Recently I found a copy of LightWave 6.5 on eBay for cheap. Thanks to a small vacation, I first installed LightWave late friday night. I played around with it for a bit, punching out the occasional test render, until I believed I had reached the “Mediocrely competant” stage of still rendering experiance.

I’ve decided that, until I get the hang of Lightwave, I’m going to try to recreate some of my older renders, made with Ray Dream Studio 5.5. I can’t seem to find my original description of this first picture, but it had something to do with a pair of White Stars being ambushed by the Shadows, at which point one opened a Jump Point while the other attacked the shadows to buy time so they can both escape.

Anyway, here’s the original Ray Dream render.

Credits: White Star, Jumppoint, and nebula: Kier Darby, Shadow ship: Nadab Göksu.

And here is the Lightwave version.

I’m not quite happy with the LightWave picture, so in case someone else shares my feelings, I’ll let it be known that the first picture was done with at least eight months experience in Ray Dream, while the new one is the benefit of two days of experience with LightWave. And thanks to the magic of LightWave scenes (beautiful, tiny LightWave scenes, that don’t store all of the data internally), I can revisit it after I get a bit more proficient.

Addendum- August 28, 2002

Here’s another one that, while based on the same theme, with the same objects and all that, turned out a lot differently. Here’s the original description.
On it’s trial run, Blue Star 1, escorted by two White Stars, tests it’s new micro jump engine. The small point opens and remains stable during the transports passage, allowing the Blue Star and the Micro Vortex Generator to come into mass production.

White Star, Nebula, and Jumppoint by Kier Darby.
Blue Star by James Reading.

Here are the two pictures.

January 21, 2001, rendered w/Ray Dream Studio

August 27, 2002, rendered w/Lightwave