832 Kevin Phillips | Character Animation | Beginner
Swing Your Head Turns
Next time you animate a head turning from one side to another by simply
rotating it left or right, consider doing this to make the head turn a little more
natural and interesting:
Scrub the frame slider to halfway between the head turn keyframes. Rotate
the head down on its pitch slightly and create a key. The extra key where the
head dips slightly downward will add a subtle amount of swing to the head as it
turns, giving it a more natural feel.
Versions: All
Ü
Note: Unless your character is cautiously turning its head in fear, don’t turn a character’s head too
slowly. Consider using between four (fast) to ten (slow) frames as a good basis for a turn of the head.
Ü
Note: Don’t forget that when we turn our heads, we often subconsciously blink.
833
Kevin Phillips | Character Animation | Beginner
Body First, Lip Sync Last
Lip sync is regarded almost as a secondary motion to character animation.
You should strive to animate the character’s body language to match your dialog
before adding your lip sync. If your character animation doesn’t feel like it
works without seeing the mouth movement, you should review your animation.
Versions: All
834
Larry Shultz | Character Animation | Intermediate to Advanced
Speeding Up Lip Sync
Sometimes when doing lip sync things can appear to slow down or the audio
becomes choppy. Here are a few tips I use to help things along:
n
Have Play at Exact Rate checked.
n

Resample the audio down to the lowest rate possible that is still intelligible.
n
Lower the SubPatch level on the characters.
n
Do the lip sync for each character in its own scenes and load them into the
main scene later.
n
Cut off the head, animate the lip sync, and then paste the head back onto the
body later.
n
Render out preview anims that include the audio in the finished movie file.
Versions: All
Ü
Note: For more information on lip sync, see the section on morphing and endomorphs later in this
chapter.
362 | Chapter 8
Character Animation
835 Larry Shultz, Jennifer Hachigian | Character Animation | Intermediate to Advanced
Crowd Scenes
When animating scenes with multiple characters, things inevitably begin to
slow down. This happens for a variety of reasons, mostly due to LightWave hav
-
ing to calculate so many bone displacements, IK, expressions, and so forth.
A handy thing to do is to animate the first character and run MD_Scan
(Object Properties>Deform>Add Displacement>MD_Scan) on it. This “bakes”
the motions onto each vertex as displacements. MD_Plug is used to replay the
displacements. Once this is done the bones can be turned off and left in place.
Why? The bones can still be used to parent things to or as reference for other
expressions. Once this is done the next character can be animated and baked.
This allows for a large number of characters to be in scene with a lot less slow

-
down and allows the animation to be viewed in real time.
Versions: All
836
Jonny Gorden | Character Animation | Beginner
Animating Fingers
When animating fingers, a quick way to copy poses from one frame to
another is to:
1. Select the hand bone.
2. Go to the frame you wish to copy from.
3. Hit Enter to create a keyframe, specify the frame you wish to copy to, and
select Current Item and Descendants.
Once you have a couple of poses created, this is a very fast way to block out
the finger animation. You can then go through a second pass to refine the finger
poses.
Versions: 6-8
837
Larry Shultz | Character Animation | Beginner
Picking Up Objects
Here’s a quick ’n dirty method (and did I mention easy?) for a character to
pick up an object without resorting to setting up dynamic parenting:
Create two versions of the object that will be picked up. Parent one version
to a bone in the character’s hand and apply Object Dissolve to it set at 100% dis
-
solved. The second version of the object will be sitting out where the character
can pick it up.
When the character reaches for the second version of the object, dissolve in
the version in his hand and dissolve out the version sitting out. Do this over a
single frame and you’ll never see our digital sleight of hand.
Versions: 5-8

Animating | 363
Character Animation
838 Timothy “Amadhi” Albee | Character Animation | All Levels
Reparenting
Say you want to reparent a character’s hand to her hip for an animation of
Mae West. Go to your character’s setup pose frame (I like to keyframe my setup
pose at –200) and with Parent In Place active, reparent that bone. (You’ll see
your mesh instantly and incorrectly deform as it compensates for the “move
-
ment” affected by the Parent in Place calculations.) Just press “r” to rerecord the
rest position for that bone after it has been reparented and your model will again
reflect its setup pose. Go back to frame 0 and start your animation.
Versions: All
Deformations
839 Rob Powers | Deformations | Intermediate
Display SubPatch Level
When working with SubD objects in Layout a Display SubPatch Level of 0
will dramatically speed up interaction by preventing LightWave from constantly
updating the mesh no matter what the object subdivision order setting is. The
downside is that many SubD objects look very poor with a SubPatch level of 0.
Versions: 7-8
840
Rob Powers | Deformations | Intermediate
Subdivision Order
Change your SubD object’s subdivision order to a setting other than First
when deforming objects with bones or endomorphs. You can find this setting on
the Geometry tab of the Object Properties panel. When deforming your object
with endomorphs you can choose After Morphing, and when using bones to
deform you can choose After Bones. Many times I simply change the Subdivi
-

sion order to Last after loading an object into Layout. This will prevent any
weird deformations from the wrong setting and will allow you to freely use
endomorphs, bones, or other displacements on your object without problems.
However, with objects that are extremely complex with high polygon counts or
SubD objects with a high SubPatch level, this could slow down interaction in
Layout. To speed this up you can reduce the Display SubPatch Level setting to
lower the overhead on SubD objects. As you lower the Display SubPatch Level,
the object will look closer to the base polygon cage, which is not as smooth but
similar to the way SubD objects look in Modeler when you toggle from
SubPatch mode to polygon mode with the Tab key. As long as you keep the
Render SubPatch Level set to a higher number, the object will still render
smooth.
Versions: 7-8
364 | Chapter 8
Deformations
841 Rob Powers | Deformations | Intermediate
Use MD_Scan and MD_Plug
The MD_Scan and MD_Plug displacement plug-ins are hidden gems in the
LightWave toolkit that most people overlook. They can be used in many differ
-
ent ways, but two of their best uses are for scenes with groups of characters or
crowds and for speeding up the render process on complex rigs once the final
animation is completed. The MD_Scan displacement plug-in essentially scans
the object on a point level and records the location of each point over time into a
displacement .mdd file. The payoff is that you can be deforming your object
with bones, endomorphs, or a complex rig, and the MD_Scan plug-in will
“bake” everything down to one .mdd file.
You then use the MD_Plug displacement plug-in to apply this recorded .mdd
motion file to the object. With MD_Plug you can control the action start point,
the replay speed, the end behavior, and more. You can also apply multiple

