LightWave converter scene information (v3.4) (C) 1996-97 TBL This is what the current version of the LightWave converter supports: * Object and camera motions. * Parent objects. * Object morphing (unlimited number of objects, almost :) First some things what NOT to do: * Don't change the camera zoom factor! (It's ok to set it to a start value and then keep that value) * Don't scale the objects during the animation! As in the camera it's ok to scale the object to a size in the beginning but then it has to keep that size during the whole animation. What motion things can i use?? The following motion values could be changed: * X position * Y position * Z position * Heading rotation * Pitch rotation * Bank rotation (Use morph instead of scaling) Repeatition of movements are allowed. How do i use parent objects??? As normal :) Every child object will follow it's parent. * NOTE! All mothers has to be before it's child in the objectlist. Object morphing: All morphing must be done with evelopes. You can't set the morph- percentage at certain keyframes. It has to be done with an envelope. You can make LightWave morph between more then 2 objects, infact you can morph between as many as you want. (I think!) How to do a morph between more then 2 objects: * First to a normal morph from object 1 to object 2 * Make the third object a child to object 2 i.e Do a parent object to number 2. * Now if you set the morphfactor to 200% it will be at object 3 * If you want 4 objects make the fourth a child to number 3. etc Things to think about (Concerning memory etc). * Always make the movement of objects etc as short as possible, you can repeat them. (every frame for Every objects take 13 bytes. I.e 500 frames for 3 objects = 500*3*13 = 19500 bytes) * When morphing don't use too many targetobjects, or too many frames. (Every frame for every object take 12 bytes. I.e 500 frames when morphing 3 diffrent objects takes 500*3*12 = 18000 bytes + the target objects themselfes). Flares (Lights) The settings for flares doesn't follow LW at all!!! If the flares are rendered in LW it will probably look like shit! The reson why is that i wan't more control over the flare-looks, then i need to use some values that are normally not used the way i use them. Rotation of flares in made by altering the Bank angle (B). Currently 3 kinds of flares are supported: Flare - Flare is like a classic flare with strikes. Blob - A blob is like a round ball of light. Image - Image let's you select a custom flaremap. Imagemapping could be done 2 ways. One way is to create a gray- scale image and let the converter calculate the colours. This allows you to have diffrent colours on every flare but still only need one image (this could be compared to blob and flare). The second method is simple using the flare-image colours. Choose flaretype as following: Light Type: Distant = Flare Point = Blob Spot = Imagemap How to choose between grayscale imagemapping or not. Shadow Type: Off = Use imagepalette for flare RayTrace = Calcualte colours Shadow Map= Calcualte colours All flareimages must: * Be an IFF-ILBM file. * Contain no more then 256 colours. * Be not wider then 256 pixels, or less then 8 pixels. * Have a minimum height of 8. * Be a mutiple of 8 pixels wide. (width=n*8) i.e 64,128,192... Theese settings are valid for Flare,Blobs and greyscale images. Colour: R,G,B Set the flare colour Intensity: Brightness 0=Backdrop,100%=Colour Flare dissolve: Spot size, 0%=Large dot,100%=Small dot Flare intensity: Flare size in meters. 100%=1 meter Theese setting are valid for palettemapped images. Colour: R,G,B Colour change of image. Normal=128,128,128 Intensity: Strength of colour, 0=At R,G,B,100=Normal image