Oh man, after months of back and forth between the IRS and myself I finally received my ITIN (Individual Tax Identification Number) in the mail which means I can complete my W-8BEN (aptly named) and start getting paid for all of this.
yeah but what ever looks good and what people like seems to work
I know it makes him a bit more sinister but lets face it, most workshop commenters are idiots and won't care.
ok , you shouldnt presume people to be idiots. Specially your audience.
and yes , it does change rubick alot and imo , its barely noticeable.
honestly from game view , if something like that appears on my rubick's face , i would think i have an artifact.
unless you color it , valve makes it glow and spit particles out of its nose. then its ok
Oh man, after months of back and forth between the IRS and myself I finally received my ITIN (Individual Tax Identification Number) in the mail which means I can complete my W-8BEN (aptly named) and start getting paid for all of this.
Today is a good day.
sorry for the 10x posts , but can you clarify a bit on these tax issues ? what if someone lives in another country that even doesnt apply to us tax stuff ?
Oh man, after months of back and forth between the IRS and myself I finally received my ITIN (Individual Tax Identification Number) in the mail which means I can complete my W-8BEN (aptly named) and start getting paid for all of this.
sorry for the 10x posts , but can you clarify a bit on these tax issues ? what if someone lives in another country that even doesnt apply to us tax stuff ?
That's exactly what my issue was, I live in Australia and had to send a W-7 form off to the IRS in order to receive an ITIN which is required for me to get paid by Valve. There's a bunch of helpful information provided by Valve on the Payment FAQ page.
Feel free to add me on Steam if you want more info about it (this goes for everone). Anything to make this process easier for anyone, I can tell you a lot of what not to do.
I mean, it comes down to VALVe on the final decision, which is far more important than the workshop audience.
Plus , imagine your favorite singer standing there in a concert and calling the audience idiots.
You are that artist , and you should be thankful that these people are taking the trouble to copy paste stuff as comments and rate your item , cause those ratings are what make your model surface and even be considered for ingame use by valve.
Plus , imagine your favorite singer standing there in a concert and calling the audience idiots.
You are that artist , and you should be thankful that these people are taking the trouble to copy paste stuff as comments and rate your item , cause those ratings are what make your model surface and even be considered for ingame use by valve.
That's exactly what my issue was, I live in Australia and had to send a W-7 form off to the IRS in order to receive an ITIN which is required for me to get paid by Valve. There's a bunch of helpful information provided by Valve on the Payment FAQ page.
Feel free to add me on Steam if you want more info about it (this goes for everone). Anything to make this process easier for anyone, I can tell you a lot of what not to do.
You can just call and get a EIN on the same phone call, which serves the same purpose.
Oh man, after months of back and forth between the IRS and myself I finally received my ITIN (Individual Tax Identification Number) in the mail which means I can complete my W-8BEN (aptly named) and start getting paid for all of this.
Today is a good day.
Congrats! Enjoy what I can imagine to be quite a sizeable payday!
However you don't mention that this is newly added information to the Valve faq website, and wasn't mentioned as apart of the process until recently.
Although i guess leaving that part in would have changed the tone of your entire message, right?
Where in the FAQ is this? I don't see it in mine so how can I link to it and say its newly information? I personally got told by someone in finance to do it to save time as it serves the same purpose as a ITIN.
I'm not sure where your tone comment is coming from, if there's a link with the information feel free to provide it and contribute, like my original message.
An EIN is an Employee Identification Number, this isn't used for foreign ppl that have an Income in Amerika, or do I just don't understand it correctly? It's when you have a company or if your self imployed..
Man I was bumped none of my items got ingame, but when I see all these forms I'm not sure if it's that bad
btw: does a lot of you ppl have problems filtering on heroes on the workshop page? not sure what Valve is doing but it never worked for me anymore since they changed it
Where in the FAQ is this? I don't see it in mine so how can I link to it and say its newly information? I personally got told by someone in finance to do it to save time as it serves the same purpose as a ITIN.
I'm not sure where your tone comment is coming from, if there's a link with the information feel free to provide it and contribute, like my original message.
Apologies for my snappiness Plant, looked like you were trying to rain on what sounded like a pretty good parade, when in actual fact it looks like you were just trying to be helpful.
I received the EIN info in an email as well, promptly did a search and found it mentioned in the tax information section of the workshop, just under where banking information is entered.