instances of MD_Plug if you apply the Composite setting in the End Behavior
drop-down. You can even transform, scale, and rotate the object with the MD_
Plug applied if you set the Key-Move mode to ON. If the .mdd file that you
apply is fairly large, there will be a pause as the scene loads into Layout or on a
render farm network; however, after it loads, rendering will be much faster than
if the object was being deformed by bones or a complex character rig. To try this
out, simply select your object and choose MD_Scan from the Properties>
Deform>Add Displacement menu. Double-click on MD_Scan to open the Set-
tings panel, and set the location to save your .mdd file. Then click the OK
button.
You’ll see an “MD_Scan Start” pop-up; select OK again, and MD_Scan will
scan your object’s points and generate the .mdd file. Double-click on MD_Scan
again to open the Settings panel. You’ll now see just a save path for your new
.mdd file. Click the OK button again, and the .mdd file will be saved to your
hard drive. Now you can load that object into any scene and select MD_Plug
from Properties>Deform>Add Displacement. Lastly, load the .mdd file that was
just created to apply the motion to your object. If the object looks strange and
it’s a SubD object, be sure to check the subdivision order.
Versions: 6-8
Deformations>Bones
842 William “Proton” Vaughan | Deformations>Bones | Beginner
Bone Colors
Layout gives you the option to color-code your items in a scene. Although
many people use the same color for all bones in a character, sometimes I find it
easier if I color the left half of the character one color and the right half of the
character’s bones a different color. This makes it that much easier to choose the
correct bone.
Versions: All
Animating | 365
Deformations>Bones

Ü
Note: Not only does it make it easier to “read” your bones in the viewport, it also helps in the Scene
Editor as well.
843
William “Proton” Vaughan | Deformations>Bones | All Levels
Bones Aren’t Just for Characters
Ever try to animate a page in a book turning? I created an animation once
using morph targets (lots of them) to turn a page in a book. Later I learned that it
was much easier (100 times easier) to just throw in a chain of bones. The next
time you have to animate something, give bones a try.
Versions: All
844
Steve Warner | Deformations>Bones | Beginner
Use Weight Maps to Organize Objects
People often think that in order to animate a mechanical object, they must
place the parts that will move on separate layers. This can be frustrating, how
-
ever, as some mechanical objects contain hundreds of separate parts, making
their management in Modeler rather cumbersome. If you want to keep all of
your parts on the same layer, simply create a new weight map in Modeler for
each part you wish to animate. Name each weight map for the part it’s assigned
to and give it an initial value of 100% (Step 1 below). Now create a skelegon for
each part. The base of the skelegon will act as the pivot point for the part it’s
associated with, so position it accordingly (Steps 2 and 2a). Before leaving Mod-
eler, bring up the Skelegon Tree (found in the Setup tab of Modeler 8 or the
Detail tab of 7.5). Double-click on the Weight section for each skelegon and
366 | Chapter 8
Deformations>Bones
select its associated weight map (Step 3). Save your object and bring it into Lay
-

out. The last step is to create bones from your skelegons by using the Convert
Skelegons tool. You can now move, rotate, stretch, and scale individual parts of
your object by simply affecting the appropriate bones (Step 4). This technique
requires more setup work in Modeler, but will yield more flexibility to you in
the final animation process.
Versions: 6-8
845
Larry Shultz | Deformations>Bones | Intermediate
Mixing Bones and Multiple Objects
When applying bones to an object we normally think of multiple bones asso
-
ciated with a single object. We can also have multiple objects that share a single
set of bones. It’s also possible to construct a segmented character like a robot
that is composed of many parts parented together in a hierarchy. What is some
-
times useful is to allow each part to have its own set of bones. This allows for
greater flexibility, especially with characters that may have to have rigid parts
mixed with bendy parts. This also allows the use of additional objects that are
only affected by particular bones without resorting to weight maps.
Versions: 6-8
846
Jonny Gorden | Deformations>Bones | Beginner
Joint Compensation
Use Bone Properties>Joint Compensation where the pitch of the bone is the
major rotation. Joint Compensation helps the deformation, especially in areas
like knees, elbows, and finger joints.
Versions: 6-8
847
Jonny Gorden | Deformations>Bones | Beginner
Test Falloff

Test different falloff types (Bone Properties>Falloff Types) to find the best
default value for your object or character.
Versions: 6-8
Ü
Note: Falloff Type only comes into use when bones are sharing weight maps or there are no weight
maps being used.
848
Todd Grimes | Deformations>Bones | Intermediate
Adjust the Skeleton’s Influence As Needed
Open the Bones Properties panel in Layout. Each skeletal hierarchy has a
falloff set for its individual bone’s influence. You can find this in the Bone Prop
-
erties panel in the drop-down button next to Falloff Type. The higher the
falloff’s inverse distance, the more localized each bone’s influence will be. For
more flowing boned objects such as curtains you can try a falloff of Inverse
Animating | 367
Deformations>Bones
Distance ^2, while more intricately boned objects such as characters will use a
high value of Inverse Distance ^64 or Inverse Distance ^128.
Versions: 6-8
849
Jonny Gorden | Deformations>Bones | Beginner
Adjust Bone Strength
You can adjust the strength of a bone by adjusting its Rest Length if Bone
Properties>Multiply by Rest Length is active. This is useful for tweaking defor
-
mations quickly.
Versions: 6-8
850
Peter Thomas | Deformations>Bones | Beginner

