[catsserv]

Hello, I am a brand new novice to cgi and got a project to do on a trial download, therefore my time is very limited and I dont know where to find my answers. I would greatly appreciate assistance in the following problem I have.
I must take an image of free hand text scan it into pc and import the scan to lightwave to make neon text. How do I import the scanned image into modeler ??? The image is saved in jpeg at present.
Any advice? Please help

[Mark]

Unfortunately I don't have LW installed on my machine at present so I'm going from Memory, but you won't be able to use the image directly in LW for generating a neon sign effect.

Essentially, you'll need to get the image into the system as a background template so use the display options panel ('o' is the shortcut key if I remember correctly) and in there there should be a tab which allows you to customise the background image for the selected viewport. Its here that you want to import your image and size it accordingly.

Once this is in the system, you'll need to use a variety of tools to trace the text and form the correct geometry for it - I guess your best option for neon text would be to use the curves tools to trace a curve along the outline of each letter then extrude a disc along the curve to make the actual tubing geometry.

After the geometry is correct, assign an appropriate surface to it and send it over to layout for lighting, surface detailing and rendering.


[Edit] The following links might help you:
http://www.simplylightwave.com/movie...tml?tut_id=503 - A video tutorial on this very site which tells you how to set up background templates.

http://www.members.shaw.ca/lightwavetutorials - A repository of links to a variety of Lightwave resources (there's certainly a link in there on how to create neon text in LW but this relies on importing a vector file from illustrator, but might be of use to you).