The LightWave 6.5/7.0 Project Handbook

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Summary: Most of this information is available elsewhere
Review: As I flipped through the book for the first time, I kept saying to myself "Already know it, already know it...". I've got almost every other LW book that's been published in the last few years. The back of the book says "Beginner to Intermediate".... There are some interesting new ideas, and some stuff I'll certainly use in my own projects, but all of that's about 15% of the whole book. Everything else has already been covered by Dan Ablan, Doug Kelly, et al. If you're an intermediate or expert user of the program, I'd try flipping through this at a bookstore before making the decision to buy, as it spends too much time talking about the basics of the program, most of which is covered in NewTek's manuals (the sort of easy stuff that, like another reviewer stated, is left out of the "intermediate to advanced" books, under the assumption that we already know the workings of the program).

The book does include the Demo version of LightWave 7.0. Since I'm already running the full version 6.5b, I didn't bother to load it, but it may be the early buggy version of the program, before the "b" patch.

However... for someone that's curious about the program, the inclusion of the demo and the books beginner-style writing is nearly perfect. It's like a complete package to check out the program, and I'd highly suggest it to someone that wants to know more about LightWave.

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Summary: Waste of my time and money.
Review: I am a newbie to Lightwave and 3D and I had hoped for this book to ease my transition into this interesting subject. Rather, it caused me grief. There were so many errors that I have to read over and over in order to grasp the faintest idea of what the author seemed to imply. An Advance user may not find the book useful since much of the stuff are geared towards beginners but the number of errors and inconsistencies makes the book a pain for a any beginner. Patrik may know the in and out of Lightwave 3D, but from this book, he failed to get that across. My advice to Patrick - next time you write a book, please spend more time going over it and save unsuspecting victims like me from wasting time and money. As a matter of fact, I'll give the book away for free to the first person who contacts me. This book should never have been sold in the first place.

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Summary: OK at best, many better choices...
Review: I purchased a number of books to get me updated on the latest Lightwave. I guess if I could I would give this one a star and a half, not 1 star, but I really found it to be lacking in a number of ways. The tutorials are clear in some areas, but gloss over other areas. The writing isn't really very good either in that it doesn't explain things in an order which is typical (and better) in other books. I was very disappointed with this book to sum it up. I found a number of others to be much better, especially Ablan's. Thumbs down.

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Summary: Better Books to come!
Review: If you're new or at an intermediate level this isn't the book for you, yes the tutorials are simple and easy to follow and hopefully you learn some thing but my reason for the 2 stars is the tutorials only take you so far...to a point where it leaves you hanging and saying is that it?
Maybe the quote "Always leave 'em want more" is appropriate during a magic show but not when learning 3D. The book does have a section after some of the tutorials that say, "going further." Where this might be viewed as a good thing by most I'd like to have seen this book "Go further" instead of just telling me about it. This book focus is kinda set on just one aspect of lightwave, (yes there are other tutorials for some modeling and animation) and that would be the Surfacing and I guess lighting as well but the lighting is not quite how to light a interior environment or exterior, it's more like back light logos and lens flares.
For the money I had higher hopes for this book, it's nowhere near compete as is.
LightWave Applied has a really large section on surfacing and I'm sure The Inside Lightwave 7 ... will have more info on surfacing than most people can take in one sitting (especially at 1200 pages or about that much)...

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Summary: Offering a wealth of in-depth tutorials
Review: NewTek's LightWave is one of the most powerful, multi-platform 3D applications available today. In The LightWave 6.5/7.0 Project Handbook computer animation expert Patrik Beck presents a comprehensive survey of the features and functionality that make LightWave a tool of choice for special effects professionals in the film and television industry. Offering a wealth of in-depth tutorials, the reader is provided with information on all aspects of LightWave including the creation of text and logos, using cameras and lights, modeling, texturing, surfacing, animation, and much, much more. The individual chapters are self-contained making it an ideal instructional for the novice and a continuingly useful reference text for even the more experienced LightWave user. The highly recommended text is accompanied by a CD-ROM which includes a limited-use Demo of NewTek's LightWave 7.0 for Windows, OS9, and OSX; support files and worked-through examples from the tutorials in the book; as well as sample animations and pictures.

