The London Lightwave User Group

Welcome 'wavers!

The London Lightwave User Group is an informal band of graphics types whose main tool is Lightwave 3D (and related apps - Modo, Zbrush, Maxwell etc). We talk about anything that takes our fancy, and it's mostly 3D graphics, though not restricted to graphics alone.

Currently, we don't tend to have anything formal arranged in terms of what happens, though people frequently bring along laptops or photos to show what they've working on. We did have a very impressive demo from Ben Haines of Preset Central one time though, Whatever you like! All levels of ability are welcome, from "ooh that’s a nice picture" to discussing the mathematics of subsurface scattering algorithms, We are a very constructive bunch!

We normally meet up every 6-8 weeks and try to have a mix of tech demos and general socialising. And beer!

We've set up a facebook group here. And of course, we also frequent the Newtek forums here.

News and Announcements

Win a copy of LWCAD! (posted 05-02-10)

I've just been informed that the folks at the International Lightwave 3D User Group and W Tools are giving away a free copy of LWCAD to one lucky person. They're doing a free webinar with Rob Powers about his work on AVATAR. Simply register and watch it on the coming Saturday, February 13th to be in with a chance of winning.

January 2010 Event (updated 27-01-10)

After an interminably long hiatus, the LLWUG returns on Friday the 29th of January 2010! The long wait means we have lots of interesting stuff to show and discuss - including:

Core 2010 Q1R1
LWCAD 3.5
And a ton of new plugins for After Effects - including the new Optical Flares from VideoCopilot.

If you want to show any work, then bring it on a USB stick or a DVD-R.

So, the plan is ( as always):

Meet at the Grid24 office - which you can find on my website - about 6pm.

Then about 7.30-8ish (depending on how much stuff gets demoed) we head down to the Blue Posts (just down the road from us) for more beers. So, if people turn up later - you'll find us there instead. BTW, don't mix it up with the other Blue Posts pub near carnaby street! it's the one on Berwick Street.

Update - here's some pics from the event:

Demoing... um... something Lightwave-related!

A few beers afterwards at The John Snow (the Blue Posts was a bit rammed that night!)

24-07-09 : July Meetup

At long last - it returns! We have Modo 401, Core Q3R1 and Particular 2 (for After Effects) to demo. If you want to show any work, then bring it on a USB stick or a DVD-R.

So, the plan:

Meet at my office - which you can find on my website - about 6pm.

03-04-09 : April Meetup

It's been a while since our last event, which means that we want to make this one very special indeed!

We should have a lot to talk about - and hopefully an actual live copy of Lightwave Core to play with. I'm happy to host the event at my office again. I'll try and grab a few beers in advance, but if anyone else wants to bring any, there's a couple of supermarkets nearby. If you want to show any work, then bring it on a USB stick or a DVD-R.

We may have some interesting demos to show besides CORE. Scott, who attended the February event, may be able to give us a Modo demo. And I can do a demo of After Effects as well as showing how to integrate it with Lightwave using Al Street's transmotion tools.

So, the plan:

Meet at my office - which you can find on my website - about 6.30pm, we can hang out there for a bit, show off our recent work, have a general chinwag about LW (and maybe share some knowledge if you wanna demo anything using the copy on my MacPro).

Then about 8ish (depending on how much stuff gets demoed) we head down to the Blue Posts (just down the road from us) for more beers. So, if people turn up later - you'll find us there instead. BTW, don't mix it up with the other Blue Posts pub near carnaby street! it's the one on Berwick Street.

05-02-09 : Core details announced

Well... "Core" blimey indeed. Despite a server meltdown balls-ing up the big launch and a demo video that looks like it was made by a community college, CORE really does look like it'll deliver the goods. For those who haven't hunted it out yet, check out the TechFAQ here. Look forward to talking to you 'wavers tomorrow about the implications of this.

03-02-09 : February Meetup details - "Core" blimey!

Well at time of writing, everyone's getting mightly excited by whatever it is NewTek are going to announce tomorrow night at 9pm GMT. What'll it be? Well Lightwave 10 obviously :) But what zarjaz features can we expect to see - Instancing? Referencing? A history stack? Tea and Toast making capabilities? Who knows. This month's meetup begins at 6pm onwards at the offices of Dan Sollis (me!) - where we can go over the revelations in fine-grained detail. And maybe have a play with the now-finished 9.6 - yeah, I know it'll lose its lustre after the announcement - but there's some very nice stuff in this latest version of LW.