Setting Up Bone Influence
Use Spreadsheet to set up bone influence on weight maps. Open Spread
-
sheet, change the left upper tab to Bone Properties: Influence, and select the
bone weight maps. Select the weight map you want the bone to influence.
Versions: 5-7.5
851
Kevin Phillips | Deformations>Bones | Beginner
The Problem with Partial Weight Mapping
Ever had one of those bones that was affecting parts of the model you didn’t
expect, so you decided to add a weight map to it to control that one bone? Then
when you moved some of the other bones, sometimes your model would appear
to deform really strangely?
The problem is associated with the way that bones work and how weight
maps are used. Bones are like small magnets or force fields. That is, they drag
all the points in the model about, with the strongest influence on points that are
close and less influence on points that get farther and farther away. The distance
at which the influence weakens on points is controlled by the bone property
called Falloff. A setting of Inverse Distance makes the bone influence slowly
fall off, and Inverse Distance ^128 makes the bone influence quickly fall off.
When you stick multiple bones into a model, such as the skeleton inside a
character, the bones work together, each preventing the others from taking too
much control of the points that are close to them.
Now, a weight map is essentially the equivalent of an alpha channel for a
bone’s influence. When a single bone has a weight map applied to it, the influ
-
ence of the bone on the points surrounding it gets masked out by the weight
map, and it’s possible that points that the bone was originally holding in place
will suddenly be open prey for the other bones to influence instead. When the
other bones are twisted or contorted, the influence of the bone is no longer there,

and the points in question can get deformed in some unfavorable ways!
368 | Chapter 8
Deformations>Bones
The solution: Don’t weight map individual bones unless there’s a good rea
-
son to. If you must weight map one bone, consider creating a weight map for all
the others, even if it’s just a single weight map that influences all the other
points in the model.
Versions: 6-7.5c
Deformations>Morphing and Endomorphs
852 Jonny Gorden | Deformations>Morphing and Endomorphs | Beginner
Setting Paths to Linear
Once you’ve done your first morph animation pass, open Graph Editor and
set the curves that pass under 0% or over 100% to Linear.
Versions: 6-8
853
Jonny Gorden | Deformations>Morphing and Endomorphs | Beginner
Bones in Larger Scenes
In larger scenes, make sure the object you’re performing morph animation
on is selected. The selected object will update much faster than the other objects
in the scene, allowing for more responsive feedback as you’re scrubbing the
timeline.
Versions: 6-8
854
Larry Shultz | Deformations>Morphing and Endomorphs | Intermediate to Advanced
Jiggly Motions
Jiggly motions can be created by using a morph target and applying Oscilla
-
tor to the morph channel. The jiggle effect can quickly fall off with time by
adjusting the Dampen parameter in the Oscillator control panel. The effect can

also be baked onto the morph channel by hitting the “b” key. From there, the
resulting waveform can be copied and pasted when it’s needed.
A similar effect can be achieved by using a bone where the jiggling is
needed and applying Oscillator to the proper channels in the bone to create the
jiggling effect.
Versions: 6-8
855
Kevin Phillips | Deformations>Morphing and Endomorphs | Beginner
When MorphMixer Doesn’t Work
Take care when you create endomorphs on multiple layered objects. If a
layer doesn’t need to be associated with the morph, don’t select it as a fore
-
ground layer. Any new morphs get associated with all the vertices that are in the
foreground selected layer(s). This is a common case, and can create some mild
confusion when using MorphMixer.
Animating | 369
Deformations>Morphing and Endomorphs
When MorphMixer doesn’t appear to work, make sure that you have applied
MorphMixer to the correct layer in your object. Most often, users will not real
-
ize this and wonder why their morphs do not appear to be updating on-screen.
Versions: 6-7.5c
856
Larry Shultz | Deformations>Morphing and Endomorphs | Intermediate to Advanced
Advanced Endomorph Controls
Typically when you think of controlling endomorphs you immediately think
of using MorphMixer (assuming you know what endomorphs and MorphMixer
are). Basically MorphMixer allows you to linearly control a variety of morphs
with a slider panel.
Another way to control endomorphs is to do it via the Normal Displacement

plug-in. This allows you to control morphs in a more sophisticated fashion using
textures. In the normal displacement panel set Direction to Morphmap. Next to
Morphmap, select which morph map you want to affect and click on the Texture
button.
With a gradient you can make the morph occur based on the distance to a
null. You can also do the same by applying a texture to drive the morph but acti-
vate it in specific areas by using texture falloff. An almost endless variety of
effects can be done this way.
Versions: 6-8
857
Todd Grimes | Deformations>Morphing and Endomorphs | Intermediate
Creating Keyframes for Sliders
When using the MorphMixer to animate endomorphs in Layout, hold down
Ctrl+Shift while dragging a slider. This will automatically create a keyframe for
every slider in that group.
Versions: 6-7.5
858
Jonny Gorden | Deformations>Morphing and Endomorphs | Intermediate
Morph Sliders
If you’re using MorphMixer on a character, instead of using sliders, add a
fake morph and use MorphMixer sliders instead. To create a fake morph, in
Modeler, add a point in the middle of an object and create a new morph and
move the point a little.
For any other fake morphs you can just copy the first fake morph. This will
give you morph sliders that don’t affect the character geometry for use in other
areas.
Versions: 6-8
370 | Chapter 8
Deformations>Morphing and Endomorphs
859 Patrik Beck | Deformations>Morphing and Endomorphs | All Levels

Morph Levels Over 100%
Morph levels greater than 100% will exaggerate the difference between the
base form and the target form.
Versions: All
860
Patrik Beck | Deformations>Morphing and Endomorphs | All Levels
Morph Levels with Negative Values
Morph levels with negative values will affect the exact opposite of the dif
-
ference between the base form and the target form. This works very well when
you use morph targets to simulate mechanical motions.
Versions: All
861
Patrik Beck | Deformations>Morphing and Endomorphs | All Levels
Morphing Logos
Morphing works well in animating simple logo and text treatments. After the
logo is built, create a morph target of it that has separate sections of the logo
spread apart, and a second morph target that gives the elements a little twist.
When the morph is set up in Layout, fly in the basic object with a few basic
keyframes and envelope the morph that brings the parts together.
Versions: All
862
Patrik Beck | Deformations>Morphing and Endomorphs | All Levels
Flying Logo Letters
The popular effect of having the letters of a word spread apart then come
together as it flies in can be done much more quickly using morphing instead of
breaking the word down into separate letters. Once the word object is created,
create a morph target by moving the letters out from the center one at a time.
Each letter should be moved twice as much as the one before it. By enveloping
the morph from its maximum level down to 0, the letters will move together.

