| When NewTek announced the upcoming release of LightWave v9, we immediately began planning a new edition of the Essential book with hopes of releasing it around the time that LightWave v9 shipped. However, we decided early on that racing through the production was not our highest priority. Rather, our goal was to produce the most complete and thorough LightWave book possible. We wanted to create a book that would grow with you, regardless of your skill level, and bring you years of enjoyment. Nearly a year and a half later we finished what we believe to be the most comprehensive LightWave book on the market. You now hold that book in your hands. Welcome to the all-new Essential LightWave v9!
This edition of the Essential book is bigger and better than ever! It’s more than twice as long as the original and a full third larger than its predecessor, numbering almost 1,000 pages. It’s packed with detailed information about LightWave’s new features and contains in-depth information on topics that were only touched on before, such as UVs, character modeling, dynamics, and rigging. We’ve also added new chapters for advanced subjects such as expressions, network rendering, and even a quick look at LScript programming. And if that weren’t enough, we’ve included nearly 14 hours of video training material on the companion DVD to further your understanding of the information presented in the book.
This book is structured according to skill level, making it ideal for use both in a classroom and for self-study. The Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced sections build on one another, allowing you to develop your skills gradually over time. Each chapter is fairly self-contained, however. You don’t have to work through the text in a linear fashion if you don’t want to. If a particular chapter interests you, jump right in. If it requires a certain set of skills in order to complete it, we’ll let you know.
If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed because you’re just starting out with LightWave or are new to 3D in general, don’t worry! The first seven chapters have been specifically designed to ground you in the basics and will give you all the information you need to become a productive user. (Even if you’ve been using the software for a while, the first seven chapters contain a wealth of information that can make you more productive, so don’t skip over them just because they’re in the Basic section!)
We wrote this book for LightWave v9; however, v9.2 was released during production. In order to stay current with the latest version of LightWave, we’re including video tutorials about those new features on the DVD that comes with this book. The DVD also contains all the chapter images (useful for seeing all the detail in the images) as well as necessary LightWave files, textures, and plug-ins. There’s a lot of great stuff on the DVD, so be sure to check it out. |
