Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: Einstine909 on January 26, 2007, 06:11:08 pm

Title: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: Einstine909 on January 26, 2007, 06:11:08 pm
Hopefully this dosn't turn out like the last thing i did...

This is what i have... it is frame 50 of 70, from here it fades out.
(http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o93/Einstine909/Hardlight/Shockwave0050.jpg)
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: Huggybaby on January 26, 2007, 06:17:05 pm
That looks awesome! Now, where are the first 49 frames?
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: IPAndrews on January 26, 2007, 06:24:23 pm
Man that's cool looking. TBP would like to assimilate this for it's EMP weapons. As I'm sure would every other mod on this site.
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: Einstine909 on January 26, 2007, 06:33:24 pm
here is frame 25...

(http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o93/Einstine909/Hardlight/Shockwave0025.jpg)
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: Mefustae on January 26, 2007, 08:46:54 pm
So it sort of 'pulsates' as it expands a la retail shockwaves?
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: Vengence on January 26, 2007, 10:01:57 pm
c'mon, lets see the full animation! I'm pretty sure an animated GIF file can be shown here :)
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: Snail on January 27, 2007, 02:56:25 am
Could this be made into a 3d shock?
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: Einstine909 on January 27, 2007, 11:09:24 am
yes it could :nod:

I can just replace the 3d shockwave texture with this one.

I will post it once i get is looking good. the only problem is that the fading frames are an exact copy of 50. I want the tail end of the shockwave to catch up to the rest and then fade out.

This is the base image... the RGB curve is very thin /\____ It moves from this to the whiter values. __/\__ and ends like this ____/\
(http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o93/Einstine909/Hardlight/ShockBase.jpg)
so this gives me a B&W image that i change the white to blue

I am curantly using photoshop and Blender. Im using Blender's Compositing to replicate the RGB curves and levels so i can automate the animation. Photoshop is used for everything before that. last time i checked, Photoshop didn't have a plus 1 in its automation.
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: Wanderer on January 27, 2007, 11:19:27 am
Please release also 2D shockwave version of this one. 3Ds look good only from certain angles
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: CP5670 on January 27, 2007, 12:15:35 pm
Does the game support multiple types of shockwaves? This would make a nice addition to the media VPs for bomb shockwaves (especially the Helios) in that case.
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: Einstine909 on January 27, 2007, 12:50:31 pm
Done! :p

this is the movie file not the finished .vp's
http://www.filefactory.com/file/d09508/

I will make two verisons, one for 2d and one for 3d

if an one has a better free file host please tell me!
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: Huggybaby on January 27, 2007, 05:44:42 pm
Dangit, I can't find the free download link.

I'll try later and probably see it.

I've been uploading to MediaFire.com with good success, and of course Rapidshare.com, with all its problems, is still the industry standard.
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: Turey on January 27, 2007, 05:59:11 pm
Done! :p

this is the movie file not the finished .vp's
http://www.filefactory.com/file/d09508/

I will make two verisons, one for 2d and one for 3d

if an one has a better free file host please tell me!

www.mydatabus.com
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: Einstine909 on January 27, 2007, 07:28:09 pm
if some one would be kind enough to do me a huge favor and do two things...
1. how do i get rid of the 3d shockwave?
2. can some one uvmap a new 3d shockwave to use this texture?

if anyone could do this it would help a lot
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: Wanderer on January 28, 2007, 04:10:23 am
You should be able to place 'none' to the Shockwave Model line in the table files and then just place the 2d effects name to the Shockwave Name line
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: Huggybaby on January 28, 2007, 11:30:56 am
You can replace mv_adveffects with this file to remove the 3D shockwave:
http://huggybaby.fs2downloads.com/mv_adveffects2.7z
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: Einstine909 on January 28, 2007, 09:12:15 pm
ok i cant get the explosions to show up ingame :mad:

but i am releasing the files to the public anyway as planned. And yes u can use them in whatever project u may be cooking up. :yes:

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/Einstine909/z/NewShockwave.zip - here u guys are, have fun with it. its a sequence of 50 frames that are .tga's. I can make it to be more or less frames in a very small amount of time. oh and there is two different variants. i can also change the colors easily. if u want me to change anything just PM me. :D
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: neoterran on January 29, 2007, 05:37:24 pm
you should make them dds and not TGA for memory saving
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: IPAndrews on January 29, 2007, 05:49:04 pm
Convert them you lazy bugger :).
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: neoterran on January 29, 2007, 05:54:13 pm
Convert them you lazy bugger :).