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Summary: I like this book...
Review: So you've purchased Lightwave and are confronted with an endless array of tabs and menus. You have some idea as to what HyperVoxels are, (or maybe not), but certainly don't know how to activate or create them, or know how to assign bones, model simple items and assign surfaces to them, or use lighting to create various effects. If you are looking for a good place to start, I personally found this collection of short projects to be a great way to begin to understand some of the many things that you can do with Lightwave; providing a great launching point to start experimenting from, now having a primary understanding as to how to "get around" in the program. Those with previous experience in Lightwave specifically or other advanced 3D applications in general may not benefit from this book, but I sure did. I spent a fair amount of money for this program and it has been useless to me - until now.
While it doesn't cover any one aspect of Lightwave completely, it does introduce a new user like myself to a wide range of key features of the program. The tutorials are step by step, and once you have finished a lesson you begin to immediately have ideas as to how you can apply them. Reading this book has given me the general understanding I was wanting in order to proceed with more in-depth books such as Lightwave Applied and Inside Lightwave. While some reviewers have accused this book of glossing over some of the details, I have found that the introduction to a wide range of topics and tutorials worth the trade off in detail in any one area. Plus, it was fun.
Oh yeah... and don't buy Modeling in Lightwave by Shamms Mortier; it's the worst computer book ever conceived.

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Summary: Where is Lightwave 7.0?
Review: This book is helpful for beginners (like me). It applies Lightwave to several problems using a wide set of tools with imagination. Sometimes I missed some explanations: why this value for that field, ...

Can't say Lightwave 7.0 manual is the best manual I ever read... I think Dan Ablan's "Inside Lightwave 6.0" it's a better book providing a lot of detailed information, but these are different books covering different areas and projects so you can learn a lot from both.

My biggest complain about this book is that the author did not take a look at Lightwave 7.0 nor reviewed his tutorials, so many of them don't work as expected in release 7.0 (although it is said that enhancements made in the new release are noted in the book, it's not really true). For instance, "additive" blend mode in release 6.5 is now called "normal" in 7.0, standing "additive" for a different blend mode; some window panels have now different parameters... but you won't find a note for that, so read your Lightwave manual carefully. 7.0 it's just marketing...

Nevertheless you can learn a lot from the basic techniques and how to approach different problems. It is a good book to get started with Lightwave.

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Summary: Great 4 begginers
Review: This is "the LW book" for begginers, good xplanations, good illustrations. great to introduce you in the program.

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Summary: Great For Beginners
Review: This is a great book for beginners trying to understand many of the features LW 6.5 has to offer. Many easy tutorials cover subjects like texturing, simple modeling, gradients, graph editor, simple animations etc. Great for logo and texture projects.
This is the book I use to teach an intro to computer graphics class. This book may not be needed for the seasoned LW artist. It doesn't have any character (modeling/ rigging/ animating) techniques.
A good addition to your library if you're a beginner. The other books on Lightwave can come later as your skills improve.

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Summary: A must have for any Lightwaver
Review: This is an excellent book, and very applicable to version 7.5 as well. It consists of many small tutorials and has some excellent solutions to complex problems. The only complaint I can find with this book, and the only thing keeping it from 5 stars, is that the book gets you going on creating an effect, then kind of trails off with some suggestions for improving the effect.

Some of the effect ideas in this book are well worth the price of the book. Mr. Beck's burning paper effect is awesome, and the time to work thru the tutorial and create the effect is very minimal (5-10 minutes). I've worked several of the tutorials in this book and found myself saying "Wow!" quite a few times.