Anyone here use Blender?
Hello,
I am considering posting a job in the job ops board. I am working at a small indie game studio, and we are discussing using outside talent to increase the artistic quality of our title.
Our current work flow uses Blender as the 3d asset creation and import tool, so if we were to hire someone on to create some content, we would need to make sure the file formats are compatible. As we are a new start-up, I am uncertain of the standard process. Should I be searching for a blender specific artist? Are there any artists on this board that currently use Blender?
Thank you for your help,
iceocean
I am considering posting a job in the job ops board. I am working at a small indie game studio, and we are discussing using outside talent to increase the artistic quality of our title.
Our current work flow uses Blender as the 3d asset creation and import tool, so if we were to hire someone on to create some content, we would need to make sure the file formats are compatible. As we are a new start-up, I am uncertain of the standard process. Should I be searching for a blender specific artist? Are there any artists on this board that currently use Blender?
Thank you for your help,
iceocean
Replies
last time i checked blender only had FBX export that didnt support instances, and had absolutely no FBX import.
Yes this seems unfortunately true. I just checked it out myself.
The initial content we would be looking for would be characters (human). Ideally I would like to receive fully textured, rigged and animated models. Though I suppose if it came to it I could rig and animate them myself. It is not something I look forward to doing.
If this is the case I may try to find a more blender centric community first with some one who could offer me a .blend file. The headaches of format converting would be a pain.
You can read more about it's functionality HERE
It's not a format I use much tbh, as most of my models don't require animation etc., but it seems sturdy enough for what I have used it for
That sounds like a bug. Blender should support smoothing groups by marking the edges as sharp (you have to add the edgesplit modifier to see them)
If you have a mesh that has smoothing groups from another application and it doesn't work in Blender, PM me the mesh and I will submit a bug report. Please be aware that the mesh will be available on a public system, so nothing that is covered by an NDA or you mind people seeing
It really depends what you are trying to import/export.
Blender supports importing/exporting of PSK/PSA files if you are using UDK.
If you explain exactly what you need to do, then maybe I could point you in the correct direction
If you're using Blender you'll probably be best off searching for related talent; err on the safe side otherwise you may end up with unexpected issues you don't have the tools to deal with. Bear in mind that the type of talent you get is directly proportional to the quality of your posting and what you offer as compensation.
There's also MD5 and MD3 as alternative formats, not too sure if psk/psa is 'open' in the same way that MD5/MD3 are so there could be potential licensing issues to consider for commercial projects (that aren't UDK/Epic related).
Cheers, I'll have to look into that, would save some hassle I've had to work around.
No normals in MD5
No precision in MD3
There's not a single good working exchange format that works in Blender.
What I'd like to see most is to see one-click solutions like GoZ and 3dCoat's equivalent standardised and widely implemented.
I had high hopes for Verse (uni.verse.org), but for whatever reason, developer interest in that has vanished entirely. If anyone knows the specifics of the format, could they tell me what made it go from 'omg, this is hot shit' to where now there hasn't been any developer interest in years?
ya agree with you, blender is one of the tools i want to use for a few very specific parts of my workflow, but ATM it;s not worth the trouble since i can't get shit in and out easily.
I would be willing to pay towards a fund for a robust FBX import/export.
*edit*
Hmm, seems there is a licensing issue in the FBX SDK that isn't compatible with GPL
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/User:Ton/Autodesk_FBX_EULA
Maybe find a capable and willing coder and start a kickstarter fund?
Around the end of this thread it looks as though someone is looking into solving the problem.
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?241595-Blender-FBX-Import
Collada has the same sort of problems, the Co. that holds/held the rights to the format basically sat on its hands, for a good few years now it seems, over disagreements with regards to licensing.
btw iqm is a really good import export format, it is actively maintained also.
http://lee.fov120.com/iqm/
Yeah I have to export IQMs and use Noesis to convert them to another format Blender can't export properly to often...
Sure it would be a fragmented mess, but probably not much more so than trying to support all the different forms of FBX that come out of the different packages themselves.
I'd bet the .blend format is much more accessible and well documented than the FBX format (baring any GPL license issues...). In addition to that there are many people experienced with making plugins for Max, Maya, or whatever other app you want.
FBX is already entrenched too, Maya, Max, XSI, Modo, UDK, Unity all use it.
EDIT:
Yes they all use FBX, but not all in the same manner. Take a look at all the FBX nonsense I had to deal with when using Modo's FBX with UDK and Unity:
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=79254
EDIT2:
And that's just for static meshes with smoothing groups and vertex colors, no skinned animations. I can only imagine the headaches that would be with FBX (granted that Modo doesn't support skinned animations yet).
I always wondered: how does unity retain edge-splits and everything entirely intact when you can't FBX without issues to something like max?
Split edges is an option on mesh import. If you change your mind, just re-import. You can also do it automatically with an editor script.
One thing to be careful of using Blender + Unity with FBX import is changing the name of the material within Unity. If you change the name of the material in Unity you won't see anything unusual. But, when you re-import the FBX or send the project to someone else and they re-import, then Unity reverts back to the name of the material within the FBX. This breaks all of the connections between your textures and the materials. Don't change material names on imported models in Unity.
The naming convention for materials with FBX export in Blender is "Object_Name+Material_Name" which is annoying (to me). If you load any images into the UV editor, on exporting to FBX the material name can become "Object_Name+Material_Name+Name_of_image_in_UV editor". This was a fun one to troubleshoot.
I've ironed most of my problems out with FBX export and it's ok now.
apply the edge split modifier, than the mesh actually gets split up, which-is what a game engine would do anyways.
(if I am reading the context of this conversation correctly..)