Star Trek - Reflections ( a Lightwave 3D animation)

[SPACECROSSER]

ds9 = Dave Charnow

[IHS7]

Wow this gave me Chills! Excellent!

[smarterthenyou001]

lol tbh the student discounts aint that good ... better then paying full price tho

but wat self respecting student has 200 pound lyin around lol

[reaper45693]

this is awesome, and very much the reason i want the software. (so i can make kick ass 3D shit, not star trek lol)

[NelsonStJames]

Yeah, that is some good stuff, and you're right you have to start somewhere, but at least you started, most people just talk. I was just wondering how long this took, and what kind of render times you were looking at with lightwave? I'm thinking about purchasing the prog since I've become a student again and Students get great discounts on this stuff.

[JoshuaFreemanFilms]

Building the models took a long time. Even though I didn't get a chance to get my Voyager model to the same standard as the others (ran out of time). I think modelling took roughly 100 hours, give or take. Setting the scenes up wasn't so bad because I'm a film maker rather than an animator and wanted to shoot it as though I would in real life, hence no battle sequences. But set up in Layout took a few hours for each shot. I rendered on an old iBook and the renders took an average 5 hours.

[AkeakamaiTheFirst]

That was really cool. Thanks for posting this. I'm a big LightWave 3D fan, mainly because it's been used on Babylon 5 - my favorite sci-fi show. I can't afford to buy the expensive program to create whatever comes to mind, so I have to be content with other people's creativity.

[adwolfe1983]

I have to say that was really good, I'm just learning lightwave and i love it. I'm working on a degree in animation and i love this program and all the adobe products really do help. great job!!!!

[JoshuaFreemanFilms]

Thanks for the comment. After Effects is a great help when it comes to compositions. I'm just starting to get into Shake so I'll see how that goes. It gives you a similar outcome to After Effects but it's editor is mainly node based rather than simple timeline and workflow editors. I'm also slowly moving away from LightWave and into Maya. It's a rough transition but I think in the long run it'll be worth it considering what Maya can do.

[SajuukHackwrench]

The 3D Mesh of the Intrepid is not the best to be honest.

But i really like the background music and overall idea.

[JoshuaFreemanFilms]

Thanks, like I said though,"learning curve". If I had never made that Intrepid Class mesh then I wouldn't have learned all the things I know now. Looking back on it now, with what I can do these days I cringe a little myself sometimes, but hey, everyone has to start somewhere. I may not like the models anymore, but I' still like the overall design too. I think I chose a design and feel that stands up quite well after all this time. Thanks for the comments mate.

[onecatblack]

This is really GREAT!! so this software can really do anything...Editing, making animation , opening credits and Logo design like what you did similar to Lucas arts ? because i dont have it

[JoshuaFreemanFilms]

Well it can't do "anything" but Lightwave is up there with the most versatile 3D packages. Honestly, aside from MAYA I wouldn't bother with any other software. As for the Lucas style logo, that was done in Adobe After Effects.

[onecatblack]

Thanks Joshua for the info, really appreciated...

[Homer177]

Nice job. Lightwave is one tough program, especially where modeling is concerned. I've always wanted to model my own ships but I just can't grasp the program.

[JoshuaFreemanFilms]

At first LightWave was different to ANY and ALL other 3D programs I had used and I HATED it. I thought it was so hard I almost gave up. I stuck with it though and it really started to make sense. Now I can't use anything else (besides Maya occasionally) because I can't do half the stuff I can do in LightWave. Go to the NewTek website and then go to the LightWave page and use the tutorials there. They were an absolute godsend and VERY easy to follow and VERY in depth. Thanks for the comment mate.

[NyanKyou]

This is very beautiful. I can't say how beautiful this video is.

[JoshuaFreemanFilms]

Thank you. I can't say how much I appreciate feedback like this!

[JoshuaFreemanFilms]

Let me know how you go with it mate. When you have some stuff I'll check it out. It's a hard program to master, but it is one of the most rewarding.

[JoshuaFreemanFilms]

Making the models took the longest since I was only learning to use LightWave at the time. It probably took around 50 - 60 hours of modelling and texturing. Setting up the shots didn't take very long at all but each shot took about 8 hours to render. It was worth it though, I learned a lot from making that modest little animation.

[3DRenderMonkey]

Josh, that's a well executed piece of work....good job!

A suggestion; tone down the diffuse and gloss surface values. Again, good job.

[JoshuaFreemanFilms]

Thanks for the constructive criticism and the suggestion! I'm still learning the tricks of the trade. I'm actually a traditional animator and film maker. I wanted to concentrate more on fluidity in my shots rather than amateurish done to death space action. Coming from cinematography I love fluidic and sweeping camera shots and really wanted to pull those off well. I think I have the animation side under control. I'm working on my modeling and texturing now. Thanks again!

[3DRenderMonkey]

"I wanted to concentrate more on fluidity"

I noticed. :)

I really do appreciate the fact that you did not delve into the usual done-to-death generic battle sequence. It's so refreshing to see a dramatic and well flowing approach for a change.

[Hatvok]

Nice, but I think you coulda used a better looking Voyager Mesh.

[SpeedingNinja]

Good stuff! I like the girl's voice. It made it a nice change from all the other Star Trek animations people put on here with generic Star Trek music and poorly animated space sequences. Keep it up!

[josiekeys]

Thats excellent, It must have taken a long time to do.

I like Kes as voice over =)