I cant post the link but here is a portion
"In completing the W-8BEN, you must provide a U.S. Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) in order to claim benefits under an income tax treaty. If you are an individual and don't have a social security number (SSN) and are not eligible to get one, you must get an individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN). To apply for an ITIN, file Form W-7 with the IRS. It usually takes 4-6 weeks to get an ITIN. If you are not an individual who is an employer, you must enter an employer idenfication number (EIN). If you do not have an EIN, you should apply for one on Form SS-4. See the FAQ for further details on how to apply for an ITIN."
An EIN is an Employee Identification Number, this isn't used for foreign ppl that have an Income in Amerika, or do I just don't understand it correctly? It's when you have a company or if your self imployed..
I did look into applying for an EIN way back when I was first looking into it and I called up the IRS but they just were not helpful at all and reading up on what the difference between an EIN and an ITIN it seemed the EIN was more restrictive - I was still in the dark about this whole process so I just ended up doing what seemed to be (and evidently was) the longer but tried and true method. Basically there was little to no information about the process documented for me and the community pre-Polycount contest was a lot smaller than it is now.
If it is in fact that simple to get one then that is fantastic news for us non-Americans and I'm glad that others won't have to wait as long as I did to receive their payment.
I still haven't figured out all this ITIN stuff, and my item was added in July. Every time I try figure it out, I get too confused and leave it. I think I need to go to the US embassy and get them to vertify my passport or other identification or something.
@Plant: is this something only US residents can apply to or can every one of us apply for it?
And are you sure you can use it instead of the ITIN?
Oh man this stuff is so confusing.
I'll try and summarize.
Valve finance told me I can apply for a EIN over the phone which fills the same role as a ITIN (due to the hassle of a ITIN), just have to say you're a sole proprietor and they ask for your address, why you need it etc, what you do (3d modelling) takes 10 minutes and you have the number over the phone.
Yes you can use this as a foreigner, it has a specific number you have to dial if you are a foreigner (see earlier IRS page). I said I'm from New Zealand and gave my address, there were no issues obtaining the number.
Now I haven't been paid yet, I just sent them my W8-Ben form this month so we'll see, but Valve's finance team said this is another solution, and this is the kind of information their department would deal with on a daily basis.
Valve finance told me I can apply for a EIN over the phone which fills the same role as a ITIN (due to the hassle of a ITIN), just have to say you're a sole proprietor and they ask for your address, why you need it etc, what you do (3d modelling) takes 10 minutes and you have the number over the phone.
Yes you can use this as a foreigner, it has a specific number you have to dial if you are a foreigner (see earlier IRS page). I said I'm from New Zealand and gave my address, there were no issues obtaining the number.
Now I haven't been paid yet, I just sent them my W8-Ben form this month so we'll see, but Valve's finance team said this is another solution, and this is the kind of information their department would deal with on a daily basis.
Well if Valve said EIN is enough and you already got that, I don't see anything to worry about here. Thanks a lot for the info.
Now my riki knife model is almost complete ... but I have another problem ... the pose.
When I import the knife it is slightly down, and by that I mean that riki is holding it by the blade and not by the handle, I tried to move the model up before exporting and placing it's gizmo right in the middle of the handle ... some help ?
Now my riki knife model is almost complete ... but I have another problem ... the pose.
When I import the knife it is slightly down, and by that I mean that riki is holding it by the blade and not by the handle, I tried to move the model up before exporting and placing it's gizmo right in the middle of the handle ... some help ?
Did you remove the skin before you moved it? Otherwise it won't do anything..
Well I played with witch doctor a few days ago and couldn't help making some concept for him. Here's what I got so far, let me know what you think: Oh en yes I know there are allready are a lot of items available but 80% of them are really bad. Sometimes I just can't seem how some items got through and have been added. :shifty:
Now my riki knife model is almost complete ... but I have another problem ... the pose.
When I import the knife it is slightly down, and by that I mean that riki is holding it by the blade and not by the handle, I tried to move the model up before exporting and placing it's gizmo right in the middle of the handle ... some help ?
Thanks a lot it works now ... even though I try to make up a way of making a good presentation image for my model
one last question (hopefully ) how do you make the snapshots for your models ? do you printscreen some poses of the character when you get that ... you know ... test the model view after you import the model ? or is there another way (a better way) ?
Low res shield update. I've baked normals and block out a very rought diffuse. None of the shader masks are being used yet, I reapply them tomorrow. I've still got 35 tris to play around with and I can probably squeeze a few more here and there to get a bit more depth into the models geo.
Hello, guys. I'm in a bit of a hassle here and I need help.