Versions: All
863
Todd Grimes | Deformations>Morphing and Endomorphs | Intermediate
Combine Bone Deformation with Endomorphs
If a character has a collar that is passing through the geometry of his neck in
certain poses, you can create an endomorph on the model with the collar altered
a bit wider. Then access the endomorph in Layout with the MorphMixer and
adjust the collar on the frames where it’s impeding the neck geometry. This pro
-
cess can sometimes be easier than adjusting the rig after animation has already
been done.
Versions: 6-8
Animating | 371
Deformations>Morphing and Endomorphs
864 Jonny Gorden | Deformations>Morphing and Endomorphs | Beginner
Animating Facial Morphs
It can be useful to parent a new camera to the head bone of a character when
animating the facial morphs. This way you always have a view of the face even
after you’ve animated the body.
Versions: 6-8
865
Todd Grimes | Deformations>Morphing and Endomorphs | Intermediate
Animating Facial Subleties
Endomorphs can be used to animate facial subtleties. For example, creating
a flared nostril target can be used for a character breathing heavily through his
nose, or a raised upper lip target can be used to animate the quivering lips of a
character about to cry. Control targets can also be used to create asymmetry in
the face.
Versions: 6-8
866

Todd Grimes | Deformations>Morphing and Endomorphs | Intermediate
Exaggerating Facial Endomorphs
Always exaggerate the shapes of facial endomorphs. You can use a lesser
percentage of the shape if the fully exaggerated version isn’t necessary. In the
event that you do need the fully exaggerated shape and it’s not there to begin
with, you’ll have to adjust that target in Modeler.
Versions: 6-8
Ü
Note: MorphMixer does allow you to go beyond 100% to get a more extreme version of the target, but
the results are usually poor.
867
Jonny Gorden | Deformations>Morphing and Endomorphs | Beginner
Lip-Sync Animation
When animating lip sync:
n
Try to allow at least three frames between phoneme extremes to prevent
popping between morphs.
n
Keyframe consonants two to three frames before the sound, resulting in
better sync with the sound.
n
Try to hold consonants for at least two frames for maximum readability.
n
Make sure you hit all the major consonants. We often blur phonemes
between consonants, but if you don’t hit the major consonants your lip sync
will appear floaty.
n
Watch yourself in a mirror saying the phrase to get a better idea of what pho
-
nemes you need and where to place them.

Versions: 6-8
372 | Chapter 8
Deformations>Morphing and Endomorphs
868 Kevin Phillips | Deformations>Morphing and Endomorphs | Beginner
Decapitate for Better Lip-Sync Performance
If you are running a low-spec computer but need to load in your audio and
do lip sync, things can go from sluggish to extremely frustrating very quickly
with regard to animating. Low-spec’d computers tend to cause no end of prob
-
lems with audio playback, especially when scrubbing from frame to frame, and
get a lot worse when they also have to redraw the OpenGL display with the
updated morph effect.
However, lowering the number of polygons that Layout has to handle and
optimizing the display to work a little quicker can vastly improve the perfor
-
mance of Layout’s handling of both audio and display, making lip syncing a lot
easier. When complex models are involved, sometimes a little surgery can assist:
1. Load the character you are working on, and then delete all the body poly
-
gons. Delete everything except the head. Save the model as a new file.
2. Load the head model into Layout on its own. If it’s SubPatched, then set the
display SubPatch level to 1 (or 0, although 0 may be too low), and make sure
you set the Subdivision order to Last.
3. Add in the MorphMixer deformation plug-in, and load your audio via the
Scene Editor.
4. Do all your facial morph animation with this head model only. Fewer polygons
means fewer for Layout to deal with and performance should improve substan-
tially, hopefully enough to get a fairly good quality audio scrub effect.
5. Once you’ve completed your animation, select the Save button on the
MorphMixer panel. This will save all the morphs in your head, the same

morphs that should also be in your full model.
6. Clear the scene and load the proper scene file with your full character model.
Select the character and open the MorphMixer panel from the Object Prop
-
erties Deform tab. Click the Load button on the MorphMixer panel and load
the morphs that you saved from the head animation.
7. Ta-da! All the facial animation you created earlier is perfectly loaded onto
your complete character! Render and enjoy!
Versions: 6-7.5c
869
Larry Shultz | Deformations>Morphing and Endomorphs | Intermediate to Advanced
Boring a Tunnel
To bore a tunnel create two endomorphs: a base setting with the tunnel
sealed and a second one with the tunnel open and the edges jittered to make it
look a little rough. Then use the Normal Displacement plug-in in Layout, which
allows you to activate the morph based on distance to an object via gradients or
with another texture. The idea is that you can control the morphing to occur in
stages, when and where you want. The dust and debris can be created using par
-
ticles and HVs. You can also generate HV sprites on the objects directly and
again use textures to activate and animate them to get some ambient dust.
Versions: 6-8
Animating | 373
Deformations>Morphing and Endomorphs
Deformations>Displacement
870 Rob Powers | Deformations>Displacement | Intermediate
Preserve Your Displacement Settings
Displacement mapping settings are saved with the scene file and not saved in
the object file. This is important to remember because you must use the Load
From Scene function to import an object into your scene with displacement

