I know from watching the boards that there is a lot of interest in how to make 3D models that will work in SE5. I take a stab at making the process a bit less mysterious. Let me start by listing the tools I will be using.
Note that instead of ArtGem, any paint program will do, use your favorite. I'm not going to detail mow I make my textures, that might be of interest for another article.
I can hear many of you mumbling questions like "but what about Doga files?" (Or other popular 3d modeling programs.) I can only share knowledge I have, and I have no experience with Doga, sorry.
So, to get things under way, boot up Anim8or and follow these easy steps to create a simple ship model.
1) Create a cube using the 'Add Cube' tool (Press Shift+c) 2) Once created, double-click on the cube and enter the info as seen in Sample1.gif 3) Under the 'Build' menu select "Convert to Mesh" 4) Return to the 'Build' Menu and select "Subdivide Faces." 5) Set the Smooth Parameters to a tension of 1.000 and hit 'OK' 6) Hit Shift+p to enter Object/Point edit mode.
Before we go any further lets do a quick check to see if we are all on the same track. In the top left of the display click on the word 'Front'. A drop-down menu will appear with a list of different 'preset' views. Select Ortho and compare your screen to sample2.gif (To 'free look' press Ctrl+r (a green circle should appear around your object.) hold down the left mouse button and drag to move the view. feel free to play around here to get used to the free-look controls.) When you are finished playing with this press Ctrl+r again to turn off free-look. set the display to 'Left' (the same way you set the view to 'Ortho')
7) Hit 'a' to enter Select mode and then 'g' to enter Face Select mode.
We are going to merge a few faces to get ready for extruding our shape. It's always best to merge two adjacent faces at a time rather than selecting a grouping of 4 for example. Why you ask? Well, when you group 4 faces it always seems to leave a 'floating' point in the center of the grouping that will need to be cleaned up later and by doing things two at a time, it keeps it simple and avoids these 'droppings'
Ok, Sample3.gif shows the order we need to use to make a clean model. Note that you left-click to select the first face then right-click to select the second.
Ok, Merge the top faces of our cube as per the order in Sample3. what's that? How do we merge the selected faces? Simply hit shift+m to merge. Try it and see if you end up with the same sample as me. (Sample4.gif)
9) Now repeat this process on the bottom, back and front of our cube. (It should end up looking like Sample5.gif) Note: I circled some point 'droppings' that this process left behind. Next I'll show you how to clean these up before addressing the sides. Use the free-look or preset views to help get to the hidden sides of the cube.
10) Switch to Top View, then hit 'p' followed by 'd' to enter point and drag-select mode. Now left-click drag a box around the top and bottom center points. (see Sample6.gif)
11) with the points still selected hit 'm' and drag the points over the corner points on the cube. (see note on Sample6.gif) You then return to 'd' Drag-select the top corner group of points then right-click drag-select the bottom corner points. Hit Shift+l ('L') and set the max merge point distance to 2.5. Hit OK to merge the points. You should now have a clean version of the cube as seen in Sample7.gif.
12) We are now ready to merge the sides of the cube, but only merge them into horizontal strips. (Do not merge the top face to the bottom face.) See Sample8.gif. As you can see we again have a few 'droppings' no problem we know how to move them over and merge them with the corner points. Note this time from the top view we will drag-select then 'm'ove them down to the bottom corner then reselect the corner point groupings and merge 'L'
Now the fun will begin, we will extrude the simple shape of our ship.
13) Hit 'g' and 'a' to get us into select and face-select mode. Select the front, and two bottom faces of the sides. (See Sample9.gif) Use free-look or preset views to get to the hidden faces. Then hit shift+x then left-click and drag the mouse to the right. extend the faces about 75% further than the original cube. The result should look like Sample10.gif.
14) With the faces still selected, hit Shift+k then click drag the mouse to the left. The selected faces will taper down giving the model something that looks like wings and a cockpit. It should look like Sample11.gif
Note, in case you have not noticed Anim8or has an 'Undo' feature and it has several layers so you can often back-step and correct any errors if the samples are not matching your model.
Just a few more adjustments and we will have our basic model.
15) You may have noticed that the sides of the front cockpit have gained two faces after that last extrude. Feel free to merge them into one. ('g', 'a', select, shift+m to merge.) then it's back to top view please.
