3D Artist #32 Online Supplement

3D Artist magazine issue #32 Online Supplement

Issue published May 1998, 40 pages. It shipped on 22 May.
Issue supplement page status

Cover Story The cover image is by John B. Crane of Sandhill Studios. He writes that it vividly illustrates that there are still a few bugs left in LightWave 5.5 for PowerMac; just not the kind you'd expect.
___ These mantids were created with liberal artistic license, working off a real praying mantis for reference (after studying medical illustration in college I've lost my taste for hyper-realism). "Come a little closer," they seem to say, "look how beautiful we are." All the while, junior safely peers from behind daddy's mass, studying its prey. (These two work in pairs, not unlike velociraptors.)
___ Since earlier projects [see "Ant Acid" in 3DA#27], I've been working hard at getting a little more organic and a little less complicated in my work. Even so, papa's head is comprised of 45,000 points. It seems like all one ever hears about is LightWave's MetaNURBS. Now I understand why. This feature is powerful beyond belief [see page 30 and 3DA#31].
___ The critters' heads were created from MetaNURBS and sculpted in Points mode using mostly the Modify/Stretch and Move tools. I worked with both sides of the head showing (as opposed to deleting half and then mirroring) so I could see it all take shape at once. This allowed slightly better control over the final composition, although it was slower.
___ The body also was created with MetaNURBS as different segments, then unioned together. The back shield shown here is what I'm most proud of, even if it doesn't show on the cover. Things like adding a spine (to an arthropod?!) by pulling every other point out in NURBS mode is a snap.
___ The eyes also are MetaNURB'd simple shapes with subtle bends and dips. The chrome surface has a bit of a ripple texture assigned in its bump map. LightWave's Surfacing panel is a truly deep, richly featured texturing tool with limitless potential. Bump maps of decent resolution for cubicly-mapped grooves on the heads were easily handled. Bump strength was set to 5.
___ Posing the critters was done with bones. Papa's head was raytraced for that extra bit of detail and focus, and the rest of the image was Phong rendered. A test raytrace revealed a harshness I found displeasing, and the additional time required discouraged full raytracing, anyway.
___ The final image was manipulated in Adobe Photoshop 4 to add some Gaussian background blurring, and to bring in text rasterized from the actual LightWave scene file.

Papas and babies have been on the mind of this issue's cover artist, who became a proud first-time father in March with the arrival of Matthew John Crane. Papa Crane is a freelance artist and writer based in Santa Fe, N.M. as well a 3D Artist Contributing Editor.
___ See page 11 for info about delving into LW scene file text.

Table of Contents & Supplementary Info

With few exceptions, article text and images are not posted online, only supplemental materials. To obtain the printed magazine itself, please see details and order form for Single Issues. Six dollars U.S. puts this issue into the mail to you directly, anywhere in the world! (Price includes First Class postage in U.S., surface mail elsewhere.)


Architecture
	14	A Week in the Life by John McLoughlin KD Color Lab & Imaging	The progression of a week-long architectural rendering project for a client, done with 3DS Max.

	16	Capital Modeling by Nancy Heinz-Yerka HeinzSight	Solid modeling of ornate columns in TriSpectives. (Can you say, "Corinthian?")

	18	Luma Object by Ben Throop	Simulating radiosity in 3DS Max with a plug-in that causes objects to cast their own light.
Landscape
	4	Snowy Scenes by Igor Borovikov AnimaTek International, Inc.	How to bring on winter, shown with World Builder.

	19	Quick Rapids by Mike Swinford UpLate Design	Getting fast water fast in World Construction Set.

	22	Max Landscapes by Alex Kiriako 3DA Assoc. Editor	Generating landscapes native to 3DS Max using free plug-ins Terrain Material, Mountain, and SuperNoise, plus the free CloudMaker Maxscript. Add Shag: Fur for grass (and dandelion puffs).

	25	Bryce 3D A Second Opinion by William H. Munns	Finding proficiency faster in a world of super-complex 3D apps. [example image] 44K GIF

	26	Bryce Character Animation by Cecilia Ziemer	Taking a walk in the wilderness. See [supplement] for related images, an animation, and a Bryce BR3 character file for download. ___ This article was excerpted from a much larger submission, with more to appear in *3DA*#33, and part of which we have chosen to put online now as the foundation of our new Bryce Page (see "Survival Tips").

	27	Seaside Veranda by William H. Munns	Modeling trees and lattice work in Bryce 3D. [Seaside Veranda] 53K GIF
Escheresque 3D
	20	Ascending & Descending by Yu-Kwok Law	Finding a different viewpoint in 3D Studio (DOS). [screen shot] 63K JPEG [animation] 40K GIF

	20	Escher in VRML by Julian De Puma Basemental	Modeling impossible spaces in Animation Master for display in VRML.

	21	Trexellation by David Greig	2D tessellations in Ray Dream Studio.
More How-To's!
	8	Shag: Fur for Hair by Mike Beals	Yes, Shag: Fur can do hair in 3DS Max. Here's how. [windblown] 100K GIF "slide show"

	10	5 Secret Weapons by Phillip Finch	Discussion about five under-appreciated tools for LightWave 3D: StarFire Collection, Macroform, DAB, Surface Effectors, and your word processor!

	12	Red Rock Bits by Rick Greco Ripix Studios	A roundup of tips for StudioPro, plus one for creating textures in Photoshop.

	24	Compositing Particles by Jon Winchester WindBlown Productions	Particle systems and compositing for trueSpace in an underwater battle scene, shown with the Primal Particles 1.5 plug-in.

	28	Deep Textures by Alex Kiriako 3DA Assoc. Editor	Introduction to Bryce 3D's Deep Texture Editor, both for use within Bryce and for export to other apps. Great for "techno" textures!

	30	Taming The Wave: MetaNURBS by David Hopkins Mach Universe	Defining form using LW MetaNURBS and the Knife tool.

	40	Explosive Compositing by Aaron Shi AniMagicians	Compositing special effects in 3DS Max using Pyromania.
Tricks & Tips
	6	Cover Story by John B. Crane Sandhill Studios	LW MetaNURBS rears a head again. Two heads, in fact. [full text]

	10	Gaffer by Phillip Finch	Supplying a heavy dose of lighting realism in LightWave.

	15	Organica Tips by The Gang at Impulse	A collection of tips from Impulse tech support. (Image shown here is from Gregory Denby's Organica report in *3DA*#31.)
3D Artist Reports
	24	3D Artist Reports by Alex Kiriako & Mike Caputo	Three books and a training plug-in reviewed: The Animation:Master Handbook, Inside LightWave 3D, 3DS Max Organic Modeling Tutorial, and 3D Studio Max 2 Fundamentals (from the cover of which the image here is taken).

	37	Outburst 1.1 by Josh Nelson	An unusual, advanced particle system for 3DS Max.
Departments
38 + pull-out		Advertiser Index	Tell 'em you saw it in 3D Artist! Subscription and cover prices would double without advertising, so let these businesses know that you appreciate their support. Current [Advertiser Index]

35, 37		Business Card Ads	Dealers, training, software, models, textures, and services.

38-39		Classifieds	Employment ads, 3D Swap Meet, and more! Current: [_Job Ads_\|_Classifieds_]

6		Editorial Space	[full text]

6		Errata	Corrections and updates.

6		Masthead	Details about *3D Artist*.

38		Toolbox	Where to get more product info.

Errata & additional info:

p38: "Toolbox" correction:
> Surface Effectors, new URL: http://www.premdesign.com.

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