Planetary Rings in Lightwave 3D
This is a basic tutorial on how to make some cool Planetary Rings using Hypervoxels in Lightwave 7. I am not going to go into great detail on this tute as I am assuming that most people doing this tutorial are familiar with Lightwave.   Note* In this tutorial I will be using Feet as the unit of measurement . . . . I am from the U.S. and that is what I use, you tell me something is a mile long and I know how far that is . . . .
You tell me something is 1 kilometer long, then I have to go "ok 1 kilometer is less than a Mile so . . ." or " 1 meter is almost 3 feet ".
I meant what's the point . . . ?      We'll use the good ol' fashion foot for measurements . . . . .

~gp~

Asteroids . . . . .

                  Ok, this is part four of the tutorial Planetary Rings in Lightwave 7. If by chance you came to this page by way of an outside link, You can find the first part of this Tutorial . . . . HERE

For those continuing on . . This will rap up out Planetary Ring tutorial . . .


Step 18:   Now we get to color our asteroids, if you switch to the Shading Tab, you will see a control panel you are familiar with. In the color channel choose a base color you like for your 'roids. I choose something on the grey/blue scale as I am going to make my rings multi colored. R-88, G-102, B-115. You can also click on the Texture channel in your color channel and add some extra effect to the color if you want.

Fig 18


Step 19:   Ok . . . Now let give this puppy some diffuse shall we? Click on the "T" in the diffuse channel and open the editor. Change the layer type to Gradient, as we want to adjust the perimeters of the gradient in this section.. Change the Input Parameter to Bump. because this is were we will add dimension to the channel. Use these parameters:

    Key 1:
  • Value = 50%
  • Parameter = 0.0

  • Key 2:
  • Value = 75%
  • Parameter = 0.3

  • Key 3:
  • Value = 80%
  • Parameter = 0.6

  • Key 4:
  • Value = 100%
  • Parameter = 1.0

Fig 19


Step 20:   Last but not least open the bump channel and use the settings I have here . .

  • Procedural Type: Crumple
  • Texture Value: 100%
  • Frequencies: 3
  • Small Power: 0.7%
This will finish off the textures for the 'roids we are using . . . Like I said this is only a guide. . If in experimenting with values on your Asteroids you see something better or something you like more, use it. . Because as our old friend Bob Ross use to say:
. . "This is your world, you can do what-ever you like".

Fig 20


Step 21:   Now lets jump out and see what this look like in the Viper, switch back to Object Preview and lets see what we have
. . . Not bad at all . . . . . I like it          OK . . Now, 3 more settings to add before we continue . . .

Remember the opening of StartTrek Voyager . . . as the camera pans up through a Ring System on some planet to reveal Voyager gliding along the outer Asteroid belt? Remember how Voyager reflected in the Asteroid Ring? . . . lets get some of that here . . . so apply these settings:

  • Specularity: 15
  • Glossiness: 7
  • Reflection: 12

Fig 21


Step 22:   Now that we have this first layer done, we can copy paste the settings to all the other layers . . . Go to the Hypervoxel panel and Highlight layer 2, activate this layer. Go back to layer 1, and at the top of the panel left hand side click copy, go to layer 2 and click paste. Repeat these steps for all of you layers and then save the settings for this as Planet_Rings. The save button is in the same group of buttons as the copy paste buttons.

Fig 22


      Now because we have all of our asteroid rings in different layers we have a lot of control over them. You can change the size, shape, texture, and color of any of the rings . . . feel free to do as you like at this point it is all up to you. The last thing to do here is fire off a render and check out your work . . . .


       I hope this tutorial was help, if you like it let me know, if you use it in a scene, drop me a line with a link to it as I would like to see what you have done. . see ya'      ~gpdesigner





        © Graphic Production 2000 - 2006