Hard Light Productions Forums
Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: Arthur_the_great on September 16, 2011, 07:18:16 pm
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I have decided that I want to start making models any advice is welcome
I have access to Truespace 7.61 but the machine I have the most access to is a mac so blender is probaly what I'll be using
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don't use true****.
best advice.
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It's that bad?
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It's obsolete in my books.
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patience, lot's of patience... making good models is one of the hardest things to do in the modding side.
an advise of someone that had a hard time getting along with it, start with something really REALLY small, finish it and then move to the next level, this way you might avoid frustration.
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Best advice I can give you is for you to browse around the forum.
R
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It's that bad?
Yes, Truespace is quite obsolete. A better option would be to download the latest version of Blender for free at www.blender.org . That would be how I would start. From there do some basic modeling tutorials and come back.
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Blender and 3ds max are good, though I tend to lean more towards the latter myself. I find the interface easier to get around.
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Starting up takes a really long time--heck, it took me a year to get myself to pull out the reference drawings and build something worthy for ingame :D, but once you've got something that looks good ingame, it's a huge motivator. So start with something small and simple, but that still looks good, to figure out the import process (definitely stick with blender, though make sure that you export from 2.4) and rigging, and for a piece of inspiration.
As a rule, don't get the supernewest 3d modelling programs for working with fsopen--both the latest version of Blender and 3DSmax have borked collada export.
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which version should i get then?
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Blender 2.49 is the latest version that has working DAE export
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Thanks
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so what should i start with and where do i find them??
EDIT
Oops i thought i wrote "tutorials" after "what" sorry
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Arthur, go to www.blender.org to get Blender. Notice, however, that the most recent version is a 2.5x, and to be quite frank they changed so many things in there that a lot of blender users here aren't too familiar with its interface. As such, I highly recommend acquiring the 2.49 build, as it is stable and a lot of people are familiar with it.
When you have a program, you should just start experimenting with building shapes. Get a feel for how things work. And also, read the tutorials for whatever program you choose. They will help more than you can imagine.
And never be afraid to ask for help. Modeling for FS is a very finicky process, and a lot of things can (and usually do) go wrong. But the payoff is immensely rewarding.
The most important thing, however, is to have fun while modeling.
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Arthur, go to www.blender.org to get Blender. Notice, however, that the most recent version is a 2.5x, and to be quite frank they changed so many things in there that a lot of blender users here aren't too familiar with its interface. As such, I highly recommend acquiring the 2.49 build, as it is stable and a lot of people are familiar with it.
I would suggest the complete opposite.
We don't need a lot of people gifted in the use of unsupported programs!, 2.5 is not that hard to learn, there are tuts out there.
Get blender 2.5 and search "blender 2.5 tutorial" in youtube, that should get you started with the first simple meshes.
After that's done, and you want to export something to FS, you'll need to go to the wiki and search for "blender to pof convertion", or something like that.. try to find your way through that guide.
And AGAIN, don't try to make complicated things at first, if you want to see something imported right away to FS, I would suggest you to grab a single cube, UV it, texture it and then export it following that wiki article, then try with something harder.
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Opps i forgot to the "tutrials" in there sorry for the confusion
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Arthur, go to www.blender.org to get Blender. Notice, however, that the most recent version is a 2.5x, and to be quite frank they changed so many things in there that a lot of blender users here aren't too familiar with its interface. As such, I highly recommend acquiring the 2.49 build, as it is stable and a lot of people are familiar with it.
I would suggest the complete opposite.
We don't need a lot of people gifted in the use of unsupported programs!, 2.5 is not that hard to learn, there are tuts out there.
Get blender 2.5 and search "blender 2.5 tutorial" in youtube, that should get you started with the first simple meshes.
After that's done, and you want to export something to FS, you'll need to go to the wiki and search for "blender to pof convertion", or something like that.. try to find your way through that guide.
And AGAIN, don't try to make complicated things at first, if you want to see something imported right away to FS, I would suggest you to grab a single cube, UV it, texture it and then export it following that wiki article, then try with something harder.
