School, Week 1
So with the first week of school done I thought i’d post some thoughts and highlights.
Considering that about half our first week was taken up with orientation and administration nonsense, we actually did a lot. We started out slow learning the basics of 3D axis, followed by learnign to create primitives such as boxes and discs/cylinders. This allowed us to move into how to use the various navigation commands such as pan, rotate, and zoom.
After playing around with the primitives for a bit and getting somewhat comfortable with the interface we moved into our first “model”, which was to make the NewTek logo. In doing this model we learned about using the points tool and the make poly tool to build objects without using primitives. We also learned the pen tool which basiclly combines the two tools into one. We learned about using copy and paste when duplicating geometry and finally we learned about using the disc tool along with the kill poly tool to lay out groups of curved points fo ruse with the make poly tool. We then talked about assigning surfaces inside of modeler. We then took this logo into Lightwave Layout and learned the basics of that tool, along with keyframing and did a small basic animation with the logo spinning and moving up and down. We keyframed both the logo and the camera to follow the logo. We made a four second basic animation.
The second project we did in week one was a lot more complex. First we started out learning how to build an object from animage plane for reference by making a cereal box. Yeah pretty simple I know. We then learned a “tiny bevel trick” to make that box look more real, followed by the basics of planar image mapping to apply a texture to the cereal box. The texture was provided for us. Next things got more complicated. We needed a bowl to put the cereal into, so we learned the lathe tool and built ourselves a cereal bowl. “Now that we have a cereal box and a bowl I guess we need a table to put them on”, our instructor, Tom, said. *groan* :) So we expanded our practice with the lathe tool and made a table for our items, followed by table legs, and then, interestingly enough, a room with baseboard and chari-railing also using the lathe tool. I never would have thought to lathe a darned room! We then took our room and objects into layout and learned about lighting, the 5 types of lights, and the basic 3 point lighting setup which we then practiced for a while. No animations on this one.
Visually it doesn’t look like much, but we really covered a lot so quickly. So far i’m finding it very easy to follow along so that akes me feel good. There are some students in the class who obviously have done a lot of this before as they are off building temples and spaceships and what not, but i’m perfectly happy to just follow along and grow along the way :)
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