16) Select the back corner points of the wings and move them back past the back end of the ship. (See sample12.gif) This should be simple enough, enter drag-select mode 'd' and point mode 'p' then grab the two groupings and 'm'ove them towards the top of the screen.
17) One more thing to make the model a tiny bit more interesting. Got to the front view and drag-select 'd' the outer most points of the wing tips. then 'm'ove them up to angle the wings upward. (See sample13.gif)
1 The Sample Model is now done, feel free to free-look at the wonderful model and laugh as much as you want. Once you are ready it's time to export the model.
19) Enter Object select mode. Shift+a ('A') and 'a' then select the object. Then go to the 'Object' Menu and choose 'Export' Export the object as a.obj file. (I named it XTutor1.obj) Minimize Animator, we will be coming back soon.
Now to start the process of making a UV Map, painting a texture and then converting it to a.x file that will run in SE5.
Run UVMapper and select 'File', 'Load Model', then 'Edit', 'New UV Map', Choose 'Box mapping' and set the Map size to 256 and hit OK. You should see a cardboard cutout like image of the different faces of the model. Next go to 'file', 'Save Texture Map' and set the width and height to 256. Hit OK. It should prompt you for a filename, but it will default to the same name as the model you loaded. go ahead and save it. Now from the file menu 'Save Model' and overwrite the original.obj file. (No worries, we only added the UV Coordinates and they are needed before we can proceed.) Fell free to close UVMapper now, we are done with it.
Note: UVMapper saves the UV Map as a 256 color bmp, we will need it to be a 24 bit bmp. (I suggest you use your favorite paint program to convert it before proceeding)
Next we need to go back to Anim8or. (I bet you thought we were heading for LithUnwrap next eh? Wrong.)
Although Anim8or was open in the background, I just remembered that I prefer to close the program and restart it to make sure the memory is all cleared. (It's probably safe to just delete the existing object then proceed but I prefer to reload the program.) If you close and reload like myself, you can save the file when prompted if you want. In Anim8or select the object menu and this time import the XTutor1.obj that we just saved in UVMapper. It should look familiar.
Adding the texture. Open the Material Editor Menu 'Ctrl+m' and double click on the 'New' box just under the 'Apply' button. Next to the 'Diffuse' field there is a small button with a dot or dash on it. press this button. You should now be in the Texture Selector window. Click 'Load Texture' and select the XTutor1.bmp. It will load into the list and you must select it then press ok. You should notice a 'T' has replaced the dot-dash on the Button beside the Diffuse field. This indicates that you have selected a bitmap texture. Hit 'OK' again, them on the materials bar, click on 'Apply.' You should see the texture on the model. In this case it turns the model white.
Export the model again but this time as a.3ds file. (This lets us skip a step.3ds automatically triangulates the model setting up all the required polygons. (If you want to stay with.obj, don't worry we will be able to triangulate in LithUnwrap. Speaking of Lith, we are going there now.
Boot up LithUnwrap and load the model. You will see the model UV Map spread out on the screen and it also loads the bmp as an underlay. Now for the fun, by drag selecting different parts of the model and moving, flipping, scaling then to be better arranged on the UV Map it will make it easier to paint the textures. (See Sample15.gif, the blue shapes are the old UV Map saved by UVMapper and the white lines are the new arrangement I made using LithUnwrap. (Note I recolored the UVMapper bmp to make it easier to distinguish in LithUnwrap.)
Once you set up the UV Map the way you like it, you now have to save the UV map again and then save the model because it has the new UVMap info which matches the current configuration. So, the process is "File Menu" UV Map, Save. Then "File Menu", Model, Save. feel free to overwrite the bmp and the.3ds.
Next stop your favorite paint program. I'm not going to go into detail about how to paint a model, I'll just give you two sample pics to show the before and after versions of the Texture Map.
See the UVMapBlank.gif for a sample of the UV Texture map before I added the textures. Notice how I filled the shapes to get a better guide for where to paint. The XTutor1.bmp is the final version of the Texture Map.
All that is left to do now is load the model into LithUnwrap and then save it as a.x file. just be sure to save it in text mode and uncompressed. Then load it into your favorite xfile viewer and see the results of the process. Note you can load and view.x files in LithUnwrap if you don't have another viewer.
