LightWave 6.5 Magic [With CDROM]

Catchy title eh? I bought this book recently and even though I am new to both the world of 3D art and animation as well as Lightwave, I found it to be an easy/enjoyable read. The tutorials, while simple gave me an excellent grasp of some techniques I can now employ in other ideas which working through the book has spurred. I highly recommend this book to users of Lightwave at any skill level!

There are books, and then there are books. I bought Lightwave 6.5 Magic ready to work and was instead invited to dream. Much to my suprise, in tonality and visually, this book is different fron Dan's last two masterpieces, geared it seems to nurturing imaginative thought along with his dependable how-to education. LW Magic retains Dan's strong sense of command-language encouragement, is packed with valuable information, tutorials, and practical descriptions, but emphasizes associated possibilities, the open-ended projects a spark for the imagination presented in practical concrete form. Visually rich, its physicality is a delight. The actual text is minimalist, highly distilled and effective, the blank spaces eloquent, and the quotes, delightful...it takes backbone to present a philosophic idea so understatedly (that Lightwave is ultimately about imagination) and in Dan's case, real backbone to depart from a best-selling formula, but beyond the truth of how-to lies the greater part of 3D, which is the magic. This book is a key to the universe, everything else is simply construction. Anybody whining about buttons, boy, you've missed the point.

I have to disagree with the negative reviews. This book delivers what it promises. It is a cookbook for some neat effects that goes beyond Inside Lightwave 6. The interface concerns are moot as you can easily switch from L6.5 to L6 to L5.6 interface layouts in L6.5, that is stated clearly in the opening of the book. This book is a launchpad for ideas and exploration, not a ticket to Lightwave mastery. It never claims to be anything else. The example scenes on the book are great for tinkering, they can take you beyond the tutorials if you invest some time.

I finally received my copy of this book just this week. Although I haven't had a chance to really get into the tutorials, I've read it all week on the bus while going into work and only have 2 things really to make points on:(a) Educational! Its great to get insight into plugins and features of Lightwave that I would otherwise never have realised were there unless someone showed me them! A bit of everything, including a nice overview of Expressions!(b) Inspirational! This book really does inspire you to take what each tutorial covers and expand upon it. Each tutorial gives some pointers where to go next, and point out some good ideas how to use the tutorial techniques.After reading the tutorials on Fixed Front Projection Mapping, I wanted to take the next bus home to have a play! The Expressions section got me thinking about how I could automate some of my projects (and make simple ones even better!) and the texture motion being used on the zoom and focus of a camera to get that 'amateur' handycam look were great ideas that sparked the imagination!Great book! Thanks again to all authors! :)

This is a book that presents 21 different lightwave 6.5 techniques to acheive a particular effect or animation. The approach is a snappy, no-nonsense presentation of how to acheive the aim of each chapter - lean and mean presented in a glossy designer page layout.The book will be very comfortable for those with a reasonable grasp of lightwave, less so for those that expect to be led by the hand in drawn out tutorial style (as some people might expect from Dan's other books).The book was in production when Newtek restyled some of the lightwave user interface, some have commented that this invalidates the book. It doesn't. A technique is a technique - if you are put off because a button has moved on a menu, you are wasting your time with lightwave anyway.The 21 techniques vary from texturing effects, animation techniques, explosions and composting - too many to mention individually. It's a snappy shortcut reference to getting a particular job done.If you are a competent hobbyist, then this is a great leg up. If you are paid for your work and can use any of these techniques, you've saved yourself time and money.A great resource at just over $2 a chapter. The author provides great support via the web for all his books.