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Lightwave's Screaming Sibling
In some respects, Inspire 3D could be called the software equivalent of a Xerox copy: it's a limited version of the company's high-end 3D modeling and animation package, Lightwave 3D, but with less resolution and a few of the details missing. It inherits all its features from it's parent program, a toolset that has won wide acclaim and broad use in the movie, television and gaming markets. When Inspire 3D was initially released, it contained a few features not included with Lightwave (support for Photoshop plugins and new file formats, for example), but all of these new features have been recently rolled into the most recent update of Lightwave to version 5.6. For those readers familiar with Lightwave, the similarities are astounding -- the program looks and feels almost identical, but retails at under $500. The main differences are physical restrictions on the size of a final rendering (Inspire 3D won't render animations larger than 640x480), the absence of high-end plugins such as Morph Gizmo and Steamer, the elimination of some modeling and rendering tools, and the absence of a dongle. Newtek has taken an ambitious path with the release of Inspire 3D: it's not every company that releases a light version of its standout application. Clearly the company is trying to expand its user base. Because of it's heritage, Inspire 3D carries a lot of baggage. Lightwave, now at version 5.6, has been around for years: the first version of the program was available for the Amiga in 1987. As operating systems have come into and out of favor, Newtek has ported the program to virtually every platform under the sun. While Inspire 3D benefits strongly from this history, it has also carried over many of the program's idiosyncrasies as well as its UNIX-based directory and file structure. Which means that for a relatively new 3D user, using Inspire 3D can be something of a baptism by nitro. Install Hurdles We tested Inspire3D on both platforms, using a Power Mac G3 minitower with 128Mb RAM and a Pentium 166 with 64Mb RAM. The full install consumes over 250Mb but this is partly because the program is provided with over 1,600 royalty-free object scene, and imagemap files. Installation isn't fraught with hurdles but those that occur stem from the program's UNIX-based file structure. The application creates a directory on your chosen volume that, if Inspire 3D is configured properly, will automatically find the appropriate folder for loading motion paths, objects or scenes, for example. All files relating to the program, including shader information, scene files, plugins, imagemaps and so on, are included in this directory together with a folder called "Programs." Within this folder lie the two applications that make up Inspire 3D: they're called Modeler and Layout and though inter-related, each portion of the program is unique and distinct. Each application has its own file extension: .LWO (Lightwave object) files are created by Modeler and .LWS (Lightwave scenes) file are created by Layout. The model, or object files, are binary and can be loaded into other versatile 3D programs, while the scene files are text descriptions that provide Layout with information about which model to place in a scene and how to texture it, as well as information about camera location, lighting and animation. The first step to take when using Inspire 3D is to let the program know where to find and allow access to its components. Installation includes a small program called Inspire Configurator: upon launch this mini app creates files that let the program know where it resides on the hard drive in relation to its component parts. On the Macintosh, these files (one for each portion of the program) reside in the system folder under Preferences, while under Windows, the files reside in the same folder as the application and are given the name "IN.cfg." It's important to know where to find these files: they're text files that you can edit by hand to make sure that the program finds the right path. Once you launch the Layout portion of the program, though, there's another important way to configure this aspect of the application: clicking the "Options" button at the top of the screen brings up a panel where you can set the content directory to the root level folder for the application (Fig 1). This panel also includes options for the view in Layout: you can select wireframe mode or a shaded mode of display (Quickdraw 3D on the Mac and OpenGL on Windows) as well as a number of other parameters, including the number of lights displayed on screen, and the show field chart, which allows you to estimate the broadcast-safe screen area.