mapping settings intact. You can find the object’s displacement map settings in
the Object Properties panel on the Deform tab. Click on the “T” button to add a
displacement map to your object; you can also animate the displacement maps
over time in this panel.
Versions: 7-8
871
Patrik Beck | Deformations>Displacement | All Levels
Displacing in Three Dimensions
Many of the displacement textures only displace on a single axis, either
straight up and down or to the sides. Fractal Noise and Ripples will displace
objects in all three dimensions.
Versions: All
872
Kevin Phillips | Deformations>Displacement | Beginner
Bump Displacement
You can use the bump mapping applied to your model’s surfaces to deform
your model using it by using the Enable Bump check box in the Deform tab of
the Object Properties panel, and setting the Distance. This brings a deeper, more
realistic look to your model; however, to use it, you need to ensure you have
enough basic geometry to deform correctly.
When applying this tool to subdivision models, you should make sure that
the SubPatch level is fairly high. Set Subdivision Order to First on the Geometry
tab so that the necessary geometry is created for the displacement to use. Setting
Subdivision Order to Last will only apply the bump displacement to the low-res
cage model. This makes bump displacement more suited for static objects such
as tree trunks, landscapes, and brick walls, among others.
Versions: 6.5-7.5c
Ü
Note: You can save any subdivision models out as frozen, more detailed meshes by selecting the Save
Transformed Object option from the File menu. A purely polygon version of the detailed model will work a

lot faster in Layout than a bump-displaced one that has to calculate the displacement on the object. You can
also optimize the model in Modeler if you wish to cut down the number of polygons for even better perfor
-
mance in Layout.
374 | Chapter 8
Deformations>Displacement
873 Patrik Beck | Deformations>Displacement | All Levels
Better Bump Displacement Control
When bump displacement is used in the Object Properties panel, it deforms
the object using the combined bump maps applied to the surface. For better con
-
trol, copy just the bump map texture layers you want to use from the Bump Map
Surface Texture Editor and paste them into the Displacement Map Texture Edi
-
tor of the Object Properties panel. The position and scale values can stay the
same, but you may need to tweak the intensity or texture values. This gives you
more control over the displacement amplitude, as well as the option of adding
envelopes.
Versions: All
874
Brad Krause | Deformations>Displacement | All Levels
HDRI Files Can Replace DEM Files for Clean Mesh Distortion
You can distort a flat object mesh using a grayscale image file, like when
you are trying to create a 3D terrain. But pixelated artifacts will appear and the
mesh will spike, and if you take the values much beyond a rather mild level it
will tear.
The solution is to use USGS DEM (digital elevation model) files, available
for free on the web ( />You need to bring DEM elevation files into LightWave using a plug-in, like
Mike Landis’ ElevationModels, which I use on the Mac.
You will end up with a folder full of many files. None of the files in the

unzipped directory are of any use in LightWave except the largest one, which
always ends with the characters “CEL0.” That is the file to import.
But there’s a way to get around the plug-in after you bring the DEM file in
for the first time — save the file as an HDR image file!
If you export the DEM/CELO file out of LightWave as a standard 16-bit
grayscale image, you’ll be back where you started, with a spiking and tearing
mesh. But the LW-exported HDRI file somehow retains enough of the DEM
data that your distorted mesh will remain as clean as if it were distorted by the
original DEM file.
After exporting the DEM as an HDRI file, just replace the original DEM
with the HDR image file. Thereafter you won’t have to wait for a plug-in to
interpret the data, and you won’t have to worry about other LW users not having
the right plug-in to open your scene.
Versions: 5-8
875
Kevin Phillips | Deformations>Displacement | Beginner
Effectors Don’t Have Good Parents
Let’s pick a common scenario. You have an ocean, and you want to use an
effector to add a deformation from a meteor that is flying overhead. So you load
your ocean model, add in a null, and use it as an effector on the ocean. Finally,
you add in that all-important particle emitter for the smoking meteor. Great, it’s
all looking like an easier job than you’d expect!
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Deformations>Displacement
However, you then decide to parent the effector to the emitter, so that it will
move along in time with the meteor. That should be perfect. You animate, and
your effector just isn’t affecting any more! Is the effector broken? Maybe the
meteor just is too weak to affect the ocean — you know, gravity and all is differ
-
ent in the 3D world…

No, the issue is that parenting an effector to another object won’t work. You
still need to move the effector object itself for LightWave to track it correctly. Its
location is seen as relevant to its parent object, so if you parented the null to the
emitter at 0,0,0, even when the meteor emitter is moving, LightWave constantly
sees the effector at 0,0,0.
You can, however, bake in the keyframes using the Motion Baker plug-in,
found under the effector’s Motion Options panel, then unparent the effector and
apply the baked motion.
Versions: 6.5-7.5c
876
Kevin Phillips | Deformations>Displacement | Beginner
Animated Splash Ripples
If you’ve ever used one of the Ripples procedurals as a displacement texture
to generate repetitive waves on a mesh and wished that there was some way to
make the ripples appear, then fade out to simulate the effect of an object “drop-
ping into” the mesh, here’s how!
To make the ripples fade out rather than infinitely appear across the mesh,
use the Texture parameter Falloff tab at the bottom of the Texture Editor panel.
This allows you to specify a percentage of fade (or falloff) from the texture’s
center, calculated per unit (which is usually 1 meter by default). Also, for ripples
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in particular, change the falloff type to Spherical. By default, the falloff type is
usually set to Cubic, which generates sharp, square edges to the ripples.
You can control when the splash ripples will appear by enveloping the opac
-
ity of the ripple texture over time. Make Opacity 0% until it is needed, then
create a key in the envelope that takes the opacity up to 100%, with another key
after to create a gradual fadeout over as many frames as needed.
For an even better splash effect, add in some HyperVoxel particles that ema

