Fx Monkey?

[creach]

Fx Monkey. I find no mention of it in our LW 8.5 docs. I do remember it was a selling feature in VT2, primarily because we're not 3D animators here.

Is it gone? If I resurrect an old VT2 installation, can I move the appropriate files into the latest LW without problems? Which files would they be? And where would they be on the old install...and where would I put them in the new one?

Along those lines, there were also a selection of 3D environments that a person could just drop (I'm over simplifying, here) a logo into and render in the VT2 install. Have I missed the boat, or are they *also* in the current (VT4.6/full LW8.5) install? I know there are a selection of scenes in LW8.5, but, I'm looking for the 'logo-friendly' ones.

Thanks, gang
Dan

[creach]

Okay, kids. Let me be the bad example.

If you're not aware of all the features of your product, you're bound to look like some sorta dork when you post to *any* webboard asking about something that you should have found by yourself. If you were motivated enough to look for it in the first place, that is.

So, my bad. Joke's on me. :bangwall:

...We return you now to your regularly scheduled exchange of important information.

Dan

[inquisitive]

heh you might as well post what you did to answer your own question, so others that may come upon your post at 3am after 4 pots of coffee (not me) and are worrying about the same thing can find resolution

lol

[creach]

Hey, you're right! I was wallowing self-recrimination. But allow me to elucidate.

FX Monkey was touted as a quick way for the non-3D-speaking person to quickly and easily "make 3D logo animations." You find it in Lightwave Layout, under the utilities tab, the click 'additional utilities' on the right/left menu.

Selecting it opens up a palette of options; 1) get logo - only Lightwave 'objects' please. 2) animation duration - including initial hold time, logo fly in, logo hold, logo fly out, and end hold time. 3) pre-made logo movements for fly in, hold, and fly out. 4) background - choose a gradient or load an image. 5) add effects - insert pre-made BG elements like rotating stars or moving lines. 6) set render options - like frame size, etc. 7) apply to the timeline.

Actually rendering requires you to locate and use the 'render scene' option.

For the non-Lightwave fluent, it actually *does* simplify things greatly. However, from the standpoint of a non-Lightwave person, it also gives you a good indication of how onerous a task it could be to fully learn Lightwave. :eek:

I believe that FX Monkey has grown into "3D Arsenal," but that's just a guess.

Now you've got something to read while you make that 5th pot! ;)
Dan

[Tom Wood]

For the non-Lightwave fluent, it actually *does* simplify things greatly. However, from the standpoint of a non-Lightwave person, it also gives you a good indication of how onerous a task it could be to fully learn Lightwave. :eek:

Fortunately you don't really have to fully learn LightWave to do simple logo scenes. What you do have to do is determine which parts of the program can be set aside. Open a LightWave scene without using FXMonkey and switch to perspective view. Then experiment with the other views. Everything in the scene will be visible and you can start to manipulate the items directly rather than depend on filling out a form. Once you have a scene that works, then learn how to replace the logo object with a new one to make a new scene.

Rather than go to the trouble of creating the FXMonkey, or any derivative, I think it would have been better to just make a tab at the top of Layout and Modeler that included the most common tools for logo scenes. Once you grok keyframes the whole process becomes very easy to work with.

[creach]

I think it would have been better to just make a tab at the top of Layout and Modeler that included the most common tools for logo scenes.

I think that would have been a great thing to do.

For me it's not so much the keyframing thing that's numbing, as much as it's the literal creation of potentially *every* element in a scene.

Dan

[toasterhombre]

http://www.newtek.com/3DA/

3DA goes a long way in making logo work as well as video FX easy for even beginners. take a look!