Can you export to Collada 1.4.0 with Blender 2.5? I haven't tried the 2.5 version, but as far as I know the old 1.4.0 plugin works only in 2.4, and PCS2 doesn't import newer (read: 1.4.1 and up) formats.
Get me a 1.4.0 plugin for Blender 2.5 and I'll switch in a heartbeat.
OP: don't touch TS with a ten-foot-pole. You're still young and pure - don't go down the dark path, because forever will it dominate your destiny.
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Arthur, go to www.blender.org to get Blender. Notice, however, that the most recent version is a 2.5x, and to be quite frank they changed so many things in there that a lot of blender users here aren't too familiar with its interface. As such, I highly recommend acquiring the 2.49 build, as it is stable and a lot of people are familiar with it.
I would suggest the complete opposite.
We don't need a lot of people gifted in the use of unsupported programs!, 2.5 is not that hard to learn, there are tuts out there.
Get blender 2.5 and search "blender 2.5 tutorial" in youtube, that should get you started with the first simple meshes.
After that's done, and you want to export something to FS, you'll need to go to the wiki and search for "blender to pof convertion", or something like that.. try to find your way through that guide.
And AGAIN, don't try to make complicated things at first, if you want to see something imported right away to FS, I would suggest you to grab a single cube, UV it, texture it and then export it following that wiki article, then try with something harder.
I belive 2.49 is still oficially supported atm. and like Enioch says, the collada exporter for 2.5 is broken and as i have said in other threads the fixed one for 2.49 dont work with 2.5x
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Best to learn 2.5 - modeling, uv-ing materials and hierarchy. The interface is different enough that you will need to relearn where stuff lives and other differences. Make your life easy and start with 2.5
Once you can do that in 2.5 then you can use 2.49b to export the model. Take you all of a minute to do and no need to learn an obsolete interface.
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If you are planning to do modelling for Freespace modding, or any other game for that matter, you should first really focus on getting something simple working before you start on any kind of grand project. This is because different games have different 'rules' about how they will accept their models, and there's nothing worse spending hours, or even days, working on something only to find it refuses to work in game ;)
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At first freespace modding then ill move on to other stuff
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Last time I tested .dae export/import was working ok in blender 2.5 (.7?) again.
It had some differences with the 2.49 version, but it was working.
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does any body know if 2.6 exports collada and if so does it work with pofcs???
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Not sure he you still want advice, but I'll troy this in anyway - he you want to mod for FS, take the time to learn not just modelling, but UVingand texturing as well. There would probably be hundreds of topics on HLP alone with people posting pics of their new, awesome models that never go any further because texturers and UVers willing to work on other people's models are all but nonexistant, outside of campaign staff.
And it doesn't have to be as daunting as it seems. Others have said to start with small things, and I agree - missile's, cargo containers and things of that nature are not only easy to model, but also easy to UV and texture.
As for your recent question, I'm afraid I have no idea, as I'm not a blender user. Sorry :(
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I'll endorse what Black Wolf said - many many models here get stuck in the needs-to-be-textured phase.
As for Blender 2.6, alas, it appears COLLADA export is still not working like it should...
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thanks
which tutorials should i start with?
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FSFs tutorial (in the sticky posts at the top of the Freespace modding board, is quite useful. Apart from that I used http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro as a reference.
One other piece of advice. Do a lot of drawings (both of general shapes and of detail areas). Finding something doesn't work when you have drawn it is a lot less wasted work than finding it doesn't work after taking some time to make it in 3-d.
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I concur, FSF tutorial is great! :) On the subject of Blender and Collada, I'm starting to get the impression that PCS needs to be more robust about the files it accepts. I was able to load Collada models exported from Blender 2.6 and Rhino 5 to load in SketchUp and vice versa, but PCS was a no go.
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Try as many different modeling programs as you can before choosing one to start learning with.
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If you have any drawing skills, draw the ship on paper, preferablly a side view and a top down view and then in the modelling program just trace those drawings off. That can help a lot and can prevent you from floundering about deciding what shape you want to go with. It is also I believe how the professional modellers do it