Looking great Manuca. I think that the jigglebones are a bit off though. That's not really how I'd expect grass to jiggle. You should take a look at the jigglebones on the feather for Hustler's Hallmark. I'm not sure what the settings are for it but I think that something like that would look a lot better on the grass.
I think you should flip the axes around so that instead of spinning around what in the world is roughly the Y axis, they should be bending along the world's Z and X axes. Since jigglebones only rotate along the bone's X and Y axes, you'll need to point the Z axis down the length of the grass.
Looking great Manuca. I think that the jigglebones are a bit off though. That's not really how I'd expect grass to jiggle. You should take a look at the jigglebones on the feather for Hustler's Hallmark. I'm not sure what the settings are for it but I think that something like that would look a lot better on the grass.
Do you guys know how to see the jigglebones of a existing item? because all qc files that i've opened they only had the $hbox stuff, I could't find any jigglebones information. It would be great too see what settings those existing itens use.
@Barlin, I Didn't find a commad to do this behavior, Do you know what command do this? Here is my qc
To align the axes of the bones you just have to rotate them in your modeling app prior to binding the skin, so that the Z axis runs down the length of the grass, and the X and Y axes are in whatever position you want the grass to flex around.
allow_length_flex will make the grass spring up and down the Z axis length (I believe, never used it myself), so I'm not sure if that will be a desired effect or not. Also in my experience with jigglebones it's usually good to make them fairly stiff, since otherwise they can sometimes get out of control and get stuck in weird positions. Depends on the bone structure.
I was going to add that having that many jigglebones makes the hat considerably more resource-intensive and that Valve might not use it because of that, but I just looked at the Rubber Glove hat and it has at least 8, so maybe it isn't as bad as I thought. Still, I'd say try to use as few as possible to achieve the effect.
ok quick question, is there a way to assign multiple materials to a item. i am revising my mailbox fixing up a few things to submit as an updated version. is there a way to make like the head of the mailbox shiny while the wood part not?
@Doughnut Bear
Shiny, like, using a Cubemap? Or just a stronger Phong exponent?
You can use as many materials as you want, you just need to assign different materials w/ different texture files in your modeler and, of course, make sure that the VTF's use the same names as in the modeler. Then you can, for example, add a cubemap to one VMT but not the other.
EDIT: If you just want the wood to have less of a Phong gleam than the head, you can use the Alpha channel of either the base texture or the normal map texture (whichever you're using for the Phone mask), and make the area where you painted the mailbox head texture lighter in the alpha, and the wood part darker.
oh ok, ive been getting a lot of requests to make it with the pyro symbol on the side insted of the word fire i figured i would just give people the choice.
Update on my spy hat. Hopefully its less narutardish now.
Made the band more robust and iron looking and modelled it after Kage-Maru's headgear in Virtua Fighter. Tucked in the hood so it doesn't clip the neck line anymore. Retained the tears and cuts. Made the hole on the mouth more burnt looking. Added some fold details both on vertex and texture level. Added a know and ribbon at the back of the head. (Should be jiggleboned, will try to learn that later of have someone do it for me.) Added a Blu version. Overall, just 954 tris and 300 X 300 px map.
Crits and Comments are more than welcome. Will be submitting this soon.
@FrEaK: Disguising yourself automatically get's rid of your hats and misc items. If they didn't do that, than more than half of his hats would clip though the mask.
@roninsmastermix
I have to say, this is looking excellent. I'm not too nuts about the blockish looking parts on the front of the headband, but if released this thing could rival the Noh Mercy as my favorite Spy hat.
roninsmastermix: I would get rid of the pyramid shapes like cid said, I think it would be better just as a band.
I'm still open to suggestions. I'm aware those pyramids are not that appealing but i didnt want that band to be so simple and generic seeing the Spy has a certain eccentric taste to items. Got any suggestions for an alternative?
I think I'm the only one who has disagreed so far with the general consensus. I actually really like the geometry on the front of the band, it's interesting to look at, and breaks up the flatness of the cloth that the Spy is using for the mask. I think it gives it a nice place for the player to focus on.
I can't really think of anything you should change it to, it looks fine to me as it is.
