Has anyone seen an online tutorial of how to create a scene consisting of an animated LW object within a Vue landscape environment (like the Dragon example shown in the Vue website gallery)?

I want to learn how to combine the two (environment and animated LW object) for a believable scene.

I don't think there is a way to import animations from Lightwave to Vue. Only Poser animations are possible - and only when you have Mover as addition to Vue. If you have Vue Pro you will be able to export scenes from there to lightwave - and combine things there.

Mmm..much as I thought wabe. Maybe I'll have to use a stand-in object in Vue and then do a composite of the Vue and LW renders in After Effects.

More experimentation needed on my part.

Any other input from users of other 3D packages most welcome.

Message edited on: 07/12/2004 14:43

Is surely an option. To combine the things in After Effects. What input do you want? Maybe you try to describe a little more detailed what you want to do. And even show some stills - sort of storyboard.

Attached Link: http://www.e-onsoftware.com/Products/Ozone2.0/index.php

You might try this as well, since I'm not sure what you want to use from Vue, this is e-on software's atmosphere plug in for Lightwave and Cinema 4d.

T'is. I've tried exporting scenes to LW, compositing scenes (w/Combustion) and intermixing with XFrog trees. I've noticed a few things..
The z-values are differently scaled, i.e. the scale in the z-buffer needs to be manipulated (quite a lot) to match LW's.
Exporting scenes usually works nicely, trees should be avoided unless necessary, but exported terrains look nice in LW.
The synchro plugin that comes with Vue Pro works with cameras and lights. Although I've found it somewhat flaky, it does the job.
I was going to experiment further this week, but the RPF export is acting up...and so is the RLA, it seems. Bleh.

I am also interested in this subject and was going to create another thread. I am wonder if Vue's Synchronization works with Lightwave 8. I am curious if Vue plugin is a converter or a scene ready like the Poserr 4 Pro plugin for Lightwave. I just got Vue last Thursday, so I rather new to it and find its abilities are quite amazing. Combination with Lightwave and Poser objects should be awesome.

I'll be looking into the whole [8]/synchro thing this week and the next. It's a bit annoying that I can't get the RPF export to work properly - perhaps the new beta update will fix it; I'll know for sure later..

It didn't.

did RPF export fail to work or did the synchro not work with LW [8]? What is RPF export by the way?

I was referring to the RPF export, sorry. RPF is a depth-aware raster format which is used for compositing purposes. For instance, if I wanted a Lightwave character to move about in a Vue environment, I'd render the RPF sequences separately and use Combustion or After Effects to composite (blend) the two scenes into one. This is only possible with a depth-aware raster format. Therefore, it's quite a pain when Vue Pro won't export it, as I'm sure you can imagine.

Ok I understand, have you synco on LW [8] and does it work?

I've just tested it, and yeah, it still works. The keyframe editor in Vue is rather flaky (3 crashes in an hour), but at least the synch plugin works. I'm rendering a 120-frame animation in FPrime as I type this. So far no problems, just remember to change the grid size in Lightwave. And if Vue tells you there's a new synch file available and do you want to load it, be careful - it just destroyed my keyframes.

Attached Link: http://www.e-onsoftware.com/Download/Updates/VuePro/SynchroPlugins.zip

The latest synchro plugins...

Thanks, once I get to the point to try this, I will. I have Idea for a scene that I want to try this out on but I waiting on shipment of products from "Dosch Design". Does the sync go both ways.. I can move a scene created first into Vue and then make changes in Lightwave and then sync the changes back into Vue. Also while in Lightwave, I could turn on stuff like Radiosity and such. Stewart.

Okay, I've had a chance to play around...syncing camera and lights from LW to VP works fine, but I've found that you should match the framerate and number of frames first, otherwise strange things can happen. Once the object's motion type is set to 'Synchronized' in VP, which it becomes when synchronizing, it locks the object so you can't mess with it. I also discovered that you can export any object animation as .mot files, which LW imports nicely.

I'm happy to hear that you got Vue to synchronize your lights from Lightwave, as it has not worked for me. I worked for the camera anim, but it did not place the sun position correctly, as you can see from the difference in the pics. Light is coming from the left in LW, from the right in Vue, and the rotaion is different. Also, I cannot stop the sun from following the camera.

any help appreciated,
NJ

Ehh...well, this thread is nearly a year old, and I'm using XSI now. Heh. However, I seem to remember something about the naming having to be the same, e.g. 'Light1' in Vue should have the same name in LW, or the synch won't happen. I also have a dim recollection of having to click-select camera and light in the LW sync dialogue box. If this doesn't help (which it probably doesn't), you should start a new thread - surely others have tried this with V5I. I might try it with XSI, just for kicks..