UB nodes

iaian7 » tutorials » lightwave   John Einselen, 26.01.09 (updated 24.08.10)    

A list of surface nodes I find especially useful, for the universal binary Lightwave 9.3+

DP Kit. A collection of node’s by Denis Pontonnier, they range from fake velvet and metal shaders to math nodes and edge effects. Some of them are a bit slow, but the Bump to Normal node is incredibly useful. More recently, extra buffer nodes have been added for customising a large number of render passes on a per-surface level. He also makes Sunsky, and many others.

Rman Collection, also by Denis, is a large variety of shaders and textures ported from Renderman.

Update March 23rd, 2010: Please note that Denis Pontonnier has taken down his entire site, on grounds that someone redistributed a plugin on the Newtek forum (which he has expressly forbidden). Keep an eye on the Newtek forum post, hopefully he brings back these crucial plugins soon.

Update April 7th, 2010: Denis’ site is back up.

Pom’s Nodes and DB&W collection, two great node sets, with math, surfacing, and other utilities. Absolutely required. Update posted here.

ChanLum was originally coded for Cinema 3D, but ported to Lightwave by a group of community members. Can simulate velvet effects or fake subsurface scattering. With all the new “official” subsurface scattering nodes in Lightwave 9.3 and 9.5, ChanLum isn’t quite as useful, but it never hurts to have options.

Grit node combines easy texturing with occlusion effects. With the right setup, it can achieve some great effects.

HOT Ocean is a Lightwave port of the Houdini Ocean Toolkit, with both displacement and texturing capabilities.

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