[Rad1anc3]

I have a question for the Employees of Simplylightwave.com. My school needs lightwave tutorials. Unfortunatley, the way the points system works here at Simply Lightwave, my school doesn't want to go along with it. Right now, I'm taking an Independent Study in Lightwave, and the only way we can learn is through online tutorials. So my question is, Is it possible to sustain a Lifetime membership for my school and that way we can have access to all the tutorials, and all the new tutorials? I know it is a lot to ask for the people who actually profit from the site, but it is much needed and would be much appreciated. Right now the only really good tutorials my teach was able to get was Dan Ablans Signature Courseware v9 (which was excellent btw!). But now, were required to free style and go off skimpy, online text tutorials. I wan't to be very good at lightwave since I plan on it being a career. Thanks!

Edit : Not very many students take this class (right now theres 3 in the class with a school of 1500), but these tutorials would be so helpful for us students, and we just don't have the money to purchase them

[Mark]

The site used to run a lifetime membership option, but had to discontinue it for legal reasons so some such I believe.

You could always order the tutorials on DVD (click the DVD link in the top menu. This gets you the tutorials shipped on a physical disc, and what's more you can buy them for real money rather than having to go through the points system.

[Rad1anc3]

Ya we talked about this, but the problem with that is that my school is looking for up-to-date tutorials, like when a new version of lightwave comes out, the tutorials are also up to date. Plus the DVD's are almost double the price of the tutorial Non-DVD and I don't think my school is willing to spend that much. If it IS in fact possible to get this "Lifetime Membership", It would help out our school so much.

[Mark]

The DVDs are the same videos as you'll find for downloads except in an uncompressed format (so I believe) and therefore higher quality video - apart from that, they're exactly the same as those available on the site.

You'll find that all the tutorials on the site though aren't updated when a new release of LW comes out (for example the Stratocaster tutorial is geared towards v7.5 of the application).

The thing to remember is with any tutorial, you should be looking for the techniques that the tutor is using rather than the explicit mechanics of operating the toolset - otherwise all you've learned is how to operate a specific tool in a specific situation which will never make you a good modeller/animator/texture artist/etc.

For instance, I no longer use Lightwave at all. I'm using Modo for any modelling work I do, yet I still refer to the LW tutorials I've taken from here when I need to figure out how to do something - in exactly the same way I'll seek out good XSI, Maya, 3DS, ZBrush tutorials as well even though I don't use (and in some cases have never used) those tools.

[Rad1anc3]

I understand what your saying Mark, but in my Independent study, the only program we have to work with is LW3D v 9.2

This doesn't necessarily limit us on what we can learn, because you obviously can take skills from one modeling program (like LW) and transfer over to others with great ease, as long as you have the technics, but thats where the problem is. We aren't able to learn a variety of technics, because were limited to Dan Ablans Singature Courseware, and thats it. Me and my classmates (which is 3 including me LOL) just want to learn. We LOVE computer graphics with a passion, and even more, love the 3d aspect and the rendering and the lighting, etc. We just want to learn, and I fell like we can't do that because we have to do basically everything on our own.

[Mark]

I hear ya. I'm not too certain which of the tutorials are specifically geared towards 9.x to be honest (possibly the Glass texturing tutorial and that's about it) I think all the others were done in versions prior to 9.

Still, LW has not changed too significantly in many, many versions so you'll find tutorials geared towards version 7 onwards should still be pretty much valid (ok, some of the tools will have moved or been renamed but that's about it).

If all you're wanting to do is learn the mechanics of operating Lightwave, then the manual is good (if a little dry). You would also benefit from Dan Ablan's Inside Lightwave book - a tome that should be on every LightWaver's shelf.

There are also some very good (and free) videos hosted over at Newtek.com created by William "Proton" Vaughn which look at the application and operation of individual tools within the application.

Failing that, there are some very good (and free) tutorials available on this site to keep you going in the meantime.

[Rad1anc3]

Ya I know, but they aren't very man resourceful free tutorials out there and the ones on Newtek are more mechanic than anything. I'm looking for project video's (like Dan Ablans crate tutorial) where me and my classmates can learn technique. I was hoping this website could provide that

Originally posted by Rad1anc3 Ya I know, but they aren't very man resourceful free tutorials out there and the ones on Newtek are more mechanic than anything. I'm looking for project video's (like Dan Ablans crate tutorial) where me and my classmates can learn technique. I was hoping this website could provide that

I agree with you,I think you are right,good luck to you guy!

[Rad1anc3]

thx man, appreciate the support

[Rad1anc3]

Is my situation every going to get looked at? Or are my classmates and I stuck doing online tuts all our lives