Hey guys, I was wondering, could anyone suggest a good modeling program? I still have a TON of ideas kicking around, but I have no experience whatsoever, so I'm looking for something good and user-friendly, something good for beginners. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, as I'd really love to show some of my ideas (even if a ton of them have been bogarted by Valve, just my luck)
I've been using Blender simply because it's free, and for the cost, packs some pretty powerful options. But some people will tell you that the GUI is somewhat clunky. Honestly though, since I learned how to model using it, it's what I've been using since.
I think I'm the only one who has disagreed so far with the general consensus. I actually really like the geometry on the front of the band, it's interesting to look at, and breaks up the flatness of the cloth that the Spy is using for the mask. I think it gives it a nice place for the player to focus on.
I can't really think of anything you should change it to, it looks fine to me as it is.
Yeah. Right now I can't think of anything else to modify it with. I feel it's almost ready to be submitted. It just needs the jigglebones on the ribbons and it should be all set. I do value polycounts community and it's insight which is why I still post here and trying to see if there is anything else I can do.
hm, Blender eh? I believe that's what one of my friends is using... I think I'll try that, if I run into any technical issues I could just turn to either him or Google. Thanks!
...
maybe I'll start working on that Spy Vampire Pack I had a while back... still got those doodles in my Algebra Notebook, lol
hm, Blender eh? I believe that's what one of my friends is using... I think I'll try that, if I run into any technical issues I could just turn to either him or Google. Thanks!
...
maybe I'll start working on that Spy Vampire Pack I had a while back... still got those doodles in my Algebra Notebook, lol
I think with blender, it has its pros and cons compared to 3D packages that cost money. For one, I think that 3DS Max, or Maya has a better UI (although the new version is getting better). What I did was I downloaded all the trials of different packages to see what I liked best and I landed with 3DS Max. If you like blender then go with that. One thing to look at is if blender allows you to commercially sell your creations that you have made in their program. I don't exactly know what blender says about that stuff, but just in-case I would look into it BanthaFodder.
Dude the smg is looking tight! Really fits in the game. The 'charging handle' or 'bolt' (whatever it's called) could stand to be a little bigger like the one on the original, (the demoman's pipe launcher has one about the same size as well). I think something could be added to distinguish it as a different kind of SMG, maybe a laser pointer attached, or some sort of technology. (Similar to how the Frontier Justice has a radio and decorative engraving on it to distinguish it from the standard shotty, or the Ambassador's prominent engraving and red handle makes it separate from the standard revolver.) Some personality could really add a lot!
Here you go, unfortunately HLMVs gone on some sort "lets make ColonelBD mad" phase and its bugging up the model by dragging the clip down out of sight, which sucks:
Some minor things though, the texture feels very saturated green. I think working some more neutral gray and a tiny bit of team color into it would be a good idea. Also the wood grips have very harsh edges. A good, beefy chamfer would probably help a lot.
It's really very green, though judging by the in game shots above it fits surprisingly well (maybe not so much in desert maps?). Other than that, nice one, definitely make the bolt handle bigger, though.
Anyway, I tried to see what I could do with some misc item style clothes. Here's a kind of high ranking soldier with honcho's headgear and a sailor heavy with a sailor hat.
I think with blender, it has its pros and cons compared to 3D packages that cost money. For one, I think that 3DS Max, or Maya has a better UI (although the new version is getting better). What I did was I downloaded all the trials of different packages to see what I liked best and I landed with 3DS Max. If you like blender then go with that. One thing to look at is if blender allows you to commercially sell your creations that you have made in their program. I don't exactly know what blender says about that stuff, but just in-case I would look into it BanthaFodder.
Pros and cons indeed. The interface is a matter of personal taste, really. I've used Blender and Maya, and while Maya's interface may be more intuitive, I find I can work faster in Blender due to having everything on the keyboard rather than in menus. On the other hand, Maya has some very useful tools and features that Blender's missing, such as ngons. It's a toss up, really.
Blender's fine for commercial work. They don't have any restrictions on what you can do with your creations.
Here you go, unfortunately HLMVs gone on some sort "lets make ColonelBD mad" phase and its bugging up the model by dragging the clip down out of sight, which sucks:
Is it running through the frames when you open the model?
Here you go, unfortunately HLMVs gone on some sort "lets make ColonelBD mad" phase and its bugging up the model by dragging the clip down out of sight, which sucks:
Great work man! One bit of advice, is the textures you have look a bit blurry, I would suggest sharpening your diffuse and seeing if it looks any better.