That's it in a nutshell, I hope this humble attempt to show you the process of making, texturing and converting a 3D model to.x file is helpful to you budding model builders. I consider myself a rank novice but I'm always willing to share my knowledge.
It's worth noting that you can load and convert most any.3ds or.obj into a.x (with LithUnwrap) the only drawback is if the poly count is high, the frame rate will take a major hit. I converted one of my high poly models I made for renderings to an.x file and the frame rate went down to 7-12. the Model I made for this tutorial gave me frame rates of 475-486 FPS. (this was using a viewer created by Aaron using the game engine.) It lists the frame rates and basically if I can load it in this viewer it can fit in the game. The current models in SE5 have an average frame rate on my computer of 360-420 FPS. But you need to consider that this viewer only views one model at a time.
If this tutorial has left you with nothing but more questions, you have a good chance of catching me on IRC #SpaceEmpires or on the Shrapnel forums. I'd be happy to share more knowledge upon request.
Have a great day, and thanks for reading my article.
Cheers! Smarter than your average Texrak.
Last edited by Fyron on Mon Jan 05, 2009 11:33 pm; edited 1 time in total Back to top
If you're interested in using DoGA CGA for ship design and Metasequoia LE for turning those designs into a game mesh, I've recently completed a tutorial that walks new users through the steps. It's broken up into three parts: design, geometry, and textures. You can find it on my DoGA support page. Just scroll down to the tutorial section...
This will be very useful to modders when SEV comes out. Is there a similar tutorial for making SEIV ship sets? Im new here and I cant seem to find the answers I need, like where to find certain mods (neostandard) and how to install them. Back to top
'Neostandard' isn't a mod but refers to a loose convention of naming vehicle types. The idea is that mods could add extra ship types and shipset makers could add extra ships to their sets that matched those types.
In most cases, the readme.txt files included with most mods give a detailed description for using the mod.
Generally, mods are extracted to the root directory as a folder containing their modified files. Then by editing the path.txt file in the root directory, you could tell it which mod to use. Alternatively, there is a program called the mod launcher (see the SE.net dowloads section) that would do this for you automatically. Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod Back to top
Thank you very much, ive been looking all over for someone just to tell me that. Im trying to make my own shipset, i cant make 3d models but i can draw very well, so im going in that direction. (Hope you like genocidal robots) Back to top
Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2006 6:20 pm Post subject: Re: Making a ship set
BlackDragon wrote:
would the program paint do all right? and if not what would in the ways of Corel???
If you're a pro with paint, maybe.
Unless you have really, really good art skills, 3D is probably the way to go. The one exception I can think of is the Pexlerr shipset. Unofficial Adamant 0.16.xx Bug Hunter Back to top
Joined: Aug 04, 2003 Location: Cincinnati, OH, USA
Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2006 5:58 pm Post subject:
I've considered doing this before, and someone may have already done it (is the Pexlerr hand-drawn or pixel art? How about that yellow and red wormy looking one?) but what about hand-drawn shipsets (say, with colored pencil) which are scanned into the computer? It's a lot easier IMO to draw things by hand than it is with a mouse! "Figuring out the UI is half the fun!" - Xintis, fan of both SE5 and WarioWare Back to top
A paint program would not really suffice to make 3D models. You could make shipsets for SE4 with them, but I don't think they can make .X models? Texture creation would be doable wtih them, however. Smarter than your average Texrak. Back to top
I've considered doing this before, and someone may have already done it (is the Pexlerr hand-drawn or pixel art? How about that yellow and red wormy looking one?) but what about hand-drawn shipsets (say, with colored pencil) which are scanned into the computer? It's a lot easier IMO to draw things by hand than it is with a mouse!
The Pexlerr are hand/pencil drawn, whilst I think Rollo's Vikings are pixel art. Unofficial Adamant 0.16.xx Bug Hunter Back to top
Here's a nifty tip I remember reading in a book on how to draw mecha;
The size (or apparent size) of a mecha is not only proportional to how big it is compared to it's surroundings, but also proportional to how big (or small) it's head is. A mech with a small head will seem bigger.
