Star Trek - Reflections ( a Lightwave 3D animation)

This short film is a by-product of my Lightwave 3D learning curve and a demonstration of its animation abilities. The final cut is intended to be an artistic and emotional piece.

The song featured in this video is "The Inner Light Suite" by Jay Chattaway.

All other material is original or royalty free.

No infringements were intended as this film is for artistic purposes and not for personal profit or gain.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Star
• Trek
• DS9
• Deep
• Space
• Nine
• Voyager
• TNG
• The
• Next
• Generation
• USS
• Enterprise
• Lightwave
• 3D
• Animation
• Inner
• Light
• Sea

[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.

[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.

[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!

[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.

[SPACECROSSER]

ds9 = Dave Charnow

[IHS7]

Wow this gave me Chills! Excellent!

[jester18uk]

Hi there can this software be used for scenerey as well as objects/characters?

also whats the learning curve like? affordability?

chris.

[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)

[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.