It's really very green, though judging by the in game shots above it fits surprisingly well (maybe not so much in desert maps?). Other than that, nice one, definitely make the bolt handle bigger, though.
Anyway, I tried to see what I could do with some misc item style clothes. Here's a kind of high ranking soldier with honcho's headgear and a sailor heavy with a sailor hat.
Lol! the ranking fits perfectly whith this existing hat, the heavy got very nice with this look, I want it!
@Manuca: I absolutely love the final result. The style is perfect and the hat is unique. I have to say I appreciate the decision to eliminate the flower completely.
My question is how would styles and painting work with the particular hat...
Hi all, I'm still setting the jigglebones... but in the meantime you guys can give me a feedback.
Just lovely work right there. Styles ftw.
Update on my work. Took me all day to figure out how to view it in-game. Needs more color work on the vmt side and jigglebones. Anyone here can point me to a thread or tutorial on how to set painted variants? I need help on jigglebones as well.
Looks good ronin. I was just thinking, the hole for the cigarette looks a little odd, so why not replace it with a vertical slit, might fit a bit better and would maybe help if the cigarette moves during animation.
BTW from my experience with it, I couldn't export a SMD from Blender properly. Scale and weights all screwed up. Don't know if this is fixed.
It is fixed in 2.56a, but thats still in Beta is has quite alot of content missing ATM. For scale you need to scale it by 40 before export, I don't know how to fix the bone positions however, 2.49 export just screws em up even with proper weighting.
It is fixed in 2.56a, but thats still in Beta is has quite alot of content missing ATM. For scale you need to scale it by 40 before export, I don't know how to fix the bone positions however, 2.49 export just screws em up even with proper weighting.
The 2.5 series of Blender (which is considered stable and mostly feature complete as of 2.57's release a couple weeks ago) has its own exporter which fixes those issues. I've imported and exported several objects and have had them all show up perfectly ingame with no scaling required, even when adding extra bones to the armature. Even if you prefer 2.49 for modeling, I'd highly recommend using 2.57 to export.
@ColonelBD: The highlights seem a little blurry, I find a smaller and sharper brush helps for them. Also make sure you have a bit of paint outside the UV edges, the mapping never seems to be perfect and can result in the highlights appearing away from the edge if you don't do that.
@Svdl: Whoa, that's actually quite a big change to how they look...
@Manuca: Seems like you've matched the environments well, the only thing that bugs me is that the snow version has non-alpine plants, but I suppose that could be interpreted as joke.
@roninsmastermix: I don't think there's a paint tutorial out there yet, so at the moment you'll have to pull apart existing hats for examples and the VTM settings since it's entirely handled by the VTM/VTFs. They're generally setup so that the VTF contains a texture that's ready to be painted with a paintmask texture in the VTF alpha channel. I haven't done anything painted in a while though so I can't remember the method off the top of my head.
You can find the jigglebone documentation with a video tutorial here.
---
Update before Portal 2 eats me some more:
Ingame test here. Almost finished now, there are a couple of things to tweak and a load of optimisations to the mesh to be done but it's almost there. The highly detailed screws below the trigger are going to be baked flat.
I ended up doing the magazine detailing from scratch after looking at my references again (namely this) so now it looks a lot more like what it's trying to be.
I'm probably going to see if I can get this at least ready for unwrapping today so speak up if something's caught your eye as being off and I'll look into it.
@roninsmastermix: I don't think there's a paint tutorial out there yet, so at the moment you'll have to pull apart existing hats for examples and the VTM settings since it's entirely handled by the VTM/VTFs. They're generally setup so that the VTF contains a texture that's ready to be painted with a paintmask texture in the VTF alpha channel. I haven't done anything painted in a while though so I can't remember the method off the top of my head.
You can find the jigglebone documentation with a video tutorial here.
---
Update before Portal 2 eats me some more:
Ingame test here. Almost finished now, there are a couple of things to tweak and a load of optimisations to the mesh to be done but it's almost there. The highly detailed screws below the trigger are going to be baked flat.
I ended up doing the magazine detailing from scratch after looking at my references again (namely this) so now it looks a lot more like what it's trying to be.
I'm probably going to see if I can get this at least ready for unwrapping today so speak up if something's caught your eye as being off and I'll look into it.
Thank you so much. I will try and test them out later when i get home from work.
About the Demo launcher:
The guard on top of the front handle looks out of place to me with its pointed rim. But it's a minor quip that i have that i can live with and overall its a fantastic job already.