Since the December meetup worked out rather well, we'll do things the same way as before. Which is:

Assemble at my office - which you can find on my website - about 6pm-ish, we can hang out there for a bit, show off our recent work, have a general chinwag about LW (and maybe share some knowledge if you wanna demo anything using the copy on my Mac).

Then about 7 to 8ish (depending on how much stuff gets demoed) we head down to the Blue Posts (just down the road from us) for more beers. So, if people turn up later - you'll find us there instead. BTW, don't mix it up with the other Blue Posts pub - near carnaby street! it's the one on Berwick Street.

Exciting times - See y'all there!

05-12-08 : Xmas Meetup details

Well, we won't be having a LW bash on the last day of THIS month, for obvious reasons. So for everyone who wants to catch up and talk LW, CG and just about anything else, tonight is your last chance in 2008!

The plan is to assemble at my office - which you can find on my website - about 6pm-ish, we can hang out there for a bit, show off some recent work, have a general chinwag about LW (and maybe share some knowledge if you wanna demo anything using the copy on my Mac).

28-10-08 : October Meetup details

Here's the flyer!

October's meetup is this friday (31st October), 6ish and onwards, at the Phoenix bar. Beer and 3D graphics are on the menu, as usual! Lightwave Pumpkin graphic by Dan Sollis.

23-09-08 : September Meetup

September's meetup is this friday (26th September), 6ish and onwards, at the Phoenix bar (same as last month - details below).

29-08-08 : August Meetup

The last friday of the month kind of crept up on us - August meetup is tonight (29th Aug), 6ish and onwards, at the Phoenix bar near cavendish square (about 1 minute from Oxford Circus station). - link

25-07-08 : July Meetup

This friday's meetup is at The Phoenix, near cavendish square - link - from 6.30pm onwards. See you there!

25-06-08 : June Meetup (the proper one)

It looks like we'll be at the Light Bar in Shoreditch for this friday's (june 27th) event. For those who don't know the area, it's about a 10 minute walk from Liverpool Street station (and also near Old St. station).

There should be a bunch of Cityscape3D lightwavers there from 5-ish onwards. I'll be down there about 6.30-7ish

06-06-08 : Location (sort of ) Confirmed

I've now confirmed it's OK to host at least the start of Friday's event at my office in Berwick Street. So, if people want to come over from about 6.30pm onwards that would be great. The address is:

3rd Floor (company name - Grid24)
36 Berwick Street
London W1F 8RR

And to re-iterate, feel free to bring along videos/pics of your work if you want to demo it on the computers here. If I have time I'll try and pick up a crate of beers in advance, but if not, there's a newsagents a few doors down that sells booze :)

If anyone arrives late and we've already decamped to a local pub, then give me (Dan) a call on 07957 618172 to find us

03-06-08 : Next Event - Friday, June 6

We are having an event on Friday- location unconfirmed at this stage, but obviously a central London location. We're hoping to start the evening in my office in Berwick street, to enable everyone to have a chance of showing off their latest work, but this is currently unconfirmed. If not, we hope to have a laptop with us - so bring along Quicktimes/AVIs/MPEG4s of your work if you want to have it featured - ideally on USB memory stick, otherwise CD/DVD-R.

28-04-08 : Photo from the April event

Thanks to everyone who came to April's LLWUG event, it was great seeing so many well-known NT forum dwellers in the real world! Cheers Scott (lw id: samartin) for taking this great group shot. I'll put this on the Facebook page too, so everyone can tag their names on - which could be handy for new people coming along to future events!

LLWUG April 08

21-04-08 : April Meetup

Our next meetup is scheduled for Friday 25th April, the venue is The Angel pub - Google maps link - near Covent Garden / Charing Cross road. People usually start arriving from 6.30 onwards. We'll try and put a printed LW logo on our table to highlight the group to newcomers - otherwise just keep your ears peeled for talk of Sub-D's, Catmull Clark and IES lighting!

We're keen to supplement these gatherings with commercial sponsorship from vendors who may be interested in demonstrating LW-related products or services. And of course if anyone - individuals or companies - wants to do a presentation (to share some knowledge, or to just show off!), get in touch