newbies may not know / have time / to do that. They should come in the most optimal and preferred format.
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: IPAndrews on January 29, 2007, 06:04:52 pm
All the more reason to convert them and post your dds version :P.
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: redsniper on January 29, 2007, 06:50:29 pm
I want some blue shockwaves. :nod:
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: Einstine909 on January 29, 2007, 08:23:07 pm
uh fine i just may convert them   :ick: jk

@redsniper: uh thats the color of the shockwave that i posted... sooo... uh .... I ALREADY MADE THEM BLUE!!! just in case u didn't see that. (no harshness intended)

oh and did i get the orange color right or do i need to edit that.

And could someone make those work ingame! :sigh:
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: redsniper on January 29, 2007, 10:29:14 pm
:o Missed the first link, sorry. But now, this blue shockwave is an .avi? Will that work with FSO? I thought it had to be .eff or .ani? I think there's an .ani to .avi converter though, or can you just use an .eff to play an .avi? I thought it had to use a series of images./me is confused.
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: Einstine909 on January 29, 2007, 10:37:49 pm
ok i see your confusion... the last link i posted was the sequence. and it was blue :p
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: Herra Tohtori on January 30, 2007, 12:01:59 am
oh and did i get the orange color right or do i need to edit that.


What program did you use for making them? I know virtually nothing about Adobe, but there are some rather nice ready colour gradients in GIMP. For example, Incandescent gradient or German Flag Smooth gradients are nice for playing with fire... I haven't tried your shockwave textures, but I did take a look at them in GIMP and they look pretty good, including the fiery orange colour.

Here's an example as attached images what Incandescent gradient does. I have been playing around with a method to make new explosion animations (not shockwaves) but I haven't found an ideal method of making them just yet. I don't even know how long the animations should last... But something might be brewing all right anyway on that front. ;7

[attachment deleted by admin]
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: Einstine909 on January 30, 2007, 11:08:18 am
I would have used GIMP but i am still learning how to use that... i used photoshop. But any way if u know a little about Blender's compositing Nodes then i can post a screen shot. Oh and I plan to make an explotion next so... if u want to colaberate if would be fine by me. :yes:

So i could make a tutorial if somone wanted...
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: Huggybaby on January 31, 2007, 12:16:44 am
If it doesn't work, what happens if you rename the FShockwave files to F_Shockwave, and the Shockwave-glow files to Shockwave3d-glow?

<EDIT> OK, I did that but can't test it...can somebody see if this makes any difference?
http://www.mediafire.com/?1jyyjyjyhz2 (http://www.mediafire.com/?1jyyjyjyhz2)

You'll have to extract it first using 7zip or winrar to get the vp file inside. Put the "mv_adveffects3.vp" file in your "C:\Games\FreeSpace2\mediavps" directory. You should have a file there already named "mv_adveffects.vp". Move it somewhere safe, outside of your FreeSpace directory.

Now test and see if explosions look different in the game.

BTW, if you're wondering what happened to "mv_adveffects2.vp", it's my advanced effects file that has no 3D shockwave at all. It's for those who want all the effects minus the one major slowdown.
http://huggybaby.fs2downloads.com/mv_adveffects2.7z
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: IPAndrews on January 31, 2007, 09:25:07 am
It would have been nice if that Shockwave Zip had installation instructions included,

Yes it would have been nice but let's not be ungrateful! Einstine909 has produced some great new effects and given them to us. That's enough for us to be grateful and not give him a hard time.
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: Herra Tohtori on January 31, 2007, 09:54:56 am
So say we all! :)


Einstine, when you start to work on the explosions, I'll be more than willing to co-operate - on the condition that my real life doesn't take all my time. :D
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: Einstine909 on January 31, 2007, 03:37:22 pm
Thanks IP...

ok sorry for all of the confusion, while i was tweaking the orange shockwaves i forgot to change the directory... and ended up saving over the blue ones. But do not fear! I had the source files and i just had to re-render them, that took all of 5 minuets. And to make up for that i converted all of them to DDS format and included the TGAs. so u get high performance and eye candy.

So without further delay... the link!
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/Einstine909/z/NewShock2.zip - this has both the blue and orange

@High Max: well i couldn't get them to work myself, so thats why i didn't include them.