@Manuca: That really does look amazing. Question: is he doing the kukri taunt in the first in-game shot, or just looking down? If he's doing the taunt then I guess you have the hat bound to bip_head? If so, you can instead bind it to his hat bone so he takes it off his head during the taunt. A minor thing, though.
EDIT: @roninsmastermix: Like Elbagast said, you basically just have to see what other models do in their VMT's. Still, to help you out a bit, here's what you'll need in your VMT (from what I've figured out thusfar):
"$blendtintbybasealpha" "1"
"$blendtintcoloroverbase" "0.5" // between 0-1 determines how much blended by tinting vs. replacing the color
"$colortint_base" "{171 57 53}" // put the RGB value of whats being colored when no paint is present, if $blendtintcoloroverbase is 0 then put [1 1 1] here.
"$colortint_tmp" "[0 0 0]"
Your base diffuse texture will need to be grayscale wherever you want it painted (assuming you want the color completely replaced). $colortint_base will tell the game what the default tint should be for any paintable areas when they haven't yet been painted, so just stick in the values of the color you already have there before you desaturate it.
Then, you'll need to tell the game which areas are paintable using the alpha channel of the diffuse texture, where black is "not paintable" and white is "paintable".
The model viewer doesn't pay attention to $colortint_base, so it's going to load in without any color on the paintable areas. To test it out, in the VMT add "$color2" "{r g b}" with some rgb value to see what it looks like painted.
Having some headway on my effort to add jigglebones through blender. Now i know why character models most at time have their arms apart so the bone envelop wont clip other parts of the body. Modifying my hat as i type and do some tests.
@Manuca: That really does look amazing. Question: is he doing the kukri taunt in the first in-game shot, or just looking down? If he's doing the taunt then I guess you have the hat bound to bip_head? If so, you can instead bind it to his hat bone so he takes it off his head during the taunt. A minor thing, though.
EDIT: @roninsmastermix: Like Elbagast said, you basically just have to see what other models do in their VMT's. Still, to help you out a bit, here's what you'll need in your VMT (from what I've figured out thusfar):
"$blendtintbybasealpha" "1"
"$blendtintcoloroverbase" "0.5" // between 0-1 determines how much blended by tinting vs. replacing the color
"$colortint_base" "{171 57 53}" // put the RGB value of whats being colored when no paint is present, if $blendtintcoloroverbase is 0 then put [1 1 1] here.
"$colortint_tmp" "[0 0 0]"
Your base diffuse texture will need to be grayscale wherever you want it painted (assuming you want the color completely replaced). $colortint_base will tell the game what the default tint should be for any paintable areas when they haven't yet been painted, so just stick in the values of the color you already have there before you desaturate it.
Then, you'll need to tell the game which areas are paintable using the alpha channel of the diffuse texture, where black is "not paintable" and white is "paintable".
The model viewer doesn't pay attention to $colortint_base, so it's going to load in without any color on the paintable areas. To test it out, in the VMT add "$color2" "{r g b}" with some rgb value to see what it looks like painted.
Thank you so much. Now its clearer and on what i need to do.
I think you should tone down on the edge scratches. Realistically, edges only scratch on corners that can hit surfaces. Having those edge scratches on the trigger, for instance, readily tells my eye that its a painted scratch cuz i can tell out right that area cannot be scratch as much by other hard surfaces.
Replies
Do you guys know how to see the jigglebones of a existing item? because all qc files that i've opened they only had the $hbox stuff, I could't find any jigglebones information. It would be great too see what settings those existing itens use.
