I did back when eggprops was alive.
I think you have to think of this as a way of using AM WITH lightwave. Not as a way of getting your AM work into lightwave. Your model needs to look good and work in Lightwave and THEN is imported into AM to be animated. I haven’t seen the process work and I don’t really have time to test it right now. :-/
what became of that video, wegg?
I tried buying it a couple times to see if it would give me any insight into getting AM models into LW or Cinema, but I could never get your site to take my darn money.
Its just sitting in my backup raid thinger I set up. One of these days. . . I’ll revive eggprops in a form that doesn’t require constant attention and frustration to the people trying to buy stuff.
Wegg it would be cool to have that video out again. Id throw my money at you!
Because I think AM is great but when martin says that the render might not get any attention that scares me. LW is a great app to and if AM does stand still with the render then there is LW. But it would be cool to use both. Do backgrounds and that stuff in LW and all the character stuff in AM.
Hi
My AM2LW pipeline goes step by step but I’m still working on it.
Maybe just model humans in AM since its easier then use Wings3d to get that model into LW. Animation can be done with messiah I guess.Forgot didnt Wegg have a video that showed how to get AM stuff to LW?
Hi Wycoff3d. This is indeed a great way to work. The pipeline I’m working on does not only do that. Making characters in AM is easier for you, OK. But you will be able to export the mesh into LW in a polygon format. The final LW render will be faceted and bad.
You can obviously subdivide the mesh done in AM, either in AM by exporting in 4,16 or adapatative patches subdivision when export file dialog opens, either by subdividing the 1 polygon per patches AM’s exported file in LW (SHFT+D). Both ways give a high polygon mesh, better rendered but that is still difficult to animate (unless usind a proxy that needs more work again…) and that remains polygonal…
The second problem is a bug in AM when exporting models done in it. Sometimes, the exporitng process eat polygons … And this phenomenom occurs with ALL exporters I’ve tested. It will then be necessary to have a few touch ups in the polygonal software (LW or Cinema4D…) to correct the polygons (there are not many corrections to do but one again, it needs time, and I personnally consider this as wasted time - the user would not have to correct by hands bugs softwares). :banghead: For a single mesh done in AM that you would want to export to a polygon program, I know just one solution (does someone have another ?) : import your finished model in .mdl native format into Hamapatch and the use its exporters : no more polygon eaten ! 
All these reasons drive me to this way of thinking the AM2LW pipeline (other ideas are welcome ) : on the first hand, AM uses patches… on the other hand, LW uses subpatches.
Summary :
Best regards
Alain
My opinion
Case 4 Model in AM animate in AM
if possible export camera data to other applicatuion (Lw,e-Vue ,…)
Then Compose in Aftereffect,or shake …
i like case 2 …too but how hard to rig system for both (LW&AM)
Lee
i like case 2 …too but how hard to rig system for both (LW&AM)
Yes, I agree,Lee. Too hard to rig both… and furthermore, that’s wasted time (why re-doing something already made ? !!) . But in Case2, LW is just used as a mesh generator. The full setup need to be made in AM.
Alain
You know after reading all these posts I think its just way to much work for this AMtoLW pipeline. Its crazy to model in AM then bring it to hammpatch just to get the model in LW? I dont think its going to look all that great by the way. Or even using Wings. Until you can bring the bvh file from AM to LW easier the best thing is either stay in AM or stay in LW. All this work to move one to another will be like all the time wasted in just one app to do the work. Like its going to take 5 hours to go from AM to LW. But in that 5 hours you can just stay in one app and save headaches. Then you have to worry about post and to many things. I hope your plug in can do this! Maybe just use LW or AM. The fun is choosing which one.:twisted:
Like its going to take 5 hours to go from AM to LW
I agree with you.
The AM2LW pipeline must take under 5 minutes to run (from AM closing to LW opening). I keep that in mind.
Thanks to share opininon.
Regards,
Alain
It would take only 5 minutes if your model is already working in Lightwave. This isn’t an A:M -> Lightwave path. . . this is a replacement of Lightwave’s animation tools using Lightwave models and rendering in lightwave.
I can’t wait to try it out. . .
Let me try to get it better. I can model in LW bring that into AM and animate that - after that bring it back to LW to render? I guess AM would replace LW and messiah for animating right? But cant you export a model from AM into LW for rendering to? Its just a whole lot harder because of the exporting. But if I can model in LW then bribng into AM just to animate then use that bvh file back to LW! That would be great. I thought you still had to modell in AM and animate that model - after you finish both of that then you bring it all into LW. Hope I have that now. I wonder if Martin gets why so many people want to do this. It just makes sense. Especially if you have to work with other studios like you do Wegg. But I hope Martin doesnt give up on improving AMs render. I think it kicks @ss but it can always get better!