Modeler
There are other interface conventions that Inspire 3D doesn't conform to: zooming in and out on an object is achieved with either the buttons under the Display tab, or by hitting the period key (zoom in) or comma key (zoom out). Standard keyboard conventions can generate unusual results. For example, Spacebar-Command (typically used for zooming) can produce strange results since the spacebar toggles between options for selecting by points, polygons or volume. These missing conventions aren't really too difficult to get used to, but do add to the time it takes to become familiar and comfortable with the program. The Objects tab houses all the tools for generating primitive shapes, as well as the drawing tools that allow freeform shapes to be created from scratch. After drawing the shape you want on screen, you'll need to use to "Make" button to create the polygons. Also in this menu are two other button sets, providing access to font and surface naming options, and others that provide access to modeling plugins and ability to send objects to and from the Layout part of the program. A dialog accessed from the Objects tab, Options, allows numeric input for the radial segmentation of each object as it is created, thus providing control over the smoothness of primitives. Also under the Objects tab is a pulldown menu of plugins that add functionality ranging from Illustrator EPS file import to adding more unusual shapes such as tetrahedrons and toruses. Other plugins that reside under the dropdown menu under the Tools tab are useful for more general modeling tasks, including exporting models in .DXF, .3DS or .OBJ formats, reducing polygon or point counts, and otherwise modifying existing geometry. Under the Modify tab reside a series of tools for transforming objects in standard ways, as well as the programs' set of flex tools for manipulating either objects or groups of individual polygons. Modeler also contains a series of more advanced flex tools for dragging and stretching points or polygons in more subtle ways: the magnet and bend tools are particularly useful for warping and changing geometry, as are the shear, twist, taper and bend tools. The tools for extrusions and latheing reside under the Multiply tab, as well as common functions such as mirror, bevel, drag, clone, and Boolean operations. The Tools tab provides access to plugins (as I mentioned earlier), a series of point tools (merge, weld, jitter, smooth and smooth scale), and polygon tools (make, remove, add points, remove points, triple, align, unify and flip normals). While this may seem like a lot of individual tools, invariably Inspire 3D can perform any modeling task in at least two ways, and this adds to the program's flexibility. Once a model has been created and is ready to place in a scene in Layout, the final step is to make sure that all the objects' surfaces have been named. Giving names and colors to surfaces is an important aspect of creating an object in Modeler because all surfacing performed in Layout is based on these names. It's not difficult to achieve this: after making sure that the Polygon selection mode is active, select the Surface button under the Objects tab, change the color of the surface and provide a name for the polygon group. Apart from the full-featured set of modeling tools, there are a number of features to Modeler that push the program beyond merely useful and into the realms of high-end object creation: the first of these would be the use of layers for modeling. Layers are somewhat akin to layers in other programs, meaning that you can model objects in multiple layers. In some instances, for example when performing Boolean operations, you'll need to use layers because the subtraction of one object from another requires them to reside in different layers. Inspire 3D's Modeler has four layers and these can be found in the top right of the screen next to the button that provides access to Layout. The four small green buttons are divided diagonally and the active layer is indicated with a lighter color. Clicking on the top of one of these buttons makes the layer it refers to active, and clicking on the bottom of another layer's button makes that layer visible in the background. In this way, it's possible to add detail to a model without altering the original structure. Once the additional components have been created, sized and positioned the layers can be merged by using the copy and paste commands along the bottom of the screen. MetaNURBs is Newtek's name for their modeling technique when three and four-point polygons are converted into NURBS patch surfaces (Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines). You enter into MetaNURBs mode by hitting the TAB key, whereupon the polygonal object is transformed into a smooth, curved NURBs-based cage. Nearly all of Modelers tools can used be on a MetaNURBs object, including the bevel, magnet and drag tools. By dragging points or by modifying the original polygons (by hitting the TAB key to move out of MetaNURBs mode) it's possible to create organic-looking shapes relatively easily. For this reason, it's a powerful tool for character modeling. MetaNURBs objects can be saved just like
any other object, but they can't be loaded into Layout.
For the rendering portion of the program to recognize the
object it must first be converted into a polygonal object
and this is achieved by using the Freeze command, available
at the bottom of the Tools tab. Once an object has been
frozen, it can't be transformed back into a MetaNURBs object,
so it's often a good idea to save the object before freezing
and then again afterwards with a new name. Alternatively,
it's possible to model in MetaNURBs mode and then after
exiting the mode, smooth the polygonal shape with the Multiply>Subdivide>Metaform
Subdivide command. MetaNURBs are also a good way to model
low- and high-resolution versions of the same object: one
for blocking out shots quickly before replacing it with
the high-resolution version of the object (Figure 3).