@Barlin, I Didn't find a commad to do this behavior, Do you know what command do this? Here is my qc
$modelname "my_projects/stealth_hat/stealth_hat.mdl" $body stealth_hat "stealth_hat.smd" $surfaceprop "cloth" $illumposition -3.750 -0.000 83.000 $cdmaterials "my_projects/stealth_hat" // Model uses material "my_projects/stealth_hat/stealth_hat.vmt" $surfaceprop "cloth" $sequence idle "stealth_hat" loop fps 30 $collisionmodel "stealth_hat.smd" { $mass 2.0 $inertia 1.00 $damping 0.00 $rotdamping 0.00 } $jigglebone "bone_bush01_01" { is_flexible { yaw_stiffness 200 yaw_damping 7 yaw_constraint -90 90 pitch_stiffness 200 pitch_damping 8 pitch_constraint -90 90 along_stiffness 900 allow_length_flex along_damping 20 length 60 tip_mass 5 angle_constraint 180 } } $jigglebone "bone_bush01_02" { is_flexible { yaw_stiffness 200 yaw_damping 20 yaw_constraint -90 90 pitch_stiffness 200 pitch_damping 20 pitch_constraint -90 90 along_stiffness 900 along_damping 20 allow_length_flex length 60 tip_mass 5 angle_constraint 180 } } $jigglebone "bone_bush01_03" { is_flexible { yaw_stiffness 200 yaw_damping 20 yaw_constraint -90 90 pitch_stiffness 200 pitch_damping 20 pitch_constraint -90 90 along_stiffness 900 along_damping 20 allow_length_flex length 60 tip_mass 5 angle_constraint 180 } } $jigglebone "bone_bush02_01" { is_flexible { yaw_stiffness 200 yaw_damping 7 yaw_constraint -90 90 pitch_stiffness 200 pitch_damping 8 pitch_constraint -90 90 along_stiffness 900 allow_length_flex along_damping 20 length 60 tip_mass 5 angle_constraint 180 } } $jigglebone "bone_bush02_03" { is_flexible { yaw_stiffness 200 yaw_damping 7 yaw_constraint -90 90 pitch_stiffness 200 pitch_damping 8 pitch_constraint -90 90 along_stiffness 900 allow_length_flex along_damping 20 length 60 tip_mass 5 angle_constraint 180 } } $jigglebone "bone_bush02_03" { is_flexible { yaw_stiffness 200 yaw_damping 7 yaw_constraint -90 90 pitch_stiffness 200 pitch_damping 8 pitch_constraint -90 90 along_stiffness 900 allow_length_flex along_damping 20 length 60 tip_mass 5 angle_constraint 180 } } $jigglebone "bone_bush03_01" { is_flexible { yaw_stiffness 200 yaw_damping 7 yaw_constraint -90 90 pitch_stiffness 200 pitch_damping 8 pitch_constraint -90 90 along_stiffness 900 allow_length_flex along_damping 20 length 60 tip_mass 5 angle_constraint 180 } } $jigglebone "bone_bush03_03" { is_flexible { yaw_stiffness 200 yaw_damping 7 yaw_constraint -90 90 pitch_stiffness 200 pitch_damping 8 pitch_constraint -90 90 along_stiffness 900 allow_length_flex along_damping 20 length 60 tip_mass 5 angle_constraint 180 } } $jigglebone "bone_bush03_03" { is_flexible { yaw_stiffness 200 yaw_damping 7 yaw_constraint -90 90 pitch_stiffness 200 pitch_damping 8 pitch_constraint -90 90 along_stiffness 900 allow_length_flex along_damping 20 length 60 tip_mass 5 angle_constraint 180 } } $jigglebone "bone_bush04_01" { is_flexible { yaw_stiffness 200 yaw_damping 7 yaw_constraint -90 90 pitch_stiffness 200 pitch_damping 8 pitch_constraint -90 90 along_stiffness 900 allow_length_flex along_damping 20 length 60 tip_mass 5 angle_constraint 180 } } $jigglebone "bone_bush04_03" { is_flexible { yaw_stiffness 200 yaw_damping 7 yaw_constraint -90 90 pitch_stiffness 200 pitch_damping 8 pitch_constraint -90 90 along_stiffness 900 allow_length_flex along_damping 20 length 60 tip_mass 5 angle_constraint 180 } } $jigglebone "bone_bush04_03" { is_flexible { yaw_stiffness 200 yaw_damping 7 yaw_constraint -90 90 pitch_stiffness 200 pitch_damping 8 pitch_constraint -90 90 along_stiffness 900 allow_length_flex along_damping 20 length 60 tip_mass 5 angle_constraint 180 } } $jigglebone "bone_clothright_01" { is_flexible { yaw_stiffness 200 yaw_damping 7 yaw_constraint -90 90 pitch_stiffness 200 pitch_damping 8 pitch_constraint -90 90 along_stiffness 900 allow_length_flex along_damping 20 length 60 tip_mass 5 angle_constraint 180 } } $jigglebone "bone_clothright_02" { is_flexible { yaw_stiffness 200 yaw_damping 7 yaw_constraint -90 90 pitch_stiffness 200 pitch_damping 8 pitch_constraint -90 90 along_stiffness 900 allow_length_flex along_damping 20 length 60 tip_mass 5 angle_constraint 180 } } $jigglebone "bone_clothleft_01" { is_flexible { yaw_stiffness 200 yaw_damping 7 yaw_constraint -90 90 pitch_stiffness 200 pitch_damping 8 pitch_constraint -90 90 along_stiffness 900 allow_length_flex along_damping 20 length 60 tip_mass 5 angle_constraint 180 } } $jigglebone "bone_clothleft_02" { is_flexible { yaw_stiffness 200 yaw_damping 7 yaw_constraint -90 90 pitch_stiffness 200 pitch_damping 8 pitch_constraint -90 90 along_stiffness 900 allow_length_flex along_damping 20 length 60 tip_mass 5 angle_constraint 180 } }allow_length_flex will make the grass spring up and down the Z axis length (I believe, never used it myself), so I'm not sure if that will be a desired effect or not. Also in my experience with jigglebones it's usually good to make them fairly stiff, since otherwise they can sometimes get out of control and get stuck in weird positions. Depends on the bone structure.