Thanks all!
Model in AM or Maya or Wings or Silo or hand code the damn thing. Doesn’t matter where you model. You just have to get it working right in Lightwave’s layout. That includes fixing up any holes, getting normals facing the right way, applying your textures/uvs etc. That isn’t a 5 minute process. But once it is done. . . you can hop back into AM and use it for what it is great at. Then save out this .lwo sequence. . . convert that to an .mdd and your motion is perfectly converted over to Lightwave. In theory.
There will never ever be a method for working in AM and rendering in Lightwave. Hash Patches and Sub-Patches don’t work the same. There are no 5 point sub-patches. There are no hooks either. You can’t just throw on decals anywhere on your model across multiple groups. Lightwave is about as sophisticated as AM was back in version 2 if your just looking at the technology on paper. The implementation of the renderer, it’s plugins and predictability are what makes it a viable option. You just have to bite the bullet and accept the crap with the good.
Damn these C2 cokes on an empty stomach make me talkative. . .
[QUOTE=DrRIEGER]
Case 2:
Model natively made in LW.
Model impoted in AM.
Model animated in AM.
Animation exported to LW.
Animation rendered in LW in subpatches.
I like that one best but what about Messiah…?
We can do exactly that with Messiah so my question ( I’ve never tried Messiah )
Is Animation Master much better than Messiah…?
Cheers
For ease of rigging and an amazing animation workflow (Actions, Relationship poses, coordinate sytem etc. . .) AM wins hands down. For stability, responsiveness in animating lots of very complex models in your scene. . . armatures. . . Messiah wins. Very very hard call. I do love Messiah’s new renderer. . . but this new AM exporter wouldn’t stop me from using it. So. . . ALL THREE! Or kill LW all together and go Modo. Or just quit dreaming and stick to AM ya silly buggers. I’m driving us off topic again.
I just saved out a model from LW Modeler. . . imported it into AM. . . made some changes and exported it back out without a hitch. Holy living crap. . . I’m in heaven. That bugger’s plugin accounts for the scale difference. . .
Man.
Wouldn’t it be cool if it was smart enough to include morphs. I’m much more comfortable in AM with the lattace deformation than I am in LW for making those suckers.
Hey Wegg can we see the model? Which plug in did you use? DrRIEGER or another one. I just checked out Modo. Wow thats a nice app. I can see why so many people are jumping away from LW and on with Modo. Weird now we have Modo and Silo3d. I still thinkjust sticking with AM is great but if you dont we have alot of options!
When you do a lot of contract work. . . you con’t really show squat. You can just talk about it. Sorry.
I used the lightwave import export plugin for AM only. No the .mdd converter. I’m not animating anything at the moment.
I hope we can see it when you can. Its your work that got me to go with AM and got me looking at LW now. For you to use LW means something cant be that bad. I like LW because it plays nice with the other big boys and has a lot of cool plug ins to make LW better. AM has got me scared because reading Martins post about leaving the render static is weird to me. And LW can do cool fx like hypervoxels that might make LW a better tool for the one man shop? Like LW has more out of the box. Who knows anymore.:twisted:
I don’t think there is a better 3D animation tool out there for a one man shop than Animation Master. I really don’t know how to use all of Lightwave. Nore do I really WANT to learn. It’s workflow for most things is horrible. I never ever once applied a bone to a mesh. The idea of doing that in a seperate program (modeler) drove me to Messiah right away. Lightwave’s renderer has not changed one lick in 5 or 6 years. Think about that. . . I don’t know how all the materials work because Darktree allowed me to skip having to learn it. I don’t model in Lightwave because you can’t even select and edge. Madness!
So lets add it up.
A:M = $300 ($600 for the network version I think)
OR. . . to get roughly the same featureset and quality. . .
Lightwave = $1600 (Rendering)
Messiah = $1200 (Animating)
Modo = $700 (Modeling)
Darktree = $400 (Texturing)
Sasquatch = $500 (Fur)
FPrime = $400 (Render Lock)
G2 = $500 (Advanced surface control)
Butterfly Net Render = $700 (Network Rendering with unlimited clients)
You see where this is going? And trust me. . . getting all this crap to work together is a major pain in the ass. These are studio tools. Not one man band tools.