I'm trying to import an asset I've made for Kunkka but I'm getting a vague message about vtex.exe failing. I've made sure that all my textures are the right size and 32 bit. The asset has the right polycount and I've tried exporting it as fbx from max, smd from max and fbx from maya. Nothing works. I tried importing the asset with dota 2 test but it failed the compilation of the mdl file. I'm using the files I downloaded from the dota 2's workshop site for Kunkka(not sure if they're outdated).
The import process takes an unusually long time (a few minutes at least), I've seen tutorial videos where it only takes a few seconds
Any help would be very appreciated!
Here is a screenshot of the error;
Hello, guys. I'm in a bit of a hassle here and I need help.
I'm trying to import an asset I've made for Kunkka but I'm getting a vague message about vtex.exe failing. I've made sure that all my textures are the right size and 32 bit. The asset has the right polycount and I've tried exporting it as fbx from max, smd from max and fbx from maya. Nothing works. I tried importing the asset with dota 2 test but it failed the compilation of the mdl file. I'm using the files I downloaded from the dota 2's workshop site for Kunkka(not sure if they're outdated).
The import process takes an unusually long time (a few minutes at least), I've seen tutorial videos where it only takes a few seconds
Any help would be very appreciated!
Here is a screenshot of the error;
What is the texture size you're trying to import?
If its taking really long it might be a really high size and ends up crashing, ie 4096x4096 (which isn't uncommon to work at then later downscale). I've had that before and now just downsize before I import.
I usually render my maps ( AO , Normals etc. ) in Zbrush using multimap exporter. I gave xNormal a try but as far as i can tell , it gave me much worse results ( with all different settings).
I still haven't figured out all this ITIN stuff, and my item was added in July. Every time I try figure it out, I get too confused and leave it. I think I need to go to the US embassy and get them to vertify my passport or other identification or something.
eleryn you can apply ein number. it's more easy than itin.just one call need. or you can commission somebody for it.
I usually render my maps ( AO , Normals etc. ) in Zbrush using multimap exporter. I gave xNormal a try but as far as i can tell , it gave me much worse results ( with all different settings).
Why are the pros using xNormal anyways ?
i think xnormal can bake more detial normal and ao map. and it's more quickly than max or maya.
If its taking really long it might be a really high size and ends up crashing, ie 4096x4096 (which isn't uncommon to work at then later downscale). I've had that before and now just downsize before I import.
Thanks for your reply. I'm using 256x128 maps for all the textures with 32 bit.
I usually render my maps ( AO , Normals etc. ) in Zbrush using multimap exporter. I gave xNormal a try but as far as i can tell , it gave me much worse results ( with all different settings).
Why are the pros using xNormal anyways ?
Xnormal bakes very quick normal/AO maps because it isn't running a viewport, which also means your high poly model can be as large as zbrush can handle and xnormal won't really have a problem with it. When you bake you normals do you create a cage mesh in max/maya and import it as an external cage in Xnormal. This is a very reliable way of getting great bakes. The other option is the explicit normal map generation technique which involves setting the min max ray distances in the low poly options, but this isn't very reliable as its applying a maximum distance for the rays across all the verts of your model, rather than having an authored cage. I normally duplicate my low poly, triangulate it and duplicate it again. I turn the second triangulated mesh into my cage mesh and use a push modifier or transform component in maya to move the verts out and use a decimated model from zbrush as a guide. Then I export that as my cage mesh for Xnormal. The nice thing about this is you have a persistant cage model so whenever you need to rebake you don't need recreate it. I hope this helps, if theres anything I've not explained particularly well just ask me to clarify.
setting up some highpoly bases before I sculpt in all the actual detail
I'm guessing that is for Juggernaut, yes? I feel like that is the first problem - that I didn't know right away which hero it was. I know it always looks different in color/high res, but I feel like the mask especially, and the cape, stray too far from juggernaut's art style. The mask sort of reminds me of an executioner which(I hope) is not what you're going for. Maybe more along the lines of a tribal-like thing than a plain hood?
The sword isn't bad, although it's a bit hard to tell whether it's a sword or a staff.
I tried importing from another computer and it worked fine. Not sure why it's not working on my current station. @Nannou: Thanks but 32 bit worked fine.
Has anyone had a problem where the assets you import are there but won't follow the right bones correctly? I managed to import my assets into the game but they're just sort of floating around and not affected by the rotation of the bones correctly. Not sure if I'm exporting it incorrectly from max? I skinned the asset to the required bones, selected the bones along with the asset and then exported as FBX.
I tried importing from another computer and it worked fine. Not sure why it's not working on my current station. @Nannou: Thanks but 32 bit worked fine.
