Hard Light Productions Forums

Off-Topic Discussion => Arts & Talents => Topic started by: Petrarch of the VBB on June 06, 2002, 12:38:15 pm

Title: The easy was to do FS Art!
Post by: Petrarch of the VBB on June 06, 2002, 12:38:15 pm: For those of us who lack the skills and the software (read: money) to make Thorn, Setekh, or Thunder quality renderss, here is a good way.
Open up your paint program, I use PSP 7 (trial, reinstall every 60 days, hehe). Make a space background, gradient tool for suns and coronas. Open up pofs in FS2View, print screen, copy the ship image into PSP, position it, hey presto!
I have got quit good results with it, i'll be posting one on my website within a week.
My messed-up site (http://www.grahambeverley.freewebspace.com)
Title: The easy was to do FS Art!
Post by: Ace on June 06, 2002, 12:59:39 pm: Actually what I did for a while after learning it from Dark (his old site, the GTD Pheonix, had all of it's pics done this way) is setup your scene in FRED, take a screencapture at a high monitor resolution, scale it down for anti-aliasing, and then tweak it with lighting, glows, backgrounds, etc.

Looks very good but is more time consuming then a real rendering. (now if all of the FS2 ships are in .3ds on HLP I'd start doing FS renders again, but as it is I'm too lazy to convert them myself, too much of a hassle...)
Title: The easy was to do FS Art!
Post by: Redfang on June 06, 2002, 02:05:22 pm: I don't think that'll look too good... but maybe okay. :)

I've also tried rendering (today), with a freeware landscape render program, but my computer is too slow, and it takes ages to do high quality. And I don't even want to practice using that program at the moment. And it would be boring to do only landscape renders, and I don't know do people over here even like them. :)

Psst... Venom has very good renders too... and Ace, and darkage... and there are more. :nod:
Title: The easy was to do FS Art!
Post by: Windrunner on June 06, 2002, 03:32:34 pm: how do you convert FS2 ships into .3ds?
Title: The easy was to do FS Art!
Post by: Windrunner on June 06, 2002, 03:33:59 pm: what software can i use
Title: The easy was to do FS Art!
Post by: Darkage on June 06, 2002, 03:41:29 pm: Quote
Originally posted by Windrunner
what software can i use

First you need PCS to convert from pof to cob then you need 3Dexploration ( deepexploration ) to convert the cob to .3ds then batch convert all the textures to .bmp and in RGB colors, then load them into 3dsmax;) Hope that helps abit:)
Title: The easy was to do FS Art!
Post by: Windrunner on June 06, 2002, 03:44:41 pm: Quote
Originally posted by darkage

First you need PCS to convert from pof to cob then you need 3Dexploration ( deepexploration ) to convert the cob to .3ds then batch convert all the textures to .bmp and in RGB colors, then load them into 3dsmax;) Hope that helps abit:)

Thanks that helepd a bit but where do i find all these software
Title: The easy was to do FS Art!
Post by: Petrarch of the VBB on June 08, 2002, 02:16:38 pm: This is a bit irrellevant, but...
What are all those files in the models directory in the FS1 vp file, the ones that aren't pofs, p3d aren't they. What are they for?
Title: The easy was to do FS Art!
Post by: Stunaep on June 08, 2002, 03:23:12 pm: They were supposed to be model information files (kinda like tables, perhaps?) but were not used.
Title: The easy was to do FS Art!
Post by: Ryx on June 08, 2002, 04:20:58 pm: Quote
Originally posted by Windrunner
how do you convert FS2 ships into .3ds?

Take a peek here (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,6676.0.html), as well. ;)
Title: The easy was to do FS Art!
Post by: Vertigo1 on June 10, 2002, 01:10:25 am: Quote
Originally posted by Windrunner

Thanks that helepd a bit but where do i find all these software

www.google.com

run a search.
Title: The easy was to do FS Art!
Post by: Ulundel on June 10, 2002, 01:57:52 am: Petty's idea is good but I'll better stick to max. *hatred* *pain* *anger* *suffering*...
Title: The easy was to do FS Art!
Post by: Ryx on June 10, 2002, 02:04:38 am: I'll just quote myself...

Quote
Originally posted by Ryx
PCS (http://alliance.sourceforge.net/FS2Kit.shtml)

Descent Networks tools (http://www.freespace-2.com/tools/)

...or check HLP downloads (http://www.3dactionplanet.com/hlp/freespace/downloads.shtml)

Might want to check out VW's files too (http://freespace.volitionwatch.com/fs1files.php)

3D Exploration (http://www.righthemisphere.com/products/dexp/index.htm)

So what did I forget... :p
Title: The easy was to do FS Art!
Post by: Vertigo1 on June 10, 2002, 01:07:19 pm: hahah
Title: The easy was to do FS Art!
Post by: Black Wolf on June 11, 2002, 05:57:26 am: Unless you've found a way to get both good backgrounds and get rid of the "slapped on" look (which looks very fake), something I have been trying for a fair while now, this method doesn't work too well. I've been trying for a long time, but the lighting is all wrong.
Title: The easy was to do FS Art!
Post by: Petrarch of the VBB on June 11, 2002, 01:22:43 pm: You're right (if you're on about my method) the lighting is all wrong, but for a starting path into FSart it's quite good.
Title: The easy was to do FS Art!
Post by: Black Wolf on June 12, 2002, 02:57:07 am: Yeah, I agree pretty much. It's a good way to do it if you can't render, but quality is lower than renders.