I was going to add that having that many jigglebones makes the hat considerably more resource-intensive and that Valve might not use it because of that, but I just looked at the Rubber Glove hat and it has at least 8, so maybe it isn't as bad as I thought. Still, I'd say try to use as few as possible to achieve the effect.
Shiny, like, using a Cubemap? Or just a stronger Phong exponent?
You can use as many materials as you want, you just need to assign different materials w/ different texture files in your modeler and, of course, make sure that the VTF's use the same names as in the modeler. Then you can, for example, add a cubemap to one VMT but not the other.
EDIT: If you just want the wood to have less of a Phong gleam than the head, you can use the Alpha channel of either the base texture or the normal map texture (whichever you're using for the Phone mask), and make the area where you painted the mailbox head texture lighter in the alpha, and the wood part darker.
Update on my spy hat. Hopefully its less narutardish now.
Made the band more robust and iron looking and modelled it after Kage-Maru's headgear in Virtua Fighter. Tucked in the hood so it doesn't clip the neck line anymore. Retained the tears and cuts. Made the hole on the mouth more burnt looking. Added some fold details both on vertex and texture level. Added a know and ribbon at the back of the head. (Should be jiggleboned, will try to learn that later of have someone do it for me.) Added a Blu version. Overall, just 954 tris and 300 X 300 px map.
Crits and Comments are more than welcome. Will be submitting this soon.
No it doesn't i modeled it while the mask is on.
I have to say, this is looking excellent. I'm not too nuts about the blockish looking parts on the front of the headband, but if released this thing could rival the Noh Mercy as my favorite Spy hat.
I'm still open to suggestions. I'm aware those pyramids are not that appealing but i didnt want that band to be so simple and generic seeing the Spy has a certain eccentric taste to items. Got any suggestions for an alternative?
I can't really think of anything you should change it to, it looks fine to me as it is.
Yeah. Right now I can't think of anything else to modify it with. I feel it's almost ready to be submitted. It just needs the jigglebones on the ribbons and it should be all set. I do value polycounts community and it's insight which is why I still post here and trying to see if there is anything else I can do.
...
maybe I'll start working on that Spy Vampire Pack I had a while back... still got those doodles in my Algebra Notebook, lol
Plus you can't beat free!
Fixed up the smoothing and textured my SMG:
There is still some clipping I need to fix up but apart from that I think i'm good.
Did you show a shot of the texture on it but not ingame? I'd like to see the whole model if you can.
Some minor things though, the texture feels very saturated green. I think working some more neutral gray and a tiny bit of team color into it would be a good idea. Also the wood grips have very harsh edges. A good, beefy chamfer would probably help a lot.
Anyway, I tried to see what I could do with some misc item style clothes. Here's a kind of high ranking soldier with honcho's headgear and a sailor heavy with a sailor hat.
Pros and cons indeed. The interface is a matter of personal taste, really. I've used Blender and Maya, and while Maya's interface may be more intuitive, I find I can work faster in Blender due to having everything on the keyboard rather than in menus. On the other hand, Maya has some very useful tools and features that Blender's missing, such as ngons. It's a toss up, really.
Blender's fine for commercial work. They don't have any restrictions on what you can do with your creations.