Layout: Set the
Stage
The structure of your content directories extremely important for Layout since the .LWS scene files that Inspire 3D generates are text files that contain only information pertinent to the Layout portion of the project and a reference path to the object(s) to be loaded. The one exception to this rule applies to shader information: if after applying a shader to a model, the model isn't saved back out to it's original directory from Layout, the shader information will be lost. The shader information resides with the model and not, as you might expect, within the scene file. Fortunately, it's not terribly difficult to save out all the objects after they've been textured -- there's a dialog box in the Objects panel that allows all objects in a scene to be saved at once. It's important, though to make a habit of this since hours of texturing can be lost. Loading a scene into Layout is achieved by clicking on the File dropdown menu at the top left of the screen for the PC, or by selecting File>Open Scene on the Macintosh. Also in this location is Layout's Scene Editor: this tool provides an overall look at the current scene with a list of all the objects, lights and bones present. At the same time, at the head of the scene editor is another dropdown dialog that provides more extensive viewing options than are available from the Options panel: it's possible to view objects in a scene as bounding boxes, points, partial wireframes, or textured solids. Some of these options are particularly useful for complicated scenes when, for instance, it might be necessary to hide all objects except for one. Layout has a full set of surfacing options and these can either be imagemaps or the program's built-in procedural textures. It's important to have given all of the separate model surfaces memorable names in Modeler before bringing them into Layout ,because these names will refer to sets of polygons to which you assign materials. Surface names can be selected from the Surfaces panel (Fig. 5), and a standard set of image mapping types (planar, cylindrical, spherical, cubic, and front projection) are available from the texture type pulldown menu. Also in this panel also reside the procedural texture types, checkerboard, grid, marble, dots, wood, underwater, and fractal noise. Generating your own custom procedural textures from scratch can be somewhat daunting, but fortunately in the surfaces subdirectory, Newtek has provided an ample amount of textures to use as jumping off points. The panel to the left of the surfaces dialog, titled "Samples" contains a small preview window that allows quick checks of changes. One key feature of Layout's surfacing is its ability to layer multiple textures: after creating first a glass effect, you can then add another texture to simulate a bump characteristic. Once a texture has been fine-tuned to your liking by adjusting the texture size, center, and falloff parameters it's also possible to save them out in their appropriate folder for future use.
Bones and Object
Deformation
The bone that's drawn on-screen is a representation of it's active area of influence: the longer a bone, the greater effect it will have on an object. The fat end is its pivot point. One common mistake is to change a bone's rotation, size and other parameters before assigning it to an object: this will result in an immediate deformation. In Layout, bones do not move polygons, instead they affect points. They therefore deform a single mesh rather than individual polygons and in order for a bone to work, there must be at least two. A quirk of the program is that while characters are often modeled standing upright, bones are created by default on the ground plane, lying on the Z-axis. The best method to create bone structures is to import models flat on their backs in this axis, and then after associating the bones with the object, move everything to a vertical position. The power of both inverse kinematics and null objects add greater possibilities: it's possible to lock down the feet of a character to the ground plane, and then parent the characters' legs to another null object. If the bones hierarchy is set up correctly, you can bend an objects legs by simply moving the position of the second null object. Creating an animation then becomes a matter of moving this null, and creating a keyframe for the new position. Displacement mapping is another way to deform the mesh of an object, and can be animated over time to create moving effects such as waves. The displacement map option lies within the Objects Panel and is activated by clicking on the small button labeled T next to the text name. Images can be used as displacement maps and their greyscale values are extrapolated into height values to determine the extent of the deformation. At the same time by altering the texture velocity the deformation can change over time to create a lifelike animation of, for example, a flag fluttering in the breeze. One practical use for a displacement map is for modeling terrains. Morphing geometries also changes an object's shape over time. When morphing objects in Inspire 3D, the two objects must have exactly the same number of points. Typically, an object will be created in Modeler, then manipulated and saved again. Setting up morphing is implemented through the Objects panel: under the deformations tab lies is a pulldown dialog box that assigns a morph target. One simple use of this feature is to make muscles move. Lights, Animation,
