1 Tutorials LightWave 3D Layout Basics: Logo Animation Qua Jan 26, 2011 2:20 am
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by Gildardo Triana Jr. NewTek Technical Support |
Animated logos show up just about everywhere from Commercials, TV shows, to Movies. They can also be easy to create using LightWave®. For our animation we will load a logo into the layout and have it spin then we will give it a nifty lens flare that will pulse. Part 1 1 - Launch Layout. 2 - Load in a Logo, for this tutorial I will be using the "LightWave®Logo.lwo" file found under the OBJECTS>Logos folder. But this tutorial could be done with any one-piece object file. 3 - To start select the logo and move your keyframe slider to frame 60. 4 - With the logo still selected click on the ROTATE tool under the ITEMS tab. In the lower left corner click in the number field for the Heading and type in a value of 360 and press enter. 5 - Click on the CREATE KEY button , is should be ready to make a keyframe at frame 60 click OK. Now if you press the PLAY arrow in the lower right corner of the interface you will see that we now have a spinning logo that loops. NOTE: Since we keyframed from 0-60 the playback give us a 2 second rotation. 6 - Before we move on lets go ahead and set Logo so that it makes one rotation in 1 sec and holds for 1 second. We already know that we have enough here for two second of play , so all we need is to condense the current motion down to 30 frames. To do this we will use the SCENE EDITOR located under the ITEMS tab. 7 - Within the Scene Editor we have a list of all the items in the scene. Select the logo from the list and then click on SCALE KEYS located near the upper-right corner of the Scene Editor. From the drop-down menu choose SCALE KEY TIME FOR SELECTED ITEMS. 8 - We want to scale all the frames we have so for LOW FRAME enter 0, for HIGH FRAME enter 60. 9 - Now for the field labeled SCALE TIME BY the 1.0 value represents 100%. Since our goal is to bring his down to 30 which is half(50%) the number of frames we currently have we can enter a value here of .5 This will give us a rotation that is complete at frame 30 and then the logo will hold from that point on. Part 2 Now let's add a lensflare that will grow then fade away. 1 - Under the ITEMS tab go to ADD then ADD LIGHT and choose a point light. Call the light Flare. 2 - Leave it at the default position and open the ITEM PROPERTIES panel with the Light selected.. 3 - Activate the LensFlare and open the Lens Flare Options panel. In order to give the animation a little something extra we are going to animate the intensity of the Lens Flare. 4 - To do this click on the E across from FLARE INTENSITY this will launch the Graph Editor and allow you to keyframe the intensity value. (the E represents an envelope which allows us to keyframe functions that otherwise have no variable representation in the interface.) 5 - In the Graph Editor we have some tools located at the lower left corner as indicated below. Of these tools select the CREATE KEY tool ( the little icon of a key with a plus next to it) There should already be one keyframe at 0. You will need to add four more keyframes at frames 20,30,45 and 60. Do not worry about the value or about putting them exact at the frames. We will adjust this in a moment. 6 - Here under the CURVES tab we have a FRAME field this will allow us to adjust the position of a selected keyframe in the graph, below this we have a VALUE field which will allow us to change the intensity of the flare for the frame. You will need to select the frames one by one and adjust the value (and frame position if any of them are off) With the MOVE tool selected in the graph editor, select frame 0 in the graph then click in the VALUE field enter 0 and press "Enter" . 7 - Enter the rest of the values in the same manner: FRAME=20 ,VALUE=45 FRAME=30 , VALUE=100 FRAME=45 , VALUE=275 FRAME=60 , VALUE=0 Once these are entered close this Graph Editor. 8 - With the Lens Flare Option panel still open enable GLOW BEHIND OBJECTS. Then close the panels. Part 3 1 - Now we are ready to create an animation file. Under the CAMERA tab click on Anitaliasing (found near the bottom of the list under ANTIALIASING) and set the value to Low. 2 - Along the left side of the interface near the top there is a button labeled RENDERING click on it from the drop-down select RENDER OPTIONS. Go ahead and turn on Raytrace for Shadows,Reflection,Refraction,and Transparency. Also set the Show Rendering in Progress to OFF, and Render Display to NONE. 3 - Now in the Render Options panel select the tab labeled Output Files. Here we will define what kind of file we are saving and where we will save it to. 4 - Under Output files we will set the type of file. If you are on a PC choose AVI if you are on a MAC chooes MOV from the list. At this point you can also click on the options button just below the type category this will allow you to pick a compression mode. Once this is done click the SAVE ANIMATION check box. This will bring up a requester that will allow your to designate a name for the file and a location to save it to. 5 - Now you are ready to start rendering. To do this either go back under RENDERING and choose RENDER SCENE or press F10 on your keyboard. There ya go, Happy Rendering! Watch the Video or Download Source Files Here |