-
nate from the center of the ripple at the time of “impact” as well.
Versions: 6-8
877
Larry Shultz | Deformations>Displacement | Intermediate to Advanced
Waving Grass
Here’s a simple method that will work with poly grass or hair guides with
SasLite:
1. Create a single strand of grass using a tube or hair guide.
2. Apply a weight map from one end to the other, with one end being 0% (top)
and the other being 100% (bottom).
3. Clone the hair guide or grass object all over the “ground” object. There are
several free plug-ins that will clone the objects without losing the weight
map. Point Clone Plus will lose your weight map.
4. Apply a displacement map to your grass in Layout.
5. Apply a gradient on top of your displacement map. Set the input parameter
to Weight and select your grass weight map. Set the blend mode to Alpha.
This will allow the displacement map to affect the geometry based on the
strength of the weight map, which means the roots will stick.
Versions: 5-8
878
Kevin Phillips | Deformations>Displacement | Beginner
Faking Fabrics without Motion Designer
If you plan on having continuous moving objects that need some kind of
cloth simulation for, say, flags or other loose materials, consider using a dis
-
placement map rather than jumping into Motion Designer straight away.
By simply setting the displacement texture to a procedural and setting the
World Coordinates option, the object will appear to deform and flap around like
cloth as it moves through the 3D world.

Versions: 6.5-7.5c
879
Kevin Phillips | Deformations>Displacement | Beginner
Controlling Flapping Fabrics
For more control on a fake piece of fabric, consider painting a weight map
onto the object in Modeler to lay out how strongly you want the effect on that
point. In Layout, set up your fabric model with your displacement map as
before, then add a Gradient texture layer that uses this weight map into your dis
-
placement map texture and set it to Alpha blending mode to control the effect on
the object. Don’t forget that you are not limited to just one layer of procedural
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Deformations>Displacement
noise, and that you can animate the layers individually. This can lead to some
quite impressive effects with a little work.
Versions: 6.5-7.5c
880
Kevin Phillips | Deformations>Displacement | Beginner
Using Inertia to Flap a Flag
You can use the deformation modifier Inertia to quickly animate a flapping
flag. Weight map any vertices in your flag model that should not be affected
with a 0% value (i.e., the flagpole and where the flag joins the pole), and set the
vertices that need to be affected with 100% (i.e., the flag fabric itself).
Adjust the pivot point of the flag model to be at the pole (or at least the end
of the flag where the pole is), then apply the Inertia plug-in and set a Lag Rate of
about 0.1 s/m. Animate the flag moving about. Instant flag!
For a more realistic effect, try adding the Textured Displacement plug-in
after Inertia and applying a procedural controlled by a gradient (using the same
weight map) to add fluttering and deformation to the flag. Why another modifier
and not the displacement texture, you ask? Simple — Inertia cancels the dis

-
placement texture, but you can add it back in by reapplying the textures with
Textured Displacement after Inertia.
Versions: 6.5-7.5c
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Deformations>Displacement
Prevent the edge of a fabric from deforming by using a weight map
Character Rigging
881 Larry Shultz | Character Rigging | Intermediate to Advanced
Rigging Tips
Here are some things I see that people seem to miss:
n Deformations should be tested and tuned by posing the character in what
would be considered its most extreme poses.
n
How bone falloff, strength, multiply by rest length, etc., all work.
n
LW bones are not real bones; they are really a type of lattice deformer.
LightWave bones once activated simply work. You don’t have to pin geome
-
try to them like in XSI or Maya.
n
Characters are just a skin; they don’t have internal organs. Things must be
done to mimic the effect of having bones, guts, sinew, tendons, etc. under the
skin.
n
Polys can only bend at edges. If the edge loops (flow) are incorrect, no
amount of endomorphs or weight maps will fix bad deformations due to the
bad flow.
n
Bones only pull vertices. Once you understand that you can use it to your

advantage. Along with the third item above, this is the key to getting good
deformations with bones.
You have to think outside the typical setups you see with bones (which prob
-
ably work in the most common circumstances) if you want to see good results.
Muscle bones are example of a different way to use bones. These are typically
small bones added into areas and animated when it is desirable to see the effect
of muscles flexing.
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Character Rigging
Using inertia for flags can be enhanced with displacement
for a more realistic effect (please refer to Tips 878 and 879
on displacement).
In more complex situations it’s better to think about how the shoulder is sup
-
posed to behave and then determine what configuration of bones and settings
will get close. Part of this is remembering that we are animating a skin that sits
on top of muscle, bones, and so forth. So instead of having a single upper arm
bone, I may break that up into two or three smaller bones where each contributes
a small amount of twist to the skin.
When the arm rises, the skin simply is pulled along with the bones, so no
problems here. The same when the arm bends forward or backward. When the
arm is raised higher than parallel to the ground, the collar bone, scapula, i.e., the
shoulder girdle kicks in to raise the whole shoulder mass. Again, not a huge
problem (it’s just understanding when the arm stops rotating and when the collar
bone starts). Most of the problems come into play when you start twisting
things. When you twist your shoulder or forearm, most of the twisting of the
skin is away from the shoulder, or in the forearms case more toward the wrist.
The solution (for me at least) is to separate bones out into functions. Again,
what can bones do? They can move, rotate, and pull vertices all at the same