Render Animation is achieved by inserting keyframes: in the bottom left corner of the Layout window reside the numeric input boxes that determine the length of an animation. By default, all scenes start with 60 frames. Key framing is achieved by moving the VCR-like controls in the bottom center of the interface to the appropriate frame, manipulating geometry, the camera or a light, and hitting the Create Key button. At that time, a numeric requester will appear providing options to add a keyframe for the selected object or all items in the scene. The Preview drop-down dialog to the left of the playback can create a smooth-playing preview: unfortunately, the Macintosh version of the program will only generate bounding box or wireframe previews. The PC version, on the other hand, can create openGL-shaded previews. The animation controls within Inspire 3D provide a considerable degree of flexibility, supporting motion graphs (for velocity) and the ability to save motion paths for later use. The main window also provides spline controls for animation movement with variables for tension, continuity, and bias. A full slew of object parenting and camera targeting provide fine control over animations (Fig. 7).
Once an animated scene or a still is ready for output, it's time to use the Camera Panel. From this dialog, options including the level of anitaliasing and image output size are obtainable. As a scene is created, it's best to keep both the image size small and the level of anitaliasing low to sfor quick render previewing. Once a sequence is ready for output, the output size and level of antialiasing can be changed. While Inspire 3D has an extremely fast renderer, it's only necessary to use the enhanced modes of antialiasing for high-res print work. Also available from this panel are Motion Blur and camera zoom factor, where you can adjust the camera's depth-of-field settings. There's some limitations in this panel: the lack of high-end features such as pixel aspect ratio, film size, field rendering and, of course, the size limitations on animations may encourage Inspire 3D users to upgrade to Lightwave 5.6. After determining the size and resolution for output, the next step to producing a final image is to launch the Render panel. This panel lets you select the mode of rendering: wireframe, Goraud, or raytaced. The programs' raytracing options include the ability to select whether to raytrace shadows, reflections and refraction: if you've created a scene that doesn't require these features, turning any of them off will vastly speed up rendering. Selecting "Automatic Frame Advance," and turning off "Show Rendering in Process" are also recommended to minimize the time rendering take to complete. In addition to selecting from a multitude of image file types or Quicktime/AVI animation types, the program also allows users to create an alpha channels sequence. Inspire can render out 3D scenes in the style of 2D cell animations. Surprisingly, this facility isn't available in the camera or rendering panels, but instead is found in the Object panel under the advanced options tab. By selecting the checkboxes for Polygon Edges and Cell Look Edges for each object, this effect can be easily achieved. Compatibility and
Conclusions For users who are curious about how high-end 3D applications function, Inspire 3D is a godsend. For relatively little outlay, you can explore the world of movie-quality digital graphics. For developing animations or images for CD-ROM, print or the Web, Inspire 3D performs excellently. Small 3D design houses can now purchase a couple of copies of Inspire 3D for modeling stations and, since the files are compatible, render out larger animated scenes with Lightwave. Schools, colleges and students will also appreciate this product because it's now possible to learn the bulk of a popular and powerful 3D modeling, animation and rendering package without an exorbitant outlay of funds. It's clear that Newtek is making a grab for a large user base and it wouldn't be that surprising if they saw a large increase after the introduction of this powerful package. Serious users may eventually decide that it's worth taking the next step and upgrading to the full version of Lightwave at some point, even though approximately 80% of the functionality is present in Inspire 3D. If however, you can live with the output limitations on animations, Inspire provides amazing power for your dollar. Chris Manners is the director of design at LimeVoodoo Productions, a San Francisco–based digital design firm. |
