VertiLectric

                          Demo Plug-in for LightWave 3D 4.0

Copyright 1995, Blevins Enterprises, Inc.


Installation:

Copy the appropriate plug-in file for your system to your plugins/modeler directory.

     vldemoam.p  (Amiga)
     vldemoax.p  (DEC Alpha based systems)
     vldemopc.p  (Intel based systems)

Start LightWave Modeler 4.0 and choose "Add Plugin" from the "Objects/Custom" pop-up.

Select the plug-in from the file requestor.  In the "Custom" menu, you will find
"VertiLectricDemo" added the the list.  When you quit Modeler, the plug-in will 
be saved in the list for future use.


Instructions:

VertiLectric creates a bolt between two or more points in Modeler.  (The bolt 
is a jagged string of two point polygons.)  To make a bolt create some points,
and run "VertiLectricDemo" from the "Custom" pop-up.  The bolt will pass through
the points in the order selected.

The VertiLectric panel has three options:

     Segment Length:  This is the approximate length of each 2-point segment of 
                      the bolt. Smaller values produce more segments.  Vary this
                      value according to the length between points.

     Twist:  Twist controls how much the bolt varies as it travels from point to
             point.  Smaller values produce straighter bolts.

     Branches:  Enter the number of branches you wish to attach to the bolt here.
                Each sub-branch will have half as many branches as the one before.

                In this demo a maximum of five branches is allowed. The final version 
                will allow branching limited only by the amount of memory in your system 
                and the polygon limits of LightWave.


Fun things to try:

Lightning!

     This one is simple.  Make to points, run VertiLectric, ZAP! Save and render.
     By using more points, you can control the path the lightning takes.

Add sizzle to your logos!

     VertiLectric is not limited to only two points.  Words can be written in electric
script by creating a series of points in the shape of the desired letters and running
the VertiLectric plug-in.
     Tip: When making letters, leave room between points for the bolts to wander.

Morph-em!

     In many cases, bolts created with similar parameters can be morphed in LightWave.
Rapidly morphing between two or more bolts adds energy to your arcs.  The 
plasma-ball and power-box demo animations used this feature to add life to the plasma
arcs as they rotate and the jacob's ladder as it creaps upward.

     In the final version, options as available to insure that bolts are always morphable.  



For more information about VertiLectric:

web site:         http://bei.moscow.com/
e-mail:           dblevins@moscow.com
telephone:        208-885-3805
fax:              208-885-3803
carrier pigeon:   not available