Has anyone had a problem where the assets you import are there but won't follow the right bones correctly? I managed to import my assets into the game but they're just sort of floating around and not affected by the rotation of the bones correctly. Not sure if I'm exporting it incorrectly from max? I skinned the asset to the required bones, selected the bones along with the asset and then exported as FBX.
If you export as .FBX you have to select the mesh and all the bones. Not only the one you used for skinning.
If you export as .FBX you have to select the mesh and all the bones. Not only the one you used for skinning.
I tried that and I got the same result. I'm getting the same error with SMD. I've seen tutorial videos where they only selected the weapon bone and the mesh and then exported. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.
Replies
I know right ! i should make it longer , but its ALREADY longer than the original base mesh , and im NOT talking about the handle yet !
dont worry about the size for now , its just a scale away ...
Today is a good day.
ok , you shouldnt presume people to be idiots. Specially your audience.
and yes , it does change rubick alot and imo , its barely noticeable.
honestly from game view , if something like that appears on my rubick's face , i would think i have an artifact.
unless you color it , valve makes it glow and spit particles out of its nose. then its ok
sorry for the 10x posts , but can you clarify a bit on these tax issues ? what if someone lives in another country that even doesnt apply to us tax stuff ?
congratulation~ I spent half year to get it.
That's exactly what my issue was, I live in Australia and had to send a W-7 form off to the IRS in order to receive an ITIN which is required for me to get paid by Valve. There's a bunch of helpful information provided by Valve on the Payment FAQ page.
Feel free to add me on Steam if you want more info about it (this goes for everone). Anything to make this process easier for anyone, I can tell you a lot of what not to do.
sorry but if this is the most creative they can get then I'm not impressed.
You are that artist , and you should be thankful that these people are taking the trouble to copy paste stuff as comments and rate your item , cause those ratings are what make your model surface and even be considered for ingame use by valve.
good point
You can just call and get a EIN on the same phone call, which serves the same purpose.
http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-%26-Self-Employed/How-to-Apply-for-an-EIN
Congrats! Enjoy what I can imagine to be quite a sizeable payday!
However you don't mention that this is newly added information to the Valve faq website, and wasn't mentioned as apart of the process until recently.
Although i guess leaving that part in would have changed the tone of your entire message, right?
heard the same thing about the wyrmeleon and the prismatic drake
the hair is amazing, im watching you stream trying to steal some of your techniques =]
Where in the FAQ is this? I don't see it in mine so how can I link to it and say its newly information? I personally got told by someone in finance to do it to save time as it serves the same purpose as a ITIN.
I'm not sure where your tone comment is coming from, if there's a link with the information feel free to provide it and contribute, like my original message.
http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/workshoppaymentinfofaq
An EIN is an Employee Identification Number, this isn't used for foreign ppl that have an Income in Amerika, or do I just don't understand it correctly? It's when you have a company or if your self imployed..
http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Do-You-Need-an-EIN%3F
Man I was bumped none of my items got ingame, but when I see all these forms I'm not sure if it's that bad
btw: does a lot of you ppl have problems filtering on heroes on the workshop page? not sure what Valve is doing but it never worked for me anymore since they changed it
Apologies for my snappiness Plant, looked like you were trying to rain on what sounded like a pretty good parade, when in actual fact it looks like you were just trying to be helpful.
I received the EIN info in an email as well, promptly did a search and found it mentioned in the tax information section of the workshop, just under where banking information is entered.
I cant post the link but here is a portion
"In completing the W-8BEN, you must provide a U.S. Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) in order to claim benefits under an income tax treaty. If you are an individual and don't have a social security number (SSN) and are not eligible to get one, you must get an individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN). To apply for an ITIN, file Form W-7 with the IRS. It usually takes 4-6 weeks to get an ITIN. If you are not an individual who is an employer, you must enter an employer idenfication number (EIN). If you do not have an EIN, you should apply for one on Form SS-4. See the FAQ for further details on how to apply for an ITIN."
You're considered self employed (you're making a product and earning monye from it), you need to tell them you're a sole proprietor.
I got my number just answering simple questions, whether it worked and was done correctly I will find out soon enough I suppose.
If it is in fact that simple to get one then that is fantastic news for us non-Americans and I'm glad that others won't have to wait as long as I did to receive their payment.
Grats on getting items in this patch guys! Well deserved
And are you sure you can use it instead of the ITIN?
Oh man this stuff is so confusing.
I'll try and summarize.
Valve finance told me I can apply for a EIN over the phone which fills the same role as a ITIN (due to the hassle of a ITIN), just have to say you're a sole proprietor and they ask for your address, why you need it etc, what you do (3d modelling) takes 10 minutes and you have the number over the phone.
