll give the book away for free to the first person who contacts me. This book should never have been sold in the first place.

OK at best, many better choices...

I purchased a number of books to get me updated on the latest Lightwave. I guess if I could I would give this one a star and a half, not 1 star, but I really found it to be lacking in a number of ways. The tutorials are clear in some areas, but gloss over other areas. The writing isn’t really very good either in that it doesn’t explain things in an order which is typical (and better) in other books. I was very disappointed with this book to sum it up. I found a number of others to be much better, especially Ablan’s. Thumbs down.

Offering a wealth of in-depth tutorials

NewTek’s LightWave is one of the most powerful, multi-platform 3D applications available today. In The LightWave 6.5/7.0 Project Handbook computer animation expert Patrik Beck presents a comprehensive survey of the features and functionality that make LightWave a tool of choice for special effects professionals in the film and television industry. Offering a wealth of in-depth tutorials, the reader is provided with information on all aspects of LightWave including the creation of text and logos, using cameras and lights, modeling, texturing, surfacing, animation, and much, much more. The individual chapters are self-contained making it an ideal instructional for the novice and a continuingly useful reference text for even the more experienced LightWave user. The highly recommended text is accompanied by a CD-ROM which includes a limited-use Demo of NewTek’s LightWave 7.0 for Windows, OS9, and OSX; support files and worked-through examples from the tutorials in the book; as well as sample animations and pictures.