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Introduction: The purpose of this tutorial is to give you a quick and dirty idea how to start
playing in the fun world of trendwhore artwork. What is a trendwhore you ask?
Well that's a dang good question. Don't bother to check a dictionary but a
loose definition of a trendwhore is a style of art work that becomes trendy.
In this tutorial I'll show one type that became popular for wallpapers and for
ads. It is not the intent of this tutorial to show you the best
lighting or the definitive shading or modeling. That is what artwork is all about, being creative and adding
your own style. This method will show you one of my favorites, the crystal like ethereal glowing
trendwhore. But
the concepts used here can be used for many, many different types.
If you want to try and follow my work as close as possible I’ll add in numeric
values for all modeler processes. Note I’m using LightWave8 (LW8) to do this and I assume
you have a little experience working in LW so I’m not going to totally hand walk
you through the whole process. But be warned by the end you still will not have an exact copy of what I
create here. Sorry it just won’t happen its the random nature of some of the
modifers we will be using. Besides you should celebrate that fact. You will be forced to create a final render that is all yours.
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1 – In Modeler create a Disk.
Axis = Y
Sides = 36
Segments = 15
Center = 0, 0, 0
Radius = 1m, 4m, 1m
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2 – Switch to polygon mode. Select the two >4 polygon end caps and delete them.
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3 – For this trendwhore I wanted smooth curves so go ahead and switch your object to a
subPatch by hitting the tab key. If you took care of step two then you should not have any warnings here.
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4 – Now lets taper our cylinder. Use the Modify-Transform-Taper, click in the ‘Top’ View
at the center of the object and reduce it by 20% on both the Horizontal and Vertical axis.
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5 – Now we just start playing with the points to get something insane and fun to play with.
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6 - Modify – Transform – Jitter
Type = Radial
Range = 2m
Center = 0m, -2m, 0
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7– Modify – Rotate – Vortex Tool from the top view
Angle = 720
Axis = Y
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8 - Modify – Transform - Jitter
Type = Gaussian
Radius = 1.5m, 1m, 2m
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9 - Modify – Transform - Wrap sphere
Inner Radius = 3m
Outer Radius = 4m
Points = All
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10 - Modify – Transform – Jitter
Type = Gaussian
Radius = 1.5m, 1m, 2m
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11 - We’ll just say we are happy with this form for now. Now lets plan for some pretty
colors lacing our object. First give the overall surface a new surface name. You don’t need to worry about any
of the settings we'll deal with that in layout. But if you want to ‘try’ and see what you are doing then by all
means change your colors and the best of luck to you.
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12 - Now just start selecting strings of polygons and give them new surface names.
I created a total of 4 different surfaces including the main overall surface.
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13 – Make sure you save your new object and either send it to Layout or start up Layout
and Load you new object.
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14 - OK, it’s really not what you expect. Just give it a couple more minutes while we
create the magic. But I’m going to be a little mean here and not give you any specific numeric details except
for colors just to get you started. This is where you start creating your own work.
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15 - Move and rotate your object to taste. For me I’m just going to rotate it and then
zoom the camera in using the cameras zoom factor. Make sure you set a key for your new transforms else you’ll loose
it later.
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16 – The next thing you want to do is setup your lighting. I’m going to go cheap and just
keep the one distance light. I moved it some where so it was coming in from above and to the left.
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17 – Now switch to the lights properties.
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18 – First go into the Global Illumination and turn the ‘Ambient Intensity to 0.
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19 - Now give you light a nice pretty color. I used a bright yellow ( 255,240, 135).
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20 – Make sure its nice and bright. I gave this one an intensity of 300%
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21 – Go to the Shadows tab and turn Shadow Type to Off.
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22 – Now turn the Surface Editor on. On your first main surface give it a simple surface
somewhat like this;
Color = 140, 210, 130
Luminosity = 0.0%
Diffuse = 35.0%
Specularity = 0.0%
Reflection = 0.0%
Transparency = 85%
Refraction Index = 1.0
Translucency = 25.0%
Bump = 100%
Check Smoothing on
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23 – Now lets add a gradient to the Luminosity channel by clicking the ‘T’ button for Luminosity.