Yes you can use this as a foreigner, it has a specific number you have to dial if you are a foreigner (see earlier IRS page). I said I'm from New Zealand and gave my address, there were no issues obtaining the number.
Now I haven't been paid yet, I just sent them my W8-Ben form this month so we'll see, but Valve's finance team said this is another solution, and this is the kind of information their department would deal with on a daily basis.
Well if Valve said EIN is enough and you already got that, I don't see anything to worry about here. Thanks a lot for the info.
When I import the knife it is slightly down, and by that I mean that riki is holding it by the blade and not by the handle, I tried to move the model up before exporting and placing it's gizmo right in the middle of the handle ... some help ?
Did you remove the skin before you moved it? Otherwise it won't do anything..
Well I played with witch doctor a few days ago and couldn't help making some concept for him. Here's what I got so far, let me know what you think: Oh en yes I know there are allready are a lot of items available but 80% of them are really bad. Sometimes I just can't seem how some items got through and have been added. :shifty:
I've just finished an item set's sketch.
I don't have any idea on how to start.
can anyone help me with it?
I've just finished an item set sketch,
I have no idea on how to start put convert it to dota.
can anyone help me?
I'm trying to import an asset I've made for Kunkka but I'm getting a vague message about vtex.exe failing. I've made sure that all my textures are the right size and 32 bit. The asset has the right polycount and I've tried exporting it as fbx from max, smd from max and fbx from maya. Nothing works. I tried importing the asset with dota 2 test but it failed the compilation of the mdl file. I'm using the files I downloaded from the dota 2's workshop site for Kunkka(not sure if they're outdated).
The import process takes an unusually long time (a few minutes at least), I've seen tutorial videos where it only takes a few seconds
Any help would be very appreciated!
Here is a screenshot of the error;
What is the texture size you're trying to import?
If its taking really long it might be a really high size and ends up crashing, ie 4096x4096 (which isn't uncommon to work at then later downscale). I've had that before and now just downsize before I import.
I usually render my maps ( AO , Normals etc. ) in Zbrush using multimap exporter. I gave xNormal a try but as far as i can tell , it gave me much worse results ( with all different settings).
Why are the pros using xNormal anyways ?
eleryn you can apply ein number. it's more easy than itin.just one call need. or you can commission somebody for it.
setting up some highpoly bases before I sculpt in all the actual detail
i think xnormal can bake more detial normal and ao map. and it's more quickly than max or maya.
humf hawt, i really want to say something about that but i dont want to be agressive...
why you treat the people that are trying to help you like that?
Thanks for your reply. I'm using 256x128 maps for all the textures with 32 bit.
Xnormal bakes very quick normal/AO maps because it isn't running a viewport, which also means your high poly model can be as large as zbrush can handle and xnormal won't really have a problem with it. When you bake you normals do you create a cage mesh in max/maya and import it as an external cage in Xnormal. This is a very reliable way of getting great bakes. The other option is the explicit normal map generation technique which involves setting the min max ray distances in the low poly options, but this isn't very reliable as its applying a maximum distance for the rays across all the verts of your model, rather than having an authored cage. I normally duplicate my low poly, triangulate it and duplicate it again. I turn the second triangulated mesh into my cage mesh and use a push modifier or transform component in maya to move the verts out and use a decimated model from zbrush as a guide. Then I export that as my cage mesh for Xnormal. The nice thing about this is you have a persistant cage model so whenever you need to rebake you don't need recreate it. I hope this helps, if theres anything I've not explained particularly well just ask me to clarify.
I'm guessing that is for Juggernaut, yes? I feel like that is the first problem - that I didn't know right away which hero it was. I know it always looks different in color/high res, but I feel like the mask especially, and the cape, stray too far from juggernaut's art style. The mask sort of reminds me of an executioner which(I hope) is not what you're going for. Maybe more along the lines of a tribal-like thing than a plain hood?
The sword isn't bad, although it's a bit hard to tell whether it's a sword or a staff.
@Nannou: Thanks but 32 bit worked fine.
Has anyone had a problem where the assets you import are there but won't follow the right bones correctly? I managed to import my assets into the game but they're just sort of floating around and not affected by the rotation of the bones correctly. Not sure if I'm exporting it incorrectly from max? I skinned the asset to the required bones, selected the bones along with the asset and then exported as FBX.
If you export as .FBX you have to select the mesh and all the bones. Not only the one you used for skinning.
I tried that and I got the same result. I'm getting the same error with SMD. I've seen tutorial videos where they only selected the weapon bone and the mesh and then exported. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.