time. If you separate bones out into only doing one or two of these functions,
you start to see some interesting possibilities. For example, suppose you want a
rig that has IK already set up on it and maybe some expressions watching the
rotations and so on. Let’s say you want to reuse that rig in another character.
Based on the way most people approach rigging in LW this isn’t easy to do. It is
easier to do if you separate two bone functions found in one bone to two sepa-
rate bones: rotation and holding (vertices).
You set up the rig so that you have a small bone at a joint that accounts for
just rotating. A second bone off that joint is added to hold the geometry. This
means that each joint has at least two children: the hold bone and the next joint
down the hierarchy.
You can delete the hold bones, and the joint bones would still be there with
IK on them as well as any expressions that watch them. You can store this rig
with just the joint bones as a template. The hold bones can be easily added to
them by using Draw Bones in Layout or by using skelegons. The skelegons in a
character can be just the hold bones. They can be converted to bones on top of a
character’s existing bones and then simply parented to the proper joint. It’s cer
-
tainly faster than redoing IK and expressions every time. It also makes it easier
to tune the bones in Layout because you can add or delete the hold bones at will
without screwing up IK or expressions.
We can extend this idea to the twisting problem. We can have bones that are
just for holding, only rotating in the heading and pitch orientations. The next
bone down is a twist bone that holds but also only rotates in the bank, i.e.,
twists.
What happens is that the first bone that rotates but doesn’t twist will resist
the twisting of the twist bone. The bone strength and rest length (yes, rest length
can be adjusted after bones are active) can be tweaked to get the right balance
(this is done in the posed position). Further tuning can be done by adding a sec
-

ond child off the bone that rotates only in heading and pitch. This bone can
380 | Chapter 8
Character Rigging
further resist the twisting effect of the twist bone only locally. Remember that
the twist bone will have children such as the elbow.
This is very simple to do and set up. Lots of interesting things can be done
once you take this idea and run with it.
Versions: 5-8
882
Peter Thomas | Character Rigging | Beginner
Rigging Is a Job in Itself
Think of rigging as one job and don’t go off into an animation unless you
have done all you can in the rig. This will allow for animating the rig as quick
and easy as possible.
This includes locking off all the channels, objects, and bones that will not be
keyed on the character including all the channels control by IK, you don’t want
to create keys that aren’t needed when animating. This can easily be done with
Spreadsheet in LightWave 7.5 or the new Scene Editor in LightWave 8.
Go to the preset banks in the upper right of the panel and select Locked
channels. The first thing to do is lock all the scale channels. You don’t normally
key scale unless you are doing toon characters. Then lock all the bone position
channels; you most likely won’t need to move bones at all. Then lock off all the
rotation channels controlled by the IK and lock the position channels of any
nulls or control objects that you don’t want to move.
Create favorites sets for all the control objects and bones in Graph Editor
and selection sets in Scene Editor. This makes moving keys around a lot easier.
See the Buddha example on the CD.
Versions: 5-8
883
Timothy “Amadhi” Albee | Character Rigging | Intermediate

Replace with Item
You can make ultra-low-poly versions of your characters to help speed up
feedback while animating if you have a slow system or if you plan on having
many characters on-screen at once. You can use Replace With Item to swap out
your stand-in with your rendering model. (See LightWave 3D 8 Character
Animation.)
Versions: 6-8
884
Rob Powers | Character Rigging | Intermediate
Schematic View
One of the most underappreciated tools in LightWave Layout for character
rigging is the schematic view. Taking the time to properly set up a schematic
layout of your character rig will make the process of animating more of a plea
-
sure for the artists forced to use it. Try to create a schematic layout that makes
sense for easy object and bone selection. Also try to properly color-code the
bones to distinguish the left and right sides and to make it easier to view and
select them in Layout. I usually use red for the right side, green for the left, and
Animating | 381
Character Rigging
a dark blue for the central spine bones. These are my preferences, but you can
use whatever colors you prefer as long as it makes the rig easy to view in Layout
and remains consistent for each rig.
There are several plug-ins or scripts available online that will allow you to
do a Load from Scene on your rigs and maintain the schematic view setup that
you worked so hard on. One tool I have used with good effect is Load From
Scene Plus. Unfortunately, if you use Lightwave’s built-in Load from Scene on a
rig you will find that the schematic view will be lost.
Versions: 7-8
885

Jonny Gorden | Character Rigging | Beginner
Layering Models
Try to keep character models in a single layer. This helps when using expres
-
sions and keeps the object count low for better organization and ease of
navigation and selection in a scene.
Versions: 6-8
886
Peter Thomas | Character Rigging | Beginner
Easier Selection of Bones and Objects
Often when you’re working with a character rig you’ll find that small bones
can be difficult to select. Here’s an easy way to fix the problem:
Add a null to your scene and position it somewhere that will make it easy to
select. Open the Object Properties panel for the null. On the Geometry tab, click
on the Add Custom Object drop-down menu and select the Item Shape plug-in.
Double-click the plug-in to bring up its properties window and change the Shape
setting to suit your tastes. A box usually works well. Then change the size and
opacity to meet your needs. When you’re satisfied with the look of the Item
Shape, close its window along with the Object Properties panel. From the Util
-
ities tab on the main interface, select Master Plug-ins and choose ProxyPick
from the drop-down menu. Double-click on the plug-in to activate its settings.
For the Proxy Object, select the null you created. For the Target Item, choose the
bone (or any other object) you’re having trouble selecting. Finally, click on
Apply Label and close the Master Plug-ins window. Now when you click on the
null object, Layout will select the target object instead.
Keep in mind that you will no longer be able to move the actual null proxy
object. If you find that you do need to move it, simply uncheck the ProxyPick
plug-in from the Master Plug-ins panel. This will enable you to move the null to
a new location. When you’re finished, recheck the ProxyPick plug-in and you’ll

be good to go.
Versions: 5-8
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Character Rigging
887 Jonny Gorden | Character Rigging | All Levels
Weight Map Only
For character rigging you should never need to activate Bone Properties>Use
Weight Map Only.
Versions: 6-8
888
Jonny Gorden | Character Rigging | Beginner
Record Pivot Rotation
Try not to use Record Pivot Rotation as it can stuff up targeting and other
motion modifiers. Contrary to common perception you rarely need a bone to be
at 0,0,0 rest rotation.
When you do need a bone at 0,0,0 rest rotation, clone the bone, set it to 0
strength, and parent the working bone to that bone. This will give you 0,0,0 rest
rotation without using Record Pivot Rotation.
Versions: 6-8
889
Jonny Gorden | Character Rigging | Beginner
Rotation Pitch
Make the pitch of every bone the major rotation so you can make use of
Joint Compensation and muscle flexing.
Versions: 6-8
890
Jennifer Hachigian | Character Rigging | Beginner
Hinge Joints
When setting up a character, make sure all “hinge” joints (such as elbows
and knees) rotate on their pitch. That way you can take advantage of Joint Com

