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19. Convert LightWave Object to 3D Studio Max Mesh |
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THE TOWER OF BABEL In a perfect world, you would export a LWO LightWave Object as a 3DS 3D Studio Max mesh, and no matter what that LightWave object might be the 3DS mesh in 3D Studio Max would render exactly as the LWO did when it was back in LightWave. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, heh... heh... (clears throat) Uh, excuse me. I had to laugh there. WHY DO I NEED TO CONVERT LWO INTO 3DS, ANYWAY? Well, because LightWave has a better modeler interface, for one. Second, it is easier to do many things in LightWave than it is to do the same thing in 3D Studio Max. However, 3D Studio Max has lots of plug-ins available. Sometimes plug-ins that are impossible to find with LightWave 3D. And, third, 3D Studio Max is oftentimes the program you work at when at work, and LightWave when you return home (because LightWave is the FUN one to use whereas 3D Studio Max caught on in the game industry, and then spread like a grease fire to other places. In this PARTICULAR case, I would like to extend the last tutorial to having the capability to put my little figurine up on the internet, hopefully with surface maps of the textures, and then let the viewer rotate it. That sounds like a worthy project, so lets begin. PREPARING LIGHTWAVE OBJECT FOR 3DS EXPORT LightWave has an export module which exports LightWave Objects from Modeler and saves them as 3DS (a 3D Studio Max Mesh format). That implies a few things, already. First, a mesh is tesselated, which means it is composed of three-sided polygons, also called triangles. LightWave Nurbs Subsurfacing isn't a mesh at all. It is Nurbs, which really has no correlary. Nurbs are unique. Luckily, Nurbs (Subsurfaces) can be converted into polygons in LightWave. But, lets say you didn't know that 3D Studio Max meshes were triangle polygons... The first step with anything you do with an computer is 'Try it, and see if it works'. Then, depending on what error messages you get once you do it, that may give you a clue as to what to do. So, lets do that. Load the latest version of the figure.lwo that you have into LightWave Modeler. REMOVING SKELEGONS You won't need skelegons, so go into polygon mode by pressing CTRL-h. Magnify until you can make out the skelegon shapes (making sure you're in WireFrame View mode), make sure no polygons are selected, drag the mouse across the edge of a skelegon until it is highlit. CONVERTING A SUBSURFACE INTO POLYGONS You convert subsurfaces into polygons by selecting 'Freeze' from the 'Construct' tab, 'Convert' section. However, it can be astounding how many polygons are created when you Freeze an object. REDUCING NUMBER OF POLYGONS, CONVERTING TO TRIANGLES There is a handy tool with an awful name. It is called 'qemLOSS2' and can be found under the 'Construct' tab in the 'Reduce' section. Make sure all polygons are de-selected (implying 'All Polygons') and click on the 'qemLOSS2' button. Under 'Goal (# of polys or .5 for 50%) put 0.05, and under 'Preserve Mesh Quality' click on 'Yes'. (Meaning that there will only be 5% of the original number of polygons left after it has finished doing the qemLOSS2 function. Not only that, but it creates TRIANGLES so this will be perfect for exporting to 3D Studio Max. REPAIRING SURFACE NAME DEFINITIONS Next, with such massive reconstruction of our polygon structure, we can't ensure anything about what happened to our 'FrontPolygons' and 'BackPolygons' definitions. After all, LightWave isn't psychic. It can try and do what it thinks is 'the same' when it did the reconversions to less polygons, but it's almost ensured that it didn't do all of them right. By now you should know how to select all of the polygons which have been defined as a 'Surface Name', but to review... First, make sure all polygons are de-selected. Press the 'w' key while in the Polygon mode to bring up the 'Polygon Statistics' panel. Click where it says 'Surf' and choose 'BackPolygons'. Click on the plus sign to the left of where it says 'Surf' to select those polygons. Go to the 'Perspective' viewport and select either 'Wireframe Shade' or 'Sketch' as the view type (whichever works better for you). This will allow you to see both the edges of the polygons, and the surfaces. Rotate the body so you can see the back of the head and ensure that all polygons which should be the back of the top of the head are part of the 'BackPolygons' Surface Name definition. MODELER, EXPORTING LWO AS 3DS MESH Now it is time to see if the LWO file will convert properly the way it is. Try 'File->Export->Export 