LightWave 3D 7.0: Character Animation [With CDROM]

In response to the anonymous reviewer with the title "Not For Animators" dated Sept 13 2002 - It's painfully obvious that this reviewer did not read the book thoroughly. He asked if he was "missing something" well he/she missed the entire boat.Chapter 3 does start of with "You've got your character all ready to go ..." But the reviewer unjustly took this sentence out of context. The paragraph finishes with " ...Before you can animate him, you've got to set him up. And before you can set him up, you've got to prep him for the setup, and that means planning." Ch. 3 is about pre-bending the limbs of the character to help the IK. It is not about suddenly jumping into animating your completed character that the non-reviewer would lead you to believe. Chapters 3 through 9 go into extensive details about the mechanics of setting up characters in Lightwave 7.x. The first 9 chapters are:Ch. 1 About this BookCh. 2 Inverse Kinematics: It's Strengths and Weaknesses 2.1 IK 2.2 IK's Strengths 2.3 IK's Weaknesses Lightwave-Specific 2.4 IK Setup Basics 2.5 IK RulesCh. 3 Prepping Your Character for Setup 3.1 Where is He Going to Bend? 3.2 Pre-bending to Help IKCh. 4 Boning Your Character 4.1 Adding Bones to Your Character 4.2 Spinal Controls 4.3 Hand Controls 4.4 Foot Controls 4.5 Fingers 4.6 IK System SkelegonsCh. 5 Converting, Organizing, and Aligning (Bones) 5.1 Converting Skelegons to Bones 5.2 Organizing the Schematic into Something Helpful 5.3 Aligning the Spine, Pelvis, and Feet 5.4 Bone Hierarchy 5.5 Recording Pivot Rotations 5.6 Recording Bone Rest InformationCh. 6 Putting IK to Work 6.1 Terminating IK Chains 6.2 Creating Goal Objects 6.3 Activating IK 6.4 Activating Individual Controllers 6.5 Deactivating Individual Manual ControlsCh. 7 Point Weighting 7.1 Point Weighting Basics 7.2 Beginning the Point Weighting Process 7.3 Swapping Models and Testing Weight Mappings 7.4 The Use Weight Map Only Option 7.5 Finding Stray Points 7.6 Straightening the Feet for Animation 7.7 Putting Him Through the Motions 7.8 Tidying UpCh. 8 Using the Controls 8.1 The Model Itself 8.2 Root 8.3 Pelvis 8.4 Spinal Bones 8.5 Head 8.6 Hand Translation Controls 8.7 Hand Rotation Controls 8.8 Shoulder Controls 8.9 Elbow Controls 8.10 Foot Controls 8.11 Toe Controls 8.12 Knee Controls 8.13 The Fingers and Thumb 8.14 Notes on Modifying the SetupThe remaining 10 chapters, except ch. 15, deal with the generic techniques and theory of animation that can be obtained in any non-3d animation book. Ch. 15 briefly goes over the mechanics of digitigrade (quadrupeds,etc...) characters.As a solo free-lance medical illustrator/animator of 10 years, it's very difficult to come across such useful information without taking classes or working in a large studio with other creative types. I have every imaginable training video/dvd/CD, and book written about

Without a doubt an excellent book for a novice, and informational for an expert. Timothy Albee takes you by the hand and guides you through his process of rigging, pointing out pitfalls and alternate routes along the way.Then he delves into various animation exercises to get you in shape!A great addition to any animator's library.

Timothy Albee's new book fills a void in the world of character animation. Although there are lots of books covering the technical aspects of computer animation, this one focuses on the specific task of bringing a character to life by fusing classical knowledge of traditional animation with years of experience in CG animation. This book is for computer animators who are frustrated by the lack of information available on this topic and perhaps can't afford to go to such schools as Cal-Arts or Sheridan.Albee takes you, step by step, from inverse kinematics to creating skeletons through to final skinning so thoroughly that it would be hard to fail if you follow directions. Then, having set-up your model , he introduces you to the time-honored techniques that 2-D animators have been using for decades to breathe life into their characters. What makes this book refreshingly different from others is that it's not written by someone in academia or in software but someone who has worked in the trenches, dealing with the problems that professionals wrestle with every day.For those who want to dive right into animation the CD-ROM includes a fully-rigged character as well as examples of animation.

Instead of trying to write a book covering every possible feature in Lightwave 7, Timothy Albee focuses on setting up a character rig and animating it. He covers setting up your skeleton, point weighting, and how to pose your character for animation. I have found that there is not enough documentation provided by Newtek or it's Lightwave user base on some of the things that Timothy Albee teaches in this book. I found it incredibly helpful and within a few days I was able to get my characters to do things I hadn't been able to figure out in the year I've owned Lightwave. While this book doesn't cover the range of topics that you'll find in Dan Ablan's Inside Lightwave series, it is incredibly helpful if you want to do character animation. Thanks Timothy!

This book fills a big hole in the available Animator's Reference Library in that it breaks down more Advanced Character Rigginginto digestable chunks. Beyond that the Author delves into developing creative "Acting/Directing" practice strategies for the artist, as apposed to cramming additional technical topics. BR>Useful, and Understandable. Can't wait for the sequel