Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: Waffle on January 15, 2005, 07:02:38 PM
-
Just curious if anyone here is practiced in the art of 3d modeling.
I've been messing around some with 3D Studio max - Luckiliy My brother in law (arch lighting designer) had a version they dont use at work anymore (all autocad and lightwave), which I now have possesion of :)
Anyway - I've just been doing simple objects / buildings to get the feel of things and what not. (can't even begin to contemplate complex curves as you would see in an aircraft)
Anyway - Right now I'm sorta at a loss on creating custom textures for these objects. Is the standard practice to render an elevation or view (left, right, front, back, ect....)
then take those rendered bitmaps and then combine those onto a single bitmap and then proceed to do your 2d artwork.
Once thats done - I take it this is where I have to select an object and then apply the bitmap I created. This is where it starts geting fuzzy for me.....
lmao - Great way to spend a saturday night though :)
Anyway - just throwing some lines out to see if anyone could explain this a little better.
-
Fester got remarkably good at it.
I have a bit of experience with it but I'd be of little help to you as I'm a lousy teacher.
-
3dsmax has a modifier called unwrap UVW. this will "unwrap" the polygons on your model to a 2d bitmap image, which you have already created. you can then move verticies around for individual faces, to get them to line up properly with the bitmap.
You can also render elevations then paint on those. Here is a simple example. Lets say you have just a simple cube. you could render out all 6 sides of it from an orthographic view, then paint whatever on those images. go back into max, and create a multi-subobject material type. this allows you to have more than one bitmap on a single mesh object.you will then tell that material that there are 6 different material types for that one multisub material type. load the images into each individual material. you would then apply an edit mesh modifier to the cube. go into subobject face mode on the edit mesh modifier and select one face. Towards the bottom of the roll out on the right hand side of the screen is a material ID number that you can change while you still have that face selected. number each individual face 1-6, being sure to corespond which face gets which number depending on how they are numbered in the material editor. you can then exit sub-object mode, apply a UVW map set to box. Finally apply the multi-sub material to the cube and you will be all done.
Also lets say you have a little more complicated model, where box mapping wont work for all sides of it. When you apply a UVW map it also has a material ID setting on it. If you change this to lets say 2, then that UVW modifier will only apply mapping for bitmaps assigned number 2 as a material ID.
Imagine a cylinder cut in half vertically so one side is a flat wall, and the other side is arc shaped. Using the above method you could appy a planar type UVW map to the flat wall surface with a Mat ID of 1, and you could then have Cylindrical type UVW mapping applied to the curved side with a Mat ID of 2.
Hope this helps
-
hell if it's that easy no wonder fester could do it
-
Cool - that was easy enough..lol Took awhile to figure out what buttons and order to get it to do what i wanted it to do Always remember to have the modidier HIGHLIGHTED...lwhen you're trying to work with it - Lmao! After the first wall - the rest was pretty easy.
Anyway - Heres what I'm working on - a control tower. This is just the shell with the texture maps I made applied.
(http://www.dangreve.com/images/tower1.jpg)
-
That's pretty good waffle.
I've been using 3dsmax 4 on my spare time. I've managed to make the typhoon1b in 3d. Textured it using the same textures as HTC. But, to be a perfectionist, I'd need to double the amount of time aready spent in order for me to make it perfect. I usually spend 10 hours a month with 3dsmax. Box modeling is fun. NURB modeling is awesome and yet frustrating at the same time. Right now I'm modeling kermit the frog so I can have a cool looking pilot to go with my typhy. I'll post some pics and maybe a movie sometime this year.
-
Used Lightwave and Imagine.
Both of these have procedural textures don't know if 3d max has.
-
WTF!!!
I can't find the Material ID on the UVW submap.
Can you guys help?
I mean I have a really good start. I think it's pretty realistic, just needs tweaking.
(http://www.bops.us/images/tower.gif)
-
Here after adding a fewthings to it.
(http://www.dangreve.com/images/tower2.jpg)
-
Nice job. Looks professional to me. wtg.
-
Excellent job, don't forget your LODs.
LOD = Level Of Detail
explained here http://home.sprynet.com/~drawlins/AI_aircraft/AI_aircraft.html
Althoguh it's for aircraft the method and reason is valid for all objects.
-
You can use a modifier to create LOD's. I think it's the optimize modifier. But I forgot how to link each version of each model so that any program can use the LOD's. Try going into help and type "level of detail" and if I remember correctly, there is actually a button with "LOD" on it.
