camera question
 

I know this is probably not the place to ask this question, but I have no idea where to put it...so here goes... I saw a commercial where the camera moved around a person stepping in a water puddle splashing water in the air and the picture froze while the camera continued to move around the person in a complete 360 degree motion. Does anyone know where to go to find out more on this effect ?

Is that the same as The Matrix Bullet-time effect?

yes

these are done using special camera setups with about 100 cameras in a ring which all take photos rapidly thus giving the effect that time has stood still while the cameras are spinning

Rent the Matrix and check out the spceial features there is a little bit on the "Martix effect" or its sometimes called "Time Slice".

I've seen that advert and yep, its done by posistion loads of cameras around the action. If you want to do this completely in Lighwave, its easy.

To do this just animate the scene like normal but pause it for the bit where you want to active 'Bullit Time'. This means you will have animated action, pause and then more animated action continuing. Then go back and as soon as the pause starts rotate the camera around the object (paused). When the pause stops, stop the camera movement. This will give a nice 'Bullit Time' effect with only one camera. If you want to do this with live action, you'll have to go out and buy a few more cameras.