is maya the best cg program?

Well, then I guess I'll stress again how GREAT of a book Dan Ablan's "Inside Lightwave 7" is. Easy read, and very helpful. You can get it from amazon.com for pretty cheap used usually.

Lightwave's animation tools (for movies) are top notch. From spaceflight to character movement, its great and easy to use.

For another example of Lightwave 7 in action, you can look at the CG part of a fight scene I'm making. The link is HERE.

 

<<Softimage | 3D: Best organic animation (the Jurassic Park dinos, most notably)>

And Yoda!

 

For a look of Lightwave in action, watch any episode of Star Trek: Voyager or Star Trek: Enterprise.

I disagree about Dan Ablan's Inside Lightwave series. Although it is an excellent book that thoroughly describes Lightwave's functions. I would not recommend it for beginners. In my opinion, Lightwave Applied is better for beginners. Then, you can move on to Inside Lightwave 7.

 

did they really do yoda in it? bah i'm all exited now and its going to be a big letdown when i find out i'm not going to be able to do it cuz i'll suck at lightwave

 

If you're going to take the plunge and work with lightwave, here's a set of tutorials that should get you up and running if you're working on a space scene. Bunch of tutorials on nebulae, starfields, modelling and texturing ships, etc. You can check it out here: Betterspace


--KuyaPete

P.S. Do a search on google. I've come across hyperspace and warps also done in lightwave before.

 

KuyaPete: The waves in Perfect Storm were done with a propietary program written mainly by John Anderson. But to create the mist and spray, those were done with Maya particles mainly led by Habib Zargarpour and his team.

DorkmanScott: actually most of the time PRman is used, especially for Maya. That's what MTOR id for. They also use Mental Ray and EI, and propietary renderers (like they used for hair and particles).

link64PD and Greves: yes Softimage was used for Yoda among other things, though it was used mostly for primary or skeletal (IK) animation. They still used stuff like Cari for secondary and facial animation, and other propietary tools for stuff like cloth.

 

...and don't forget that softimage.com is meant to be showing how they made the CGI Yoda on their website today. Check out the story on the main theater page...

 

Man...

You know, the first time I saw it I thought "Aww, damn, Yoda looks SO CG..."

But then I watched it again and then again, and thought "Dude, what was I smoking? Yoda looks AWESOME!" He even moves Muppet-like still.

Mad props to ILM. Not that they need props, they can CG anything.

...except boxes.

M. Scott

 

Malducin: I stand corrected. The point I was trying to make was that MEL is very robust and very customizable but also very deep. Anyway, here's an interesting article on how the entire CG was created for Perfect Storm. I thought it was interesting and applicable if anyone were trying to do a water planet scene (ala geonosis (sp?)) and wanted to get a glimpse into what actually goes into making one.

--KuyaPete

 

If you want to see what Lightwave is capable of in the right hands you can watch pretty much anything on prime-time TV.

For some seriously cool space action check out Seasons 2-4 of Babylon 5.

Pete

 

KuyaPete:

yeah, sorry I should have word it better. You are right about how deep MEL is. My actual point was that software companies want you to believe that it was all done in their package. I've read that article and it's a very good one. Just something to keep in mind, like when that article on Yoda comes up just be aware that not all was done in Softimage.