@redsniper: well u were right, i did only include the orange ones... i should have checked :sigh:

@Herra Tohtori: same with me! <sarcasm> i say we meet up. u bring the camera and i will bring the explosives... that can get us some realistic effects. <\sarcasm> no i agree, im trying to find a way to create the turbulence in the explosion... I'll get back to u with anything i find
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: Herra Tohtori on January 31, 2007, 04:17:08 pm
"And after day or two, nothing was ever heard of Einstine and HT again as NSA nicked them for mentioning "explosions" and "co-operation" in same thread. And all Americans lived happily ever after." ;7

I think I know how to make relatively realistic-looking explosions. It's pretty straightforward, but incredibly tedious. First you have to make perhaps ten or fifteen similar shots as the attachements earlier. Then you have to join them with perhaps five or ten frames using layers and visibility settings so that you get smooth transition from picture to another. That's how I made the beam animations, but in this case it's a simpler case because it's not necessary to make a looping animation, only one-timer.

Finally, you take all the frames and resize the first to very small, the second is bigger and so on, and after a rapid expansion the cloud starts to expand slower and slower and also to dim out of view - possibly fading into thin smoke particles dissipating into space. That's how it would be possible to make really realistically looking explosions I reckon. And if more complex explosions are wanted, just stack a couple of these partially on top of each other with different radii.

Obviously, with trial and error it's possible to reach optimal way to produce the stock still shots of the explosion clouds to start the work with. It's not complex, it'll just be time-consuming with this method. If there's an easier way, please point it out. ;)
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: neoterran on February 01, 2007, 12:33:19 am
The guy that did the explosions for that Wing Commander remake game knows what he's doing. He even has the initial spikes of high velocity and then the more blooming flames. We need to get him over here and get him to spill his guts..
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: IPAndrews on February 05, 2007, 07:25:57 pm
By request, here is a pic of the orange shockwave. In this case being used as a torpedo impact effect.

[attachment deleted by admin]
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: Einstine909 on February 05, 2007, 08:25:36 pm
Thanks for the screenshot :nod:
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: Topgun on February 07, 2007, 07:13:34 pm
I turned it into an ani file for whoever wants it. PM me if you do.
Thanks Einstine909.
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: Einstine909 on February 08, 2007, 05:37:52 pm
Your welcome :D
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: bizzybody on February 08, 2007, 09:29:48 pm
Step 1. Find a shop that'll let you use their gas torch for a bit.
Step 2. Build a fixture to hold a videocamera vertically, with its lens aimed straight down, and a pane of glass right up against the lens guard.
Step 3. Paint a board with a color that'll be easy to key out in a digital video program.
Step 4. Hit a dollar store for some cheap latex balloons.
Step 5. Go to the shop with the above and fill some balloons with acetylene gas. DO NOT ADD OXYGEN!*
Step 6. Place a balloon on the board under the camera.
Step 7. Roll camera and light the balloon with something.
Step 8. Clean the glass and repeat from Step 6. until you have enough explosion footage, the shop owner kicks you out and/or the police and/or fire department have been called. :)

That's pretty much how it used to be done in the movie industry, until they went all digital FX. Want to shoot an effect like a missile hitting a building, with a fireball shooting out sideways? Turn a model of the building on its side and rig an acetylene charge or a small amout of gasoline at the impact point with something to light it.

Now that you have live video of dirty gas explosions, use your fave video editing software to key out the color to transparent and export a range of frames as still images.

*A 50 gallon plastic trash back of oxygen and acetylene makes a *very loud* bang when lit off with a cutting torch. Broken windows and hearing damage are possible. Do not try this... anywhere.
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: Einstine909 on February 12, 2007, 11:17:47 pm
*A 50 gallon plastic trash back of oxygen and acetylene makes a *very loud* bang when lit off with a cutting torch. Broken windows and hearing damage are possible. Do not try this... anywhere.

and u do understand that we are compelled to try it now :drevil:
Title: Re: Yet Another Shockwave...
Post by: ShivanSpS on February 19, 2007, 06:52:05 pm
Congratulations, this shockwave it will be the cause of the comming of the Shivans in TDA and the FS universe  :)

But, before that, i need to change the shockwave of the Tsunamis for the first one in this post... any ideas of how to do it?