You can apply this to spacecraft too - smaller bridges makes a ship look larger because we try to scale it. If it has a tiny bridge, it must be a really big ship in comparison!
Most notably, I used this in my IPA shipset. It's also easily noticeable in the IGHF shipset. Unofficial Adamant 0.16.xx Bug Hunter Back to top
Here's a nifty tip I remember reading in a book on how to draw mecha;
The size (or apparent size) of a mecha is not only proportional to how big it is compared to it's surroundings, but also proportional to how big (or small) it's head is. A mech with a small head will seem bigger.
And a mecha with no head at all is just as huge as the universe... Back to top
You can apply this to spacecraft too - smaller bridges makes a ship look larger because we try to scale it. If it has a tiny bridge, it must be a really big ship in comparison!
Of course this assumes the species in question is dumb enough to put the nerve center of its ship in a prominent position .... Back to top
Joined: Feb 12, 2007 Location: On Giant dreadnaught preparing to glass phong homeworld...
Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 6:27 pm Post subject:
Ok so im trying out his tutorial, and ive made an awesome ship: only problem is the version of uv mapper wont let me save...Does anyone know of a free program similar to this one? Back to top
Ok so im trying out his tutorial, and ive made an awesome ship: only problem is the version of uv mapper wont let me save...Does anyone know of a free program similar to this one?
Which version of UVMapper do you use? Also, you may want to try LithUnwrap (another free program that is very helpful in modeling) and Anim8or, it has some useful features as well (links the texture files to the model and has porting/saving formats in 3ds and obj).
I can send you some 3DsMAX help files that show you how to do certain things like UV map, texture, model and stuff, its been what I've been teaching myself. Its a lengthy Adobe file but really chock full of examples, of course it will vary with 3d modeling program but the basics are the same from what I've seen between different 3d modeling programs. Back to top
Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 9:22 pm Post subject: uvmapping question.
This is my first attempt to model ships and have tried a few programs to model. Find I like anim8or due to easiest to work with. I have created a ship that looks kind of like a bullet to start with. And when i try to uvmap it and lower to 24 bit, it becomes fuzzy. Mainly around the curves. Is there a way to clean this up? Could be that I been using the "Paint" program from windows.
Also when uvmapping it sometimes takes small pieces of the model and seperates them. Like the two pieces inside the back circle should be in the front view. not a huge problem just annoying. Any help?
For the resolution problem: Recommend a better paint program that handles bitmaps and Jpeg better than Window's Paint (which would be any one you can find). I recommend the Paint.net (free) or if your willing to spend a little, Paint Shop Pro or Adobe Paint.
Another option is to increase your bitmap size from 256 to 512 (square on each side of course), I've even used 1024 pixels square bitmaps for models in SEV, greatly raises the detail because of the resolution allowed in the bitmap size.
For your UV poly maps, you can select each poly group and move them around, resize, invert, flip and such within LithUnwrap to match against your bitmap texture. its tedious and its where allot of your time is spent modeling.
A better and more professional method is used to select each poly 'face' and give it whatever material/texture you want and 'build' your texture file from the model itself. I use 3ds Max and Maya, haven't used Anin8tor to position UV polys for a UV map, you'll most likely have to look through the help files or web sites on how each individual program handles polygon face selecting and UV unwrapping (as they call it).
I can send you my Autodesk 'how to' manual where I learned, it won't show you exactly for Anin8tor but will give you a good base to understand what menus are involved and what is happening in the program. Its a pretty big file so you'll have to PM me your personal email address or a web site I can upload it to. Back to top
Joined: Apr 24, 2008 Location: New Brunswick Canada
Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 11:24 pm Post subject:
Myself I use 2048 x 2048 BMP in Adobe Photoshop.. Once I've mastered the texture I keep the high res one for stills and backup and make a 256 x 256 clone. Back to top
I actually use Adobe Illustrator for my textures, which seems to be a relatively uncommon choice; But I like it because it gives you a lot more freedom to modify things later, and best of all its scalable without any lost resolution. Back to top
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Ok, Merge the top faces of our cube as per the order in Sample3. what's that? How do we merge the selected faces? Simply hit shift+m to merge. Try it and see if you end up with the same sample as me. (Sample4.gif)
And a mecha with no head at all is just as huge as the universe...
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