3DS'. Type 'figure' in the 'File Name' box. So, I find them, then change the names to BackBump.bmp, BackMap.bmp, FrntMap.bmp and FrntBump.bmp, then I change the old file definitions to the new ones by going to the 'Image Editor'. Click on the 'Name' you wish to change by picking that name from the list at the left, then click 'Replace' and choose the new image filename. Again I do an import into 3D Studio Max. Yep, it's a different orientation all right, but not the right one. When you just put in a 90 degree bank, it turns 3D Studio Max's 'Top' view 90 degrees counterclockwise. When you put in a 90 degree pitch, it turns the 'Left' viewport 90 degrees clockwise. When you put in a 90 degree heading, it turns the 'Front' viewport 90 degrees clockwise. Therefore, when you put in 90 degees pitch, and 0 degrees heading and bank then the back of the object is facing towards you. In a moment we will see that LightWave's 3DS export has actually created two objects, not one. It LOOKS like one object because it is all white at the moment. SCHEMATIC VIEW Go to the 'Graph Editors' menu, 'Schematic View->Open Schematic View'. Since 'Schematic View' is listing the objects in your scene, that means that LightWave has created two objects named 'FrontPolyg' and 'BackPolygo' from the two LightWave 'Surface Names'. This is important, as it means that they are not two named parts of one object, but are two objects, separate from each other. Since 'Default' was not really a 'Surface Name' at all, you can double-click the 'Default' icon in the 'Schematic View' window and then press the 'Delete' key to get rid of it. (You could also have selected the 'Default' by clicking on it, it would turn yellow, then you could have clicked the 'Delete Objects' icon which has an X on it). If you single-click the 'FrontPolyg' object, then right-click and choose 'Properties...', you will see that under 'Material Name:' it says 'FrontPolygons' (full name). If you single-click the 'BackPolygo' object, then right-click and choose 'Properties...', you will see that under 'Material Name:' it says 'BackPolygons' (full name). Double-click the 'BackPolygo' icon. The icon will turn yellow, and the back polygons will become selected. You must be in some other mode where the surfaces are visible such as 'Smooth + Highlights' or 'Facets' in order to select an object by clicking on it. If you right-click where it has the word 'Top' in the 'Top viewport and select 'Smooth + Highlights' as the view mode, then click with your left mouse button towards the back of the object, you will see the back polygons become selected in the 'Left' viewport. If you then click the front part of the figure in the 'Top' viewport, the front polygons become selected in the 'Left' viewport. If you have the 'Schematic View' window open when you do that, you will see the object selection switch from 'FrontPolyg' to 'BackPolygo' as you select those objects. You can set the 'Top' viewport back to 'Wireframe'. Lets look at what else the Schematic View can show us. Lets modify things a bit by clicking the 'Filters' icon in the far upper-left of the 'Schematic View' window Turn on the checkmark on 'Show: Maps', and the checkmark on 'Hide by Category:', 'Geometry' and 'Shapes'. Click on the magnifier ... if you can't read the whole name in a box. After selecting the magnifier, click in the window while dragging the mouse to zoom in or out. From this I notice that either I made a mistake and chose the BackMap.bmp file (Which is supposed to be the Diffuse Map for the Back) as the image for the Bump Map, or LightWave has chosen the wrong image as the Bump Map for the Front (which is much less likely). Green has to do with Maps. There is a similar tree for the 'BackPolygo' object. THE MODIFIER STACK You will be adding modifiers to each of the two sets of polygons which comprise these two objects. Lets start with the front polygons. Select the 'FrontPolyg' object by double-clicking on the name in the 'Schematic View'. Go to the 'Command Panel' and click on the 'Modify' Panel icon In 3D Studio Max, you generally make modifications to your objects through the 'Modifier Stack'. In this case, we now have what is called an 'Editable Mesh', but I'd now wish for that mesh to be smooth. In 3D Studio Max, modifications are done to sets of polygons. Just below where it says 'Modify List' it will now say 'Editable Mesh'. From the 'Modify List' drop-down menu, under 'Mesh Editing' select 'Smooth'. 'Smooth' will appear in the area just above 'Editable Mesh'. The modifier is added above the currently highlit modifier (which in this case was 'Editable Mesh'). Do a 'File->Save As...' and save the scene as 'figure.max'. |