-
pensation to help maintain the volume of those joints when flexed.
If dealing with a joint that must rotate in more than one direction, figure out
in which direction the joint will have the greatest range and make that direction
rotate on its pitch. For example, a wrist bends farther palm-up and palm-down
than it does when rotating from side to side. Let pitch control the palm-up and
palm-down for the wrist then, in order to take advantage of Joint Compensation.
Versions: 6-7.5
891
Rob Powers | Character Rigging | Intermediate
Joint Pitch
Remember that Joint Compensation and muscle flexing only work on the
pitch of your bones. That is why it is important to make sure that the pitch is
aligned properly on arm and leg bones in your character setups. This has been
greatly simplified in LightWave 8 with the addition of the Bone Twist function
found in the Setup tools menu under Modify. This tool will eliminate much of
the guesswork of the older skelegons work flow found in earlier versions of
Animating | 383
Character Rigging
LightWave. It will allow you to interactively adjust the axis of your pitch, head
-
ing, and bank channels in Layout for every bone in your rig.
Version: 8
892
Larry Shultz | Character Rigging | Advanced
Skelegons — Bank Handles
Skelegons can be easy to draw but there are some gotchas that can cause
problems. It’s important in many cases to know and control which axis of a bone
is oriented along the pitch. There are several reasons for this. One is that bone
properties such as Joint Compensation and muscle flexing work only on the

pitch of a bone. Another reason is that it’s more or less accepted convention that
the direction a simple hinge joint works is the pitch orientation. LightWave uses
a parent-based coordinate system, which means that the orientation of a parent
bone affects the orientation of the child.
With skelegons, the plane in which a skelegon and its bank handle lie deter
-
mine the pitch. Since we are using a parent-based coordinate system, this means
that when you adjust the bank handle on a skelegon it is not adjusting the pitch
for that skelegon but for its child.
Versions: 6-8
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Character Rigging
893 Jonny Gorden | Character Rigging | Beginner
Adding Bones
You don’t have to make every bone as a skelegon. You can add bones to a
skeleton/rig in Layout.
Versions: 6-8
894
Peter Thomas | Character Rigging | Beginner
Quick, Perfect IK Targets
To create quick, perfect IK targets, create a null, turn Parent in Place off, and
parent the null to the bone that will control IK. Now turn Parent in Place on and
reparent the null to the main IK mover or scene mover.
Versions: 5-8
895
Jonny Gorden | Character Rigging | Beginner
Item Shape
Use Item Shape Custom Object (Object Properties>Geometry>Add Custom
Object) on nulls being used in your rig for easier identification and selection.
Versions: 6-8

896
Dave Jerrard | Character Rigging | All Levels
Setting Up Objects with Nulls
When you’re setting up an object that will use nulls for controls, suck as IK
goals or reference objects, make those nulls part of the object file itself. By plac-
ing a single point in an object layer, you turn that layer into a null object. Since
that null is part of the object itself, it will be difficult to accidentally lose it. This
will make the object and its controls much more transportable, especially in
terms of texture reference objects.
Versions: 6-8
897
Jennifer Hachigian | Character Rigging | Beginner
Color-Code Bones
Color-code your character’s skeleton for easier animation. Give each side of
your character’s skeleton a different color, so that you can tell in Bounding Box
mode whether your character’s coming or going. For example, make the right
arm and leg of your character red, and the left arm and leg of your character
green. Also, make any bone that you do not intend to animate gray, so that you
are less likely to select that bone. Leave the spine/neck/head bones blue. Give
the parent of the entire hierarchy a unique color from the others, such as black.
Versions: 6-7.5
Animating | 385
Character Rigging
898 Larry Shultz | Character Rigging | Intermediate
Bones
I find that how the character was modeled has a big effect on how well it
deforms, and no amount of weight mapping or hold bones seems to help much.
It’s also very difficult to know what to tweak until you figure out from your
storyboards what sorts of things the character must be able to do. Put him in the
most extreme poses you’ll encounter. From there you can determine what needs

to be fixed.
I would play around with several things (in no particular order) before going
on to weight maps:
n
Joint positions affect how geometry is deformed.
n
Hold bones are faster to add than weight maps (these can also be animated
for other effects).
n
Bone falloff (^64, ^128 give tighter results).
n
Adjust rest length after resting bones. You can see geometry grabbed or
released as you change this.
n Bone strength/multiply by rest length.
n Break single bones into two or more bones to distribute twisting. This works
well in areas other than just the forearms (shoulders for example).
n Bone orientation. People seem to always set up bones to match the way
bones are oriented in real people. 3D bones are not at all like real bones. LW
bones are a special case of lattice deformers; you put them in and they work.
Orienting bones in creative ways can yield unexpected results. Turning some
bones off and leaving others on can give interesting results.
n If you do go with weight maps, keep them simple.
Versions: 5-8
899
Peter Thomas | Character Rigging | Beginner
Stop Joint Popping
To stop joints from popping when animating your rig, make sure you draw
the knees and elbows with a bend in them. This may mean you have to edit the
model, but a good bend will set the bones’ rest position and help keep the joints
from popping and finking around when animating. Sometimes you will still get

popping with this method but that is mostly due to feet and hands being in
unnatural positions and not animating the shoulders and hips correctly.
See the Buddha example on the CD.
Versions: 5-8
900
William “Proton” Vaughan | Character Rigging | All Levels
Joint Mover
Use Joint Mover to offset the tips of bones to create joints that will help keep
your geometry stable.
Version: 8
386 | Chapter 8
Character Rigging