Blender allows it fine, otherwise all those FOSS projects that use it religiously would be in deep kuso.
BTW from my experience with it, I couldn't export a SMD from Blender properly. Scale and weights all screwed up. Don't know if this is fixed.
Is it running through the frames when you open the model?
Posting my first model here and looking for some critics.
Its a replacement for the spy Cigarette case. It's a cigar case, as you can see
It's still in development.
Hope you guys like it and have some constructive comments
Great work man! One bit of advice, is the textures you have look a bit blurry, I would suggest sharpening your diffuse and seeing if it looks any better.
Lol! the ranking fits perfectly whith this existing hat, the heavy got very nice with this look, I want it!
My question is how would styles and painting work with the particular hat...
Just lovely work right there. Styles ftw.
Update on my work. Took me all day to figure out how to view it in-game. Needs more color work on the vmt side and jigglebones. Anyone here can point me to a thread or tutorial on how to set painted variants? I need help on jigglebones as well.
It is fixed in 2.56a, but thats still in Beta is has quite alot of content missing ATM. For scale you need to scale it by 40 before export, I don't know how to fix the bone positions however, 2.49 export just screws em up even with proper weighting.
The 2.5 series of Blender (which is considered stable and mostly feature complete as of 2.57's release a couple weeks ago) has its own exporter which fixes those issues. I've imported and exported several objects and have had them all show up perfectly ingame with no scaling required, even when adding extra bones to the armature. Even if you prefer 2.49 for modeling, I'd highly recommend using 2.57 to export.
@Svdl: Whoa, that's actually quite a big change to how they look...
@BuRnTF4c3M4n: You seem to be doing ok, keep going.
@Manuca: Seems like you've matched the environments well, the only thing that bugs me is that the snow version has non-alpine plants, but I suppose that could be interpreted as joke.
@roninsmastermix: I don't think there's a paint tutorial out there yet, so at the moment you'll have to pull apart existing hats for examples and the VTM settings since it's entirely handled by the VTM/VTFs. They're generally setup so that the VTF contains a texture that's ready to be painted with a paintmask texture in the VTF alpha channel. I haven't done anything painted in a while though so I can't remember the method off the top of my head.
You can find the jigglebone documentation with a video tutorial here.
---
Update before Portal 2 eats me some more:
Ingame test here. Almost finished now, there are a couple of things to tweak and a load of optimisations to the mesh to be done but it's almost there. The highly detailed screws below the trigger are going to be baked flat.
I ended up doing the magazine detailing from scratch after looking at my references again (namely this) so now it looks a lot more like what it's trying to be.
I'm probably going to see if I can get this at least ready for unwrapping today so speak up if something's caught your eye as being off and I'll look into it.
Thank you so much. I will try and test them out later when i get home from work.
About the Demo launcher:
The guard on top of the front handle looks out of place to me with its pointed rim. But it's a minor quip that i have that i can live with and overall its a fantastic job already.
EDIT:
@roninsmastermix: Like Elbagast said, you basically just have to see what other models do in their VMT's. Still, to help you out a bit, here's what you'll need in your VMT (from what I've figured out thusfar):
"$blendtintbybasealpha" "1" "$blendtintcoloroverbase" "0.5" // between 0-1 determines how much blended by tinting vs. replacing the color "$colortint_base" "{171 57 53}" // put the RGB value of whats being colored when no paint is present, if $blendtintcoloroverbase is 0 then put [1 1 1] here. "$colortint_tmp" "[0 0 0]"Your base diffuse texture will need to be grayscale wherever you want it painted (assuming you want the color completely replaced). $colortint_base will tell the game what the default tint should be for any paintable areas when they haven't yet been painted, so just stick in the values of the color you already have there before you desaturate it.Then, you'll need to tell the game which areas are paintable using the alpha channel of the diffuse texture, where black is "not paintable" and white is "paintable".
The model viewer doesn't pay attention to $colortint_base, so it's going to load in without any color on the paintable areas. To test it out, in the VMT add "$color2" "{r g b}" with some rgb value to see what it looks like painted.
Thank you so much. Now its clearer and on what i need to do.
I think you should tone down on the edge scratches. Realistically, edges only scratch on corners that can hit surfaces. Having those edge scratches on the trigger, for instance, readily tells my eye that its a painted scratch cuz i can tell out right that area cannot be scratch as much by other hard surfaces.
Why is is green?