-
Nice steep learning curve to this...lmao.
Thinking if there's gonna be a 3d editor in the new Terrain Editor - we're gonna need a 3d forum..
Anyway - I think it came out good for a first "official" run at building something, definitely something to be said for just jumping in to learn how to swim. Learn by doing and making mistakes.
LOD is one thing i'll look into....sounds good for another evening's class...probably will be nessecary if we are able to design 3d object for in game use.
BTW - I noticed you can see LOD in use ingame - I haven't look at all models, but on the b24 - if you zoom out - you can see it when you zoom out, especially on the engine nacelles from the front. Will have to look at the buildings.
EDIT: Just looked in game - can see the LOD change on the b24s, but didn't see it on the fighters - nor older bombers / or buildings.
-
the bomber drones are permanent low LODs AFAIR.
-
Bomber drones change LOD also. Zoom in/out on the runway - while looking at them - then jump to tail gun and look.
-
If anyone is interested, anim8or is a great easy to use free 3d modeler thats great for getting your feet wet. It has an easy to use UV tool and exports/imports to all the popular 3d formats. It has great support via forums and chatroom.
http://www.anim8or.com (http://www.anim8or.com)
-
My first "Wheel" 3d model...lmao - no pun intended..
Combat rims :)
Damn this stuff is going to take a long time to learn. Kinda like when I was learning photoshop...I could get the results, just didn't know there were ways to get the same results in about 1/4 of the time...lol
(http://www.dangreve.com/images/wheel.jpg)
-
Nice wheel.
You make it with a spline and then loft it?
Then did you make one screw and then use 2 arrarys to spread the screws around?
-
HEY!!!! Fellow audio geek.
Wanna practice by building an OC room background for
http://www.ahtechhangar.com
The one I have is generic and need some art work to make them more,.... well military type. The one I have I can use I just need to edit it, it has some goofy things in it I need to remove. But before I do I thought I'd toss it to you to make a more custom one if you'd like to,... from the community.
If so, e-mail me at
animal@ahtechhangar.com
or
animl@sbcglobal.net
I haven't cut loose the sight for the community yet, it needs some tweaks, but 90% is done. It's there, I just haven't advertised it yet.
animl
Originally posted by Waffle BAS
Just curious if anyone here is practiced in the art of 3d modeling.
I've been messing around some with 3D Studio max - Luckiliy My brother in law (arch lighting designer) had a version they dont use at work anymore (all autocad and lightwave), which I now have possesion of :)
Anyway - I've just been doing simple objects / buildings to get the feel of things and what not. (can't even begin to contemplate complex curves as you would see in an aircraft)
Anyway - Right now I'm sorta at a loss on creating custom textures for these objects. Is the standard practice to render an elevation or view (left, right, front, back, ect....)
then take those rendered bitmaps and then combine those onto a single bitmap and then proceed to do your 2d artwork.
Once thats done - I take it this is where I have to select an object and then apply the bitmap I created. This is where it starts geting fuzzy for me.....
lmao - Great way to spend a saturday night though :)
Anyway - just throwing some lines out to see if anyone could explain this a little better.
-
Just curious if you had tried this one Waffle?
http://www.rhino3d.com/
I rather like this pic, modeled in rhino and rendered in Flamingo
(http://gallery.mcneel.com/fullsize/14216.jpg)
NOT my work lol. This is an example from the Rhino website.
-
Nice stuff, Waffle. :)
-
i used rhino way back, didnt know it was still around. good too see tho.
-
I used the line/spline and drew a 1/2 cross section, then mirrored it and lathed it. then cloned that and attached it.
The tire was an odd ball one - I made a box, then made(4) tread pieces. Joined the tread pieces to the box - then cloned attached that section multiple time until I had a long thread length...then bend 360 until round. Srews and stuff were done by adding a circle - then having the screws "follow" the path of the circle.
Like I said - probably an easier way to do it with less polly counts, but still learning here :)
-
The new terrain editor will be using ac3d so you might want to get used to it.
You can check it out Here >> (http://www.ac3d.org/)
-
I'm taking Ac3d will be built in to the terrain editor? I imagine that would be the way the licensing fee would work.
Anyway, I believe the new TE will use .X objects, which can be transferred in from any program - just not Ac3d... -
If not, Ac3d can import most files built in other programs, so should be a non-issue.
Again - would be nice to find out the details.