Set the Layer Type = Gradient
Parameter = Incidence Angle
Value = 300%
Alpha = 100%
Parameter = 0.0
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The higher you set the Value here the brighter that normal edge will be (hint hint)
Now add a new gradient key and change its values to:
Value = 0.0%
Alpha = 0.0%
Parameter = 90.0
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Select Use Texture. If you want even tighter brighter edges add a third gradient key.
Value = 0.0%
Alpha = 0.0%
Parameter = 50.0
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24 – The easiest thing to now is to Right click on the ‘Surface Name’ of the surface you just
modified. Select Copy. Now select all the Surfaces (Shift + Left Click). Right
Click and select ‘Paste’.
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25 – Now just go into each surface and change the colors to something bight and pretty. I used a nice
yellow (255, 253, 154), blue (114, 121, 222) and magenta (253, 051, 123).
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26 – Now just set up your camera the way you want it and render away.
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27 – A couple of quick tips for a better render. Set the Objects ‘Render SubPatch Level (Object Properties
panel) to 4 or higher or in Modeler ‘Freeze’, your object and then re
sub’d it. On your Render Options. Turn ‘Extra Ray Tracing Optimization’
off, Lower the ‘Ray Recursion Limit’ to 6-10. And you do not need to turn
Ray Trace Transparency on. Play with it to see which you like better.
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28 - For the camera I seta custom width and height to fit the object better. Zoom in nice and tight. The
higher you set the aa the better.
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29 – Now render away.
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30 – Now for extra fun lets add some glow to really give it a punch. Open the Windows-Image Processing.
Check ‘Enable Glow’
Intensity = 75%
Glow Radius = 2.0 pixels
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31 – You’re not done yet.
You have yet to tell your scene who gets the glow. Re-open your Surface-Editor
if you have closed it Then select a surface you want to add a glow to. Switch to
the Advanced tab. Then set ‘Glow Intensity’ = 55%. I personally set a glow
to each surface except the main surface.
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32 – Once you finish your render make sure you save your new work. This is a great start and in fact
your image might just well be exactly what you want. If not Photoshop can really
give life to these works with some playing. I’m not going to go into Photoshop I let you have fun with that.
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33 – These settings like everything else are not set in stone settings. Play around with everything.
Change the Refraction index, add a Bump map or even add reflections. Add
gradients or even procedurals to your color channel. Try adding Shaders such as interference.
Thin Film, Fresnels, ect. There’s no laws that says it has to be transparent either. Try a
metallic surface, clay, soft cel-shading, ect.
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- As for the objects themselves. Basically all we did
was create a simple object and then distorted the heck out of it. You can do
this with any object. Make it as simple or complex as you like, make it sub
patched or keep it rough and sharp edged.
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- Remember we used very cheap lighting in this scene. Try using different light setups.
You might even think about adding a little radiosity in there. Go on, be adventurous.
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- Hey you want to have some real fun. After creating your object. Create a couple endomorphs and
tweak the heck out of the object again. Then in Layout add MorphMixer and animate your trendwhore. Talk about some
psychedelic fun!
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- What you say there is no practical purpose for this. Anybody seen ‘The Core’? Take a look at
the shuttle re-entering the earth’s atmosphere. Look closer. Look familiar? How about logos, News commercials, magazine
ad layoutd logos, borders, ect. What about Xmen 2’s Nightcrawler? Anybody thinking particles yet!?! (Hint create your
object, setup your morphs. Then create particles emitting from the object then make sure your object itself does not
get rendered.) Stay tuned I'll probably create a quick tut on a Nightcrawler-esque effect later
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Final render without Glow Final render with Glow
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Now little ninjas go, let loose, create, and be happy!
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Project Files: TWProjFiles.zip
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Please feel free to contact me with any question or comments: aurora@auroragrafx.com
Note of Clarification: I wrote this quick tutorial in response to a few Emails I received asking how other types of
trendwhoresque images where created. These other works were/are displayed at the SpinQuad forums. SpinQuad is the premier
LightWave web forum hosted by William 'Proton' Vaughan. If you have not visited SpinQuad I highly recommend you check it out.
SpinQuad
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