Short:        BSG Colonial ViperMk2 for Lightwave 5
Author:       Klearchos Gourgourinis (Muadib)
Uploader:     muadibas25 hotmail com (Muadib)
Type:         pix/3dobj
Version:      1.0
Architecture: generic
Distribution: Aminet



ABOUT
-----

This archive contains objects, textures and scenes of the iconic Viper Mk2 
as depicted in the Reimagined Battlestar Galactica.

A promo-example video I made of it can be watched here: 

https://youtu.be/qh85Q1ITfHA


The original model is made by Sean Kennedy a.k.a. "Treybor" 
(http://www.seansgallery.com), it is to be used for private use only and 
cannot be used commercially. Credit must be given to the original artist 
when and if images or animations use the model.

All other models (thruster jets, flames, bullets, conversion corrections, 
material changes) as well as scenes are done by me, "muadib", and they are 
also to be used for private use only and cannot be used commercially. 
Credit must be given to the artist when and if distributed images or 
animations use the model.



DETAILS
-------

Some time ago I had stumbled upon Sean's on Foundation3D.com homepage
and started playing around with it on LW 9. Yet, I was always attracted 
by the idea to convert it to LW 5 format for the Amiga and show that stuff 
that was done in BSG's video FX can also be done on the Amiga, so I started 
converting it during Summer '17.

The model layers were very accurate and bound together nicely but I had to 
bind them all under an extra Null Object called "*-Correction Null-*" in 
order to re-orient the Viper's bow-stern along the Z-axis (doing it in 
Modeled resulted in all the textures facing 90 degrees wrong, and I didn't 
want to spend time re-orienting all images), as well as scale the object to
its correct proportions.

I also wanted to have the stars to be reflected from the cockpit glass 
as well, so after experimenting with Reflection maps I finally made a big
Starsphere with repeating star pattern image of the original stars present
on the promo screens, that have the advantage of realistically being 
Motion-Blurred and Depth-of-Fielded.

After some more detail-corrections and readjustments the object was ready
to animate... I then modelled the RCS thruster jets, main thruster flames, 
lights, but I needed a way to animate the bullets... 

Enter Sparks! Nozzle objects had to be introduced so I actually had to 
record their positions and rotations frame-by-frame (!!) since the nozzles 
should not be children of the main object, but have their own motion paths 
instead.

After that, I had to watch BSG battle scenes again and again (and again) 
just to understand HOW THE FRAK the bullets were modelled and fired. I found
a nice still, modelled the bullet object, read about projectile speeds and
rate-of-fire and tried to render, only to find after a while that the 
bullets were excluded from being Motion Blurred (a newer LW feature). Not
losing faith, I quickly came up with solving this, too, by rendering the 
bullets alone on a seperate scene with only 5% MB, hence the 3 Weapon 
scenes included in the archive.

When I was ready and after fine-tuning stuff here and there, I contacted 
Treybor as well as the great Richard Gibbs (that wrote the music for the BSG
MiniSeries I am using on the promo video) Epic, huh?!



REQUIREMENTS
------------

A fast Amiga with at least 64 MB of Fast Ram and a working LightWave 5.0 
installation. However, More than ~100MB memory is required for the _promo_ 
scenes.

The scenes and objects could be working on earlier or later LW versions in 
other platforms, although I haven't tested it.



INSTALLATION
------------

Just extract the archive into your 3D: directory. 



COPYRIGHT
---------

You are free to use the objects or scenes for your renderings, as long as
you mention the respective creators in your credits, if you plan on 
uploading images or animations on the internet. The archive may not be 
uploaded neither as a whole or in parts to other repository other than 
Aminet unless you ask me first. 



Feel free to mail me if you liked it or have any questions, 
I'd be happy to help! 



Happy renderings,

Klearchos Gourgourinis a.k.a. Muadib
Email: muadibas25@hotmail.com
Vimeo channel: https://vimeo.com/user1811008
Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfZA2AYHPTJpDm4cjoKjysw

Original model by Sean Kennedy a.k.a. Treybor
http://www.seansgallery.com

Original music by Richard Gibbs
http://www.richardgibbsmusic.com

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